A Bill to require the Secretary of State to publish a strategy for the recruitment and retention of health and social care staff in rural areas; and for connected purposes.
Correspondence Sep. 05 2023
Inquiry: Healthcare in remote and rural areasFound: National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery
Found: Health and Social Care (Recruitment and Retention of Staff in Rural Areas) Bill [AS INTRODUCED
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on improving infection prevention and control practices in animals.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government takes a One Health approach to infection prevention and control, and antimicrobial resistance, as set out in the UK National Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance (NAP AMR) for 2019 to 2024. The UK NAP AMR delivery board is co-chaired by senior officials from the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs.
Officials from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate meet regularly to consider appropriate actions to promote good animal health, welfare, and biosecurity in the animal health sector. This is done in accordance with the Government’s One-Health approach, to mitigating the risk of transmission of zoonotic infections between animals and humans, and to tackle the threat of antimicrobial resistance. A zoonosis is any disease or infection that is naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the adequacy of the provision of mental health services in rural areas.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
While there are no plans for a specific assessment, the Government remains committed to supporting rural communities, as set out in its Unleashing Rural Opportunity report, published in June 2023. Since the launch of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee's inquiry into Rural Mental Health in 2021, considerable progress has been made to help ensure access to mental health services in rural areas, as outlined in the Government's response to the committee in November 2023.
Notably, since 2018, we have invested an extra £2.3 billion a year to expand mental health services in England, with the aim of enabling two million more people, including those in rural areas, to access mental health support by March 2024.
Integrated care boards (ICB) are responsible for decisions about the provision of services in their area and on how funding allocations should be used to meet the needs of people in their areas. There are a range of adjustments made in the ICB allocations formula to account for how the costs of providing health care may vary between different types of rural and urban areas. We expect all ICBs to continue to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard, increasing their mental health spend in line with their overall funding allocations.
Apr. 15 2024
Source Page: Correspondence relating to the resignation of Professor Jason Leitch: FOI releaseFound: Official Sensitive ANNEX C DG Health and Social Care/CE NHS Scotland 12 March 2024
Correspondence Dec. 19 2023
Committee: Health, Social Care and Sport CommitteeFound: Primary Care Directorate follow up Letter from the Primary Care Directorate following their giving evidence
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on levels of ill health caused by contact with sewage contaminated water.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a wide range of issues, and Cabinet discussions are considered confidential.
Defra and Department of Health and Social Care officials have had and continue to have ongoing conversations about the public health impacts of contact with sewage contaminated water and how to manage the risks going forward.
Feb. 13 2024
Source Page: International Development Fund: Malawi projects 2018-2023Found: child health by increasing health behaviours and the use of critical health services, and by removing
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 support General Practices in rural areas.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care outlines how we will support general practices (GPs), including in rural areas, by empowering patients to manage their own health, implementing the Modern General Practice Access model, expanding community pharmacy services, and cutting bureaucracy to reduce workload.
We acknowledge that some areas of the country are experiencing recruitment and retention issues with regard to National Health Service GPs, and we are taking steps to address this. In 2016, the Government launched the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme, which has attracted hundreds of doctors to train in hard to recruit locations, including many rural areas, by providing a one-off financial incentive of £20,000.