Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
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 ensure that hospitals have sufficient capacity for patients.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning healthcare services, including hospitals, to meet the needs of their local populations. We are asking trusts to place a special focus on reducing bed occupancy ahead of Christmas, creating additional capacity and improving patient flow.
The New Hospital Programme (NHP) will build “right-sized” hospitals, based on robust assumptions appropriate for local health needs that support the shift from hospital to community. The NHP has developed a National Health Service demand and capacity model which reflects changes in demographics, including predictions for population growth, which will underpin assumptions when right-sizing hospitals. The NHP Plan for Implementation, published on the GOV.UK website, sets out the delivery timeline for the schemes in the programme. Further information on the NHP Plan for Implementation is available at the following link:
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department’s timescale is for the publication of data on incidences of corridor care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling the corridor care in our National Health Service. Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June, set out the steps we are taking to improve accident and emergency waiting times, including the commitment to publish data on the prevalence of corridor care.
NHS England has been working with trusts to put in place new reporting arrangements related to the use of corridor care, to drive improvement. The data quality is currently being reviewed, and the information will be published shortly.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department collects data on (a) dental access and (b) treatment outcomes for people born with a cleft lip and/or palate.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data is not held centrally on dental access and treatment outcomes for people born with a cleft. We recognise that certain groups of patients may be more vulnerable to oral health problems, including patients with clefts.
NHS England commissions services for children, young people, and adults with a cleft lip and/or palate. The patient pathway can start from pre-birth and continues into adulthood. Cleft services provide care through multi-disciplinary teams, and the comprehensive care pathway will include elements such as paediatric dentistry, restorative dentistry, and orthodontics. A copy of the Cleft Lip and/or Palate Services including Non-Cleft Velopharyngeal Dysfunction (VPD) (All Ages) Service Specification is attached.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
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 ensure that dentists have adequate knowledge and training to treat people born with cleft (a) lips and (b) palates.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Yeovil on 20 November 2025 to Question 90537.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department will take steps to help ensure that health (a) boards and (b) trusts (i) collect and (ii) publish data on the provision of respiratory diagnostics.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Activity and waiting times for the main respiratory tests, for instance spirometry and lung function tests, are not included in the National Diagnostic Activity and Waiting Times Collection.
However, NHS England undertakes a number of internal assurance data collection exercises on activity and waiting times. The National Diagnostic Programme undertakes an annual snap-shot data collection on respiratory diagnostics to understand the levels of activity and waiting times for a range of respiratory tests within trusts across England.
NHS England’s Respiratory Programme, in collaboration with national stakeholders, has also developed a standardised spirometry data capture template. This tool is designed to support integrated care boards in consistently recording and reporting spirometry activity, enabling improved oversight, service planning, and equitable access to respiratory diagnostics.
There are no current plans to publish these collections.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
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 (a) increase capacity and (b) reduce inequalities in accessing respiratory diagnosis.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to increasing the capacity of respiratory services and is improving access to these services through new community diagnostic centres (CDCs).
All standard and large CDCs are required to offer diagnostic respiratory tests such as spirometry and full lung function tests as part of their core testing offer.
The 2025/26 capital guidance confirmed that £1.65 billion of capital funding is being allocated to support National Health Service performance across secondary and emergency care across 2025/26 more broadly. This includes funding to enable the completion of 2024/25 CDC schemes, as well as to expand existing and build new CDCs.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
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 ensure the NHS is sufficiently staffed over summer holiday periods.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Individual NHS Trusts and other providers are responsible for ensuring that there are sufficient staff to provide safe care.
Trusts already have a duty to regularly review the number of staff and range of skills needed to safely meet the needs of people using their services.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish (a) the full impact assessment and (b) equality impact assessment of the changes to the length of time between cervical cancer screenings.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Both the impact assessment and the equality impact assessment on the changes to the frequency of cervical screening have been published and are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cervical-screening-risk-stratification-impact-assessments
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
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 tackle staff shortages in cancer care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will continue to ensure that we train the staff we need to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it, and the cancer plan will reflect this. We will publish a new National Cancer Plan, which will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients. The Government recognises that a cancer-specific approach is needed to meet the challenges in cancer care, and to improve outcomes for people living with cancer.
NHS England is currently improving the recruitment of radiographers and radiologists to improve earlier diagnosis and treatment of cancer, through a range of different initiatives. This includes increasing priority medical specialities, including clinical oncologists. We are also supporting employers to train new radiographers through the apprenticeship pathway. Furthermore, we will ensure that imaging training academies can increase training capacity in addition to reforming training to support rapid development for both radiologists and radiographers.
Asked by: Marie Goldman (Liberal Democrat - Chelmsford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will implement localised reporting of CAMHS (a) funding and (b) performance.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Every local integrated care board (ICB) has a legal duty to produce an annual report on how it has discharged its functions in the previous financial year. This provides the opportunity for ICBs to demonstrate the full breadth of their work with people and communities and involves people and communities in decision-making, and includes working with children and young people.