Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 creating a national strategy for palliative and end of life care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England are currently looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
We are also providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. I am pleased to confirm the continuation of circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, for the next three financial years, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive, to be distributed again via ICBs. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 ensure equitable regional access to services for people with postural tachycardia syndrome.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Services for people with postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs). ICBs have a statutory responsibility to provide a health service for the local population, subject to local prioritisation and funding, which includes access to specialist medical services for people with PoTS as appropriate.
Providing a PoTS specialist service is a fundamental part of ICBs’ statutory functions to plan and deliver health services for their local populations, to improve service quality and reduce health inequalities. In commissioning specialist PoTS services, we expect ICBs to use their local knowledge and commissioning authority to consult with patient groups, work collaboratively with clinicians, and design care pathways that ensure patients receive coordinated evidence-based care.
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out a transformative vision for the National Health Service that will support efforts to reduce regional inequalities in access to services for people with PoTS. The shifts outlined in the plan will free up hospital-based consultants’ time by shifting care from hospitals to communities, utilising digital technology to reduce administrative burdens, and promoting preventative measures to reduce the severity of conditions that lead to hospital admissions. This includes expanding community-based services, employing artificial intelligence for productivity, developing integrated neighbourhood health teams, and investing in digital tools and data. These shifts will help streamline referrals and reduce waiting times, enabling earlier diagnosis and more consistent management of PoTS across the country.
We are investing in additional capacity to deliver appointments to help bring waiting lists and times down. The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the specific productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment, by March 2029. This, in addition to the reforms outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan, will help to accelerate accurate diagnoses and reduce patient delays.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 tackle the misdiagnosis of Postural Tachycardia Syndrome.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Services for people with postural tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) are commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs). ICBs have a statutory responsibility to provide a health service for the local population, subject to local prioritisation and funding, which includes access to specialist medical services for people with PoTS as appropriate.
Providing a PoTS specialist service is a fundamental part of ICBs’ statutory functions to plan and deliver health services for their local populations, to improve service quality and reduce health inequalities. In commissioning specialist PoTS services, we expect ICBs to use their local knowledge and commissioning authority to consult with patient groups, work collaboratively with clinicians, and design care pathways that ensure patients receive coordinated evidence-based care.
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out a transformative vision for the National Health Service that will support efforts to reduce regional inequalities in access to services for people with PoTS. The shifts outlined in the plan will free up hospital-based consultants’ time by shifting care from hospitals to communities, utilising digital technology to reduce administrative burdens, and promoting preventative measures to reduce the severity of conditions that lead to hospital admissions. This includes expanding community-based services, employing artificial intelligence for productivity, developing integrated neighbourhood health teams, and investing in digital tools and data. These shifts will help streamline referrals and reduce waiting times, enabling earlier diagnosis and more consistent management of PoTS across the country.
We are investing in additional capacity to deliver appointments to help bring waiting lists and times down. The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the specific productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment, by March 2029. This, in addition to the reforms outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan, will help to accelerate accurate diagnoses and reduce patient delays.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the portfolio of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women's Health and Mental Health includes (a) the mental health of (i) children and (ii) young people and (b) early intervention services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women's Health and Mental Health (Baroness Merron) has Ministerial responsibility for children and young people’s mental health and early intervention services.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take through the modern service framework for cardiovascular disease to help (a) reduce disability caused by stroke and (b) improve the lives of stroke survivors living with (i) poor health and (ii) a disability post-stroke.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To accelerate the Government’s ambition to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% within a decade, we will publish a new cardiovascular disease modern service framework (CVD MSF) in 2026. The CVD MSF will consider approaches to reducing poor health and disability caused by heart disease and stroke.
The Department and NHS England are working together to deliver the CVD MSF and are engaging widely throughout its development to ensure that we prioritise ambitious, evidence-led and clinically informed approaches to prevention, treatment, and care. At the heart of this is engagement with people and communities, so that the modern service framework is shaped by and meets their needs. We will say more on these plans in due course.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which Minister in his Department is responsible for children's health.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I am the Minister responsibility for children’s health, as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention. Children’s health remains a priority for the Department, and the Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to increase funding for children's hospices.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Children and young people’s hospices do incredible work to support seriously ill children and their families and loved ones when they need it most, and we recognise the incredibly tough pressures they are facing.
We are providing £26 million in revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which, until recently, was known as the Children’s Hospice Grant.
I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children’s and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local ICBs on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.
This revenue funding is intended to be spent by hospices to provide high-quality care and support for the children and the families they care for, either in the hospice or in the community, including in children's homes. They can, for example, use this funding for providing respite care for children who have high health needs, by providing physiotherapy or occupational therapy, or by providing 24/7 nursing support for a child at the end of their life.
We are also supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 adequacy of the transition from hospital to community care for stroke survivors.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are committed to improving services for patients locally by increasing the provision of services outside of a hospital setting that are delivered closer to home in the community.
The National Stroke Quality Improvement in Rehabilitation programme is helping to transform community-based care by increasing access to specialist stroke rehabilitation at home.
Recent data shows that the percentage of patients discharged from hospital to community stroke services has now risen to 65.7%.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 adequacy of stroke rehabilitation services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we are committed to improving services for patients locally by increasing the provision of services outside of a hospital setting that are delivered closer to home in the community.
The National Stroke Quality Improvement in Rehabilitation programme is helping to transform community-based care by increasing access to specialist stroke rehabilitation at home.
Recent data shows that the percentage of patients discharged from hospital to community stroke services has now risen to 65.7%.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
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 encourage research into migraines and migraine treatment.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) into a range of conditions, including chronic migraine. The NIHR promotes participation in research through the Be Part of Research service, which features chronic migraine research studies seeking participants. Further information on the NIHR’s Be Part of Research service is available at the following link:
https://bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk/
The NIHR also invites proposals for new research into the causes and treatment of conditions through its website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/get-involved/suggest-a-research-topic