Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 maximise NHS capacity.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The National Health Service is expanding the use of virtual wards to safely care for patients at home and the use of independent sector capacity. Patient discharges are being maximised, including the provision of updated hospital discharge guidance for local areas.
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ is investing £8 billion in the recovery of elective services over the next three years. We are allocating £2.3 billion to increase the number of community diagnostic centres to 160 by March 2025 and £1.5 billion to support elective recovery, including the ongoing deployment of surgical hubs. This will deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million more checks, scans and procedures and 30% more elective activity by 2024/25.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 expand the delivery of personalised healthcare.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has committed to increasing personalisation and patient choice, with the aim of four million people benefiting from personalised care by March 2024. The My Planned Care platform has been launched to provide personalised information on waiting times by specialty and region. We are also ensuring patients are consistently offered choice on their own care at the point of referral and to patients with the longest waiting times through a national hub model. Perioperative care co-ordination teams have been established to develop personalised plans.
In 2019, the Personalised Care Group published the action plan ‘Universal Personalised Care: Implementing the Comprehensive Model’, which brings together six components: personal health budgets; personalised care and support; enabling choice; social prescribing and community-based support; supported self-management; and shared decision making.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 tackle the backlog in elective care following the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
In February 2022, the National Health Service published ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ which sets out how the NHS will recover and expand elective services over the next three years. We are investing more than £8 billion for elective care from 2022 to 2025, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund made available to systems in 2021 to increase elective activity and tackle long waiting lists. This funding aims to deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million more checks, scans and procedures and by 2024/25, deliver 30% more elective activity compared to pre-pandemic levels.
The 2021 Spending Review announced a further £5.9 billion to support the recovery of elective services, diagnostics and technology. This includes £2.3 billion to establish 160 community diagnostic centres by 2025 to provide additional capacity for clinical tests, such as magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound and computerised tomography scans.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 effect of fluoridation on children’s oral health.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department recently published ‘Water fluoridation: health monitoring report for England 2022’ which assessed the impact of water fluoridation on children’s oral health. The report found that in areas with a fluoridation scheme in place, five year olds were less likely to experience tooth decay and children and young people were less likely to be admitted to hospital to have decayed teeth removed than in areas without a scheme. These effects were seen at all levels of deprivation with children and young people in the most deprived areas benefitting the most. In the most deprived 20% of areas, the risk of experiencing tooth decay was found to be 25% lower in areas with a fluoridation scheme than in areas without.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 support patients with rare diseases.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The 2021 UK Rare Diseases Framework set out four priorities for improving the lives of people living with rare diseases: helping patients receive a faster final diagnosis; increasing awareness of rare diseases among healthcare professionals; better coordination of care; and improving access to specialist care, treatments and drugs. Each United Kingdom nation has committed to publishing an action plan by the end of 2022, outlining how the Framework will be implemented. England’s Rare Diseases Action Plan was published on 28 February 2022. The Plan was developed with partners across the health system and the rare disease community, setting out 16 actions for the four priorities. A second annual Action Plan will be published in 2023 to report on progress and proposing updated and new actions.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 that Ukrainians arriving in the UK are able to access healthcare services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government has waived the Immigration Health Surcharge for those arriving in the United Kingdom on the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme and the Ukrainian Family Visa Scheme to ensure all Ukrainian nationals have free access to healthcare. The Department is working with NHS England and NHS Improvement and other Government Departments to ensure that Ukrainian nationals are signposted to registering with general practitioners.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 merits for business costs of temporarily suspending regulations on products high in fat, salt and sugar.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The impact assessments for restricting promotions and further advertising restrictions for products high in fat, salt or sugar show a positive net present value for each policy, showing that the health benefits outweigh the costs to business and the Government. Any pause to the regulations would delay the health benefits we expect these policies to deliver.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken in response to the Independent Hospital Food Review, published in October 2020, to enable easier access by NHS staff to more nutritious food.
Answered by Maggie Throup
A three-year plan ‘Great Food, Good Health’, led by NHS England and NHS Improvement, is implementing the remaining recommendations from the Hospital Food Review. NHS England and NHS Improvement have established an expert group of clinicians, dieticians and caterers and revised NHS Food and Drink Standards have been developed. The Standards will reflect that there should be an improved consistency of healthy and nutritious, hot and cold food and drink, 24 hours a day in healthcare sites and how this could be provided.
The Health and Care Bill includes a clause which permits the adoption of secondary legislation to implement national standards for food and drink in National Health Service hospitals.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 ensure that delivery of day two covid-19 PCR tests are not affected by the disruption to postal services over the Christmas period.
Answered by Maggie Throup
For day two polymerase chain reaction tests, the UK Health Security Agency worked with delivery partners to ensure that this service was available over the Christmas period. Contingency plans were also in place to cope with any adverse weather conditions. Where tests are purchased from private test providers, the delivery of the service, including appropriate logistics and contingency planning around disruption, is the responsibility of the private provider.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 extend the roll out of the HPV vaccine to those aged up to 16 years old.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Girls and women born after 1 September 1991 and boys born after 1 September 2006 are already eligible for the vaccine until the age of 25 years old and can access a ‘catch-up’ vaccination through their general practitioner.