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 recruit physician associates to the NHS in (a) primary and (b) secondary care settings.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years.
The Plan will focus on expanding enhanced, advanced, and associate roles to offer modernised careers, with a stronger emphasis on the generalist and core skills needed to care for patients with multimorbidity, frailty or mental health needs. This includes setting an ambition to grow the proportion of staff in these newer roles from approximately 1% to 5% in the next 15 years. As part of this, we will increase physician associate training places to over 1,500 by 2031/32. Over 1,200 physician associates (PAs) will be trained per year from 2023/24, increasing to over 1,400 a year in 2027/28 and 2028/29, establishing a workforce of 10,000 PAs by 2036/37.
At a local level, NHS organisations are best placed to determine their own recruitment needs, informed by their workforce, service and financial planning and ensuring there is sufficient skilled workforce in both primary and secondary care settings.
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 his Department is taking to tackle disparities in diabetes care (a) access and (b) treatment for people living in low socioeconomic areas.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government continues to support local authorities to make provision for the NHS Health Check, England’s flagship cardiovascular disease prevention programme.
The programme aims to prevent heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, and some cases of dementia among adults aged between 40 and 74 years old. Each year, the programme engages over one million people.
A review of the programme in 2021 found that there were higher rates of NHS Health Check attendance among people over 55, women, black African and Asian ethnic groups. Across all ethnic groups, attendance is lowest amongst people in the most deprived decile.
The NHS Long Term Plan committed to providing a weight management services for people with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes or hypertension and with a body mass index of 30 or higher, adjusted appropriately for ethnicity.
Diabetes is also one of six major groups of conditions that we aim to tackle through the Major Conditions Strategy. The Strategy will set out the supporting and enabling interventions the centre can make to ensure that integrated care systems and the organisations within them maximise the opportunities to tackle clusters of disadvantage in their local areas where they exist. This will include addressing unwarranted variation in outcomes and the care people receive in the context of the recovery from the pandemic.
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 increase the retention of physician associates in the NHS in (a) areas with high staff turnover and (b) other areas.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS People Plan and the People Promise set out a comprehensive range of actions to improve staff retention. They provide a strong focus on creating a more modern, compassionate and inclusive National Health Service culture by strengthening health and wellbeing, equality and diversity, culture and leadership and flexible working.
The NHS priorities and operational planning guidance 23/24 has asked systems to refresh their 2022/23 whole system workforce plans to improve staff retention through a systematic focus on all elements of the NHS People Promise. Staff wellbeing should be strategically aligned with elective recovery plans, including workforce demand and capacity planning. In addition, the NHS Retention Programme is continuously seeking to understand why staff leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst keeping them well.
The Long Term Workforce Plan builds on the People Plan and sets out how to improve culture and leadership to ensure that up to 130,000 fewer staff leave the NHS over the next 15 years. This includes: implementing actions from the NHS People Plan that have been shown to be successful; implementing plans to improve flexible opportunities for prospective retirees and delivering the actions needed to modernise the NHS pension scheme; and committing to ongoing national funding for continuing professional development for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals, so NHS staff are supported to meet their full potential.
These retention initiatives apply across the country and to all staff groups, including physician associates.
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 his Department is taking to help reduce the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Black and South Asian communities.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Given the inequalities in who develops Type 2 diabetes and the poorer outcomes for those of south Asian and black ethnicity, the National Health Service has established a focused engagement campaign, using social media and more traditional approaches, to raise awareness and boost uptake from these groups. A Quality and Outcomes Framework also includes an indicator for annual review of those at risk of Type 2 diabetes in general practice.
The NHS Long Term plan has committed to providing a targeted support offer and access to weight management services in primary care is available for people with a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes and/or hypertension, with a body mass index over 30, which is adjusted appropriately for ethnicity.
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 estimate she has made of the number of maternity exemption certificates that were issued in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of maternity exemption certificates issued between 2019 and 2023 to date:
Calendar Year | Maternity Exemption Certificates Issued |
2019 | 483,299 |
2020 | 444,670 |
2021 | 463,214 |
2022 | 471,603 |
2023 (as of 15 December) | 524,279 |
Source: NHS Business Services Authority
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 mental health support available to unpaid carers.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The demand on National Health Service mental health services has risen significantly as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in the cost of living on people’s mental health continue to be felt. This means that some people including unpaid carers are facing waiting times that are longer than we would like. The NHS is working to ensure that help is available for people as early as possible.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to investing £2.3 billion extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services by March 2024, enabling an extra two million people, including unpaid carers, to be treated by NHS mental health services, including Talking Therapies. The Plan also commits to growing the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 staff in the same period.
The NHS is also working towards implementing five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services as part of its clinical review of NHS Access Standards.
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 has made an assessment of the potential impact of the cost of living on the mental health of unpaid carers.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The demand on National Health Service mental health services has risen significantly as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in the cost of living on people’s mental health continue to be felt. This means that some people including unpaid carers are facing waiting times that are longer than we would like. The NHS is working to ensure that help is available for people as early as possible.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to investing £2.3 billion extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services by March 2024, enabling an extra two million people, including unpaid carers, to be treated by NHS mental health services, including Talking Therapies. The Plan also commits to growing the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 staff in the same period.
The NHS is also working towards implementing five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services as part of its clinical review of NHS Access Standards.
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 reduce waiting times for counselling services for unpaid carers.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The demand on National Health Service mental health services has risen significantly as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in the cost of living on people’s mental health continue to be felt. This means that some people including unpaid carers are facing waiting times that are longer than we would like. The NHS is working to ensure that help is available for people as early as possible.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to investing £2.3 billion extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services by March 2024, enabling an extra two million people, including unpaid carers, to be treated by NHS mental health services, including Talking Therapies. The Plan also commits to growing the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 staff in the same period.
The NHS is also working towards implementing five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services as part of its clinical review of NHS Access Standards.
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 recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of communications by the NHS on access to maternity exemption certificates for pregnant women.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Both the NHS Business Services Authority and the National Health Service promote maternity exemption certificates to professionals and patients to ensure both groups are aware of the entitlement to exemption from health costs and the need for a maternity exemption certificate to do so. We are working with NHSBSA on communications to ensure that midwives, general practitioners, and other healthcare practitioners are aware of their obligations to apply for maternity exemption certificates on behalf of the patient and ensure that individuals are aware of the entitlement, and that information is provided to expectant mothers. The certificates are also promoted through social media, online resources, media releases and through healthcare bulletins.
Information on how to apply for a maternity exemption certificate is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/prescriptions-and-pharmacies/who-can-get-free-prescriptions/
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 her Department has made of the potential merits of backdating maternity exemption certificates to the start of pregnancy (a) if an application is made later in the pregnancy and (b) in all circumstances.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
A maternity exemption certificate can be applied for as soon as a healthcare professional has confirmed the pregnancy or that the patient has given birth, including still-birth, in the previous twelve months. The certificate is automatically backdated one month from the date the application is received by the NHS Business Services Authority.