Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is her Department's planned timeline to provide funding for the (a) outline business case and (b) rebuilding of the James Paget University Hospital.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to delivering a new hospital at James Paget University Hospital by 2030 in line with our announcement in May 2023. This announcement set out the need to prioritise the rebuilding of hospitals constructed with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete to protect staff and patient safety. The New Hospital Programme team is working closely with the trust on how to proceed with this as quickly as possible through a standardised approach. The trust has received funding to develop its Strategic Outline Case. In line with the standard business case assurance processes, once the Strategic Outline Case has been approved, the trust will begin work on their Outline Business Case.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dentists from overseas were registered in (a) 2022, (b) between 1 January and 7 March 2023 and (c) since 8 March 2023.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The General Dental Council (GDC) is the independent regulator of dentists and dental care professionals (DCPs) practising in the United Kingdom and enforces the standards they must adhere to. In order to practise in the UK, dentists and DCPs are required to hold registration with the GDC.
The Department does not hold data on how many dentists and DCPs have been registered with the GDC. The GDC holds its own data on dentists and DCPs who have been registered with them. The GDC regularly publish registration reports on their website; they are available at the following link:
https://www.gdc-uk.org/about-us/what-we-do/the-registers/registration-reports
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many xx-positive cases have been recorded in the UK in each of the last 30 years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) advises that no Trichinella infection has been found in United Kingdom domestic livestock in the past 30 years. Trichinella infection in food producing animals is controlled by European Union regulations, which are directly applicable in the UK. UK industry routinely tests export pigs as required by their export markets, and all sows and boars, horses and feral wild boar going through approved establishments for Trichinella (which currently amounts to about 3–4 million pigs a year), alongside a FSA programme of surveillance in wildlife.
Monitoring for evidence of Trichinella infection in foxes has been carried out in the UK since 1999. Foxes are tested because they are a good indicator of the presence of infection. There have been only two incidences of Trichinella Spiralis found in foxes in Northern Ireland, one in 2007 and one in 2009, and just one incident of Trichinella Pseudospiralis in a fox in Great Britain in 2013.
In terms of human infections, Trichinellosis in humans is notifiable to the Department and any case that occurs is investigated and where possible the source of infection is identified. There have been no human cases acquired from meat produced in the UK for more than 30 years.
Ten cases of trichinellosis were diagnosed in the UK between 2000 and 2012, including an outbreak of eight cases in England and Wales in 2000. Eight of these cases were associated with the consumption of imported meat products. The remaining two cases were travel related where infection was acquired abroad: one case in 2001, and the other 2010.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the performance of Public Health England in reducing inequalities of health outcomes by making improvements in (a) housing conditions and (b) employment capability.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Housing and work are two areas that influence health outcomes. In his strategic review of health inequalities, Professor Sir Michael Marmot reminded us all of the link between people's health and “the conditions in which they are born, grow, live, work and age”.
Public Health England (PHE) has a key role in highlighting the health impact of these issues on health outcomes and health inequalities. It is undertaking a range of work on housing, homelessness and health issues to support and inform national and local stakeholders, including its National Conversation on Health Inequalities, which will help focus future work in this area.
PHE also launched the Healthy People, Healthy Places programme in November 2013 – helping to improve the nation's health through better planning and design to reduce the impact of a poor physical and natural environment is a PHE priority.