Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 make dentistry more affordable.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to National Health Service dental services being available for all those who need them. Free NHS dental care is available to people who meet one of the following criteria:
Support is also available through the NHS Low Income Scheme for those patients who are not eligible for exemption or full remission of dental patient charges. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/who-is-entitled-to-free-nhs-dental-treatment-in-england/
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 merits of increasing the regulation of private dental charges.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service contracts independent dental providers to deliver NHS dental treatment. Dentists must make clear which treatments can be provided on the NHS and which can only be provided on a private basis, and the costs associated for each. If a patient decides to choose alternative private options, this should be included in their treatment plan.
The Department and NHS England do not control the cost of private dental or orthodontic treatment.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 (a) efficacy and (b) efficiency of NHS Pathways.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is taking action to improve the efficacy and efficiency of NHS Pathways across the health system.
The NHS Pathways clinical content and assessment protocols are consistent with the latest advice from the respected bodies that provide evidence and guidance for medical practice. In particular, NHS Pathways is concordant with the latest guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the UK Resuscitation Council, and the UK Sepsis Trust.
The NHS Pathways Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) is a triage product used to support urgent and emergency care in England, and is embedded in NHS 111 and 999 telephony service, and NHS 111 online. It is continuously reviewed to ensure it remains safe, effective, and efficient. The system is developed and maintained by a group of experienced National Health Service clinicians with an urgent and emergency care background. The safety of the clinical triage process is overseen by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the relevant royal colleges, and clinical professional groups endorse and approve the CDSS.
The NHS triages patients waiting for elective care, including surgeries, through clinical prioritisation, ensuring the order in which patients are seen reflects clinical judgement on need as well as taking into account overall wait time.
The Government is taking action to improve efficacy and efficiency of NHS Pathways across the health system. The recently published Elective Reform Plan commits to reforming outpatient care through clinical pathway transformation. Reform will include doing more activity in the community and increasing the opportunities for patients to be referred straight to diagnostic tests without the need to first see a consultant, reducing unnecessary follow-up appointments and freeing up clinical time for those who need it most. The Elective Reform Plan also makes changes to advice and guidance to support more patients being cared for outside of hospitals, avoiding 800,000 unnecessary referrals each year.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 with Cabinet colleagues of the adequacy of healthcare provision in HMP Wandsworth.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Healthcare services at HMP Wandsworth underwent inspection, jointly undertaken by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons and the Care Quality Commission, in May 2024. The joint inspectorate noted that improvements had been made across the provision of healthcare since the last inspection. The full report is available at the following link:
https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmipris_reports/hmp-wandsworth-3/
NHS England continues to monitor service provision and the quality of the healthcare service, meeting with the healthcare provider on a quarterly basis to discuss quality and assurance matters. Quality and assurance visits to the service are also taking place, attended by the Lead Commissioner and Clinical Quality Lead.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 improve the quality of healthcare provision across the prison estate.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England’s Health and Justice Oversight Delivery Group is responsible for governance and oversight of delivery and continuous improvement in health and justice commissioned services.
NHS England, via the regional health and justice teams, has regular meetings with prison healthcare providers to ensure the quality of the services that are provided. These are also supplemented with local partnership boards, where governors, commissioners, and providers meet to discuss any issues, risks, and areas of concern.
NHS England also works closely with the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman to identify themes, trends, and learning from recommendations made as part of the investigations into deaths in custody, and also takes learning and insights around preventable events from preventing future deaths reports and commissioner-led complaints.
NHS England is undertaking a review of health and justice service specifications to ensure they remain fit for purpose in relation to patient needs, developments in health and justice, and the wider National Health Service. This review includes engagement with lived experience, commissioners, providers, clinical leads, partner organisations, and stakeholders, along with NHS England directorates. This review of service specifications may also provide opportunities for the improvement of the provision of services. It is expected that publication of the refreshed specifications will start in 2025, and will be fully complete by the end of March 2026.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 merits of including breast density in medical data collection, in the context of diagnosing breast cancer.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The UK National Screening Committee is currently reviewing the evidence surrounding breast density in screening.
Improving early diagnosis of cancer, including breast cancer, is a priority for NHS England. To support early detection and diagnosis, the National Health Service carries out approximately 2.1 million breast cancer screens each year in hospitals and mobile screening vans, usually in convenient community locations.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 improve the rate of breast cancer diagnoses for women with asymptomatic breast density.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The UK National Screening Committee is currently reviewing the evidence surrounding breast density in screening.
Improving early diagnosis of cancer, including breast cancer, is a priority for NHS England. To support early detection and diagnosis, the National Health Service carries out approximately 2.1 million breast cancer screens each year in hospitals and mobile screening vans, usually in convenient community locations.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 improve the number of breast cancer diagnoses at mammogram or other early stages.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Lord Darzi’s report has set out the scale of the challenges we face in fixing the National Health Service and the need to improve cancer waiting time performance and cancer survival, including for breast cancer. In particular, he has highlighted the need to improve the number of patients starting their treatment within 62 days of referral and to increase the number of patients diagnosed at an earlier stage.
The Government is committed to meeting all three NHS cancer waiting time standards across England within the next five years. Meeting these will ensure no patient waits longer than they should for diagnosis or treatment.
The NHS Breast Screening Programme offers all women in England from 50 years old up to their 71st birthday the opportunity to be screened every three years for breast cancer, to help detect abnormalities and intervene early to reduce the number of lives lost to invasive breast cancer.
NHS England has also developed a national plan in collaboration with key stakeholders such as cancer alliances to improve uptake within the breast screening programme. The plan sets out the priorities, interventions and monitoring of impact and outcomes to be achieved to improve uptake through: Expanding access, data and analytics, reducing inequalities, contracting, communication and IT developments.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
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 merits of increasing the (a) acceptable and (b) achievable levels of S07b incident screenings for mammograms.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
As part of the NHS Breast Screening Programme, S07b is the ‘screening standard’ whereby ‘incident screens’, that is any subsequent breast screen after first screen, are referred for further assessment.
NHS England has advised that there is expected to be an initial light touch review of the breast screening standards by the end of March 2025, with a full review of all standards in screening year 2025/6. During the full review in 2025/26, the programme performance in ‘percentage referrals to assessment’ will be reviewed to determine whether the acceptable and achievable limits should be changed.
However, increasing the thresholds for this standard, will mean that the number of women referred for follow up tests, namely biopsy, mammograms, and ultrasound, will increase, many of whom will have no cancer. Screening programmes must continue to maximise benefit while minimising harm.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the correspondence of 7 August 2024 from the hon. Member for Tooting on children's cancer services in the South East.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We replied to the hon. Member’s letter on 16 September 2024. We apologise for the delay in replying, as this was due to Conference.