Asked by: Michelle Welsh (Labour - Sherwood Forest)
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 reduce waiting lists for (a) appointments and (b) assessments for hearing services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cutting elective care waiting times, including for hearing services, is a key priority for this government. We have now exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra 2 million operations, scans, and appointments, having now delivered 4.6 million additional appointments.
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet the demand, including for audiology services such as hearing tests. Our Elective Reform Plan commits to transform and expand diagnostic services and speed up waiting times for tests.
NHS England is supporting provider organisations and integrated care boards (ICBs) who are the commissioners of audiology services to improve performance and reduce waiting lists for appointments and assessments for hearing services. This includes capital investment to upgrade audiology facilities in NHS Trusts, expanding audiology testing capacity via Community Diagnostic Centres, and direct support through a national audiology improvement collaborative.
Asked by: Michelle Welsh (Labour - Sherwood Forest)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of access to hearing services in rural areas.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS audiology services are locally commissioned, and the responsibility for prioritising primary care audiology lies with local NHS Service Commissioners. NHS England is supporting the integrated care boards (ICBs) to make informed decisions about the provision of audiology services so that they can provide consistent, high quality, and integrated care.
Asked by: Michelle Welsh (Labour - Sherwood Forest)
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 support for people leaving hospital and moving to a care home.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The statutory hospital discharge guidance sets out that people leaving hospital, including those who will be moving to a care home, should be supported throughout the discharge process and post discharge. The discharge process should be person-centred, strengths based, and driven by choice, dignity, and respect. Individuals should be supported to make fully informed decisions, in conjunction with their wider family or unpaid carers.
Local areas should have agreed protocols for collaborating with onward care providers regarding the individual’s hospital discharge through care transfer hubs, including agreed pathways for raising and resolving any concerns post-discharge.
In 2025/26, there is £9 billion available through the Better Care Fund. Integrated care boards and local authorities should jointly plan how to use this funding to meet local health and care needs, including after discharge.
Asked by: Michelle Welsh (Labour - Sherwood Forest)
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 tackle the NHS backlog for ADHD assessments in (a) Sherwood Forest and (b) Nottinghamshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) in England to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including assessments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
NHS England has established an ADHD taskforce which is working to bring together those with lived experience with experts from the National Health Service, education, charity, and justice sectors. The taskforce is working to get a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including timely and equitable access to services and support, with the final report expected in the summer.
In conjunction with the taskforce, NHS England has carried out detailed work to develop an ADHD data improvement plan to inform future service planning. NHS England has also conducted detailed work to understand the provider and commissioning landscape, capturing examples from ICBs who are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services. NHS England is using this information to support systems to tackle ADHD waiting lists and provide support to address people’s needs.
The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB advises that it is working with Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to review current waiting lists and develop an improvement plan to reduce waiting times. These improvements include streamlining the referral, triage and assessment processes and improving data quality. The current service pathway has been reviewed and options for improvement have been developed, these are being progressed locally during 2025 and aim to improve the pathway, including pre-assessment and post-assessment support.
Asked by: Michelle Welsh (Labour - Sherwood Forest)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the eligibility criteria for the covid-19 vaccination from Autumn 2025 to include people with severe lung conditions.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The independent Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises the Department on the approach to vaccination and immunisation programmes. The primary aim of the national COVID-19 vaccination programme remains the prevention of severe illness, involving hospitalisations and deaths, arising from COVID-19. On 13 November 2024, the JCVI published advice on the COVID-19 vaccination programme, covering vaccination in 2025 and spring 2026. This advice is available at the following link:
The Government is considering the JCVI’s advice for autumn 2025 carefully, and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Michelle Welsh (Labour - Sherwood Forest)
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 safety within maternity services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government continues to work with the National Health Service as it delivers its three-year plan for maternity and neonatal services. The plan sets out how the NHS will make maternity and neonatal care safer, more personalised, and more equitable for women, babies, and families.
As part of the delivery plan, an updated version of the ‘Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle’ is being rolled out across England, which is a package of interventions aimed to reduce stillbirths, neonatal brain injury, neonatal death, and preterm birth, as well as initiatives to reduce inequalities. Additionally, 14 Maternal Medicine Networks have been developed across England to ensure that women with chronic and acute medical problems related to pregnancy have access to specialist management and care.
Additional funding has also been provided for Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnerships to ensure local voices are used to inform decisions and services. All local leadership teams are taking part in a Perinatal Culture and Leadership Programme, helping them to develop and maintain a positive safety culture.
The Government is also currently piloting a training programme to help avoid brain injury in childbirth to improve safety for mothers and their babies. If successful, national rollout is expected to commence this year.
While good progress has been made, the Government recognises that there are real issues within maternity services. Whilst change will not happen overnight, we are determined to go further to ensure all women and babies receive the care they deserve, and we have committed to providing support to trusts failing on maternity care, recruit thousands of new midwives, and tackle the unacceptable inequalities that exist.
Asked by: Michelle Welsh (Labour - Sherwood Forest)
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 the number of dentistry practices accepting NHS patients in Sherwood Forest constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of 4 September 2024, there were four open dentistry practices in the Sherwood Forest constituency, three of which were showing as accepting ‘children aged 17 or under’, ‘adults 18 or over’, and ‘adults entitled to free dental care’.
This data is sourced from the Find a Dentist website, and is matched to constituencies based on the postcode data shown on the website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-Dentist