Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2024 to Question 13775 on Hospices: Children, what his timescale is for announcing funding arrangements for the Children's Hospice Grant for 2025/26.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware that clarity on the 2025/26 funding arrangements is needed to help children’s hospices, as they confirm their budgets. I have met NHS England, Together for Short Lives, and one of the co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children Who Need Palliative Care, Lord Balfe, and discussed these issues at length.
The Department is working to confirm funding arrangements as a matter of urgency.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
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 ensure pandemic preparedness in the context of the mpox outbreak in Africa.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will continue to keep the global situation and our domestic preparations under close review, and ministers across the Government are working together to coordinate our response.
The UKHSA is engaged with our international partners, including the World Health Organisation, European, American, and African centres for disease control and prevention and national public health agencies, ensuring we receive updates about international cases in a timely fashion.
The Government holds a stock of vaccines to provide vaccinations to protect high-risk individuals during outbreaks. The Government will make further decisions on vaccine procurement as the situation evolves.
The risk to the United Kingdom’s population of being exposed to Mpox clade I is currently considered low. However, planning is underway to prepare for any cases that we might see in the UK. This includes ensuring that clinicians are aware and able to recognise cases promptly, that rapid testing is available, and that protocols are developed for the safe clinical care of people who have the infection and to prevent onward transmission.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 22 May 2023 to Questions 184828 and 184829 on Defibrillators, when he plans to open the application process for the Automated External Defibrillator Fund to community groups.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Department is currently in the pre-procurement stage of determining a selected partner for the Automated External Defibrillator Fund. On 26 May 2023, the Department published the Community Automated External Defibrillators Fund (Grant Administration) for a supplier to manage grant applications for Automated External Defibrillators from local organisations and community groups. The notice is available at the following link:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/2c6e4cd1-3302-448d-8ebe-2795fb996843
It is anticipated that a contract will be awarded to a supplier to expand defibrillator access in the community by Summer 2023.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2023 to Question 146994 on Defibrillators: Public Places, what his Department's estimated timeline is for completing the procurement processes for the £1 million fund to expand defibrillator access in the community.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Department is currently in the pre-procurement stage in its process of determining a selected partner for the Automated External Defibrillator Fund. The Department will publish shortly an invitation for organisations to bid for the fund through GOV.UK. It is anticipated that a contract will be awarded to a supplier to expand defibrillator access in the community by August 2023.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the press release entitled Number of defibrillators to be increased with new funding, published by his Department on 29 December 2022, when his Department plans to invite interested parties to bid for this grant funding.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Department is currently in the pre-procurement stage in its process of determining a selected partner for the Automated External Defibrillator Fund. The Department will publish shortly an invitation for organisations to bid for the fund through GOV.UK. It is anticipated that a contract will be awarded to a supplier to expand defibrillator access in the community by August 2023.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Automated External Defibrillator Fund will be made available in (a) Aldridge-Brownhills constituency and (b) the UK.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Department is currently in the pre-procurement stage in its process of determining a selected partner for the Automated External Defibrillator Fund. A typical procurement that is compliant with the Public Contract Regulations 2015 can take between three and six months depending on the procurement route chosen.
The Department will publish in due course an invitation to bid for the fund through GOV.UK. The invitation will be open to all interested organisations including any in the Aldridge-Brownhills constituency.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects to publish the new National Suicide Prevention Strategy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
We have committed to publish a new national suicide prevention strategy this year and are engaging widely across the suicide prevention sector to understand what further action we can take to reduce suicides amongst different groups.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to provide targeted funding to support local area services for suicide prevention work beyond 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Whilst funding beyond 2024/25 is subject to future Spending Reviews, we will consider further opportunities to build upon the £57 million we are investing into suicide prevention from 2019/20 to 2023/24 through the NHS Long Term Plan. Through this funding, all areas of the country are seeing investment to support local suicide prevention plans and the development of suicide bereavement services.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to ensure that funding allocated to breast cancer screening units is not diverted into the symptomatic pathway.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
National Health Service breast screening services are commissioned with funds which are dedicated to the NHS Breast Screening Programme. The screening pathway at both the initial screening stage, and if further diagnostic testing is required, is conducted in clinics which only accommodate women who have attended invitations from the screening programme. Provision for women with symptoms is funded from other sources and via separate clinics.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 22 February 2023 to Question 48769 on Breast Cancer: Screening, whether his Department requires GP's to introduce text message alerts for all breast screening services.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
Invitations and text reminders to attend breast screenings are not sent out by general practitioners. They are sent out through breasts screening units using the national information technology system commissioned by NHS England, which generates invitations.
In line with the NHS Long Term Plan and the Sir Mike Richards Independent Review of National Cancer Screening Programmes in England, NHS England has committed to the promotion of the use of text messages in screening.