Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 21 April 2022 to Question 151099 on Health Services: ICT, when each provider of digital services used by NHS organisations to deliver patient-facing services became Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) compliant.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The information requested is not held centrally. However, following analysis of the recently launched NHS Digital Health Technology Standards Audit, we will work with relevant stakeholders to deliver guidance for National Health Service organisations and suppliers to ensure that any non-compliance is resolved and all digital health products used are fit for purpose. NHS England is working with existing providers of non-compliant products to ensure this is achieved as soon as possible.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in rates of perinatal mortality in Stretford and Urmston constituency.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
No specific assessment has been made. The Government’s national maternity safety ambition aims to halve the 2010 rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries in babies occurring during or soon after birth, by 2025. Since 2010, the rate of stillbirths has reduced by 19.3%, the rate of neonatal mortality for babies born over 24 weeks gestational age of viability has reduced by 36% and maternal mortality has reduced by 17%.
We have introduced targeted interventions to accelerate progress, such as the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle and the Brain Injury Reduction Programme. NHS England has also invested £127 million in National Health Service maternity workforce and improving neonatal care. This is in addition to the £95 million investment made in 2021 to fund the establishment of a further 1,200 midwifery and 100 consultant obstetrician posts. NHS England is offering funding and support to trusts to recruit an additional 300 to 500 overseas midwives in the next 12 months.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to NHS dental services in Stretford and Urmston constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Stretford and Urmston.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many calls the Healthy Start helpline received in each of last six months for which data is available.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
The following table shows the number of calls to the Healthy Start helpline in each month from April to September 2022.
Month | Number of calls |
September 2022 | 322,351 |
August 2022 | 334,180 |
July 2022 | 297,852 |
June 2022 | 372,036 |
May 2022 | 426,480 |
April 2022 | 215,358 |
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time for service users calling the Healthy Start helpline in each of the last six months for which data is available.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
The following table shows the average speed of answer and longest waiting times in hours, minutes and seconds for service users calling the Healthy Start helpline in each month from April to September 2022.
| Average speed of answer | Maximum waiting time |
September 2022 | 00:00:27 | 00:16:40 |
August 2022 | 00:00:07 | 00:10:27 |
July 2022 | 00:00:26 | 00:19:13 |
June 2022 | 00:14:01 | 00:58:50 |
May 2022 | 00:14:38 | 00:55:09 |
April 2022 | 00:22:14 | 02:00:00 |
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether discussions have taken place between her officials and representatives from Mastercard on the potential for the introduction of an automatic registration scheme for households eligible for Healthy Start support.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
There have been no specific discussions.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to increase the availability of face-to-face GP appointments in Stretford and Urmston constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which contains measures to assist people make an informed choice on their general practitioner (GP) practice, book an appointment more easily, benefit from more care options and increase the diversity of general practice teams. This aims to increase the availability of appointment types, such as face-to-face, in England, including in Stretford and Urmston.
NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face to face appointments and remote consultations and should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary. While remote consultations can provide additional choice, flexibility and convenience for patients, this is not suitable for all patients or in all circumstances.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Stretford and Urmston constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in general practitioner (GP) surgeries, including in Stretford and Urmston. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workloads, such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and funding to expand the staff roles working in general practice, including in Stretford and Urmston.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of dental practices were rated as good by the Care Quality Commission in Stretford and Urmston constituency as of 31 March 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) does not currently rate providers of primary dental care services. The Care Quality Commission publishes an assessment against five ‘key aspects’ that determine whether a dental provider is meeting its regulatory requirements. These are, treating people with respect and involving them in their care, providing care, treatment and support that meets people's needs, caring for people safely and protecting them from harm, staffing and quality and suitability of management
The CQC’s website allows the public to search by service type and location to find local dentists and their profiles, which display their regulatory performance and inspection reports.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) financial and (b) other steps her Department is taking to help tackle NHS workforce shortages in Stretford and Urmston constituency.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan. The plan will consider the number of staff and the roles required and will set out the actions and reforms needed to improve workforce supply and retention, including in Stretford and Urmston.