Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
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 a hearing check is added to the dementia component of the NHS health check.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department currently has no plans to add a hearing check to the dementia component of the NHS Health Check. In 2019, an Expert Advisory Panel advised against including a hearing assessment as part of an NHS Health Check. This advice was informed by the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) which, following a review of evidence, recommended against screening for hearing loss. The UKNSC’s recommendation remained unchanged following an update to this review in 2021.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Written Statement of 24 January on Government Action on Major Conditions and Diseases, HCWS514, what engagement his Department plans to have with the relevant cancer-related stakeholders on the Major Conditions Strategy.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Major Conditions Strategy will look at cancer, covering the patient pathway from prevention, through treatment, to follow-up care. The strategy will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes and experience for cancer patients.
The Major Conditions Strategy will draw on previous work on cancer, including over 5,000 submissions provided to the Department as part of our Call for Evidence last year. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders, citizens, and the National Health Service in coming weeks to identify actions for the strategy that will have the most impact.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Written Statement of 24 January on Government Action on Major Conditions and Diseases, HCWS514, how the Major Conditions Strategy will tackle waiting times for cancer (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Major Conditions Strategy will look at cancer, covering the patient pathway from prevention, through treatment, to follow-up care. The strategy will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes and experience for cancer patients.
The Major Conditions Strategy will draw on previous work on cancer, including over 5,000 submissions provided to the Department as part of our Call for Evidence last year. We will continue to work closely with stakeholders, citizens, and the National Health Service in coming weeks to identify actions for the strategy that will have the most impact.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department will provide for the suicide prevention strategy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We have committed to publish a new national suicide prevention strategy later this year and are engaging widely across the sector to understand what further action we can take to reduce suicides amongst different groups. We will publish the new strategy this year.
We are already investing an additional £57 million in suicide prevention from 2019/20 to 2023/24 through the NHS Long Term Plan. Through this, all areas of the country are seeing investment to support local suicide prevention plans and the development of suicide bereavement services.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to increase NHS staff’s access to protected time for research.
Answered by Will Quince
The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has written to the Secretary of State with the findings of its inquiry into clinical academics in the National Health Service. The Government will respond to the Committee’s recommendations in due course, including plans for how NHS Trusts and hospitals will meet the statutory commitment to allow consultants to spend an average of 25% of their time on supporting professional activities. Work is ongoing to deliver the Vision for the Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery which is aiming to create a research positive culture across the NHS and a plan to develop a sustainable and supported research workforce for all healthcare and research staff from all professional backgrounds.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the recommendations of the UK National Screening Committee, if he will set a timeline for implementing a targeted lung screening programme.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department acknowledges the UK National Screening Committee recommendation, from their meeting in June 2022, for a national targeted lung cancer screening programme and is considering this with NHS England.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken recent steps to improve the coordination between medical professionals on the provision of medical care after early medical abortions for children and young people aged between 13 and 17.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department continues to work with NHS England, the Care Quality Commission, Royal Colleges and abortion providers to ensure that children and young people have consistent and high-quality care before and after abortion services, including early medical abortion services.
National safeguarding guidance published by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) enables providers to continue to embed safeguarding principles for those aged 18 years old and under accessing early medical abortion services and supports the need for effective co-ordination between clinicians providing medical care.
We will set out expectations around implementation of the RCPCH guidance, including timeframes, in due course.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken recent steps to improve the coordination between medical professionals on the provision of medical care before early medical abortions for children and young people aged between 13 and 17.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department continues to work with NHS England, the Care Quality Commission, Royal Colleges and abortion providers to ensure that children and young people have consistent and high-quality care before and after abortion services, including early medical abortion services.
National safeguarding guidance published by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) enables providers to continue to embed safeguarding principles for those aged 18 years old and under accessing early medical abortion services and supports the need for effective co-ordination between clinicians providing medical care.
We will set out expectations around implementation of the RCPCH guidance, including timeframes, in due course.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
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 increase the uptake of breast cancer screening in North Tyneside constituency.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has invested £10 million into the National Health Service to establish more breast screening units across the country.
NHS Breast Screening Providers are also being encouraged to work with cancer alliances, primary care networks, NHS England regional teams and the voluntary sector, to bring together work to promote uptake of breast screening and take action to ensure as many people as possible can access services.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)
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 access to NHS dental services in North Tyneside constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England asked dental practices to return to full delivery of contracted activity from July 2022, including in North Tyneside. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in North Tyneside.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.