Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
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 improve maternity services in Leicestershire.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following Care Quality Commission inspections in January 2024, the trust has strong improvement plans in place for maternity services at the Leicester Royal Infirmary and Leicester General Hospital (LGH). Many actions from both the 2023 and 2024 inspections are already complete or well underway, with key achievements including a targeted improvement programme for Induction of Labour, and implementing a new Telephone Triage system to reduce delays and improve experience.
In September and November, the University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) respectively opened a new maternity theatre and a new day assessment unit at the LGH, meaning that planned and emergency caesareans can take place in separate areas, further improving access to non-urgent appointments. The UHL have also welcomed 40 midwives, with 28 more due to start before the end of 2024. The trust has also recruited three new consultant obstetricians, alongside nine speciality doctors. The UHL have over 230 student midwives in training, and the trust is also seeing a higher proportion of permanent employees, with the turnover rate reducing to just over 7%, as of April 2024, versus 10% the previous year.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to integrate the recommendations of the Lampard inquiry into mental health services nationwide.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Lampard Statutory Inquiry began public hearings in September 2024. The Department will await the findings of the Inquiry and will consider its recommendations once submitted by the Chair. In the meantime, we are working with NHS England to understand the factors driving poor quality and safety in inpatient and community mental health settings to ensure patients are treated with dignity and respect throughout their treatment in a mental health hospital.
Asked by: Jeevun Sandher (Labour - Loughborough)
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 recruit more GPs in Loughborough constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) across the country, as well as taking pressure off those currently working in the system. NHS England has allocated £1.9 million of emergency short term funding, from October 2024 to March 2025, for the recruitment of newly qualified GPs in the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB). The LLR Workforce Steering Group is reviewing options for how this additional resource can be used most effectively across the LLR ICB, including within the Loughborough area.
Newly qualified GPs are also being offered support through the LLR Primary Care Training Hub, which provides high quality education, training, and support to those working in primary care. The hub is currently working up a local offer of support for newly qualified GPs following the cessation of the national fellowship scheme in March 2024. This local offer will include continuing professional development, leadership development and wellbeing support, peer networking, and focused mentoring sessions, and will be delivered flexibly to enable GPs to access the support that they need.