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Written Question
Nurses: Resignations
Thursday 21st November 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will commission a review of the reasons that registered nurses have left the NHS in the past 10 years.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has no specific plans at present to commission further research on reasons why National Health Service registered nurses leave their roles. We have already commissioned research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to both evaluate the impact of the programme to have 50,000 more nurses in the NHS in England by 2024, and to understand factors influencing later career NHS nurse retention. Both will encompass elements of the drivers of retention of nurses in the NHS, with the former having already produced published research on push and pull factors in nursing careers, which is available at the following link:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020748924002219?via%3Dihub

Summaries of the scope of the NIHR’s work are available at the following two links:

https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR203842

https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR205962

Written Question
Patients: Homelessness
Wednesday 20th November 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)

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 effectiveness of its guidance on Discharging people at risk of or experiencing homelessness published with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 26 January 2024.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 28 October 2024 to Question 10124.

Written Question
Patients: Homelessness
Wednesday 20th November 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number of homeless people discharged from hospital to the street and (b) average readmission rates of people discharged from hospital to the street in the last (i) three months, (ii) six months and (iii) 12 months.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 29 October 2024 to Question 10122.

Written Question
Patients: Homelessness
Monday 18th November 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)

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 homeless people are discharged safely from hospital.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have published guidance and supporting materials for health and care staff on discharging people at risk of, or experiencing homelessness. This ensures that every health and care interaction with a homeless person acts as an opportunity to provide support and signposting, with the aim of ending rough sleeping. The Department of Health and Social Care continues to work with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on the development of the Government’s plans for social and affordable housing. Further information on the published guidance and supporting materials for health and care staff on discharging people at risk of, or experiencing homelessness, is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/discharging-people-at-risk-of-or-experiencing-homelessness/discharging-people-at-risk-of-or-experiencing-homelessness

Written Question
Palliative Care: Runcorn and Helsby
Monday 18th November 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)

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 palliative and end of life care in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Palliative care services are included in the list of services that integrated care boards (ICBs), including the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB, which covers the Runcorn and Helsby constituency, must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.

I recently met NHS England to discuss how to reduce inequalities and variation in access to, and the quality of, palliative and end of life care. Additionally, we have committed to develop a 10-Year Health Plan, to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future, and as part of this we will carefully be considering policies, including those that impact people with palliative and end of life care needs, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our stakeholders, as we develop the plan. More information about how they can input into the 10-Year Health Plan is available at the following link:

https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/

Written Question
Mental Health Services: Children
Monday 18th November 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)

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 children's mental health services in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

It is unacceptable that too many children and young people are not receiving the mental health care they need, and we know that waits for mental health services are far too long, including in areas such as the Runcorn and Helsby constituency. That is why we will recruit 8,500 additional mental health workers across both adult, and children and young people’s mental health services.

The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Education and NHS England to consider how to deliver our commitment of providing access to a specialist mental health professional in every school. Alongside this we are working towards rolling out Young Futures hubs in every community, offering open access mental health services for young people.

Written Question
Carers: Runcorn and Helsby
Thursday 14th November 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)

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 unpaid carers in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The 2021 Census found that there are approximately 4.7 million people of all ages in England who said they provided unpaid care. In the Runcorn and Helsby constituency, the Census showed that there were approximately 10,000 people of all ages who said they provided unpaid care.

Following the budget announcement on 31 October 2024, the Government announced that from April 2025 it will increase the Carer's Allowance weekly earnings limit from £151 a week to £196, which is the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage. This means carers can earn up to £10,000 a year whilst still retaining Carer's Allowance; this is approximately an additional £2,000 a year and represents the largest increase in the earnings limit since Carer’s Allowance was introduced in 1976.

This will reduce work disincentives for those who are able to combine their family caring responsibilities with some paid work.

Written Question
Podiatry: Runcorn and Helsby
Tuesday 12th November 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)

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 estimate of the average waiting time for podiatry appointments in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Podiatry services are commissioned locally. In Runcorn and Helsby, podiatry services are provided by Halton Podiatry hosted by Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. The average wait for podiatry services is 18 weeks.

Written Question
Patients: Homelessness
Tuesday 29th October 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) number of people experiencing homelessness discharged from hospital to the street and (b) the readmission rates of people discharged from hospital to the street.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

There is currently no available data to identify the number of patients experiencing homelessness who are discharged to the street or equivalent, or to accurately measure readmission rates. We can make an assessment of the number of admissions where a patient has been recorded as being homeless at the point of admission through the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). The following table shows the count of Finished Admission Episodes (FAEs) where the patient was recorded as being homeless at the point of admission, for the period of 2019/20 to 2023/24, in English National Health Service Hospitals and in English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector:

Year

FAEs

2019/20

28,027

2020/21

19,963

2021/22

17,797

2022/23

21,652

2023/24

29,204

Notes:

  1. an FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider, and is counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes, however they do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period;
  2. homeless can be defined in HES when RESGOR_ONS are 'U', where U means no fixed abode, or DIAG_4_CONCAT like 'Z590;
  3. regarding the number of episodes in which the patient had a relevant primary or secondary diagnosis code that was recorded in any of the 20, or 14 from 2002/03 to 2006/07, and seven prior to 2002/03, primary and secondary diagnosis fields in a HES record, note that each episode is only counted once, even if the diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record;
  4. for ICD-10 coding, Z590 means homelessness, a non-billable, non-specific code for problems related to housing and economic circumstances;
  5. the regional geography of the Government Office Region’s (GOR) area of residence of the patient, derived in HES from the patient's postcode, and despite GOR having closed on 31 March 2011, is maintained for statistical purposes, and following its closure is referred to simply as regions;
  6. Z590 means homelessness, a non-billable, non-specific code for problems related to housing and economic circumstances;
  7. a diagnosis of homelessness is at the discretion of the clinician responsible for care of the patient, based on whether or not they deem it to be relevant to the primary diagnosis for which the patient is being admitted, and some patients may prefer not to disclose that they are homeless when presenting at the hospital, and the information may not therefore be captured, and therefore the data presented here may undercount the total number of occasions when homeless people were admitted to hospital;
  8. we have counted records where the patient was recorded as homeless at the point of admission, rather than at the point of discharge, because, while there is a Discharge Destination field in HES used to identify where patients go after leaving hospital, this does not include any value that identifies those patients who are discharged to the street, hence it is not possible to answer the first part of the question exactly as it is worded;
  9. changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage, improvements in coverage of independent sector activity and changes in NHS practice, for instance apparent reductions in activity may be due to a number of procedures which may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and so no longer include in admitted patient HES data, and apparent increases in activity may be due to improved recording of diagnosis or procedure information; and
  10. HES includes activity ending in the year in question and run from April to March, for instance 2012/13 includes activity ending between 1 April 2012 and 31 March 2013.
Written Question
Patients: Homelessness
Monday 28th October 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)

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 guidance on Discharging people at risk of or experiencing homelessness, published in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government in January 2024.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is committed to promoting safe and timely discharge for people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness to appropriate accommodation. Every acute hospital has access to a care transfer hub to manage discharge for people with more complex needs, who need extra support.

Guidance and supporting materials were published for health and care staff on discharging people at risk of or experiencing homelessness, and are a vital resource for front-line staff, offering the best practice advice informed by expertise to help reduce instances of individuals being discharged to the street. This ensures every health and care interaction with a homeless person acts as an opportunity to provide support and signposting, with the aim of ending rough sleeping. We will periodically review the guidance to ensure it provides appropriate and effective advice for health and care staff. Further information on the guidance and supporting materials is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/discharging-people-at-risk-of-or-experiencing-homelessness/discharging-people-at-risk-of-or-experiencing-homelessness