Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
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 implications for his policies of the number of people waiting for medical training between foundation level and speciality training.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We continue to work with NHS England to keep the selection process for all applicants to medical speciality training under review.
We are committed to ensuring that the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the National Health Service in the future. NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that any growth is sustainable and focused in the service areas where need is greatest.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
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 provide more training places in (a) core anaesthetics and (b) across all medical specialties.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to training the staff we need, including anaesthetists and all other medical specialities, to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. We have launched the 10-Year Health Plan which will set out a bold agenda to reform and repair the National Health Service. Ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills will be central to this vision. NHS England has invested in 70 additional training posts in anaesthesia in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Further expansion will be determined by the upcoming Spending Review and the planned refresh of the Long Term Workforce Plan.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will hold discussions with NHS England on the potential merits of making 70 extra higher anaesthetic training places available every year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to training the staff we need, including anaesthetists and all other medical specialities, to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. We have launched the 10-Year Health Plan which will set out a bold agenda to reform and repair the National Health Service. Ensuring we have the right people, in the right places, with the right skills will be central to this vision. NHS England has invested in 70 additional training posts in anaesthesia in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Further expansion will be determined by the upcoming Spending Review and the planned refresh of the Long Term Workforce Plan.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
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 cost to NHS England of treating complications arising from surgeries undertaken overseas by UK residents.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not have data on the overall costs to the National Health Service for treating complications from surgeries conducted overseas. We are exploring ways to improve our understanding of the scale of the cost to the NHS.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
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 people waiting to undergo otolaryngology surgery.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Otolaryngology surgery is listed under Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) data for recording purposes. As of November 2024, the waiting list for ENT stood at 633,270. This marked a decrease of 4,380 compared to October 2024. As of November 2024, 49.2% of pathways were within 18 weeks. Not all the patients on the waiting list will have a “decision to treat”.
Tackling waiting lists, including in ENT, is a key part of our Health Mission and we will deliver an additional two million operations, scans, and appointments during our first year in Government, equivalent to 40,000 per week, as a first step in our commitment to ensuring patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks.
The Elective Reform Plan, launched as part of the Government’s Plan for Change, sets out how we will get back to the NHS Constitutional Standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by the end of this Parliament and ensure patients have the best possible experience of care.
The Elective Reform Plan commits to the following actions to reform outpatient services, including increasing uptake of Advice and Guidance and triage to reduce unnecessary demand on elective services, reducing low value follow up appointments, minimising missed appointments to maximise clinical time, and reforming clinical pathways to improve efficiency in five priority specialties, one of which is ENT.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
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 inform people of the potential risks of of undertaking (a) cosmetic or (b) elective surgery overseas.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Government has engaged, and continues to engage, with partners to develop, update and promote key messages on public facing guidance. We worked closely with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to develop guidance for its online travel advice page. We have engaged with NHS England to update guidance on the National Health Service website, and we have liaised with the General Medical Council, the Royal College of Surgeons, and the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons about providing information online to support consumers to make safe choices about any cosmetic procedure they may choose to undergo abroad.
Government advice to anyone considering medical treatment abroad is to carefully research the treatment in question, the qualifications of the chosen clinician overseas, the regulations that apply in the country in question, and ensure appropriate aftercare both abroad and once back in the United Kingdom.
We also encourage people to review the Government’s travel advice, the relevant guidance from the NHS, and other relevant professional bodies. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office travel advice has been updated to highlight the issue and steer British nationals towards appropriate advice. This also includes advice to consider appropriate insurance cover, as a specialist policy will be required if medical treatment is planned abroad.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
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 increase training facilities for surgeons in the East of England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All local education providers, including in the East of England, are responsible for ensuring they have the appropriate capacity, including facilities, for training staff, including surgeons.
The General Medical Council’s (GMC’s) Promoting excellence: standards for medical education and training sets out the standards that the GMC expects organisations responsible for educating and training medical students and doctors in the United Kingdom to meet. This includes having the capacity, resources, and facilities to deliver safe and relevant learning opportunities, clinical supervision, and practical experiences for learners.
NHS England’s Education Quality Framework states that all staff, including learners and educators, should have access to the necessary resources, facilities, and equipment to ensure their safety within the workplace and to deliver safe clinical care. The framework is monitored locally in collaboration with medical schools. In addition, NHS England’s NHS Education Funding Agreement sets out in detail the expectations around the premises and facilities of placement providers.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
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 reduce elective surgery waiting lists in Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Elective Reform Plan, launched as part of the Government’s Plan for Change, sets out how we will get back to the NHS Constitutional Standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment by the end of this Parliament, and will also ensure that patients have the best possible experience of care.
We have set an ambition for 2025/26 that we reach 65% of patients waiting no longer than 18 weeks nationally, and for all trusts to deliver a minimum 5% improvement by March 2026. We will also publish minimum standards of care that patients can expect to experience, and will make digital improvements, including to the NHS App, to provide patients with greater choice, control, and flexibility.
At the Autumn Budget, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an additional £1.5 billion in funding to support National Health Service performance across secondary and emergency care, including for surgical hubs. We will set out details of the allocation of funding for surgical hubs at the earliest opportunity, including details and locations of surgical hubs. Trusts with no operational or planned surgical hubs will be prioritised for new hub funding, as well as trusts with the highest waiting lists.
Across the country, dedicated and protected surgical hubs are transforming the way the NHS provides elective care, by focussing on high volume low complexity surgeries. The Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket constituency falls under the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board. They have two recently opened surgical hubs, one in Ipswich, which opened in July 2024, and the second is the Essex and Suffolk Elective Orthopaedic Centre ESEOC, which opened in November 2024.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will hold discussions with the Health and Safety Executive on the potential merits of taking steps encourage employers to (a) organise regular hearing tests, (b) distribute adequate personal hearing protectors and (c) implement other measures to help prevent occupational hearing loss.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Duties on employers are well established in the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, which require employers to:
a) Carry out hearing tests regularly by a competent person (health surveillance) when there may be a risk to their employee’s hearing, and undertake protective measures based on the results, and
b) Provide adequate personal hearing protection where noise exposure cannot be eliminated or controlled at source.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides guidance and tools to help employers understand their obligations through its website, and regularly engages stakeholders to promote noise controls and ensuring hearing protection is fit for purpose in terms of its condition and specific use.
HSE enforces these regulations and is conducting a long-term programme of targeted inspections of higher risk workplaces, forming a key element of HSE’s Protecting People and Places strategy to reduce work-related ill-health in the workplace.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
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 (a) expertise and (b) public confidence are retained in Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy services available on the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is currently reviewing the service provision and national service specification for Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Services, used to clearly define the standards of care expected from organisations funded by NHS England to provide specialised care, due to the current service contracts expiring during 2025. Revisions to service specification follow the published process, which supports appropriate stakeholder engagement and governance. More information on the process is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/methods-national-service-specifications/
NHS England has considered the feedback received from the recent public consultation on the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Services revised service specification, alongside other sources of evidence, to inform its plans for the service re-procurement. The outcome of this will be made available in due course.
Further, NHS England is required to commission services, including Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Services, in line with the National Health Service’s triple aim of improving health outcomes, improving quality of care and ensuring value for the system.