Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the document entitled Reforming elective care for patients, published on 6 January 2025, which groups of patients will be offered the prehabilitation services outlined in that plan; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending those services to all patients referred for surgery.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Elective Care Reform Plan identifies the importance of supporting all patients to take control of their health, for example through smoking cessation and weight loss programmes, as they prepare for their surgery. As well as improving patient outcomes, this can also enable patients to be treated in lower acuity settings, for example in day case settings enabling patients to go home the same day.
The plan states that NHS England will work through Cancer Alliances to support improvements in prehabilitation for people about to undergo cancer treatment. The approach to this will be informed by the Macmillan Cancer Support/National Institute of Health and Care Research guidance for healthcare professionals, which is available at the following link:
An update on this guidance is expected in spring 2025, alongside existing good practice examples.
Current NHS England guidance requires acute trusts in England to adopt earlier screening, risk assessment and health optimisation for adult patients waiting for inpatient surgery, with more information available at the following link:
NHS England will continue to identify and work with areas of England that have programmes in place for different groups of patients waiting for surgery, including prehabilitation programmes to support patients having major surgery and waiting well programmes to support patients having all types of surgery, to learn from and share best practice.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
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 (a) barriers and (b) costs for NHS trusts in implementing the perioperative care measures outlined in the document entitled Reforming elective care for patients, published on 6 January 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The perioperative care measures outlined in the Elective Care Reform plan build on existing NHS England led work to improve perioperative care including guidance on Earlier screening, risk assessment and health optimisation for adult patients due to have inpatient care. The guidance is available at the following link:
NHS England has worked closely with systems and providers including through onsite visits and system level engagement to understand the key barriers to implementing the perioperative care measures outlined in the Elective Reform Plan.
Whilst costings will vary between organisations, measures from this work alongside supporting improved patient experience and outcomes, will support the delivery of sustainable clinical pathways. This will lead to reduced waste in the National Health Service, for example by ensuring productivity in theatres is maximised.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the age profile is of the NHS midwifery workforce for each Agenda for Change pay band in each region of England in the most recent month for which figures are available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The table attached shows the age profile of the National Health Service midwifery workforce for each Agenda for Change pay band, in each region of England.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the age profile is of the NHS midwifery workforce in (a) the most recent month for which figures are available and (b) the same month in each year since 2015.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The tables attached show the age profile of the National Health Service midwifery workforce in the most recent month for which figures are available, and in the same month in each year since 2015.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether hubs that provide open access mental health services for children and young people in every community will be delivered only through the Young Futures programme.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving mental health support for children and young people, as demonstrated by our pledge to roll out a network of Young Futures Hubs in every community to provide open access mental health support. We are currently working across Government to deliver Young Futures Hubs, to bring together services, including mental health support, to improve how young people access opportunities and support at community level.
We will also improve mental health support for children and young people by providing access to a specialist mental health professional in every school and recruiting 8,500 additional mental health workers to help cut waiting lists across the country.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 12 of the document entitled Reforming elective care for patients, published on 6 January 2025, what steps he plans to take to implement shared decision-making.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Elective Reform Plan, published on 6 January 2025, sets out the reform and productivity efforts needed to ensure that patients are seen on time and have the best possible experience during their care. Shared decision making is an important part of good patient experience, ensuring that patients have greater empowerment, autonomy, and control over their care. Shared decision making is not a new concept but is a key component of universal personalised care that we are committed to delivering and expanding.
Improving digital tools will be essential, and changes to the NHS App will help to improve communication and shared decision making between patients and clinicians. We have committed to ensuring that at least 85% of acute trusts will be able to provide information about their elective appointments to patients on the NHS App by the end of March 2025. We will also make more types of content about patients’ treatment available on the NHS App, such as discharge letters, by December 2025. We will also support all trusts to adopt digital patient engagement portals (PEPs) which enable patients and their healthcare team to send messages and share documents. We understand, though, that digital options do not work for everyone and we will continue to provide high quality, non-digital options for those who want and need them. Providing customer-care training to patient facing non-clinical staff will form another key part of supporting patients to make informed decisions about their care.
The plan outlines that we will be expanding opportunities for self-management and remote monitoring which will empower patients to manage long-term conditions in ways which are more convenient for their lives. The National Health Service will use digital questionnaires through PEPs and the NHS App to make remote monitoring a standard offer to patients with long-term conditions, following agreement with their healthcare team.
Shared decision making between patients and clinicians is a cornerstone of supporting more patient initiated follow-ups (PIFU), helping patients to be seen quickly when required, whilst avoiding the inconvenience of appointments they do not need. We have set out the aim of increasing PIFU uptake to at least 5% of all outpatient appointments by March 2029.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to document entitled the Reforming elective care for patients, published on 6 January 2025, what estimate he has made of the size of the workforce needed to implement the (a) perioperative care measures and (b) requirements for anaesthetists outlined in that plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Elective Reform Plan sets out the reform and productivity efforts needed to ensure that patients are seen on time and have the best possible experience during their care. Improving perioperative care can increase productivity by reducing cancellations, reducing length of stay, and minimising postoperative complications.
The Government will work closely with NHS England to develop a new long-term workforce plan for the National Health Service.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to begin rolling out measures to deliver the 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments this financial year; and how many such appointments he plans to deliver within the same period.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care. We are working to ensure that patients can start to access 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments as soon as possible, targeting areas that need them most. We will set out further information on this commitment, including how this will be measured, in due course.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to deliver 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments each year.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care. We are working to ensure that patients can start to access 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments as soon as possible, targeting areas that need them most. We will set out further information on this commitment, including how this will be measured, in due course.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to commission further waves of the Mental Health of Children and Young People in England report.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department recognises the importance of the Mental Health of Children and Young People in England Report. We will publish plans in due course.