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 adequacy of levels of research into postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds health and care research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds clinical, public health and social care research and works in partnership with the NHS, universities, local government, other research funders, patients and the public. The NIHR welcomes proposals for research into a range of conditions, including postural tachycardia syndrome. Proposals can be made at the following link:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/get-involved/suggest-a-research-topic
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 discussions his Department has had with Integrated Care Boards on steps to improve access to care for people with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs), with oversight from NHS England, have a statutory responsibility to commission services which meet the needs of their local populations, including for those with PoTS.
We are investing in additional capacity to deliver appointments to help bring waiting lists and times down, including for those with PoTS. The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the specific productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the constitutional standard, that 92% of patients to wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment, by March 2029.
Additionally, the shifts outlined in our 10-Year Health Plan will free up hospital-based consultants’ time by shifting care from hospitals to communities, utilising digital technology to reduce administrative burdens, and promoting prevention to reduce the onset and severity of conditions that lead to hospital admissions. This includes expanding community-based services, employing artificial intelligence for productivity, developing integrated neighbourhood health teams, and investing in digital tools and data. These shifts will allow specialists to focus on more complex cases of PoTS, enabling earlier identification and management, and improved patient outcomes.
By shifting care into the community through Neighbourhood Health Services, promoting integrated, multidisciplinary models of care, and expanding the use of personalised care plans, as outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will ensure that people with conditions like PoTS receive more timely and accessible support closer to home.
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 discussions his Department has had with Integrated Care Boards on the time it takes to be diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs), with oversight from NHS England, have a statutory responsibility to commission services which meet the needs of their local populations, including for those with PoTS.
We are investing in additional capacity to deliver appointments to help bring waiting lists and times down, including for those with PoTS. The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the specific productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the constitutional standard, that 92% of patients to wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment, by March 2029.
Additionally, the shifts outlined in our 10-Year Health Plan will free up hospital-based consultants’ time by shifting care from hospitals to communities, utilising digital technology to reduce administrative burdens, and promoting prevention to reduce the onset and severity of conditions that lead to hospital admissions. This includes expanding community-based services, employing artificial intelligence for productivity, developing integrated neighbourhood health teams, and investing in digital tools and data. These shifts will allow specialists to focus on more complex cases of PoTS, enabling earlier identification and management, and improved patient outcomes.
By shifting care into the community through Neighbourhood Health Services, promoting integrated, multidisciplinary models of care, and expanding the use of personalised care plans, as outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will ensure that people with conditions like PoTS receive more timely and accessible support closer to home.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2025 to Question 73856 on Long Covid: Health Services, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of access to long Covid care for people in (a) Newcastle upon Tyne and (b) North Tyneside.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning specialist services for long COVID that meet the needs of their population, subject to local prioritisation and funding. For Newcastle upon Tyne and North Tyneside, this is the North East and North Cumbria ICB.
The ICB is currently carrying out a review of long COVID services across the region which is expected to be completed by the end of March 2026.
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 potential impact of the 10 Year Health Plan on people experiencing multiple forms of (a) social and (b) economic exclusion.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Social justice runs through our 10-Year Health Plan, which sets out a reimagined service designed to tackle inequalities in both access and outcomes, as well as to give everyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, the means to engage with it on their own terms. We know everyday life poses greater health risks to the most disadvantaged in society, and that the current model of care works least well for those who already experience disadvantage and are far more likely to have complex needs.
We have undertaken an impact statement and an equalities impact assessment for the 10-Year Health Plan and these will be published shortly.
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, if he will make an estimate of how many and what proportion of people waited less than 6 weeks for their first treatment for talking therapies in (a) Newcastle upon Tyne and (b) North Tyneside in May 2025; and if he will make an estimate of how many and what proportion of first treatments were (i) a session with a therapist and (ii) guided self-help.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of referrals to NHS Talking Therapies with their first treatment in May 2025, and the number and percentage of referrals with first treatment within six weeks of the referral being received, for Newcastle upon Tyne and North Tyneside:
Local authority | All referrals with first treatment in May 2025 | Referrals with first treatment within six weeks of referral being received | |
Number of referrals | Number of referrals | Percentage of total | |
Newcastle upon Tyne | 555 | 515 | 93% |
North Tyneside | 320 | 305 | 95% |
Source: NHS Talking Therapies dataset, NHS England.
In addition, the following table shows a breakdown of these referrals by the specific therapy provided, in total and as a percentage of total referrals:
All referrals with first treatment in May 2025 | Referrals with first treatment with therapist | Referrals with first treatment of guided self help | |||
Local authority | Number of referrals | Number of referrals | Percentage of total | Number of referrals | Percentage of total |
Newcastle upon Tyne | 555 | 545 | 98% | 10 | 2% |
North Tyneside | 320 | 130 | 40% | 190 | 60% |
Source: NHS Talking Therapies dataset, NHS England
Notes:
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, pursuant to the Answer of 10 July 2025 to Question 62460 on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Health Services, whether a date has been set for the showcase event for post-acute infection conditions.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
A provisional date of 6 November 2025 has been set for the showcase event for post-acute infection conditions. The event looks to encourage researchers to join the myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and long COVID research field, to enable new collaborations across specialties and disciplines to stimulate further vital research.
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 potential impact of the 10 Year Health Plan on victims of (a) modern slavery and (b) human trafficking.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
When developing the 10-Year Health Plan, workshops were held for people experiencing multiple forms of social and economic exclusion played a large part in it, including victims of modern slavery.
As part of the recommendations from the review into modern slavery risk in NHS supply chains in December 2023, it was recommended to lay regulations with a view to eradicate modern slavery, supporting the amendment of Section 12zc in the NHS Act 2006.
The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England in collaboration have developed detailed guidance to support the embedding of the regulations and policies throughout a procurement exercise. This ensures alignment of procurements conducted under all legal regimes including the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Procurement Act 2023 and the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.
A public consultation for the content and approach of those regulations was launched in Autumn 2024. A Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) was laid in both Houses of Parliament on 21 November 2024 to launch the consultation, and is available at the following link:
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-11-21/hcws245.
As set out in the WMS, the draft regulations and guidance were published alongside the consultation. The consultation closed in February 2025 and the Department published a consultation report in June, which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tackling-modern-slavery-in-nhs-procurement-proposed-regulations-and-guidance/outcome/tackling-modern-slavery-in-nhs-procurement-government-response. It is planned to lay the regulations in the autumn, to come into force in the spring/summer of 2026.
The published guidance is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tackling-modern-slavery-in-nhs-procurement-proposed-regulations-and-guidance. This refers to a risk assessment tool that NHS England have developed based on the six characteristics to help assess modern slavery risks as set out in the Public Procurement Policy Note on identifying and managing modern slavery risks. These are: industry type; nature of the workforce; supplier location; context in which the supplier operates; commodity type; and business/supply chain model.
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 ensure equitable (a) access to long covid services, (b) care outcomes and (c) patient experience for people with long covid.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since April 2024, the commissioning of post-COVID, or long COVID, services have been the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs), following the closure of the national post-COVID programme.
ICBs are responsible for commissioning specialist services for long COVID that meet the needs of their population, subject to local prioritisation and funding. In the commissioning of services, commissioners should take account of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance, commissioning guidance, and other best practice.
NHS England has published commissioning guidance for post-COVID services, which sets out the commissioning, service requirements, and oversight of post-COVID services by ICBs in England for adults, and children and young people. It outlines the elements that post-COVID services should include and the principles of care for long COVID. The guidance also sets out that a proportion of long COVID services funding should be allocated to tackling health inequalities. The commissioning guidance is available at the following link:
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, how many meetings he has had with the Royal College of Psychiatrists to discuss the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill since 11 November 2024.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is neutral on the matter of assisted dying and the passage of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
My Rt. Hon. friend, the Secretary of State of Health and Social Care, has not had any meetings to discuss the Bill with any stakeholders, given the Government’s neutral position. The Bill, as it stands, contains various duties to consult relevant stakeholders, to consider how the operation of the Bill may impact different groups.
Should Parliament decide to pass the Bill, the Government recognises that the experience of key stakeholders will be integral to the design and delivery of an assisted dying service.