Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department (a) has taken and (b) plans to take steps to learn from international best practice on the provision of rehabilitative care for injured veterans.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) is part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme, with construction starting in 2023. This new 70-bed facility will benefit all patients including veterans by bringing together patient care, research, innovation, and training and education under one roof.
In addition, Op RESTORE has been commissioned by NHS England to act as a comprehensive veterans’ mental and physical health and wellbeing service. It supports individuals who have served in, or are leaving, the British Armed Forces and who have physical health injuries and related medical problems attributed to their time in the Armed Forces. Additionally, in April 2023, a new integrated Op COURAGE service launched which includes access to dedicated support for those presenting with substance misuse and other addictions such as gambling. Access to Op COURAGE is via referral or by direct contact from veterans, with a campaign to raise awareness of Op COURAGE having been launched on 9 January 2024.
The Government is providing an additional £10 million to support the Veterans’ Places, People and Pathways Programme to increase support to a significant community of vulnerable veterans throughout the United Kingdom, and to enable it to become self-sustaining.
The Government has not made any assessment of the adequacy of existing rehabilitative care for injured veterans, existing treatment services for veterans with alcohol and drug dependency or existing mental health support for veterans who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Office for Veterans' Affairs engage with Five Eyes international partners to share best practice on research and policy delivery. This engagement covers a wide range of issues relating to veterans including physical health. My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has not had additional engagement with international partners on rehabilitative care for veterans.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of existing rehabilitative care for injured veterans.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) is part of the Government’s New Hospital Programme, with construction starting in 2023. This new 70-bed facility will benefit all patients including veterans by bringing together patient care, research, innovation, and training and education under one roof.
In addition, Op RESTORE has been commissioned by NHS England to act as a comprehensive veterans’ mental and physical health and wellbeing service. It supports individuals who have served in, or are leaving, the British Armed Forces and who have physical health injuries and related medical problems attributed to their time in the Armed Forces. Additionally, in April 2023, a new integrated Op COURAGE service launched which includes access to dedicated support for those presenting with substance misuse and other addictions such as gambling. Access to Op COURAGE is via referral or by direct contact from veterans, with a campaign to raise awareness of Op COURAGE having been launched on 9 January 2024.
The Government is providing an additional £10 million to support the Veterans’ Places, People and Pathways Programme to increase support to a significant community of vulnerable veterans throughout the United Kingdom, and to enable it to become self-sustaining.
The Government has not made any assessment of the adequacy of existing rehabilitative care for injured veterans, existing treatment services for veterans with alcohol and drug dependency or existing mental health support for veterans who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Office for Veterans' Affairs engage with Five Eyes international partners to share best practice on research and policy delivery. This engagement covers a wide range of issues relating to veterans including physical health. My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has not had additional engagement with international partners on rehabilitative care for veterans.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with her international counterparts on best practice on tackling veterans’ mental health issues.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Minister for Veterans' Affairs and the Office for Veterans' Affairs engage with the Five Eyes international partners to share best practices on research and policy delivery. This engagement covers a wide range of issues relating to veterans, including mental health. In addition, officials from the Nigerian Government visited the United Kingdom in January 2024 to learn from the UK’s offer to the veteran community, which included health service provision.
Op COURAGE is a bespoke mental health service for veterans and is commissioned by NHS England. NHS England has engaged with partners in the United States and has undertaken global literature research to identify the best practices and use evidence-based learning to develop this service. In 2023, NHS England met with the Australian High Commission to share learnings from Op COURAGE to inform and promote the best practices for veterans’ mental health in Australia.
There have been no additional discussions by the Department with international counterparts on the best practices for tackling veterans’ mental health issues.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of mental health support for veterans.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Op COURAGE is the bespoke mental health pathway for veterans offering evidence-based treatment interventions, commissioned by NHS England. Monitoring and performance management of the system is for NHS England as commissioners of the service.
NHS England meets with the providers of Op COURAGE through the contract management route to discuss how the service is being delivered. This includes understanding how the service responds to the number of referrals it receives and a range of other quality measures, including service user feedback. As part of routine clinical practice, providers of Op COURAGE undertake pre and post treatment assessment at an individual patient level to ensure the effectiveness of treatment. The Department has made no additional assessment of the adequacy of mental health support for veterans.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of the availability of continuous glucose monitoring for people with type-1 diabetes; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of taking steps to increase access to that monitoring.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Plan made a commitment that 20% of people with type 1 diabetes would benefit from life changing flash glucose monitors. Data up to the third quarter of 2022/23 shows that 73% of people with type 1 diabetes were prescribed flash glucose monitoring, against the 20% target. As a result of the recent National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance that also recommended that insulin dependent patients with type 2 diabetes should benefit from flash or continuous glucose monitoring devices, we are now starting to see a growth in prescription within the type 2 diabetes patient group.
Variation ratio in prescribing between the most and least affluent Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) quintiles has been monitored on a quarterly basis. Variation between these IMD quintiles has reduced in every English region. When the programme started, Flash was twice as likely to be prescribed to patients living in the most affluent areas. The current ratio between most and least affluent geographies is now at a ratio of 1 to 1.02, meaning there is virtually parity between the most and least deprived patient groups across England.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of the withdrawal of ear syringing procedures by GPs on patient wellbeing in the West Midlands.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Manual ear syringing is no longer advised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) due to the risks associated with it, such as trauma to their ear drum or infection. NICE takes account of the potential benefits and risks of treatments to patients when developing its recommendations and sets them out in guidance, for instance the guidance on hearing loss in adults. It is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng98/chapter/Recommendations#removing-earwax
To promote the wellbeing of those with an excessive build-up of ear wax, the National Health Service website recommends home remedies such as olive oil drops. If further ear wax removal treatment is required, then general practices can refer patients into recommended, safe and professional ear wax removal services such as micro-suction or ear irrigation. Integrated care boards are responsible for ensuring such services are in place as are required to meet the needs of the local population.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of social care support for veterans.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has an ambition to make the United Kingdom the best place in the world to be a veteran by 2028. Veterans are entitled to the same social care and support as the civilian population of England. The Veterans’ Strategy Action Plan 2022-2024, published by the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, includes a commitment to explore options for the introduction of veteran-aware training for social work teams in every local authority in England.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of GPs in Birmingham, Selly Oak constituency.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working with NHS England to increase the general practice (GP) workforce in England. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice.
NHS England has made available several retention schemes available to boost the GP workforce. We have increased the number of GP training places and 2022 saw 4,032 trainees accepting a place on GP training, up from 2,671 in 2014. Under the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, the number of training places will rise to 6,000 by 2031/32, with the first 500 new places available from September 2025.
Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board advises that primary care is recognised as the cornerstone of the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System (ICS), and that the primary care sector in the ICS has made significant progress over recent years. It has set out key initiatives, including making Birmingham and Solihull a destination for newly qualified doctors and nurses and for existing doctors and nurses to feel valued. The ICS has been cited as an exemplar for the ‘New to Practice Fellowships Scheme’, which offers a two-year programme of support available to all newly-qualified GPs and nurses working substantively in general practice, with an explicit focus on working within and across primary care networks.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 (a) recruit and (b) retain GPs.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working with NHS England to increase the general practice (GP) workforce in England. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice.
NHS England has made available several retention schemes available to boost the GP workforce. We have increased the number of GP training places and 2022 saw 4,032 trainees accepting a place on GP training, up from 2,671 in 2014. Under the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, the number of training places will rise to 6,000 by 2031/32, with the first 500 new places available from September 2025.
Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board advises that primary care is recognised as the cornerstone of the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System (ICS), and that the primary care sector in the ICS has made significant progress over recent years. It has set out key initiatives, including making Birmingham and Solihull a destination for newly qualified doctors and nurses and for existing doctors and nurses to feel valued. The ICS has been cited as an exemplar for the ‘New to Practice Fellowships Scheme’, which offers a two-year programme of support available to all newly-qualified GPs and nurses working substantively in general practice, with an explicit focus on working within and across primary care networks.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of NHS ear syringing treatment in the West Midlands.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service will often recommend home treatment remedies to alleviate ear wax build-up. Manual ear syringing is no longer advised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) due to risks associated with it, such as trauma to their ear drum or infection.
However, in line with NICE guidance, a person may require ear wax removal treatment if the build-up of earwax is linked with hearing loss. A general practice could then consider referring the patient into audiology services. Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning healthcare services that meet the needs of their local populations – including for audiology and ear wax removal services.
ICBs should therefore arrange for the provision of ear wax removal services for when a patient has a clinical need for ear wax removal beyond home treatments.
The NICE published guidelines last year on hearing loss – and specifically on ear wax removal treatment, at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng98/chapter/Recommendations#removing-earwax