Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria are used to prioritise patients on NHS dental waiting lists; and whether older people are given priority.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and to recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most.
Patients in England are not registered with an NHS dental practice, and there is no single waiting list, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly and may operate local waiting list arrangements. There is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend. NHS dentists are required to keep their NHS website profiles up to date so that patients can find a dentist more easily. This includes information on whether they are accepting new patients. In circumstances where patients are unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through an NHS dental practice, they should contact NHS 111.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care, including dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For Honiton and Sidmouth constituency, this is the NHS One Devon ICB.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
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 the level of access to NHS dentistry on diagnosis rates of routine mouth cancers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of the level of access to National Health Service dentistry on the diagnosis rates of routine mouth cancers. Dentists and other dental professionals, including hygienists, routinely check the soft tissues of a patient’s mouth for signs of cancer during dental visits, and as part of the check-up will make an assessment and record of an individual’s oral cancer risk.
Dentists will prioritise patients at a higher risk of oral cancer for more frequent recall and review, in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance. Members of the public who are worried about their oral health in relation to cancer should seek advice from their dentist or general practitioner. Patients with symptoms of concern should be assessed and offered an urgent dental appointment based upon clinical need, in line with advice from NHS England.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
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 calorie labelling on menus on (a) obesity, (b) the prevalence of eating disorders and (c) other issues.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Legislation requiring large businesses in England, those with 250 or more employees, to display calorie information on non-prepacked food and soft drinks came into force in 2022. It aims to support consumers to make healthier choices for themselves and their families when eating out or getting a takeaway, with clear information about the calorie content of potential purchases. It may also encourage businesses to reformulate and provide lower calorie options, helping to create a healthier food environment.
The published impact assessment estimated that by lowering calorie consumption amongst people living with overweight or obesity, the policy would produce National Health Service savings of £430 million and social care savings of £477 million over 25 years.
We continue to evaluate the impact of the Out of Home Calorie Labelling Regulations, including on people living with eating disorders. We will publish a post-implementation review within five years of implementation which will consider the effectiveness of the policy.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the condition of NHS hospital equipment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Darzi review made it clear that the NHS has been starved of capital, with outdated scanners and is 15 years behind the independent sector in its use of technology.
We will make the NHS fit for the future, replacing outdated equipment and providing hospitals with the latest technology.
This will provide quicker, more effective, efficient diagnosis and a better experience for patients.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
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 ensure people who require insulin are aware of alternative medications.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
We are aware of a supply disruption affecting Tresiba (Insulin degludec) FlexTouch 100 units per millilitre solution for injection three millilitre pre-filled pens. While we do not hold information on number of people affected by this issue, we have worked with industry to identify suitable alternatives and can confirm that Tresiba Penfill cartridges are available and can fully support the increase in demand.
A National Patient Safety Alert was issued for Tresiba Flextouch pens on Friday 8 December 2023, providing updates to the National Health Service about the supply issue and providing advice for healthcare professionals on how to manage patients during the supply disruption. Any patient who is concerned should speak to their clinician.
There is a team within the Department that deals specifically with medicine supply problems. It has well-established tools and processes to manage medicine supply issues, working closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and expedite resupply as soon as possible to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised. Information on the number of people affected by the supply issue is not held.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure that people who require insulin are able to access it.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
We are aware of a supply disruption affecting Tresiba (Insulin degludec) FlexTouch 100 units per millilitre solution for injection three millilitre pre-filled pens. While we do not hold information on number of people affected by this issue, we have worked with industry to identify suitable alternatives and can confirm that Tresiba Penfill cartridges are available and can fully support the increase in demand.
A National Patient Safety Alert was issued for Tresiba Flextouch pens on Friday 8 December 2023, providing updates to the National Health Service about the supply issue and providing advice for healthcare professionals on how to manage patients during the supply disruption. Any patient who is concerned should speak to their clinician.
There is a team within the Department that deals specifically with medicine supply problems. It has well-established tools and processes to manage medicine supply issues, working closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and expedite resupply as soon as possible to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised. Information on the number of people affected by the supply issue is not held.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people affected by a shortage of insulin.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
We are aware of a supply disruption affecting Tresiba (Insulin degludec) FlexTouch 100 units per millilitre solution for injection three millilitre pre-filled pens. While we do not hold information on number of people affected by this issue, we have worked with industry to identify suitable alternatives and can confirm that Tresiba Penfill cartridges are available and can fully support the increase in demand.
A National Patient Safety Alert was issued for Tresiba Flextouch pens on Friday 8 December 2023, providing updates to the National Health Service about the supply issue and providing advice for healthcare professionals on how to manage patients during the supply disruption. Any patient who is concerned should speak to their clinician.
There is a team within the Department that deals specifically with medicine supply problems. It has well-established tools and processes to manage medicine supply issues, working closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and expedite resupply as soon as possible to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised. Information on the number of people affected by the supply issue is not held.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
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 with local authorities to increase levels of social care provision.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market and deliver a range of care and support services to meet the diverse needs of local people. To support with this, the Government has made a total of nearly £2 billion available to local authorities over two years through the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF) and MSIF Workforce Fund. Both are designed to support increased adult social care capacity, and support local authorities to make improvements to adult social care services.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure that health and social care staff continue to have access to free covid-19 testing.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
From 1 April 2023, the Government implemented changes to COVID-19 testing. These changes aligned COVID-19 more closely with the management of other respiratory infections. As part of this change, routine symptomatic testing of staff in high-risk settings ended. Staff testing has continued in a limited number of the most high-risk settings to protect particularly vulnerable people. This includes hospice staff with symptoms and some National Health Service staff with symptoms, working on inpatient wards with severely immunosuppressed patients. Information on testing in these settings is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-testing-during-periods-of-low-prevalence
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made a recent assessment of the impact of covid-19 infection rates among health and social care staff on the delivery of frontline health and social care services.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Sickness absence rates, including COVID-19 absence, among National Health Service staff are currently collected and published by NHS England. Data is published monthly in their COVID-19 data release and also weekly, for a subset of providers within the Urgent and Emergency Care Situation Reports for 2023/24. The monthly and weekly data sets, respectively, are available at the following links:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-hospital-activity/
Similarly for adult social care settings, data on staff absences due to COVID-19 related reasons are collected by the Department and published monthly, and are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/monthly-statistics-for-adult-social-care-england
However, whilst rates are collected and monitored both centrally and locally, there has been no specific recent assessment of the impact of COVID-19 infection rates among health and social care staff on the delivery of frontline health and social care services.