Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of NHS dental practices accepting new (a) child and (b) adult patients.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in the Humber and North Yorkshire. These will increase access to National Health Service dentistry by adults and children, whilst making the NHS dental contract more attractive to dental practices.
We have taken action to implement these changes, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022.
NHS England is holding further discussions with the British Dental Association and other stakeholders for additional reforms of the NHS Dental System planned to take place in 2023.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to support the General Dental Council reduce the backlog in applicants waiting to sit the Overseas Registration Examination.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The capacity of the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) is constrained by rules within the General Dental Council’s (GDC) legislative framework which includes prescriptive detail on the ORE content and structure. The department has worked with the GDC to develop and consult on legislative proposals to allow the regulator greater flexibility to amend its existing international registration processes and explore alternative registration pathways as it considers appropriate. It will be for the GDC, as an independent regulator, to decide how best to use the flexibility that these proposals allow but we understand that the GDC will consult on changes to how it operates the ORE. This would enable it to increase the number of dentists it can assess, potentially allowing overseas dentists to join its register more quickly.
The draft Order was debated in the House of Commons on 6 December 2022 and the House of Lords on 9 January 2023. Subject to the completion of the Parliamentary approvals process, we aim to introduce the legislative changes in February 2023.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the diagnosis rate of cancer at stages one and two in adults aged between 18 and 50.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service (NHS) is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway. These pathways will also support the NHS to meet the new Faster Diagnosis Standard which will ensure that all patients who are referred for the investigation of suspected cancer find out whether they have cancer or not within 28 days.
To encourage people to get in touch with their general practitioner if they notice or are worried about symptoms that could be cancer, NHS England is running the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign, which seeks to address the barriers that are deterring patients from accessing the NHS.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken recent steps to help increase awareness amongst GPs of cancer symptoms in patients aged between 18 and 50.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In April 2020, NHS England introduced the ‘Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service – Early Cancer Diagnosis Guidance’ for Primary Care Networks, which 99% of general practitioners practices are signed up to. This is designed to support improvements in rates of early cancer diagnosis by requiring Primary Care Networks to review the quality of their practices’ referrals for suspected cancer and take steps to improve this.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the cost of living support for disabled people.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 13 December 2022 to Question UIN 110766.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what financial support the Government has made available to veterans to help with the cost of living.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
The Government is committed to supporting all households with the current cost of living, through the Help for Households initiative. This includes serving personnel and veterans. Veterans are able to access all the support that the rest of the UK is eligible for, including the Energy Price Guarantee, Cost of Living Payment and the Disability Cost of Living Payment.
Through its Veterans’ Welfare Service, Veterans UK provides one-to-one welfare support and advice to veterans or anyone supporting a veteran, their families and dependants. We are also working with the charitable sector to continue to signpost dedicated support available to veterans.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps with the UKHSA to improve national monitoring and data collection on eligibility for, and uptake of PrEP.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) works with sexual health services in England to support the reporting and improve the quality of data on eligibility and uptake of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The UKHSA has developed a monitoring and evaluation framework to support local authorities and other stakeholders with the delivery of PrEP. The framework is based on the World Health Organization’s implementation tool for PrEP and aims to inform continuous service improvement in commissioning and delivery using existing data sources to identify and reduce potential health inequalities. The framework is available at the following link:
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he will implement a national PrEP Action Plan as part of the HIV Action Plan.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Through the implementation of the HIV Action Plan, we are considering how to improve equitable access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for all population groups and in settings outside of specialist sexual health services. We are currently gathering evidence to understand why some population groups who would benefit from PrEP are under-represented and to identify potential barriers to access. The evidence will be considered by the PrEP Access and Equity Task and Finish group and will inform the development of a plan to improve PrEP access and equity in due course.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to amend PrEP eligibility criteria to enable that drug to be more widely available to people at risk of contracting HIV.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
There are no current plans to amend eligibility criteria for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Access to PrEP is based on existing clinical guidelines which allows clinicians to prescribe following a consideration of the patient’s risks and assessing the benefits and potential harms of provision. Clinical guidelines published by the British HIV Association and the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV are accredited by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and are available at the following link:
https://www.bhiva.org/file/5b729cd592060/2018-PrEP-Guidelines.pdf
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide resources to sexual health services to help relieve potential capacity issues, including targeting additional funding and support to local authorities in regions which are reporting longer waiting lists.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In 2022/23, we have allocated more than £3.4 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including sexual health services, through the Public Health Grant and provided funding for the mpox response, including medicines and vaccinations.
Local authorities are responsible for commissioning comprehensive, open access sexual health services to meet local demand, including monitoring and acting if required to reduce waiting times for services. Individual local authorities determine spending priorities based on an assessment of local need for sexual health services, including targeted outreach programmes.