Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many medical appointments were (a) missed by patients and (b) cancelled by the health trust at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals in each of the last three years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows data on the number of outpatient appointments missed by the patient where they Did Not Attend on the day, without prior cancellation, and the number of outpatient appointments cancelled by the provider, for the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust:
| 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Missed by patients | 55,243 | 56,286 | 56,383 |
Cancelled by hospital | 58,367 | 57,817 | 57,108 |
The table above includes all outpatient appointments, both new and follow up, where the patient Did Not Attend on the day, or where the hospital cancelled, with the latter including some rearrangements of appointments, such as where a patient has been brought forward or delayed. This data excludes where the patient has cancelled in advance. Please note that the accuracy of the type of missed appointment ascribed could be impacted by incomplete documentation.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many medical operations were cancelled at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals in each of the last last three years; and what the cost to the NHS was of those cancellations.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the total number of elective cancelled operations for the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, for 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25:
Year | Count of cancellations |
2022/23 | 684 |
2023/24 | 654 |
2024/25 | 600 |
Source: Cancelled Elective Operations Data, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancelled-elective-operations/cancelled-ops-data/
Note: this is for last-minute elective operations cancelled for non-clinical reasons, and excludes emergency and trauma cases.
No estimate has been made for the cost of these cancellations.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department holds data on how much notice was given to patients about the cancellation of their planned medical operation at (a) Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and (b) Blackpool Teaching Hospitals in the last three years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold data on how much notice was given to patients about the cancellation of their planned medical operations.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many medical samples were lost and required resubmission by the patient at (a) Lancashire and (b) Blackpool teaching hospitals in each of the last three years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the requested information. The Government is spending £600 million of capital this year on diagnostics, including funding all pathology networks to increase digital capabilities by March 2026, which will reduce unnecessary waits and the need for repeat tests.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
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 times for child and adolescent mental health services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know children and young people are not receiving the mental health care they need and that waits for mental health services are too long across England. We are determined to change that as part of our shift to prevention and earlier intervention, and in line with our Plan for Change.
Nationally, the Government is providing £7 million of funding to extend support for 24 Early Support Hubs that have a track record of helping thousands of young people in their community. We will also provide access to a specialist mental health professional in every school in England, and roll out Young Futures Hubs to provide open access mental health support for children and young people.
In addition, we plan to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services in England, to ease the pressure on the busy mental health services.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on the hospital admission rates at the Royal Preston Hospital for young people due to violent crime.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The number of hospital admissions for young people due to violent crime is published at a national level only, and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans her Department has to (a) expand and (b) improve autism services in (i) Lancashire and (ii) Preston for (A) adults and (B) children.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
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 services to support autistic people, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB advises that it is currently reviewing its all-age autism pathway, and is in the initial stages of completing consultations with system partners and stakeholders. The ICB is aiming to complete the review, and proposals for a future pathway for 2025/26, by the end of this calendar year. In addition to this work, the ICB is reviewing the service specifications in place for the keyworker team, specialist autism team, and forensic autism team with the local provider, to ensure that the commissioned offer reflects the current needs of their population.
Nationally, we are taking steps to improve autism services. NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for autism assessment services on 5 April 2023. These documents are intended to help the National Health Service improve autism assessment services, and improve the experience for adults and children who are going through an autism assessment. They also set out what support should be available before an assessment, and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism.
We are currently updating the Autism Act Statutory Guidance to support the NHS and local authorities to deliver improved outcomes for autistic people. This will include setting out what NHS organisations and local authorities must and should be doing to support autistic people.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her planned timetable is for publishing the revised NHS Accessible Information Standard.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
NHS England remains committed to publishing the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) as soon as possible, with the intention of publishing it within the first quarter of 2024/25. The standard is within the publication process, and NHS England are working to both progress the documentation through the publication approval process, as well as ensuring that, when published, the AIS and supporting documentation are available in accessible formats.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
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 ensure (a) blind, (b) partially sighted, (c) deaf and (d) hearing impaired patients receive (i) care and (ii) communications related to their heath in an accessible format; and if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of missed appointments due to (A) inaccessible and (B) missed communications.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Under the Equality Act (2010), health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people, including blind, partially sighted, deaf, and hearing impaired patients, are not disadvantaged. Since 2016, all National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers in England are required to comply with the Accessible Information Standard (AIS).
NHS England is responsible for the AIS, and have completed a review of the AIS to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss are met in health and care provision. The AIS review included input from individuals with lived experience and voluntary sector organisations for blind, partially sighted, deaf, and hearing impaired patients.
One of the aims of the review was to strengthen assurance of implementation of the AIS, and a self-assessment framework has been developed to support providers of NHS and social care services, to measure their performance against the AIS and develop improvement action plans to address gaps in implementation. The AIS self-assessment framework is designed to enable enhancements around assurance and allows organisations, commissioners, and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to judge performance and compliance.
NHS England will publish a revised AIS in due course. Following publication, NHS England will continue work to support its implementation with awareness raising, communication and engagement, and updated e-learning modules on the AIS to ensure NHS staff are better aware of the standard, and their roles and responsibilities in implementing it.
NHS England collects data on the total costs of missed appointments, but that data is not broken down sufficiently to enable us to make an estimate of appointments missed due to inaccessible or missed communications.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2024 to Question 11582 on MMR Vaccine: North West, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the lower uptake of MMR2 at five years; and what steps her Department is taking to increase the uptake of childhood vaccines.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
It is vitally important that everyone takes up the vaccinations to which they are entitled. Vaccination rates across the country are too low, particularly in some local areas, and we need a concerted effort to reach the 95% coverage, with two doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, required to provide population protection.
The Department works with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and NHS England to improve immunisation through diverse delivery methods, making getting vaccinated easier for all, including those in traditionally under-served groups. The UKHSA launched a new multi-media marketing campaign across England on 4 March 2024, to remind parents and carers of the risk of their children missing out on protection against serious diseases that are re-emerging in the country.
There have also been increased outreach efforts to make sure that communities with historically lower uptake are informed of the benefits of vaccines and have access to inclusive resources. For example, in the North West and the Midlands, National Health Service teams are using initiatives like roving clinics, extra vaccination sessions in schools, and community pharmacies to step up their efforts to get more children protected with the MMR vaccine.
The Government supports NHS programmes focused on improving coverage, including regional and national campaigns for polio, and a new targeted national MMR catch-up campaign for children aged six to 11 years old this year, extended to all those aged 11 to 25 years old in London, the West Midlands and the North West. Human papillomavirus infection vaccination catch-ups for adolescents are also taking place.
The NHS Vaccination strategy outlines plans to maximise convenience, with more vaccination services at locations that the public can easily access such as libraries, leisure centres, social clubs or sports grounds, family hubs, support services, and places of worship, or at local cultural and community events, with flexible opening hours and booking options.