Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made against the Government's commitments to deliver (a) 6,000 more doctors in general practice by 2024-25, (b) 50 million extra general practice appointments a year and (c) 50,000 more nurses by 2024-25.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The latest comparable general practice workforce data available for June 2021 shows that there were 34,726 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors in general practice, 1,218 more FTE doctors compared to June 2019.
The latest available data for general practice appointments is from August 2021 excluding COVID-19 vaccination appointments, shows that there were an estimated 23.9 million appointments in August 2021, 510,000 more than in August 2019. Including COVID-19 vaccinations, there were 25.5 million appointments in August 2021, 2 million more than August 2019.
The number of nurses employed in National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups in the last year increased by over 9,900 FTE, as at July 2021.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many school children received a (a) first and (b) second dose of the human papillomavirus vaccination in each month from April 2019 to September 2021 inclusive.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information is not available in the format requested. The UK Health Security Agency publishes an annual report on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage by academic year cohort in the United Kingdom. The latest report is available at the following link:
The report shows that 64.7% of Year Nine females completed the two-dose HPV vaccination course in 2019/20. HPV vaccine coverage for the priming dose in 2019/20 was 59.2% in Year Eight females and 54.4% in Year Eight males. National HPV vaccine coverage data for the academic year 2020/21 will be published in winter 2021.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the Government spent on osteoporosis research in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The following table shows spending by the National Institute for Health Research on osteoporosis research in each financial year from 2018 and 2021.
2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 |
£1,359,889 | £1,011,547 | £908,433 |
Spend is adjusted through the lifecycle of a project and may not be the same each year depending on the demands of the research required at each stage. In 2020/21 project life cycles will also have experienced significant new demands due to the COVID pandemic and would have to adapt accordingly, for example, research staff being deployed temporarily to frontline NHS services.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the requirement for DBS or criminal record checks for people who work as private, directly employed care workers.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
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 expand the medical workforce.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We have funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places each year for domestic students in England or a 25% increase over three years. This expansion was completed in September 2020 and has delivered five new medical schools in England. In addition, we have temporarily lifted the cap on medical school places for students who completed A-Levels in 2020 and in 2021 and who had an offer from a university in England to study medicine, subject to their grades. We have no immediate plans to further increase the number of places.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
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 capacity of the NHS to meet demand for ophthalmology services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England and NHS Improvement’s National Eye Care Recovery and Transformation programme is assisting local systems to redesign and improve outpatient ophthalmology services and improve the use of technology to support patients outside of hospital and meet future demand.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the findings of the Royal College of Physicians’ 2020 Physicians Census published by the Royal College of Physicians’ on 15 November 2021, that 48 per cent of advertised consultant posts were unfilled in 2020, what comparative estimate he has made of the size of the (a) NHS workforce and (b) demand for NHS services.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has made no such comparative estimate.
In July 2021 the Department commissioned Health Education England to review long term strategic trends for the health and registered social care workforce. This will renew the long-term strategic framework for the health workforce, to ensure we have the right skills and behaviours to deliver high quality clinical services and standards of patient care.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the explanation that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation gave him for changing their advice on eligibility for the covid-19 booster vaccination between their interim advice of 30 June 2021 and updated advice of 14 September 2021.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The information requested is not available as no such explanation was required. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) updated its interim advice of 30 June 2021 on the categorisation of groups eligible for vaccination in the COVID-19 vaccine booster programme when further evidence became available. The JCVI published its final advice on 14 September based on the latest available evidence.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of social care staff who have left their jobs as a result of changes to covid-19 vaccine requirements; and if he will publish that data.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
NHS England and NHS Improvement publish weekly statistics on the workforce size in care homes as part of their vaccination series. Data on the reasons for staff exit are not collected.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many vacancies for diagnostic radiographers there are in each NHS commissioning region in England.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department does not hold the data requested.