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Written Question
Pharmacy
Wednesday 7th September 2022

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to help support community pharmacists.

Answered by James Morris

The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) commits £2.592 billion in each of the five financial years between 2019 and 2024 to community pharmacy. It introduces plans to develop new services and expand the role of community pharmacy in prevention, urgent care and medicines safety. Negotiations on what the sector will deliver through the CPCF in 2022/23 are ongoing.


Written Question
NHS Trusts: Standards
Wednesday 7th September 2022

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

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 performance of NHS trusts demonstrated by the latest data available; and what steps he is taking to help support NHS trusts which are not meeting national targets set for England.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The Department works with NHS England to regularly assesses the performance of National Health Service trusts against national performance standards. NHS England provides targeted support to hospitals facing the greatest delays in the handover of ambulance patients to identify short and longer-term interventions. NHS England also supports those trusts most at risk of not meeting the elective recovery ambitions set out in the ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’.


Written Question
NHS: Staff
Monday 25th July 2022

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to (a) recruit more NHS staff, (b) ensure that requests of medical staff to work overnight shifts are reasonable and (c) reduce appointment backlogs.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

Local National Health Service trusts have responsibility for ensuring appropriate staffing levels and recruiting the number of health professionals required to meet local service need. We have committed to recruiting NHS staff and investing in the workforce. As of April 2022, there were more than 9,600 additional nurses and 4,000 doctors working in NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups. We are currently on schedule to meet the commitment for a further 50,000 nurses. We have established a programme to improve retention and support return to practice, invest in and diversify the training pipeline and ethically recruit internationally.

Eligible new and continuing nursing students on pre-registration courses at English universities will also receive an additional grant of £5,000 for each year of their course. Further funding of up to £3,000 is available for costs such as childcare or to encourage recruitment in specific specialisms. The NHS has also established a People Recovery Task Force to provide assurance on the safety and wellbeing of staff. However, it is the responsibility of individual employers to ensure that requests for medical staff to work overnight are reasonable.

Through the ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, we have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to address waiting times in elective services. This is in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund made available to systems in 2021/22.


Written Question
General Practitioners: Rural Areas
Friday 22nd July 2022

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

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 shortage of GPs in rural areas; and what assessment his Department has made of the impact of that shortage on the quality of services that patients receive.

Answered by James Morris

In 2016, we launched the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme which provides a one-off financial incentive of £20,000 to attract doctors to train in locations where there have been challenges to recruitment, including many rural areas. In 2021, 550 places were available through the Scheme and following additional Government investment, there are 800 places available in 2022.

The general practice workforce also consists of other health professionals who can respond to the needs of patients, including in rural areas. We are diversifying the general practice workforce, including recruiting 26,000 more primary care staff, to ensure the appropriate range of skills is available in general practice to deliver high quality patient care.


Written Question
Surgery: Wiltshire
Wednesday 20th July 2022

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

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 average waiting time for an operation in Wiltshire; and what steps he is taking to tackle healthcare backlogs caused by the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

No specific estimate has been made as average waiting times for operations is not collected at county level. The Department and NHS England meet regularly with National Health Service trusts to discuss waiting lists for planned treatment. This includes assessing current progress on addressing waiting times and sharing advice to deliver on the targets in the ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’.


Written Question
Dental Services: Wiltshire
Tuesday 19th July 2022

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

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 improve access to NHS Dental Care Services in Wiltshire.

Answered by James Morris

From July 2022, NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked practices to deliver 100% of contracted units of dental activity and 100% of units of orthodontic activity to improve access for patients safely. An additional £50 million for National Health Service dentistry was allocated for the final quarter of 2021/22 to support the provision of urgent care to patients. Of this funding, £4,726,000 was made available to the South West region, including Wiltshire.

The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with stakeholders, including the British Dental Association, on improvements to the NHS dental system to improve access, including in Wiltshire.


Written Question
General Practitioners: Standards
Tuesday 19th July 2022

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

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 effectiveness of the NHS England blueprint in respect of improving access to GP appointments; and what guidance his Department has issued on the steps that patients can take in the event they are dissatisfied with the quality of the service that they receive from their GP.

Answered by James Morris

The Department is working with NHS England and NHS Improvement and others to improve access to general practitioner (GP) appointments for patients. In May 2022, there were on average 1.31 million general practice appointments per working day, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations - a 9% increase from May 2019. NHS England and NHS Improvement are continuing to provide structured support to practices working in the most challenging circumstances via the Access Improvement Programme.

Practices can provide patients with details of the complaints process. Patients can also raise concerns with the local commissioner, NHS England and NHS Improvement or with the local Healthwatch, the independent consumer champion for health and social care.


Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 05 May 2020
Oral Answers to Questions

Speech Link

View all Michelle Donelan (Con - Chippenham) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions

Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 05 May 2020
Oral Answers to Questions

Speech Link

View all Michelle Donelan (Con - Chippenham) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions

Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 05 May 2020
Oral Answers to Questions

Speech Link

View all Michelle Donelan (Con - Chippenham) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions