Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to consult on extending the list of conditions patients can be treated for under the Pharmacy First scheme.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will make sure the National Health Service has the staff it needs to be there for all of us when we need it. We have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS. A central part of the 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce and how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities.
In summer 2025, we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again.
Employers clearly have a key role in retaining staff and making jobs in community pharmacy attractive. To support employers, NHS England has provided several fully funded national training opportunities for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to help support private contractors deliver quality NHS services, including Pharmacy First.
NHS England is keeping the Pharmacy First service under close review. In addition, a National Institute for Health and Care Research evaluation of Pharmacy First will assess how the service has been implemented across England, including impacts on prescribing in the general practice setting, use of hospitals and how the service has impacted access to care and cost for different patient groups.
The Pharmacy First clinical pathways have been informed by guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and were designed with input from an expert panel of clinicians. NHS England is keeping the clinical scope of this service under review.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
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 the Pharmacy First service.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will make sure the National Health Service has the staff it needs to be there for all of us when we need it. We have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS. A central part of the 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce and how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities.
In summer 2025, we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again.
Employers clearly have a key role in retaining staff and making jobs in community pharmacy attractive. To support employers, NHS England has provided several fully funded national training opportunities for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to help support private contractors deliver quality NHS services, including Pharmacy First.
NHS England is keeping the Pharmacy First service under close review. In addition, a National Institute for Health and Care Research evaluation of Pharmacy First will assess how the service has been implemented across England, including impacts on prescribing in the general practice setting, use of hospitals and how the service has impacted access to care and cost for different patient groups.
The Pharmacy First clinical pathways have been informed by guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and were designed with input from an expert panel of clinicians. NHS England is keeping the clinical scope of this service under review.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
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 increase the number of community pharmacists.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will make sure the National Health Service has the staff it needs to be there for all of us when we need it. We have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS. A central part of the 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce and how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities.
In summer 2025, we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, and treat patients on time again.
Employers clearly have a key role in retaining staff and making jobs in community pharmacy attractive. To support employers, NHS England has provided several fully funded national training opportunities for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to help support private contractors deliver quality NHS services, including Pharmacy First.
NHS England is keeping the Pharmacy First service under close review. In addition, a National Institute for Health and Care Research evaluation of Pharmacy First will assess how the service has been implemented across England, including impacts on prescribing in the general practice setting, use of hospitals and how the service has impacted access to care and cost for different patient groups.
The Pharmacy First clinical pathways have been informed by guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and were designed with input from an expert panel of clinicians. NHS England is keeping the clinical scope of this service under review.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of the legal right to a care supporter in a health and social care setting.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) Fundamental Standard on Visiting and Accompanying (Regulation 9A) came into force on 6 April 2024 to strengthen requirements for CQC registered care homes, hospitals, and hospices to facilitate visiting, unless there are exceptional circumstances which mean that it is not safe to do so. This can be a visit from a family member, a friend, or a person visiting to provide companionship or support, for example, a care supporter.
We will conduct a review of Regulation 9A from April 2025, 12 months on from the legislation coming into force, to assess whether the legislation has been effective in addressing concerns about visiting in health and care settings. Depending on the outcome of the review, we will consider whether further action is needed.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
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 increase levels of retention in the NHS workforce.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Every day, millions of NHS staff go the extra mile to make a broken system work as well as it can for their patients.
As we develop our ten-year plan for the NHS - and the Long Term Workforce Plan that will support it – a critical concern will be ensuring we have the modern, positive, and supportive working environment needed to retain them, motivate them and enable them to provide the high quality care they want to give to patients.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the funding model for hospices.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) 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.
Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people, and their loved ones, at the end of life.
Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding charitable hospices receive varies by ICB area, and will, in part, be dependent on the breadth and range of palliative and end of life care provision within their ICB footprint.
We understand that, financially, times are difficult for many voluntary and charitable organisations, including hospices, due to the increased cost of living. We want a society where these costs are manageable for both voluntary organisations, like hospices, and the people whom they serve.
We, alongside NHS England, will continue to proactively engage with stakeholders, including the voluntary sector and independent hospices, on an ongoing basis, in order to understand the issues they face.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of levels of prevalence of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) in the NHS estate.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service in England has been surveying sites and undertaking Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) mitigation work since 2019. Once the presence of RAAC is confirmed at a hospital site, it joins NHS England’s national RAAC programme, which is backed by £954 million. This programme has delivered mitigation, safety, and eradication works across all NHS sites in England with confirmed RAAC, to keep facilities safe and open and, over time, remove RAAC fully from the NHS estate. The Department has published a full list of hospitals with confirmed RAAC, which will be updated periodically and is available at the following link:
As of 29 February 2024, there were 54 NHS hospital sites with confirmed RAAC, and RAAC had been eradicated at four sites. Further eradication work has taken place since this date.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was for patients at the Royal Bolton Hospital Emergency Department in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not available in the format requested. The latest published National Health Service data, from June 2024, shows that 61.8% of patients were admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust.
The Government is committed to supporting the NHS in reducing accident and emergency waiting times, and returning to the standards patients should expect as set out in the NHS Constitution.