Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 support hospital trusts with significant waiting lists to (a) share and (b) implement best practices in (i) England and (ii) Slough constituency.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service and the Department are aiming to transform elective care across England. This includes providing additional regional or national support and intervention to the most challenged trusts. We are driving activity by using wider system capacity, through use of the independent sector, mutual aid, offering patients a choice at the point of referral, and expanding and protecting elective planned diagnostic services through community diagnostic centres (CDC). In January 2024, a new CDC opened in Slough delivering additional checks, tests, and scans as mobile activity. To help manage the demand, the NHS is providing ongoing rigorous delivery monitoring, sharing best practice approaches between trusts, providing specialised advice in primary care, and driving productivity through pilot schemes and a new network of surgical hubs.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Comment entitled Health spending planned to fall in England and Scotland in 2024–25, suggesting a top-up likely, published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies on 4 March 2024, what steps he is taking to help ensure the NHS maintains (a) quality of care and (b) patient outcomes in the 2024/25 financial year.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Spring Budget 2024 announced that the Government is protecting the day-to-day funding of the National Health Service in England, providing an extra £2.45 billion in 2024/25. This will allow the NHS to continue to focus on reducing waiting times, and will bring the NHS’s resource budget in 2024/25 to £164.9 billion. This means that NHS funding will increase from 2023/24, and equates to a real terms increase of 13% since 2019/20.
An additional £3.4 billion of capital funding announced at the budget will aid the NHS’ technological and digital transformation over three years, between 2025/26 and 2027/28. This will provide wider benefits to quality of care and patient outcomes, such as better prevention, and patients living longer and healthier lives, as a result of receiving scans earlier. Devolved administrations, including Scotland, will benefit from additional funding through the Barnett formula.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 NHS funding to tackle the backlog of (a) elective surgeries and (b) other non-emergency procedures.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to making the best possible progress against the ambitions set out in the Elective Recovery Plan (ERP), despite a range of constraints that have impacted on delivery. These constraints have included, but were not limited to, higher than expected COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 related bed occupancy, and periods of disruptive industrial action.
The Government regularly reviews progress against the ambitions in the ERP, including affordability, and the impact of the constraints listed above. The Government is planning to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, to help drive up and protect elective activity.
This is supported by NHS England’s planning guidance, which in 2023/24 set an initial elective recovery target of 107%, delivered through a payment-by-result mechanism. To reflect the impact of industrial action, the Government and NHS England agreed to revise the elective activity target to 103% for the remainder of 2023/24, and in November 2023 provided an additional £800 million of funding from a combination of reprioritised and new funding, to mitigate the costs of industrial action. Planning guidance for 2024/25 will set out the ambitions for 2024/25, and will be published shortly.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of private renting on mental health.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency’s Adverse Weather and Health Plan, which was last updated in November 2023, sets out evidence on potential impacts that housing conditions such as excess cold, damp, mould, and overheating can have on mental health. This plan is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adverse-weather-and-health-plan
In September 2023, the Government published Understanding and addressing the health risks of damp and mould in the home. This guidance sets out the physical and mental health risks of damp and mould, and the steps social and private landlords should take to address these issues. The 2022 Levelling Up white paper set out our ambition to halve the number of non-decent rented homes by 2030, with the biggest improvements in the lowest performing areas.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department is taking steps to tackle regional variations in early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is taking a wide range of activity to increase awareness and early diagnosis of, as well as tackle regional variations in, ovarian cancer. Since 2020 NHS England has run several Help Us Help You campaigns, that have included a focus on abdominal symptoms which, amongst other abdominal cancers, can be indicative of ovarian cancer.
NHS England relaunched the Help Us Help You cancer campaign on the 8 January 2024, to encourage people to get in touch with their general practitioner if they notice, or are worried about, symptoms that could be cancer. The campaign address barriers to people coming forward with suspected signs of cancer in general, and is not specific to ovarian cancer.
Raising awareness and improving early diagnosis of cancers, including ovarian cancer, remains a priority across all regions in England. NHS England is working towards the NHS Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage one and two by 2028. Achieving this will mean that, from 2028, around 55,000 more people each year will survive their cancer for at least five years after diagnosis.
To help increase cancer diagnosis rates, as of February 2024, there are 154 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) open with over six million checks carried out, with the aim of having 160 CDCs open by March 2025. We also plan to transform the way the National Health Service provides elective care, by increasing activity at dedicated and protected surgical hubs. These will help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, including for ovarian cancer. At present, the surgical hubs are focusing on a number of specialities, including gynaecology.
The NHS is improving pathways to get people diagnosed faster once they are referred, and is looking into alternative routes into the system, including non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway, but who are at risk of being diagnosed with cancer. This will help support faster ovarian cancer diagnosis. 108 NSS pathways are currently operational, with more in development.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to increase awareness of ovarian cancer symptoms.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is taking a wide range of activity to increase awareness and early diagnosis of, as well as tackle regional variations in, ovarian cancer. Since 2020 NHS England has run several Help Us Help You campaigns, that have included a focus on abdominal symptoms which, amongst other abdominal cancers, can be indicative of ovarian cancer.
NHS England relaunched the Help Us Help You cancer campaign on the 8 January 2024, to encourage people to get in touch with their general practitioner if they notice, or are worried about, symptoms that could be cancer. The campaign address barriers to people coming forward with suspected signs of cancer in general, and is not specific to ovarian cancer.
Raising awareness and improving early diagnosis of cancers, including ovarian cancer, remains a priority across all regions in England. NHS England is working towards the NHS Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage one and two by 2028. Achieving this will mean that, from 2028, around 55,000 more people each year will survive their cancer for at least five years after diagnosis.
To help increase cancer diagnosis rates, as of February 2024, there are 154 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) open with over six million checks carried out, with the aim of having 160 CDCs open by March 2025. We also plan to transform the way the National Health Service provides elective care, by increasing activity at dedicated and protected surgical hubs. These will help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, including for ovarian cancer. At present, the surgical hubs are focusing on a number of specialities, including gynaecology.
The NHS is improving pathways to get people diagnosed faster once they are referred, and is looking into alternative routes into the system, including non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway, but who are at risk of being diagnosed with cancer. This will help support faster ovarian cancer diagnosis. 108 NSS pathways are currently operational, with more in development.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 increase early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is taking a wide range of activity to increase awareness and early diagnosis of, as well as tackle regional variations in, ovarian cancer. Since 2020 NHS England has run several Help Us Help You campaigns, that have included a focus on abdominal symptoms which, amongst other abdominal cancers, can be indicative of ovarian cancer.
NHS England relaunched the Help Us Help You cancer campaign on the 8 January 2024, to encourage people to get in touch with their general practitioner if they notice, or are worried about, symptoms that could be cancer. The campaign address barriers to people coming forward with suspected signs of cancer in general, and is not specific to ovarian cancer.
Raising awareness and improving early diagnosis of cancers, including ovarian cancer, remains a priority across all regions in England. NHS England is working towards the NHS Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage one and two by 2028. Achieving this will mean that, from 2028, around 55,000 more people each year will survive their cancer for at least five years after diagnosis.
To help increase cancer diagnosis rates, as of February 2024, there are 154 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) open with over six million checks carried out, with the aim of having 160 CDCs open by March 2025. We also plan to transform the way the National Health Service provides elective care, by increasing activity at dedicated and protected surgical hubs. These will help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, including for ovarian cancer. At present, the surgical hubs are focusing on a number of specialities, including gynaecology.
The NHS is improving pathways to get people diagnosed faster once they are referred, and is looking into alternative routes into the system, including non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway, but who are at risk of being diagnosed with cancer. This will help support faster ovarian cancer diagnosis. 108 NSS pathways are currently operational, with more in development.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 impact of (a) mould and (b) damp on the long-term health of social housing tenants.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In September 2023 the Department of Health and Social Care, jointly with the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and the UK Health Security Agency, published Understanding and addressing the health risks of damp and mould in the home, which is available on GOV.UK website. This guidance sets out the health risks of damp and mould, and the steps social and private landlords should take to address these issues.
The guidance indicates that damp and mould in the home may present a significant health risk to social housing tenants and can contribute to the development and worsening of respiratory conditions. Damp and mould can also affect the eyes and skin and contribute to fungal infections, especially in people with weakened immune systems.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to promote research on diabetes health inequalities in rural communities.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including diabetes and health inequalities.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to promote collaboration between (a) the NHS, (b) community organisations and (c) health experts to tackle diabetes health inequalities.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Diabetes Programme (NDP) develops policies and provides leadership and support to integrated care boards (ICBs), to improve diabetes care and outcomes. The NDP routinely engages with people with firsthand experience of diabetes, sector stakeholders, and health experts in order to inform policy, and seeks input from a broad range of communities to support development of projects that aim to tackle variation and inequalities.
The NDP collaborates extensively with Diabetes UK, who conducts research with people who have lived experience of diabetes on behalf of the programme, for specific projects, and participates in the programme’s decision making at a board level. The NDP has also collaborated with Diabetes UK’s Tackling Inequality Commission, which engaged with communities, community organisations, and health experts. A report was released of the findings in November 2023.
The National Health Service statement on information on health inequalities sets out a description of the powers available to relevant NHS bodies to collect, analyse, and publish information, and the views of NHS England about how those powers should be exercised. The following diabetes metrics are included: the care process delivery, measuring variation between the percentage of people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes receiving all eight care processes, reported by deprivation and ethnicity; and the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, measuring variation between the percentage of NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme referrals from the most deprived quintile and the percentage of the type 2 diabetic population from the most deprived quintile.
ICBs and other NHS bodies will be required to include in their annual reports for 2023/24 and 2024/25, information that shows they have exercised their functions in accordance with the NHS legal statement. They will also need to publish reports on the information collected, how the data has been used to guide action, and summarise the inequalities it reveals.
The NDP ensures local health care systems, including those with rural communities, can benchmark and identify inequalities in diabetes care and outcomes through National Diabetes Audit data that contains demographic information such as age, deprivation, and ethnicity. Examples of the data can be found in the National Diabetes Audit Dashboards. The NDP also allocates funding to support the costs of diabetes clinical lead posts in local health systems, with a key priority of supporting improvement in addressing health inequalities at the local level.