Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 trends in the level of regional inequalities of access to GP appointments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to improving capacity and access to local services across the country. Integrated care boards (ICBs) and general practices (GPs) have a statutory duty to ensure sufficient provision of medical services, tailored to the needs of their local populations, accounting for factors like population growth, deprivation, and demographic change.
While GPs operate as independent contractors, they are held to nationally agreed standards under the GP Contract, which is reviewed and improved annually. The 2024/25 contract is backed by the largest increase in GP funding in years, specifically an £889 million uplift. This investment supports key reforms to improve access across the country, including a new requirement for practices to offer online appointment requests throughout core opening hours.
We will continue working closely with ICBs to monitor and address variations in access, so that every patient can get the care they need, when they need it.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 increase the availability of GP appointments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is determined to fix the front door of our National Health Service, making it easier for everyone to see a general practitioner (GP) when they need to.
In October 2024, we injected £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to enabling the recruitment of 1,000 newly qualified GPs across England, which will increase the number of appointments delivered and care for thousands of patients.
We’ve just delivered the biggest boost to GP funding in years, an £889 million uplift, with GPs now receiving a growing share of NHS resources. For the first time in four years, the General Practitioners Committee England backed the new 2025/26 contract, which includes key reforms to improve access, for instance by making sure that patients can request appointments online throughout core hours.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there are mandatory timescales for (a) nursing homes requesting an assessment for (i) continuing healthcare funding and (ii) funded nursing care and a checklist referral being completed and (b) checklist referrals for (A) continuing healthcare funding and (B) funded nursing care being completed and full assessments being completed.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The statutory guidance, National framework for NHS continuing healthcare and NHS-funded nursing care, sets out the principles and processes for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and National Health Service-funded nursing care (FNC), so that people are assessed and receive care in a timely way. Further information on the statutory guidance is available at the following link:
The national framework sets the expectation that the overall assessment and eligibility decision-making process for CHC should, in most cases, not exceed 28 calendar days, from the date that the integrated care board receives the positive checklist, to the eligibility decision being made. There are no mandatory timescales for the completion of a CHC checklist referral when requested by a nursing home. There are no mandatory timescales for a decision to be made about FNC eligibility.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce hip replacement waiting lists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
People have been waiting too long for National Health Service treatment, with their personal and professional lives put on hold. This is why we have committed to getting back to the NHS constitutional standard, that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT) by March 2029. This includes patients waiting for hip replacement surgery, for which the median average waiting time in England as of 16 March 2025 was 24.7 weeks.
We have already made progress, delivering on our commitment to provide two million additional appointments and publishing our Elective Reform Plan, which sets out how we will tackle waits, increase productivity, and improve patient experience. This includes providing quicker access to common surgical procedures, such as hip replacements, by opening 17 new and expanded surgical hubs by June 2025, so more operations can be carried out.
Dedicated and protected surgical hubs are transforming the way the NHS provides elective care by focusing on high volume low complexity surgeries. There are currently 114 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England as of March 2025, with 88 of them providing treatment for the trauma and orthopaedic specialty under which hip replacements fall. These surgical hubs help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, improving outcomes for patients and reducing pressures on hospitals.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for a hip replacement.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
People have been waiting too long for National Health Service treatment, with their personal and professional lives put on hold. This is why we have committed to getting back to the NHS constitutional standard, that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment (RTT) by March 2029. This includes patients waiting for hip replacement surgery, for which the median average waiting time in England as of 16 March 2025 was 24.7 weeks.
We have already made progress, delivering on our commitment to provide two million additional appointments and publishing our Elective Reform Plan, which sets out how we will tackle waits, increase productivity, and improve patient experience. This includes providing quicker access to common surgical procedures, such as hip replacements, by opening 17 new and expanded surgical hubs by June 2025, so more operations can be carried out.
Dedicated and protected surgical hubs are transforming the way the NHS provides elective care by focusing on high volume low complexity surgeries. There are currently 114 elective surgical hubs that are operational across England as of March 2025, with 88 of them providing treatment for the trauma and orthopaedic specialty under which hip replacements fall. These surgical hubs help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, improving outcomes for patients and reducing pressures on hospitals.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 provision of mental health services to acute mental health patients leaving in-patient facilities.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The statutory guidance on discharge from mental health inpatient settings makes clear that National Health Service mental health trusts should have a clear plan in place for the ongoing care and support that a patient requires after discharge from a mental health inpatient setting. This should cover their pharmacological, physical health, psychological, social, cultural, education, housing and finances, and any other individual needs or wishes.
Individual trusts providing mental health inpatient services are expected to closely monitor hospital discharge performance data to ensure discharge arrangements are operating effectively and safely across the system and are also subject to monitoring, inspection and regulation by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
In response to the CQC’s review of the care and treatment provided to Valdo Calocane and of services provided by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, NHS England asked every provider of mental health services to review the care received by people with serious mental illness who require intensive community treatment and follow-up but where engagement is a challenge.
Alongside this, NHS England is also developing new core standards of care for community mental health services to support the continued improvement of care.
As part of our mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future and shift care from hospitals into the community by improving community and crisis services, NHS England is piloting new models of care in the community for those with the most serious mental illnesses. New mental health centres open in six neighbourhood areas from this spring and will provide people and their families with support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if they are in crisis without needing to book an appointment, as well as provide housing or employment advice to support them to stay well. A key feature of the model is continuity of care whereby the same team will support people with serious mental illnesses throughout all stages of their interaction with services, including transitions between hospital and the community.
The Mental Health Bill, currently before Parliament, also aims to strengthen discharge arrangements for people detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department monitors the quality of support provided by NHS trusts to people with acute mental health conditions when they leave in-patient care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The statutory guidance on discharge from mental health inpatient settings makes clear that National Health Service mental health trusts should have a clear plan in place for the ongoing care and support that a patient requires after discharge from a mental health inpatient setting. This should cover their pharmacological, physical health, psychological, social, cultural, education, housing and finances, and any other individual needs or wishes.
Individual trusts providing mental health inpatient services are expected to closely monitor hospital discharge performance data to ensure discharge arrangements are operating effectively and safely across the system and are also subject to monitoring, inspection and regulation by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
In response to the CQC’s review of the care and treatment provided to Valdo Calocane and of services provided by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, NHS England asked every provider of mental health services to review the care received by people with serious mental illness who require intensive community treatment and follow-up but where engagement is a challenge.
Alongside this, NHS England is also developing new core standards of care for community mental health services to support the continued improvement of care.
As part of our mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future and shift care from hospitals into the community by improving community and crisis services, NHS England is piloting new models of care in the community for those with the most serious mental illnesses. New mental health centres open in six neighbourhood areas from this spring and will provide people and their families with support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if they are in crisis without needing to book an appointment, as well as provide housing or employment advice to support them to stay well. A key feature of the model is continuity of care whereby the same team will support people with serious mental illnesses throughout all stages of their interaction with services, including transitions between hospital and the community.
The Mental Health Bill, currently before Parliament, also aims to strengthen discharge arrangements for people detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 waiting times for children’s mental health services, between the point of initial assessment and starting treatment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such assessment has been made, as the Mental Health Services Data Set does not collect data from ‘initial assessment to starting treatment’.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
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 adequacy of access to shared care arrangements for adults diagnosed with ADHD.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are supporting a cross-sector taskforce that NHS England has established to look at attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) service provision and support across sectors, and their impact on patient experience. The taskforce is bringing together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the National Health Service, education and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD including timely access to services and support.
General practitioners (GPs) are independent contractors that provide services for the National Health Service. The General Medical Council has published guidance on “Good practice in proposing, prescribing, providing and managing medicines and devices content”. This includes guidance on shared care arrangements between a specialist service and the patient’s GP to help GPs decide whether to accept shared care responsibilities for any condition. The guidance is available at the following link:
NHS clinicians need to be content that any prescriptions, or referrals for treatment, are clinically appropriate. All shared care arrangements are voluntary, so even where agreements are in place, practices can decline shared care requests on clinical and capacity grounds.
If a shared care arrangement cannot be put in place after the treatment has been initiated, the responsibility for continued prescribing falls upon the specialist clinician; this applies to both NHS and private medical care.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will amend the key performance indicator for waiting times for children’s mental health services to include the length of time between referral and the start of treatment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is working towards implementing the clinical review of standards and as a first step have started publishing data on waits from referral to start of treatment.