Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
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) raise awareness of and (b) support adults with autism in York Outer constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including support services for autistic people, in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. The NICE guideline, Autism spectrum disorder in adults: diagnosis and management, aims to improve access and engagement with interventions and services, and the experience of care, for autistic adults.
On 5 April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to improve outcomes in all-age autism assessment pathways. This guidance will help ICBs and the National Health Service to improve outcomes for children, young people, and adults referred to an autism assessment service. The guidance sets out what support should be available before an assessment, and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism based on the available evidence. This includes setting out specific considerations for developing post-diagnostic support.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to improve the frequency of cancer statistics releases.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Cancer waiting times data is published on a monthly basis on the NHS.UK website. There are no plans at present to change the frequency of publication.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
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 reduce waiting lists for elective procedures.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients are waiting too long to access the care they need, with the total waiting list standing at over 7.5 million. Last week we saw the welcome news that waiting lists have fallen. Since we ended the strikes, we have been ramping up delivery of the 2 million additional appointments that we committed to deliver (which is equivalent to 40,000 per week). The investment delivered by the Chancellor in last month’s Budget will be matched with the reform our NHS needs, to get patients treated faster.Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
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 (a) the dementia diagnosis rate and (b) the provision of specialist care services for those living with dementia in York Outer constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (HNY ICB) is in the process of setting up a pilot with the York West Outer Primary Care Network, as one of the lowest recorded diagnosis rates, to trial a primary care diagnosis pathway to improve dementia diagnosis rates.
This would mean that a general practitioner with special interest in dementia, together with already commissioned Dementia Coordinators and with support from nurses in the memory assessment service in the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, can work through a caseload of individuals on the current waiting list for assessment, and provide a more timely diagnosis without the need for specialist secondary care intervention. The intention is that this will help reduce the current waiting times for assessment in the core specialist service, and increase the diagnosis rates in those practices.
In addition to this, the HNY ICB is working with City of York Council and a number of local voluntary, community and social enterprise partners to offer a more comprehensive and collaborative approach to pre and post diagnostic support for people living with dementia and their carers, through a Dementia Community Support Model.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
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 rural GP practices.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that patients are struggling to access general practice (GP), and more must be done to improve the sustainability of the National Health Service both nationally and in rural areas. The Government is committed to fixing the front door to the NHS, which is crucial for its long-term sustainability.
We acknowledge the urgent challenge of ensuring rural areas have the resources to continue serving their patients. To address this, we will increase funding for GPs and primary care and shift the focus of the NHS from hospitals to community-based care.
We will also ensure rural areas have the necessary workforce to provide integrated, patient-centered services. We are committed to training thousands more GPs across the country, including in rural areas, starting with the training places outlined in the NHS’s Long-Term Workforce Plan. We have also committed to recruiting over 1,000 newly qualified GPs through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme which will increase the number of appointments delivered in general practice.
This will increase capacity, secure the future pipeline of GPs, and alleviate the pressure on those currently working in the system.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to support (a) the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and (b) people diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
NHS England is responsible for allocating funding to integrated care boards (ICBs), including the Humber and North Yorkshire ICB, which are in turn responsible for commissioning specialist myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), services that meet the needs of their population, subject to local prioritisation and funding.
The process of commissioning services should take into account best practice guidance, such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidance on ME/CFS diagnosis and management, published in October 2021. The NICE guidelines provide recommendation on principles of care for people with severe ME/CFS, including hospital care, and adapting a multidisciplinary approach involving access to a range of health and social care professionals based on needs.
The Department has funded the £3.2 million DecodeME study with the Medical Research Council to understand the causes and consequences of, and find treatments for, ME/CFS. This study aims to understand if there is a genetic component to the condition and, in doing so, increase our understanding of ME/CFS to support the development of diagnostic tests and targeted treatments.
A public consultation on the interim delivery plan for ME/CFS was run in 2023, and it is a priority of ours to publish the response to this consultation. Departmental officials are in the process of finalising a report summarising the responses. The consultation responses, alongside continued stakeholder engagement, will inform the development of the final delivery plan, which we aim to publish in the winter of 2024/25. The plan will focus on boosting research, improving attitudes and education, and bettering the lives of people with this debilitating disease.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
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 potential impact of artificial intelligence on access to primary care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will make better use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies, in order to bring the National Health Service into the digital age. The NHS AI Lab has allocated £113 million to support the development and evaluation of 86 AI technologies, which are now live in hundreds of Primary Care Networks across the United Kingdom.
We will rebuild an NHS that is fit for the future, and innovation in general practice is key to this. That is why the Government will develop an NHS innovation and adoption strategy in England, which will drive innovation and faster regulatory approval for new technologies and medicines.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
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 number of open dentistry practices in the York Outer constituency currently accepting (a) adult and (b) children NHS patients.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of 10 July 2024, there were eight open dentistry practices in the York Outer constituency, none of which were showing as currently accepting new adult or child patients. This data is sourced from the Find a Dentist website, and is matched to constituencies based on the postcode data shown on the website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to improve outcomes for patients who have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Department is working with NHS England to deliver interventions to improve outcomes for those with pancreatic cancer across England. Early diagnosis is imperative to improving outcomes for all types of cancer, especially pancreatic due to the non-specific nature of its symptoms. As the first step to ensuring faster diagnosis and treatment, we will deliver an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week. For pancreatic cancer specifically, NHS England is providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those at inherited high-risk to identify lesions before they develop into cancer. NHS England is additionally creating pathways to support faster referral routes for people with non-specific symptoms, and is increasing direct access for general practitioners to diagnostic tests.
Additionally, the Getting it Right First-Time (GIRFT) team in NHS England is undertaking a deep dive into pancreatic cancer, which will highlight good practice and actions National Health Service providers need to take to improve services. NHS England is also funding a new audit into pancreatic cancer, aiming to provide regular and timely evidence to cancer service providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, to increase the consistency of access to treatments and to stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes for patients.