Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to expand screening programmes for early detection of Cervical Cancer.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving cancer screening services in line with the National Cancer Plan and as part of the 10-Year Health Plan’s shift from sickness to prevention.
Later this year, we will start to offer self-testing for human papilloma virus to women who have missed their cervical screening appointments by at least six months. This expansion aims to overcome barriers that stop women from taking up cervical screening which can both prevent and catch cervical cancer early.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the current average waiting time is for elective orthopaedic surgery in England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Average waiting times for elective orthopaedic surgery are not separately published in the waiting list statistics. The waiting times for orthopaedic surgery are included in the Trauma and Orthopaedic Services category. As of the latest published waiting list statistics for February 2026, the median waiting time for Trauma and Orthopaedic Services, which includes orthopaedic surgery, was 14.9 weeks in England, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/rtt-data-2025-26/
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase early diagnosis rates for prostate cancer.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to meeting the cancer waiting time standards in England by the end of this Parliament, by modernising the whole cancer pathway so that patients are diagnosed and treated more quickly.
The National Cancer Plan for England was published in February 2026. Patients across England will benefit from faster and more convenient tests, checks, and scans. By expanding diagnostic capacity, using real‑time data to spot delays, and rolling out technologies like robotic surgery, genomic testing, and faster, less invasive diagnostics, this will benefit all patients, including prostate cancer patients.
The plan is backed by significant funding committed by the Government at the Spending Review, including £200 million next year for local Cancer Alliances. Alliances are encouraged to allocate a proportion of this funding to the delivery of local early diagnosis plans, to drive progress on data-led priorities. This can include work to support the diagnosis of prostate cancer, but it will vary by alliance depending on local need. In 2025/26, several alliances have undertaken work to support awareness and earlier diagnosis of prostate cancer.
To increase knowledge of cancer symptoms, and address barriers to acting on them, the National Health Service in England has run Help Us Help You campaigns. These campaigns focused on recognising a range of symptoms, as well as encouraging body awareness, to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers, including prostate cancer, at an earlier stage.
Through the Cancer Programme Innovation Open Call, the Department is piloting the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist radiologists using magnetic resonance imaging to detect clinically significant prostate cancer.
Cancer will be a priority for NHS Online, which goes live in England from 2027, bringing the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS. Virtual cancer care will be a priority, beginning with virtual hospital pathways for men with raised prostate-specific antigen levels at risk of prostate cancer.
The Department continues to collaborate with Prostate Cancer UK on the TRANSFORM trial to answer the outstanding questions on screening effectiveness, particularly for black men and men with a family history of prostate cancer. 12,500 men are being recruited in phase 1 in sites across the UK, with inclusion into four groups looking at four different prostate health checks. Research phase 1 is expected to last between one to four years, and phase 2 is planned to be five to nine years. Currently, the Government, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, has agreed to contribute support to phases 1 and 2. Further details can be sought from Prostate Cancer UK who are running the trial. The UK National Screening Committee will be reviewing the evidence that is published by this study, and this will help to inform any future recommendation on creating a national screening programme for prostate cancer.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the integration of (a) shared maintenance hubs, (b) fleet management, and (c) scheduling for (i) health and (ii) education services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has recently announced its commitments to the rollout of new Neighbourhood Health Centres, with further information available at the following link:
Through this programme, there will likely be opportunities under the NHS Act 2006 for NHS England to work with local authorities to deliver joint developments alongside One Public Estate. Schemes will likely include the refurbishment and redevelopment of existing public assets, and such projects may provide a particular focus in areas of deprivation, where the National Health Service can act as an anchor tenant.
Furthermore, we are currently finalising the Department’s approach to its Public and Private Finance Partnership model for neighbourhood health centres, which could also act as a catalyst for projects and joint working across public bodies.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of staffing levels on accident and emergency waiting times.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the importance of ensuring that emergency departments operate safely and effectively. Decisions on staffing levels are matters for local National Health Service trusts, working with integrated care boards, who are best placed to assess and manage services in line with local needs and circumstances.
Nationally, NHS England sets standards for emergency care and provides guidance to support trusts in maintaining safe staffing.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce preventable admissions in A&E.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are significantly expanding urgent care across the country, including building and expanding 40 same day emergency care services and urgent treatment centres. This will mean patients are treated more quickly and in the most appropriate setting, while easing pressure on busy accident and emergency departments so they can focus on the most serious cases.
Alongside this, we are expanding urgent care outside hospital through new neighbourhood health services. Urgent community care enables people to receive timely, high‑quality care in their own homes or communities, helping to maintain independence and ensuring hospital attendance only where clinically necessary. The Neighbourhood Health model prioritises urgent community response, virtual wards, and coordinated multidisciplinary teams to support people with escalating or acute needs, preventing unnecessary hospital admissions and supporting care closer to home.
The Urgent and Emergency Care Delivery Plan 2025/26 also committed to scaling a new “Home First” approach, enabling ambulance services to prioritise the most critical cases while providing alternative pathways for those with less urgent needs. This includes “see and treat” and “hear and treat” approaches, supported by additional clinicians in emergency operations centres and single points of access.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital admissions in the last 12 months have been related to complications arising from Type 2 Diabetes.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This data is not collected. Primary diagnosis is recorded on admission to hospital, but not the complications which may have led to the admission. Where a patient is known to have diabetes, this will always be recorded on their Hospital Episode Statistic (HES) record, regardless of the actual reason for their admission.
It should be noted that where a patient is known to have diabetes this will always be recorded on their HES record, regardless of the actual reason for their admission. Within HES, the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision code E11 is used to diagnose type 2 diabetes, so it is possible to provide a count of admissions where that is the primary diagnosis. However, this cohort will only comprise a small proportion of the total number of occasions where a complication of type 2 diabetes necessitated that the patient be admitted to hospital since, in most instances where a patient has diabetes, the primary diagnosis is likely to be recorded as something else.
There will be many other conditions that could be, but they won’t necessarily actually be complications of type 2 diabetes. For example, the National Health Service website page Complications of type 2 diabetes - NHS mentions ‘stroke’ as something that can potentially be caused by having diabetes. However, where a patient who has diabetes has been admitted to hospital with a stroke, we cannot say for certain whether this was a complication of their having type 2 diabetes or was caused for some other reason. Since diabetes, where known to be present, is always recorded on the patient record, we cannot assume that where it is recorded, the primary diagnosis will be due to a complication arising from it. For this reason, we cannot provide any meaningful data to answer the query.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP practices in England are currently accepting new patients.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England does not hold information on the number of general practices (GPs) currently accepting new patients. Decisions to approve or reject GP requests to close their patient lists temporarily to new patient registrations are delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs). NHS England does hold some historic information relating to these decisions.
ICBs received a total of 30 applications from GPs to close their patient lists during 2024/25, compared with 51 in 2023/24. 23, or 77%, of the 30 applications were approved in 2024/25, which compares to 42 approved applications, or 82%, in 2023/24. Of the 23 approved applications, 11 GPs, or 48%, had reopened their patients list by the end of 2024/25, compared with 22, or 52%, which reopened by the end of 2023/24.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 access to GP services for patients with long-term conditions such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know that improving access to general practice (GP) services is key for all patients, including those with long-term conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
In England, we have invested £160 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to support the recruitment of over 2,000 individual GPs into primary care networks (PCNs) across England, helping to increase appointment availability and improve care for thousands of patients. We are also introducing a practice-level GP reimbursement scheme using £292 million of repurposed funding from the current Capacity and Access Payment. This funding will be available to practices to hire additional GPs or fund more sessions with existing GPs to improve access in GPs
The Government will bring back the family doctor for those who would benefit from seeing the same clinician regularly, for example, those living with chronic illness, such as COPD. In the 2026/27 GP Contract we will make it a core requirement for PCNs to identify and prioritise cohorts for continuity of care using risk stratification tools as part of their core activities. This will make continuity a core expectation within primary care and support future work to embed more meaningful continuity models in subsequent contract reform.
As a result of all our measures, we've delivered 8.3 million more GP appointments, and Office for National Statistics data shows that nearly three quarters of patients now report a good experience with their GP.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients are waiting more than 52 weeks for treatment for Cataracts within the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of 12 April 2026, there are 1,124 patients waiting more than 52 weeks for treatment of cataracts within the National Health Service in England.
As set out in the Plan for Change and the Elective Reform Plan, we are committed to returning by March 2029 to the NHS constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment. As part of this ambition, we are continuing to encourage and support providers to reduce waits for patients who have waited longest for treatment.
The Elective Reform Plan also provides a range of measures to improve the experience of care for patients, including those experiencing long waits. This includes engaging with patients and carers to publish a set of minimum standards that patients can expect to experience in elective care.