Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
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 reduce ambulance waiting times in the South West.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to supporting the National Health Service to improve performance and achieve the standards set out in the NHS Constitution, including for ambulance response times.
As a first step, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care appointed Professor Lord Darzi to lead an independent investigation of the NHS’ performance. The investigation’s findings were published on 12 September and will feed into the Government’s work on a 10-Year Health Plan to radically reform the NHS and build a health service that is fit for the future.
Ahead of this winter, NHS England has set out the priorities for the NHS to maintain and improve patient safety and experience, including actions to support patient flow and ensure ambulances are released in a timely way. NHS England’s winter letter is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/winter-and-h2-priorities/
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
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 (a) financially support and (b) improve local access to NHS dental practices in South West England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges patients face when 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.
On 1 April 2023 responsibility for commissioning NHS dentistry was delegated to integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. The seven ICBs in the Southwest are supported by the NHS Southwest Collaborative Commissioning Hub to commission NHS dentistry in their area.
NHS England has provided guidance for ICBs that requires dental allocations to be ringfenced in 2024/25, with any unused resources re-directed to improve NHS dental access in the first instance, and not spent on other services. ICBs will decide how to use any forecast underspend in line with this guidance.