Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of (a) the capacity of Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services to meet patient demand across England, (b) the estimated number of treatments missed due to delayed transport, and (c) the estimated cost to the NHS of appointments missed for this reason.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given on 1 June to Question 1646. The Department has not made a specific assessment of the capacity of non-emergency patient transport services to meet patient demand across England. Data on the number of treatments or appointments missed due to delayed transport, and the associated cost to the National Health Service, is not held centrally.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what timetable the UK National Screening Committee is working to for the EquipoISE project; and whether the inclusion of metachromatic leukodystrophy in a multi-condition in-service evaluation has been confirmed.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 29 April in response to Question 124565.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
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 compatibility of using BMI threshold criteria for joint replacement surgery and the Government's commitment to reducing health inequalities in regions with (a) lower life expectancy and (b) higher rates of obesity and musculoskeletal conditions.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
It is the responsibility of individual integrated care boards to determine policies for their local area, including that of Body Mass Index (BMI) threshold criteria for joint replacement surgery. As with all surgery, BMI should be considered as one part of a holistic, personalised perioperative evaluation of the risks versus clinical need for joint replacement surgery of an individual patient.
The National Health Service and local government provide a range of services to help people living with overweight and obesity to manage their weight, which may include individuals waiting for joint replacement surgery, where they meet other eligibility criteria. These range from multi-component behavioural programmes, such as the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme, to specialist services for those living with severe obesity and associated co-morbidities.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
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 the (a) data and (b) metrics used in musculoskeletal services.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Data is fundamental to the effective delivery of health services, underpinning service improvement and ultimately improving outcomes for patients.
Musculoskeletal (MSK) data for secondary care, including orthopaedics, spinal services, paediatric orthopaedics, and adult and paediatric rheumatology are regularly reviewed by the NHS England Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) specialty programmes in NHS England, and work is undertaken with hospitals and within NHS England to make improvements where they are identified.
The Joint Work and Health Directorate is also funding GIRFT to deliver the MSK Community Delivery Programme, which aims to improve MSK community services, reduce waiting lists, improve outcomes, and address health-related barriers to work.
The programme has a focus on strengthening MSK leadership, improving data recording and submission, supporting digitally enabled services, and using data and benchmarking to drive performance improvement.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
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 ensure the quality and volume of musculoskeletal content in medical training match the prevalence of these conditions in the population.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The standard of training for doctors is the responsibility of the General Medical Council (GMC). The GMC sets the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level, and approves courses and medical schools to write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet these standards.
The curricula for postgraduate training are set by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges for foundation training, and by the relevant individual royal colleges and faculties for specialty training. The GMC approves curricula and assessment systems for each training programme.
Whilst not all curricula necessarily highlight a specific condition, they all emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.
Curricula across the specialties where doctors in training might regularly treat patients with musculoskeletal conditions will contain competencies relating to understanding and identifying these conditions and their symptoms.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on writing to households who are eligible but not registered for the NHS Healthy Start programme; and what his Department's planned timeline is for completing that communication.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), who delivers the scheme on behalf of the Department, has created a public toolkit specifically for retailers, inclusive of independent shopkeepers and convenience store staff, to help them promote the scheme to shoppers.
The toolkit is regularly updated and contains a range of materials, including point of sale stickers, posters, banners, digital screens, and social media content featuring “shop with your NHS Healthy Start card here” messaging, and has so far received more than 2,000 views. Retailers can also find out more about the scheme and how it works on the NHSBSA website, at the following link:
Retailers can also sign up for regular stakeholder newsletters.
The Department continues to work with the NHSBSA on ways to encourage those eligible to apply for the Healthy Start Scheme to apply.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the NHS Business Services Authority is taking to ensure independent shopkeepers and convenience store staff (a) are aware of NHS Healthy Start cards and (b) enable all eligible families to use their cards in these stores.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), who delivers the scheme on behalf of the Department, has created a public toolkit specifically for retailers, inclusive of independent shopkeepers and convenience store staff, to help them promote the scheme to shoppers.
The toolkit is regularly updated and contains a range of materials, including point of sale stickers, posters, banners, digital screens, and social media content featuring “shop with your NHS Healthy Start card here” messaging, and has so far received more than 2,000 views. Retailers can also find out more about the scheme and how it works on the NHSBSA website, at the following link:
Retailers can also sign up for regular stakeholder newsletters.
The Department continues to work with the NHSBSA on ways to encourage those eligible to apply for the Healthy Start Scheme to apply.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
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 increase the proportion of patients receiving treatment within 18 weeks of referral.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is 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 (RTT).
As a first step in achieving this, we have delivered against the interim target that 65% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks by March 2026. As of March 2026, the waiting list has reduced by over 515,000 since the Government came into office, and performance against the RTT standard has improved by 6.4%, reaching 65.3%. This is despite 37.2 million referrals onto the waiting list over the same period.
This progress has been made by delivering more appointments, investing in modernisation, reforming and simplifying pathways, increasing surgical and diagnostic capacity, and providing patients with faster and more convenient access to care.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the proportion of patients receiving treatment within 18 weeks of referral in (a) Newcastle upon Tyne and (b) North Tyneside.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
At the end of March 2026, the NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board reported that the proportion of patients on the waiting list waiting within 18 weeks was 72.3% compared to 70.2% in March 2025.
The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust reported that 72.5% of its waiting list was waiting within 18 weeks compared to 72.4% in March 2025.
Nationally, at the end of March 2026, the proportion of the waiting list waiting within 18 weeks was 65.3%.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made on negotiating the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework for 2026/27.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
In 2025/26, funding for the core community pharmacy contractual framework was increased to £3.1 billion. This represented the largest uplift in funding of any part of the National Health Service at the time, over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26.
The Department’s consultation with Community Pharmacy England on any proposed changes to reimbursement and remuneration of pharmacy contractors for 2026/27 began on 25 February. We will provide an update once this consultation has concluded.