Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 (a) maternal and (b) post-natal care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We continue to work with NHS England as it delivers its three-year maternity and neonatal plan to grow the workforce, develop a culture of safety, and ensure women and babies receive safe, personalised, and compassionate care. We know there is much more we need to do, however good progress has been made, including:
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department provides to women who have suffered from post-birth trauma.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department recognises the significant physical and psychological consequences of birth trauma and the devastating impact this can have on some women. We are fully committed to improving the quality and consistency of care for women throughout pregnancy, birth, and the critical months that follow, and ensuring that when a woman experiences a traumatic birth, there is a broad range of support available.
The National Health Service is in its final year of implementing the Three-Year Delivery Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Services. As part of this plan, there is a commitment to improving postnatal care for all women and babies, including those affected by birth trauma. This includes ensuring the provision of high-quality, personalised, and joined-up care throughout the postnatal period.
NHS England has published guidance, written in collaboration with the Royal College of General Practitioners, on the six-to-eight-week postnatal check-up for all women who have given birth. This provides an important opportunity for general practitioners to listen to women in a discreet, supportive environment, to provide personalised postnatal care for their physical and mental health, and to support them with family planning. This includes an explicit reference to birth trauma for the first time. Additionally, a range of specialist mental health services have been made available to women during the perinatal period, as well as physical health services like Perinatal Pelvic Health Services. As of April 2025, 25 of the 42 local systems have perinatal pelvic health services in place, and NHS England is working closely with the remaining areas who are not compliant.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with manufacturers of Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy medication on supply shortages.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is in regular discussion with all suppliers of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) on latest stock availability and the actions that are being taken mitigate the supply issue that is affecting the whole of the United Kingdom. Through these discussions we have managed to secure additional volumes of PERT for 2025 for the UK. We are continuing to work with all suppliers to understand what more can be done to add further resilience to the market. The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market.
In the longer term, the Department has had interest from non-UK suppliers wishing to bring their products to the UK and, along with colleagues in the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, we are working with these potential suppliers; if authorised these products could further diversify and strengthen the market.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will respond to the recommendations on the use of sodium valproate in the Hughes report, published 7 February 2024.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is carefully considering the valuable work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and the resulting Hughes Report. The report sets out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. The Government will be providing an update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s Report at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 availability of anti-epileptic medication.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working hard with industry to help resolve the intermittent supply issues with some epilepsy medications. As a result of ongoing activity and intensive work, including directing suppliers to expedite deliveries, most issues, including with carbamazepine, lamotrigine, and oxcarbazepine presentations, have been resolved.
We are currently aware of an ongoing supply issue with all strengths of topiramate tablets from one manufacturer. This supply issue is expected to resolve by the end of May 2025. We are also aware of a shortage of phenobarbital 15 milligram tablets from one manufacturer, with the resupply date to be confirmed. In both cases, alternative suppliers are in stock with sufficient supply to support patients, and these issues have been communicated to the National Health Service.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 provision for NHS dentists in Ealing Central and Acton constituency.
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 recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Ealing Central and Acton constituency, this is the NHS Northwest London ICB.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 improve rates of (a) prevention and (b) early diagnosis of liver disease.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Department is aware of the burden of undiagnosed liver disease in the population, and its impact on health and the working years of life lost.
Community Liver Health Checks are being piloted in 19 areas to identify patients with cirrhosis or advanced fibrosis, who are at high risk of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC). These patients will be referred into, and supported to engage with, National Institute for Care and Excellence recommended six-monthly liver cancer surveillance. Many of the patients identified by this route will also receive lifestyle advice and support which aims to reduce future cancer incidence. From June 2022 to October 2024, over 80,000 fibroscans have been delivered and over 5,600 people have been referred for cancer surveillance.
The Community Liver Health Checks programme is also funding a primary care case finding pilot, which uses primary care records to identify patients at high risk of cirrhosis, and offers them blood tests and fibroscans. The pilots are due to finish in December 2024. To date, over 12,400 people have been tested, and 288 people have been identified to have advanced liver disease requiring cancer surveillance.
More widely, NHS England is also focussed on developing pathways for the early diagnosis of fatty liver disease, and prevention via the work to reduce hepatitis C and B infections and to reduce obesity rates. In addition, the NHS Cancer Programme is working to detect more HCCs, the most common liver cancer, at an early stage, when the chances of survival are higher.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 improve diagnosis times for pancreatic cancer in Ealing Central and Acton constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is supporting the National Health Service in taking steps to improve diagnosis times for pancreatic cancer across England, including for the Ealing Central and Acton constituency. 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.
We know that pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose due to the non-specific nature of its symptoms. NHS England is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who have symptoms, such as unexplained weight-loss and fatigue, that do not align to a single tumour type, and pancreatic cancer is one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways. NHS England is also providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those patients at inherited high-risk, to identify lesions before they develop into cancer, as well as increasing general practice direct access to diagnostic tests.
In March 2024, NHS England published guidance for providers and systems to implement a timed Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary cancer pathway with the aim to ensure patients receive a diagnosis or that cancer is ruled out within 28 days of urgent referral. The pathway aims to improve delays in diagnosis, with less time between referral and receiving the outcome of diagnostic tests.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 (a) recruitment and (b) retention of NHS staff in Ealing Central and Acton constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service has been facing chronic workforce shortages for years, and bringing in the staff and investment the NHS needs will take time. We are determined to fix our NHS, and restore it to a service we are proud of. We are committed to training the staff we need to get patients seen on time.
The Government will make sure the NHS has the staff it needs, to be there for all of us when we need it, and will get staff to the places where patients and the NHS needs them, not just benefiting Ealing and Acton, but the whole of the NHS in England.
Local employers are best placed to understand the diverse needs of their communities and subsequently manage their own recruitment to ensure they have the right number of staff, with the right skill mix, to provide the safe and effective care that their patients need.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 tackle equipment waste in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2020, NHS England set out its commitment to reducing its environmental impact, including by increasing the reuse and recycling of medical equipment. This commitment is then applied locally, taking into account local priorities, through local Green Plans.
NHS England also collaborates with NHS Supply Chain to increase availability of reusable products and supports local NHS organisations through the publication of guidance and resources to help with implementing changes.
The Department is also currently considering further opportunities for more efficient and sustainable use of medical technology. We look forward to updating the House at the earliest opportunity.