Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
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 improve retention rates for doctors.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is committed to making the National Health Service the best place to work, by supporting and retaining our hardworking and dedicated healthcare professionals. We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan later in 2025 setting out how we will ensure staff are better treated, have better training, more fulfilling roles and hope for the future, so they can achieve more.
We will work with the Social Partnership Forum to introduce a new set of staff standards for modern employment, covering issues such as access to healthy meals, support to work healthily and flexibly, and tackling violence, racism and sexual harassment in the workplace.
We have made significant progress over the past year to improve the working lives of resident doctors. This includes agreeing an improved exception reporting system which will ensure doctors are compensated fairly for the additional work that they do and reviewing how resident doctors rotate through their training.
NHS England is leading work nationally through its retention programme to drive a consistent, system-wide approach to staff retention across NHS trusts.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with his international counterparts to improve patient safety for UK residents undergoing cosmetic surgery abroad.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department maintains a dialogue with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office colleagues in countries of interest to improve patient safety for United Kingdom residents undergoing cosmetic surgery abroad, as well as strengthening our bilateral engagement through discussions with health official counterparts in destination countries to improve patient pathways.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the NHS treating complications arising from cosmetic surgery undertaken by British nationals abroad in the last three years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not have data on the overall costs to the National Health Service for treating complications from cosmetic procedures conducted overseas. We are exploring ways to improve our understanding of the scale of the cost to the NHS.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to measure the cost to the public purse of NHS expenditure on treating complications arising from cosmetic procedures undertaken abroad.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not have data on the overall costs to the National Health Service for treating complications from cosmetic procedures conducted overseas. We are exploring ways to improve our understanding of the scale of the cost to the NHS.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the average cost per patient to the NHS for treating complications from cosmetic surgery undertaken abroad.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not have data on the overall costs to the National Health Service for treating complications from cosmetic procedures conducted overseas. We are exploring ways to improve our understanding of the scale of the cost to the NHS.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2025 to Question 60400 on Mental Health Services, how many referrals made to mental health services in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 2023-24 by primary reason for referral received a (i) suspected and (ii) confirmed diagnosis within (A) fewer than 18 weeks, (B) 18 and 24 weeks, (C) 24 weeks and 12 months, (D) 12 and 18 months, (e) 18 and 24 months and (F) more than 24 months from the date of referral in each NHS Trust, as of 24 June 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has confirmed the information requested is not held as data is either not available or would not provide a representative answer to the questions. NHS England collects information in the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) on people in contact with secondary mental health services with a diagnosis of a mental health disorder. The MHSDS is a large, complex dataset so to balance the burden on the National Health Service, some tables/fields are mandatory whereas others are not. The diagnoses tables are not mandatory so not all providers necessarily submit this information. The recording of diagnoses within MHSDS needs to be entered using clinical coding which some providers may be unable to do for various reasons. Additionally, it can take a while for a diagnosis to be confirmed for some patients. There are also other data quality issues around non-completion of the diagnosis information. We are working with providers and partner organisations to address such issues.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2025 to Question 60400 on Mental Health Service, how many referrals made to mental health services in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 2023-24 by primary reason for referral received a (i) suspected and (ii) confirmed diagnosis within (A) fewer than 18 weeks, (B) 18 and 24 weeks, (C) 24 weeks and 12 months, (D) 12 and 18 months, (E) 18 and 24 months and (F) more than 24 months from the date of referral in each NHS Integrated Care Board as of 24 June 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has confirmed the information requested is not held as data is either not available or would not provide a representative answer to the questions. NHS England collects information in the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) on people in contact with secondary mental health services with a diagnosis of a mental health disorder. The MHSDS is a large, complex dataset so to balance the burden on the National Health Service, some tables/fields are mandatory whereas others are not. The diagnoses tables are not mandatory so not all providers necessarily submit this information. The recording of diagnoses within MHSDS needs to be entered using clinical coding which some providers may be unable to do for various reasons. Additionally, it can take a while for a diagnosis to be confirmed for some patients. There are also other data quality issues around non-completion of the diagnosis information. We are working with providers and partner organisations to address such issues.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2025 to Question 60400 on Mental Health Service, how many referrals made to mental health services in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23; and (c) 2023-24 by primary reason for referral received a (i) suspected and (ii) confirmed diagnosis within (A) fewer than 18 weeks, (B) 18 and 24 weeks, (C) 24 weeks and 12 months, (D) 12 and 18 months, (E) 18 and 24 months, and (F) more than 24 months from the date of referral in each NHS England Region as of 24 June 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has confirmed the information requested is not held as data is either not available or would not provide a representative answer to the questions. NHS England collects information in the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) on people in contact with secondary mental health services with a diagnosis of a mental health disorder. The MHSDS is a large, complex dataset so to balance the burden on the National Health Service, some tables/fields are mandatory whereas others are not. The diagnoses tables are not mandatory so not all providers necessarily submit this information. The recording of diagnoses within MHSDS needs to be entered using clinical coding which some providers may be unable to do for various reasons. Additionally, it can take a while for a diagnosis to be confirmed for some patients. There are also other data quality issues around non-completion of the diagnosis information. We are working with providers and partner organisations to address such issues.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2025 to Question 60400 on Mental Health Services, how many referrals made to mental health services in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 2023-24 by primary reason for referral that (i) began and (ii) completed treatment received the first treatment appointment within (A) fewer than 18 weeks, (B) 18 and 24 weeks, (C) 24 weeks and 12 months, (D) 12 and 18 months, (E) 18 and 24 months and (F) more than 24 months from the date of referral in each NHS Trust as of 24 June 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The tables attached show, respectively, the number of referrals received by providers for mental health services, excluding NHS Talking Therapies, sorted by primary reason for referral and waiting time for entering treatment, and the number of referrals received by providers for NHS Talking Therapies services by presenting complaint, for financial years 2021/22 to 2023/24. For the first table, data for completed treatment cannot be provided as there is no definition for completed treatment.
During April 2025, 98.5% of referrals to NHS Talking Therapy services which completed treatment had entered treatment within 18 weeks of the referral starting. As a result, the numbers of individual referrals broken down by for the waiting times requested, presenting condition and provider would largely be suppressed and there may also be data errors which can incorrectly show extremely long waits. Therefore, these data have not been provided as they do not provide insight to the question and may potentially be misleading. Waiting times data for each provider can be found in the NHS monthly Talking Therapies statistics publication, which is available at the following link:
Caution should be used when interpreting this data. Comparisons at low levels and between providers may not be reflective of the performance of the provider due to high levels of suppressed values due to small numbers. Primary reason for referral is not a mandatory field and completeness levels can be relatively low and vary between providers. Furthermore, if a provider has a small number of people in a specific category, a seemingly large difference between two providers might not be statistically significant and could be due to random chance. Comparisons over time should also be interpreted with caution, as completeness in the dataset has improved over time, with the numbers of providers increasing year on year, which will impact comparisons.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2025 to Question 60400 on Mental Health Services, how many referrals made to mental health services in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23; and (c) 2023-24 by primary reason for referral that (i) began and (ii) completed treatment received the first treatment appointment within (A) fewer than 18 weeks, (B) 18 and 24 weeks, (C) 24 weeks and 12 months, (D) 12 and 18 months, (E) 18 and 24 months and (F) more than 24 months from the date of referral in each NHS England region as of 24 June 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The tables attached show, respectively, the number of referrals received for mental health services, excluding NHS Talking Therapies, by NHS England region, primary reason for referral, and waiting time for entering treatment, and the number of referrals received for NHS Talking Therapies services, by NHS England region and presenting complaint, for the financial years 2021/22 to 2023/24. For the first table, data for completed treatment cannot be provided as there is no definition for completed treatment.
During April 2025, 98.5% of referrals to NHS Talking Therapy services which completed treatment had entered treatment within 18 weeks of the referral starting. As a result, the numbers of individual referrals broken down by for the waiting times requested, presenting condition, and NHS England region, would largely be suppressed and there may also be data errors which can incorrectly show extremely long waits. Therefore, these data have not been provided as they do not provide insight to the question and may potentially be misleading. Waiting times data for each region can be found in the NHS monthly Talking Therapies statistics publication, at the following link:
Caution should be used when interpreting this data. Comparisons at low levels and between providers may not be reflective of the performance of the provider due to high levels of suppressed values due to small numbers. Primary reason for referral is not a mandatory field and completeness levels can be relatively low and vary between providers. Furthermore, if a provider has a small number of people in a specific category, a seemingly large difference between two providers might not be statistically significant and could be due to random chance. Comparisons over time should also be interpreted with caution, as completeness in the dataset has improved over time, with the numbers of providers increasing year on year, which will impact comparisons.