Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the number of hospitals and departments that doctors rotate through as part of Internal Medical Training.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the importance of continuity in postgraduate medical training for both doctors and patients.
Following the 2024 Resident Doctors Agreement, the Department, working in partnership with NHS England and the British Medical Association, established a review of rotational training. This review drew on some 13,000 responses to surveys and found that rotations can provide valuable breadth of experience, but that in some cases frequent moves can disrupt learning, wellbeing, team integration, and patient care
NHS England has developed pilots within the Rotations Review programme, and these are being recruited to with start dates in August of this year. As set out in the 10-Point Plan to Improve Resident Doctors’ Working Lives, these test longer placements, smaller geographic footprints, and more flexible arrangements for less-than-full-time trainees. The future work will become part of the Medical Education and Training Review. One of these pilots has focussed on Internal Medicine Training programmes being based at a single provider for the entire three years.
The evaluation of these pilots will inform future policy decisions on placement length and continuity benefits.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 (a) reduce delays and (b) improve (i) flow and (ii) efficiency in NHS Surgical Theatres.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the Elective Reform Plan, we are committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, which includes those waiting for surgical procedures.
The productivity and modernisation efforts needed to meet that standard includes the expansion of the number of elective surgical hubs. Hubs, which are protected from urgent and emergency care, improve patient outcomes and reduce hospital pressures by reducing cancellations and improving efficiency. They focus on high-volume, low-complexity procedures, support day-case surgery, and align with the standards of the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme, including a national target of 85% theatre utilisation. NHS England, in partnership with the Royal College of Surgeons of England, runs a surgical hub accreditation programme to ensure hubs meet best practice standards, including theatre utilisation. Currently, 125 hubs are operational, with 63 accredited. Theatre utilisation across all specialties reached 81% in August 2025, up from 79% the previous year.
To support these improvements, the National Theatre Programme, led by GIRFT since 2021, provides national guidance as well as targeted support for trusts to improve theatre productivity. To drive forward further progress, one of the areas of focus for 2025/26 is the establishment of ‘high flow theatre’ lists becoming regular practice across the country. Further national actions include earlier and more robust pre-operative risk-assessment to support earlier identification of patients suitable for treatment at hubs, productivity initiatives focussing on flow, scheduling, utilisation and workforce, and the deployment of data analytics and digital scheduling tools to improve real-time theatre management.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 support medical students' (a) wellbeing and (b) welfare in (i) Nottingham, (ii) Nottinghamshire, (iii) the East Midlands and (iv) England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The professional regulator the General Medical Council sets guidance for all university medical schools and placement providers, who have a responsibility to routinely monitor and support the health, safety, and wellbeing of students whilst studying and on placement.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of using the Multi‑Specialty Recruitment Assessment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Recruitment Board, which oversees specialty training recruitment on behalf of the four United Kingdom health departments, has governance processes which determine whether the Multi-Specialty Recruitment Assessment (MSRA) is used by a specialty in their selection processes, and how. Any new specialties considering using the MSRA undergo modelling before a decision is made.
NHS England will take forward reform measures to consider the future shape and delivery model for selection assessments beyond 2027. These will provide a decision point for NHS England on replacing the current MSRA with an updated assessment fit for purpose to be adopted by a broader group of specialties.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 help improve GP Practice premises to increase the number of (a) consulting rooms to allow practices to train more medical students, (b) GP Registrars and (c) hire more GPs in (i) Broxtowe Constituency, (ii) the East Midlands and (iii) England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In May 2025, we announced schemes which were prioritised by integrated care boards (ICBs) to benefit from the £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund (PCUMF). This fund is to deliver upgrades to more than a thousand general practice (GP) surgeries across England this financial year. These schemes will create additional clinical space within existing building footprints to enable practices to see more patients, boost productivity, and improve patient care.
Building on this, the Government has committed £426 million of Utilisation and Modernisation funding over the next four years to continue upgrading the GP estate. This funding will also support refurbishing the existing estate to deliver neighbourhood health centres over this Parliament, as part of the 10-Year Health Plan commitment.
Through the PCUMF, the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB has committed £1.9 million to creating space for 250,000 new appointments for 2025/26. For the Broxtowe constituency this was an allocation of £335,000, which creates space for 52,500 appointments across two schemes in Beeston, and one each in Chilwell and Newthorpe. All clinical rooms are flexible in design so can be used for face-to-face clinical consultations with patients, used by GP Registrars, and/or to increase training capacity.
The Department does not hold East Midlands-level data. The Government has taken steps to grow the GP workforce. We currently have the highest number of fully qualified GPs since 2015, and we want to go further. Following feedback from the 2026/27 GP Contract consultation, we are 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 additional sessions with existing GPs to improve access in GPs. We are also increasing the flexibility of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme enabling primary care networks to recruit more experienced GPs.
We are also committed to training thousands more GPs. We have expanded GP training places by 250, taking the total number of available places to 4,250 for 2025/26, and we plan to expand this again for 2026/27. Current and future expansions to post-graduate training, including foundation training and GP specialty training, have been planned on the basis of relative need, balanced with ability of locations to support trainees.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dental students have undertaken training in (a) Nottingham, (b) Nottinghamshire, (c) the East Midlands and (d) England in each of the last 15 years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently no dental schools in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, or the East Midlands. Consequently, no dental students have undertaken undergraduate training in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, or the East Midlands. The following table shows the number of entrants to undergraduate dentistry courses in England from 2012 to 2025:
Year of Entry | Entrants |
2012 | 875 |
2013 | 875 |
2014 | 800 |
2015 | 780 |
2016 | 800 |
2017 | 805 |
2018 | 810 |
2019 | 810 |
2020 | 895 |
2021 | 980 |
2022 | 815 |
2023 | 815 |
2024 | 830 |
2025 | 815 |
Source: Office for Students Medical and Dental Students Survey.
Note: data for 2025 is provisional as entrants are based on initial figures and may change.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 (a) provide support for children with Paediatric Feeding Disorder and (b) to reduce distances travelled to reach appropriate clinics in (i) Broxtowe constituency, (ii) the East Midlands and (iii) England.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is currently no formal National Health Service pathway for paediatric feeding disorder (PFD), and support is delivered according to a child’s individual needs.
In Broxtowe, children may receive support through community paediatric services or speech and language therapy. Where a child’s needs cannot be met locally, the integrated care board can consider individual requests and commission additional specialist input to ensure appropriate care is provided.
Across the East Midlands, arrangements vary. In Lincolnshire, children are first assessed locally before referral to general paediatrics and, if required, to tertiary centres such as Sheffield Children’s Hospital or Queen’s Medical Centre. In Derby and Derbyshire, PFD is recognised in practice, although there is no dedicated pathway, and feeding difficulties are often considered alongside conditions such as avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. Northamptonshire provides a multidisciplinary community service across three sites, helping families access support closer to home. Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland offer specialist eating, drinking, and swallowing services locally and do not expect families to travel out of area.
Nationally, children with feeding difficulties may be supported through community services, general paediatrics, and referral to specialist multidisciplinary clinics where available.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
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 potential impact of hospital parking charges on patients with long-term health conditions; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing free hospital parking for those patients.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the potential impact of hospital parking charges on patients with long-term health conditions, or the introduction of free hospital parking for those patients.
It is important that the National Health Service is as accessible as possible to those that need it most. That is why the NHS already provides free hospital car parking to those in greatest need. This includes disabled blue badge holders, frequent outpatient attenders, and parents of children staying overnight. Some patients with long-term health conditions will therefore be provided free parking when included in these groups.
More widely, all NHS trusts are expected to follow the published NHS Car Parking Guidance. This states that car parking charges, where they exist, should be reasonable for the area, with further information available at the following link:
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the National Cancer Plan will support the screening, diagnosis and treatment of cancer in a) Broxtowe constituency, b) the East Midlands and c) England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The National Cancer Plan will be published shortly and will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from prevention and screening through early diagnosis, treatment, ongoing care, research and innovation.
Early diagnosis is a key focus of the plan. We will support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer earlier and treat it faster, including through improved access to screening programmes, increased diagnostic capacity, and the continued roll-out of effective diagnostic pathways. The plan will also address access to effective and timely cancer treatment.
Reducing geographical inequalities in cancer outcomes is a central priority of the National Cancer Plan. The plan will look at targeted improvements needed across different cancer types to reduce disparities in cancer survival related to socioeconomic status, geography, and other factors. It will set out how we will work with the NHS and partner organisations to ensure high-quality cancer care is available consistently across the country, including in areas that currently experience poorer outcomes.
Through this national approach, the National Cancer Plan will support improvements in cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment for patients in Broxtowe, across the East Midlands, and throughout England.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will expand medical exemption certificates to people with Parkinson's Disease.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to add Parkinson’s disease to the list of medical conditions that entitle someone to apply for a medical exemption certificate.