Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the number of delayed discharges from hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that all patients are discharged from hospital appropriately with the right care and support in place. The Model Discharge Pathway has been published, to support timely, safe, and clinically led discharge from hospital. The Model Discharge Pathway is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/model-discharge-pathway/
It provides a framework that organisations can use to review and strengthen local discharge arrangements. The publication was developed with clinical and operational leaders and brings together good practice already being delivered across the National Health Service.
Additionally, in February 2026, the Government published guidance setting out new arrangements for the Better Care Fund, requiring NHS integrated care boards and local authorities to pool over £9 billion of funding to prevent avoidable hospital admissions and reduce delayed hospital discharges with more integrated health and social care services.
We are continuing to work with NHS trusts and local authorities to embed best practice in discharge processes. Areas experiencing the most significant challenges with discharge delays and urgent and emergency care performance are receiving targeted support to drive those improvements.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on ensuring the adequate provision of palliative care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
This government is launching a new framework this autumn to fix unfair gaps in palliative care and end-of-life care.Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 prevent diagnostic overshadowing in cases where anxiety, trauma, distress or school-related deterioration are dismissed as part of autism, ADHD or SEND.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
In December 2025, the Government launched an Independent Review into Prevalence and Support for Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism. This independent review will inform a new approach that reduces waiting times, improves the quality of care, and promotes prevention and early intervention. The independent review’s final report, due in the summer, will make recommendations on how the Government, the health system, and wider public services can respond to increasing demand for support more fairly and effectively so that people receive the right support, at the right time, in the right place.
The Government also announced on 15 May a new Mental Health Strategy for England, with the aim of transforming mental health care into a system that responds earlier, reduces waiting times for support, and supports people, including people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autistic people, to participate in education and work. It will be informed by the findings and recommendations from the Independent Review into Prevalence and Support for Mental Health Conditions, ADHD and Autism.
In the meantime, the Government is continuing to expand Mental Health Support Teams so that every school and college can access mental health support. These teams provide early intervention and work with education staff, parents, and carers to identify needs sooner and support children and young people before difficulties escalate. We are also improving the capability of the workforce to respond to children and young people with more complex needs, including those experiencing trauma, distress, and neurodivergence, so that they can receive the right support at the right time.
We are also committed to transforming outcomes for children, young people, and their families with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) through pivotal reforms. We want these reforms to support the treatment to prevention shift in our 10-Year Health Plan and its focus on early identification of needs, support, and intervention, enabling more children to access support and thrive in inclusive mainstream settings.
To support this ambition, over the next three years £1.6 billion will be invested to make the mainstream system more inclusive, building on the latest evidence and practice, alongside £1.8 billion being invested over three years for the new Experts at Hand offer, which will wrap education and health professionals around mainstream settings. By 2028, up to £15 million will have been invested to build the evidence base for, and then provide, National Inclusion Standards. These will set out, for the first time, what support that should be available in every mainstream setting. We will also refresh areas of need, update guidance on reasonable adjustments, and revise the SEND Code of Practice.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients were waiting more than (a) 18, (b) 26 and (c) 52 weeks for treatment by the Community Dental Service in England at the latest available date.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
We recognise that certain groups of patients may be particularly vulnerable to oral health problems and may find it difficult to access dental care. Specialised dental services are in place to provide dental treatment and are commissioned by integrated care boards (ICBs).
The January 2025 Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) report on Community Dental Service (CDS) highlighted several known challenges in the operation and monitoring of CDS and offered recommendations for improvements. The majority of recommendations in the GIRFT report related to operational considerations for individual ICBs to address, which varies according to local arrangements, priorities, and needs.
NHS England and the Department have taken the recommendations on board and are working to improve the data reporting process to increase oversight of CDS activity, including current waiting lists and performance reporting. An amended waiting list data collection was implemented in August 2025 and will improve oversight of the current waiting lists and waiting times for adults and children.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 potential impact of Community Dental Service waiting times on attendance at hospital accident and emergency departments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
We recognise that certain groups of patients may be particularly vulnerable to oral health problems and may find it difficult to access dental care. Specialised dental services are in place to provide dental treatment and are commissioned by integrated care boards (ICBs).
The January 2025 Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) report on Community Dental Service (CDS) highlighted several known challenges in the operation and monitoring of CDS and offered recommendations for improvements. The majority of recommendations in the GIRFT report related to operational considerations for individual ICBs to address, which varies according to local arrangements, priorities, and needs.
NHS England and the Department have taken the recommendations on board and are working to improve the data reporting process to increase oversight of CDS activity, including current waiting lists and performance reporting. An amended waiting list data collection was implemented in August 2025 and will improve oversight of the current waiting lists and waiting times for adults and children.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 capacity of Community Dental Services in England to meet demand.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
We recognise that certain groups of patients may be particularly vulnerable to oral health problems and may find it difficult to access dental care. Specialised dental services are in place to provide dental treatment and are commissioned by integrated care boards (ICBs).
The January 2025 Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) report on Community Dental Service (CDS) highlighted several known challenges in the operation and monitoring of CDS and offered recommendations for improvements. The majority of recommendations in the GIRFT report related to operational considerations for individual ICBs to address, which varies according to local arrangements, priorities, and needs.
NHS England and the Department have taken the recommendations on board and are working to improve the data reporting process to increase oversight of CDS activity, including current waiting lists and performance reporting. An amended waiting list data collection was implemented in August 2025 and will improve oversight of the current waiting lists and waiting times for adults and children.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 understanding of the reasons for the rise in postpartum haemorrhage rates.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS clinical pathways for patients prescribed weight loss medications require access to dietary and nutritional support, including referral to dietetic services.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Weight loss medicines were initially only available through National Health Service specialist weight management services. In specialist services, patients receive wraparound care from a multidisciplinary team providing nutritional, psychological, and medical support, tailored to individual need. Where clinically appropriate, this will include specialist dietetic services.
From June 2025, the obesity medicine tirzepatide, brand name Mounjaro, has been made available in primary care through a phased approach. In primary care, clinical oversight is provided by general practitioners and other prescribing healthcare professionals, with wraparound support delivered through locally commissioned services or via the national Healthier You: NHS Behavioural Support for Obesity Prescribing service. Dietary support typically forms part of the wider wraparound package of care.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an estimate of the workforce required to support the safe delivery of NHS weight loss medication services, including the management of nutritional complications.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
NHS England undertook workforce modelling to support the implementation of tirzepatide, brand name Mounjaro, for obesity management as part of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s Funding Variation planning process.
The modelling considered requirements associated with the phased introduction of the treatment, including clinical assessment, prescribing, monitoring, medicines review, behavioural support, and programme management functions. It assumes that nutritional assessment, dietary advice, and ongoing clinical monitoring are delivered through prescribing clinicians and multidisciplinary teams, with input from appropriately trained healthcare professionals operating within established specialist weight management and primary care pathways.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital admissions there were for dental treatment for (a) children (b) adults at York Teaching Hospital in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The following table shows the number of Finished Admission Episodes (FAEs) where the main operative procedure was a dental procedure, by patient age group in each year from 2021/22 to 2025/26 in the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust:
Year | Number of children (zero to 17 years old) admissions | Number of adult (18 years old and over) admissions |
2021/22 | 155 | 385 |
2022/23 | 135 | 405 |
2023/24 | 200 | 510 |
2024/25 | 200 | 445 |
2025/26 | 165 | 500 |
Note: data for 2025/26 is provisional.
An FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are typically counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes, which is the approach we have used here. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.