Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of support available to adults with complex mental health needs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Through the NHS Long Term plan, the Government is providing record levels of investment, and increasing the mental health workforce, to expand and transform National Health Service mental health services in England. Almost £16 billion was invested into mental health in 2022/23, enabling 3.6 million people to be in contact with mental health services.
As part of this, we’re set to reach nearly £1 billion of additional funding invested by 2023/24, to transform community mental health services. This is the largest area of investment within the NHS Long Term Plan for mental health, aiming to support more people with the care that is most appropriate for their needs, and that is integrated between primary and community mental health services. Over the last full financial year, 2022/23, 288,000 adults and older adults with severe mental illness were able to access mental health support through these new models.
The safety and care of mental health patients is of paramount importance. Those with complex mental health needs in an inpatient mental health facility deserve to receive safe, high-quality care, and to be treated with dignity and respect.
NHS England has established a Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism Inpatient Quality Transformation Programme. This programme is working to support cultural change and a new model of care for the future, across all NHS-funded mental health, learning disability, and autism inpatient settings.
The ambition is to increasingly shift mental healthcare towards early intervention and prevention, with treatment primarily delivered in the community. This includes increasing the number of personalised care roles, such as peer support workers, with expansion focused on mental health services where need is greatest.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with NHS trusts in the Liverpool City Region on the adequacy of mental health provision for adults.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England is responsible for supporting integrated care boards (ICBs), National Health Service providers, and their local partners, in delivering their plans. The relevant NHS England regional team holds the primary relationship with ICBs and their partner NHS providers.
No such discussions have taken place within the last 12 months, between my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and NHS trusts in the Liverpool City Region, on the adequacy of mental health provision for adults. In June 2023 ministers met with ICBs to discuss the Right Care, Right Person policy, which included representation from the Liverpool city region.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 bed capacity in mental health care; and what steps his Department is taking to increase that capacity.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No such specific assessment has been made. It is the responsibility of commissioners to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population.
We are supporting integrated care boards to expand mental health services through the NHS Long Term Plan, which commits to increasing investment into mental health services by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24. This will see a significant expansion in community and crisis mental health services to help people get quicker access to the care they need and prevent avoidable deterioration and hospital admission, so that beds are available for those who need them.
On 23 January 2023 we set out detail on how £150 million of capital investment, first announced at the 2021 Spending Review, will be used to build mental health urgent and emergency care infrastructure. This includes funding for 150 wider capital schemes to provide and improve crisis cafes, crisis houses, mental health urgent care centres, health-based places of safety and broader improvements to crisis lines and emergency departments. This will mean care can be provided in more appropriate spaces for those in need and will reduce pressure on wider parts of the system.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 help ensure that families which use infant formula and are facing food poverty are able to access enough formula to safely feed their families.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Healthy Start scheme can be used to buy or towards the cost of, fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried and tinned pulses, plain cow’s milk and infant formula.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 the levels of patient awareness of the MR-Guided Focussed Ultrasound for Essential Tremor centre in Liverpool; and what steps he is taking to inform patients that this treatment is available.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
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 times for NHS treatment.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
In the Autumn Statement we committed an additional £3.3 billion per year until 2024-25 to respond to significant pressures facing the NHS. This is on top of the £8 billion already committed until 2025 to reduce waiting times. This funding will increase capacity to get patients diagnosed and treated quickly, by creating new Community Diagnostic Centres and Surgical Hubs and prioritising the patients waiting longest.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to resolve shortages of Hormone Replacement Therapy products.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
There are over 70 hormone replacement therapy (HRT) products available in the United Kingdom and while most remain in good supply, a range of factors has led to supply issues with a limited number of products.
We have been working with suppliers and other stakeholders such as the National Health Service and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to maintain overall HRT supply, including expediting resupply dates of the disrupted products. We have continued to engage with suppliers, wholesalers and community pharmacists to discuss any challenges and ensure that supply meets demand. We are encouraged by suppliers’ plans to further build capacity such as a new production facility for Oestrogel and plans to introduce new products to the UK.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost of smoking has been to the public purse in England in each year since 2019.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
The information requested is not collected centrally. However, the independent ‘The Khan review: making smoking obsolete’ estimated that the annual of cost of smoking to society is £17 billion.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the Government will fund the next Tobacco Control Plan for England.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
No decisions have been made on the funding for a new Tobacco Control Plan for England. We are currently considering the recommendations made in the independent ‘The Khan review: making smoking obsolete’ and further information will be available in due course.
Asked by: Mick Whitley (Labour - Birkenhead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS podiatry vacancies there were in Birkenhead as of 11 October 2022; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of these vacancies on patient treatment for diabetic foot complications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The information requested is not held centrally.