Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many operations were cancelled in Luton South constituency in the last 12 months.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not collected in the format requested.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children under the age of (a) four and (b) 11 were admitted to hospital for tooth extraction due to decay in Luton South in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS employees are required to go through the NHS recruitment process when moving NHS Trusts to support their spouses’ transfer within the armed forces.
Answered by Will Quince
Individuals affected by a spouses’ transfer are advised to consult their employer and human resources team to explore the support and employment flexibilities which may be available. Many National Health Service organisations have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and have armed forces champions or networks which may also offer support.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS employees have moved jobs within the health service to support their spouses’ transfer within the armed forces in the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of dental practices were rated as good by the Care Quality Commission in Luton South constituency as of 20 October 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) does not currently rate providers of primary dental care services. The Care Quality Commission publishes an assessment against five ‘key aspects’ that determine whether a dental provider is meeting its regulatory requirements. These are:
The CQC’s website allows the public to search by service type and location to find local dentists and their profiles, which display their regulatory performance and inspection reports.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to increase the availability of face-to-face GP appointments in Luton South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
On 22 September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which contains measures to assist people make an informed choice on their general practitioner (GP) practice, book an appointment more easily, benefit from more care options and increase the diversity of general practice teams. This aims to increase the availability of appointment types, such as face-to-face, in England, including in Luton South.
NHS England’s guidance states that GP practices must provide face to face appointments and remote consultations and should respect preferences for face-to-face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary. While remote consultations can provide additional choice, flexibility and convenience for patients, this is not suitable for all patients or in all circumstances.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Luton South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the government plans to spend more than £8bn from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in GP surgeries, including in Luton South. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workload such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and freeing up funding rules to widen the types of staff that work in general practice, including in Luton South.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the uptake of breast cancer screening in Luton South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is working with NHS England to finalise the delivery of £10 million for breast screening units, including determining which areas will benefit from this investment.
National Health Service breast screening providers are also encouraged to work with Cancer Alliances, Primary Care Networks, NHS regional teams and the voluntary sector to promote the uptake of breast screening and ensure access to services.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the level of NHS dentist provision in Luton South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Luton South.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to NHS dental services in Luton South constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made. In September, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Luton South.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.