Oral Answers to Questions

Judith Cummins Excerpts

Tuesday 6th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Steve Barclay]

We are making significant progress. The hon. Gentleman specifically mentions GP referrals, and there were more than 11,000 urgent GP referrals for suspected cancer per working day in March 2023, compared with just under 9,500 in March 2019, so we are seeing more patients.

Let me give an indication of how we are innovating on cancer. We have doubled the number of community lung trucks, which means the detection of lung cancer at stages 1 and 2 is up by a third in areas with the highest smoking rates. In the most deprived areas, we are detecting cancer much sooner, and survival rates are, in turn, showing a marked improvement.

[Judith Cummins (Bradford South) (Lab)]

6. What steps he is taking to improve healthcare for women.

[Sarah Owen (Luton North) (Lab)]

14. What steps he is taking to improve healthcare for women.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maria Caulfield)]

This is the first Government to produce a women’s health strategy in England. We are making huge progress on the eight priorities in our first year, from introducing the hormone replacement therapy pre-payment certificate, which is reducing the cost of HRT for women, to the £25 million roll-out of women’s health hubs across the country. We will be announcing our second-year priorities in due course.

[Judith Cummins]

Half of all women over 50 will experience bone fractures due to osteoporosis, and many of these will be serious hip fractures. As many women will die from these fractures as from lung cancer or diabetes. Can the Minister explain why not even one of the 63 key performance indicators set by NHS England for integrated care boards sets a target for fracture prevention?

[Maria Caulfield]

I thank the hon. Lady for her work in this space. She is campaigning hard on this issue. I reassure her that osteoporosis is in the women’s health strategy and is a priority area for us. We are already working to make sure that women’s vitamin D status is known, and to make sure that we fill gaps. NHS England is expanding fracture services for high-risk women with osteoporosis, and it is working to prevent falls. The women’s health ambassador is raising the profile of osteoporosis so that women who are at higher risk can take action to prevent fractures and falls in the first place.