Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 merits of including targets to reduce the diagnosis time for myeloma in the National Cancer Plan for England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Early diagnosis is a key focus of the National Cancer Plan. It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancers, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes.
To tackle late diagnoses of blood cancers, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. Blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.
We will get the NHS diagnosing blood cancers earlier and treating it faster, and we will support the NHS to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment, including for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately drive up this country’s cancer survival rates.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many newly qualified nurses have been recruited to each NHS Trust in the last four years; and how many have been recruited from overseas.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold information on the number of newly qualified nurses recruited by each National Health Service trust, and where they were trained.
The table attached shows the number of joiners to the nursing and health visitors staff group at a band five level, by NHS trust, for each of the past four financial years. It is not possible to accurately identify a member of staff who is newly qualified, but in the attached table we have given the number of staff joining the NHS in band five roles, which is the pay grade at which nurses begin their employment, although this will include some nurses who have left NHS employment for a period of time and returned into band five roles, including those returning from unpaid career breaks. The Electronic Staff Record System, the Human Resources system for the NHS from which this information is drawn, also includes the self-declared nationality of staff, and whilst this may not equate to where they were trained, it allows new joiners to be split by United Kingdom and non-UK nationalities.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 impact of hospital Safer Staffing requirements on the newly qualified nurses’ ability to become employed in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of hospital Safer Staffing requirements on newly qualified nurses’ ability to become employed in the National Health Service.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the (a) number of students who graduated in nursing and (b) number and proportion of those graduates who were employed within six months in the last four years, broken down by higher education institution.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) publishes information on the number of United Kingdom trained nurses joining their register for the first time, who are resident in England. The following table shows the number of UK trained nurses joining the NMC register in England for the first time by financial year:
Financial year | Number of UK qualified registered nurses joining the NMC register for the first time |
2021/22 | 15,132 |
2022/23 | 16,420 |
2023/24 | 18,478 |
2024/25 | 19,670 |
Source: Nursing and Midwifery Council, March 2025 Annual Data Report.
The Department does not hold information on the number of graduates who are employed within six months.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of the reduction in the number of nursing lecturer positions in higher education institutions on the Government's ability to fulfil the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. Universities are autonomous bodies, independent from the Government, and are responsible for their own staffing and recruitment decisions.
We are committed to training the staff we need to get patients seen on time and will continue to work closely with partners in the higher education sector to do so. Later this year, we will publish a new workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade and treat patients on time again.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the annual cost is for using Hospedia for patients in each NHS trust in England; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a national policy on the use of television in hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No data is collected centrally on the annual cost for using Hospedia or the provision of bedside television and similar services by the National Health Service.
NHS providers are locally responsible for the provision of bedside television and similar services, including the charges for them. If patients do not wish to, or are unable to afford the cost of the bedside television, they should still be able to watch the free to view television via their own devices and local hospital Wi-Fi, or in the hospital day rooms or communal areas.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the closure of hyperbaric chambers on regional health inequalities.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to ensuring equitably accessible, high-quality services, for any patient who requires hyperbaric oxygen therapy. NHS England set out their assessment of service requirements in their commissioning intentions during the public consultation which took place in September 2024. Further information on the public consultation is available at the following link:
The reconfiguration of services ensures service provision which meets optimal time to treatment guidelines, in which providers must be located no more than four hours, based on 200 miles radial distance, from the coast and four hours from the next nearest commissioned provider.
We actively encourage individuals and organisations to register as stakeholders to ensure a full range of views are included in any service developments. Stakeholders can register their interest in services commissioned by NHS England on their website, at the following link:
https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/application/crg-stakeholder-reg-april-2019/
The published Equality and Health Inequalities Impact Assessment sets out an evaluation, including access to services, and where appropriate action was taken to ensure fair access to any patient who requires this service. Further information on the Equality and Health Inequalities Impact Assessment is available at the following link:
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to implement a heart disease action plan.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
We are committed to ensuring that fewer lives are lost to the biggest killers, such as heart disease, which includes cardiovascular disease (CVD), and stroke. That is why in our Health Mission to build a National Health Service fit for the future, we have committed to reducing deaths from heart disease and strokes by a quarter within ten years.
We are taking steps to reduce heart disease. The NHS Long Term Plan set an aim to prevent up to 150,000 heart attacks, strokes, and dementia cases by 2029, and activity is underway. The NHS Health Check programme, England’s CVD prevention programme, engages over 1.3 million people a year and prevents approximately 500 heart attacks or strokes each year. To improve access and engagement with the NHS Health Check, we are developing a new digital service which people can use at home to understand and act on their CVD risk, providing people with a more flexible, accessible, and convenient service. We are also piloting a new programme to deliver more than 130,000 lifesaving heart health checks in the workplace. These checks can be completed quickly and easily by people at work across 48 local authorities until 31 March 2025.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of GP appointments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We know that patients are finding it harder than ever to see a general practitioner (GP) and we are committed to fixing the crisis in GPs. Our plan will require both investment and reform. Firstly, we will increase the proportion of funding for GPs, starting with a commitment to recruit over 1,000 newly qualified GPs through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme. This will increase the number of appointments delivered in general practice, secure the future pipeline of GPs, and take pressure off those currently working in the system. Additionally, we will deliver a modern booking system to end the 8:00am scramble for GP appointments and bring back the family doctor by incentivising GPs to see the same patient.
We have committed to develop a 10-Year Health Plan, to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future, with input from the public, patients, health staff, and our stakeholders as we develop the plan. More information is available at the following link:
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce ambulance waiting times.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has committed to supporting the National Health Service to improve performance and achieve the standards set out in the NHS Constitution, including for ambulance response times.
As a first step, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, appointed Professor Lord Darzi to lead an independent investigation of the NHS’ performance. The investigation’s findings were published on 12 September and will feed into the Government’s work on a 10-Year Health Plan to radically reform the NHS and build a health service that is fit for the future.
Ahead of this winter, NHS England has set out the priorities for the NHS to maintain and improve patient safety and experience, including actions to support patient flow and ensure ambulances are released in a timely way. NHS England’s winter letter is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/winter-and-h2-priorities