Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information he holds on the number of patients waiting longer than the Kent Integrated Dermatology Service's four week deadline for issuing biopsy results, in each of the last six months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold information on the number of patients waiting longer than four weeks for their biopsy results.
The Government is spending £600 million of capital this year on diagnostics, including funding for the automation of histopathology laboratories, for the first time ever, to improve productivity. We are also funding all pathology networks to increase digital capabilities by March 2026, which will reduce unnecessary waits and repeat tests, to ensure that patients receive their results sooner, including those in Kent.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
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 ambulance response times in Tunbridge Wells.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the pressures on the National Health Service and the impact this is having on ambulance response times, including in Tunbridge Wells.
We are determined to turn things around, and our 10-Year Health Plan will be published in the summer, setting out major NHS reforms to move healthcare from the hospital to the community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.
The NHS Urgent and Emergency care plan 2025/26, published on 6 June 2025, requires health systems to focus on those areas likely to have the biggest impact on urgent and emergency care services this year. The plan includes actions that will reduce category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes and reduce ambulance handovers to 45 minutes, helping to get 550,000 more ambulances back on the road.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to review regional differences in the (a) diagnosis, (b) treatment and (c) ongoing care for people with coeliac disease across NHS services in England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Most services for long-term conditions, including for people with coeliac disease, are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs). It is the responsibility of ICBs, working with clinicians, service users, and patient groups, to develop local services and care pathways that meet patients’ needs. The Government expects ICBs to take account of relevant guidelines and best practice in designing their local services, and to ensure consistency of approaches between ICBs.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publishes guidance on the diagnosis and treatment of conditions for use by healthcare professionals and commissioners in England. NICE guidelines are not mandatory and do not replace the judgement of clinicians in determining the most appropriate treatment for individual patients.
The NICE guideline, Coeliac disease: recognition, assessment and management, published in 2015 and reviewed in 2019, is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng20
The NICE also publishes clinical knowledge summaries (CKS) as a source of information mainly for national Health Service staff working in primary care. A CKS on the clinical management of coeliac disease, which was last revised in May 2020, is available at the following link:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/coeliac-disease/
We have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS and improve care for people, including those with long-term conditions like coeliac disease. A central and core part of the 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce and how we ensure we provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to make it more accessible, proactive, and tailored for patients wherever they live in England.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
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 improve access to NHS services for deaf people.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local population, including deaf people.
Under the Equality Act (2010), health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged. The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag was developed in the National Repository to enable health and care workers to record, share, and view details of reasonable adjustments, across the National Health Service and social care, wherever the person is seen or treated. Following the launch of the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Information Standard, published September 2023, the flag went live in the National Care Record Service and is being rolled out across England.
Since 2016, all NHS organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including deaf people. NHS England has been undertaking a review of the AIS to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss are met in health and care provision. A revised AIS will be published in due course. In the meantime, the current AIS remains in force and therefore there should not be a gap in provision for people using services.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
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 the quality of wound care, in the context of the disbandment of the National Wound Care Strategy Programme in March 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The outcome of the National Wound Care Strategy Programme was to implement consistently high wound care across England by reducing unnecessary variation, improving safety, and optimising patient experience and outcomes.
NHS England’s work on wound care has now transitioned into its business as usual service, and work is continuing to support the spread of best practice across England. Additionally, to further improve the quality of wound care, a pressure ulcer improvement diagnostic and discovery phase of work was agreed as a priority component of the national wound care programme, undertaken in partnership with the National Wound Care Strategy Programme team, the National Nursing Directorate, providers, and integrated care systems.
Resources developed through the National Wound Care programme are accessible on the NHS Futures website.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
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 number of radiologists working in the NHS in (a) England and (b) Tunbridge Wells Hospital; and what steps he is taking to increase the number of radiologists working in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data published by NHS England shows that as of December 2024, there are 3,998 full-time equivalent (FTE) consultants in the speciality of clinical radiology employed in National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England. Of these, there are 28 FTE consultants employed in the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. Data is not available for the workforce of specific hospitals within NHS hospital trusts.
When including doctors of all grades, there are 5,844 FTE doctors working in the specialty of clinical radiology in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England, 35 of which are employed in the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.
We are committed to training the staff we need, including radiologists, to ensure that patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. To reform the NHS and make it fit for the future, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan as part of the Government’s five long-term missions.
Decisions about recruitment are matters for individual NHS employers. NHS trusts manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has a planned timetable for removing self-funded artificial insemination for same sex couples before they can access NHS-funded in vitro fertilisation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the light of broader pressures on the National Health Service and on-going changes within NHS England, we have been looking again at achievable ambitions to improve access to fertility services and fairness for all affected couples. Ministers will be considering advice on fertility treatment for same sex couples soon.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
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 assessment of the potential merits of extending the eligibility for the shingles vaccination to people aged 65 or over.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2019, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that the shingles vaccination programme should switch to using a two-dose vaccine called Shingrix, to better protect individuals from the effects of shingles, provide better clinical outcomes, and reduce pressures on the health system. The committee also advised that the vaccine should be given to everyone at the age of 60 years old, rather than 70 years old.
Based on this advice, the Department, the UK Health Security Agency, and NHS England decided to phase the expansion of the shingles programme. During the first phase, which commenced September 2023, those who reach the ages of 65 or 70 years old should be called in for vaccination on or after their 65th or 70th birthday. During the second phase, from September 2028, individuals will be called in for vaccination on or after their 60th or 65th birthday. From 1 September 2033 onwards, vaccination is routinely offered to those turning 60 years of age on or after their 60th birthday.
This is a newly expanded programme, and anyone unsure if they are eligible for the shingles vaccination should check online, on the NHS.UK website, or should speak to their general practice.
In November 2024, the JCVI provided further advice to the Department on eligibility for the shingles vaccination programme. This included advice that the Government should consider expanding the shingles vaccination offer to include older adult cohorts aged 80 years old and over. The Government will consider this latest advice when setting the policy on who should be offered shingles vaccinations, and will update in due course.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
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 (a) strengthen protections for NHS whistleblowers and (b) prevent repercussions for those who raise patient safety concerns.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has been clear that the silencing of whistleblowers will not be tolerated, and that National Health Service staff should have the confidence to speak out and come forward if they have concerns.
There is a network of more than 1,200 local Freedom to Speak Up Guardians across healthcare in England, whose role is to help and support NHS workers who want to speak up about any concerns that they have. There is also a national Freedom to Speak Up policy, published by NHS England, which sets out the minimum standards for local Freedom to Speak Up policies across the NHS, with all NHS organisations having been instructed to adopt this policy. These initiatives sit alongside legal protections for whistleblowers, which have been strengthened so that they also prohibit discrimination against job applicants on the grounds that they have spoken up in the past.
In November 2024, the Department launched a consultation on options for regulating NHS managers, with the aim of improving leadership quality and accountability. This will help ensure that the NHS has strong and effective leadership in place, and that leaders and managers are held accountable for their practice. The consultation closed on 18 February 2025 and had strong engagement, receiving nearly 5,000 responses.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
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 assessment of the potential (a) merits of including Tunbridge Wells in the High Cost Area Allowance and (b) impact of these proposals on staff (i) recruitment and (ii) retention for the NHS Trust.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is part of the Pay Review Bodies’ remit to look at and, if necessary, make recommendations on the future geographic coverage of high-cost area supplements, and on the value of such supplements. As these provisions are reflected in staff terms and conditions of service, any recommended changes would need to be collectively agreed between employers and trade unions.
Alternatively, National Health Service employers or staff organisations in a specified geographic area can propose an increase in the level of high-cost area supplement, or can request the introduction of a supplement where no supplement exists. There must be evidence to support its introduction, and this would be down to local determination.