Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
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 increase provision of mental health services for young people.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We are investing at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 to support an additional 345,000 children and young people to access National Health Service-funded mental health services. There are currently 287 mental health support teams supporting children experiencing anxiety, depression and other common mental health issues in approximately 4,700 schools and colleges. This will increase to over 500 teams, providing services to approximately 35% of pupils by 2023/24. We have also launched a call for evidence to support the development of a new 10-year cross-Government plan for mental health and wellbeing in England, including children and young people’s mental health.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) local and (b) national steps he is taking to help grow the oncoplastic workforce.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In 2022/23 Health Education England is investing an additional £50 million to expand the cancer and diagnostics workforce, including in oncoplastic surgery. Officials are currently analysing the responses received to the call for evidence to develop the forthcoming 10 Year Cancer Plan, which will ensure that the appropriate workforce is in place.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) local and (b) national steps he is taking to help ensure all patients across England can access free flap or autologous breast reconstruction and implant reconstruction.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The NHS Cancer Programme has asked Cancer Alliances to ensure that wherever possible, surgery takes place with immediate breast reconstruction and to seek opportunities to accelerate reconstruction for those women who have not undergone the procedure following previous breast surgery during the pandemic. The NHS Cancer Programme has stated that no local time limits should be applied to reconstructive surgery, in particular where the reconstructive surgery has been delayed as a result of the pandemic.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dentist practices are not accepting NHS patients, broken down by each CCG area.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The data requested is not held centrally. Practices are responsible for regularly updating their NHS.UK profiles to inform the public whether new patients are accepted.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
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 ensure the accessibility for patients of NHS funded dentistry care.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with stakeholders, including the British Dental Association (BDA), on improvements to the National Health Service dental system, with negotiations currently underway. This aims to improve patient access, reduce health inequalities and make the NHS a more attractive place to work for dentists. We will set out a timetable for implementation when these negotiations conclude.
Between April and June 2022, NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked practices to deliver at least 95% of contracted units of dental activity to safely improve access for patients.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to help increase access to radiotherapy treatments in the 10-year cancer plan; and if he will meet with parliamentarians and Radiotherapy UK to discuss that matter.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The forthcoming 10 Year Cancer Plan is currently in development and we are assessing evidence on a range of policy proposals. We are also analysing the responses received to the call for evidence which closed in early April. A meeting with members of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Radiotherapy and representatives of Radiotherapy UK has been scheduled.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure that hospital trusts are not using linear accelerator radiotherapy machines over the 10 year recommended lifespan.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As of 31 March 2022, there were approximately 20 linear accelerator radiotherapy machines (LINACs) aged 10 years or over in routine National Health Service use.
Since 2016, £162 million has been provided to support the replacement and upgrade of 100 LINACs. The 2021 Spending Review allocated £12 billion in operational capital for the NHS over the next three years. This investment will be managed by local systems and will include the modernisation of the radiotherapy estate, to replace any machine which is more than 10 years old.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of radiotherapy machines currently in use by the NHS which are older than 10 years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As of 31 March 2022, there were approximately 20 linear accelerator radiotherapy machines (LINACs) aged 10 years or over in routine National Health Service use.
Since 2016, £162 million has been provided to support the replacement and upgrade of 100 LINACs. The 2021 Spending Review allocated £12 billion in operational capital for the NHS over the next three years. This investment will be managed by local systems and will include the modernisation of the radiotherapy estate, to replace any machine which is more than 10 years old.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will review the method by which radiotherapy is funded in the UK to (a) increase access to treatments, (b) modernise equipment and (c) grow the specialist cancer workforce.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The NHS Long Term Plan committed to review the payment arrangements for radiotherapy, to ensure that appropriate incentives are in place to encourage providers to increase access to new treatments and techniques and upgrade and replace equipment.
While this has been delayed due to the pandemic and the temporary financial regime introduced to support the National Health Service response, it is expected to be completed during 2022/23. Each provider is responsible for ensuring it has the optimal workforce in place to deliver the service, balancing staff numbers, skills and technological innovations and allocating investment accordingly. This will be assisted by reforms to the payment model for radiotherapy.
To increase access to new treatments and techniques, NHS England and NHS Improvement have a ‘package price’ for stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) in place to ensure that trusts are reimbursed at a higher price for the treatment than under the National Tariff. With centrally funded external quality assurance and clinical mentoring arrangements, every NHS radiotherapy provider in England has established a local SABR service.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to commission a review of radiotherapy capacity and demand to include (a) the age of radiotherapy machines, (b) the current state of IT connectivity and (c) an estimate of the number of radiotherapy machines required by the NHS.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In 2022/23, NHS England and NHS Improvement will undertake a capacity and demand review of external beam radiotherapy capacity. This review is intended to support systems to plan radiotherapy provision, including the replacement of equipment. The review will not consider IT connectivity or the age of machines as these factors should form part of system planning for equipment replacement.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have commenced a three-year pilot of a new cloud-based technology ‘ProKnow’, as recommended in the Digital Playbook for Cancer. This system will enable clinicians to collaborate virtually within and across services to plan treatments, undertake peer review processes and participate in large-scale audit and quality improvement processes.