Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will undertake a review of her strategy on alcohol use through a harm reduction approach.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government takes a wide-ranging approach to reducing alcohol related harms. Several aspects of the Department's work to address alcohol related harms already follows a harm reduction approach. These include the UK Chief Medical Officers’ low-risk drinking guidelines, which recommend that people moderate their drinking to 14 units a week, and guidance from England’s Chief Medical Officer for healthcare professionals, on the consumption of alcohol by young people. The National Health Service’s Better Heath campaign aims to motivate people to take steps to improve their health, including in relation to alcohol use, and the NHS Health Check provides an opportunity for general practitioners to offer advice to reduce alcohol use, if appropriate.
In relation to treatment, the Department is committed to promoting access to alcohol services through our drug strategy. The upcoming UK clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment will include a chapter on taking a harm reduction approach within alcohol treatment, which outlines a flexible service approach. The Department, in partnership with the devolved administrations, will publish these guidelines later this year.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 merits of requiring each integrated care system to establish alert systems for general practice.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England instructs integrated care boards (ICBs) to ensure tools are in place to understand demand, activity, and capacity levels in primary care. It is for ICBs to work with practices to determine appropriate local escalation processes for periods of increased demand, and many practices have already agreed such processes with their ICBs, specifically tailored to local needs.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the potential merits of introducing a guaranteed permanent residence for international medical graduates qualifying as GPs.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the important role that international medical graduates play in helping to grow the general practice (GP) workforce, and the barriers that they can face upon successful completion of GP Specialty Training. We have introduced an additional four months for these doctors at the end of their visa, which will allow newly qualified international GPs who wish to work in the United Kingdom with the time they require to find employment following completion of their training. Having invested in National Health Service training for these GPs, they should continue working in the sector by securing employment with a GP with a visa sponsorship licence.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 help grow the GP workforce.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We remain committed to growing the general practice (GP) workforce, and the number of doctors in GPs. There were 4,282 more headcount, or 2,709 full time equivalent, doctors working in GPs in March 2024, compared to March 2019. The Government is working with NHS England to increase the GP workforce in England. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice.
We have increased the number of GP training places, and 2022 saw the highest ever number of doctors accepting a place on GP training, a record 4,032 trainees, up from 2,671 in 2014. Under the NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan, the number of training places will rise to 6,000 by 2031/32, with the first 500 new places available from September 2025.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 merits of increasing the share of NHS funding for general practice.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Plan committed to increasing investment into primary medical and community health services, as a share of the planned total National Health Service revenue spend across five years, from 2019/20 to 2023/24. Investment in general practice (GP) has grown in each of the last five years and in 2021/22, the latest year for which data is available, we saw a 7.14% growth in investment, compared with 2020/21. The full report is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/investment-in-general-practice-in-england-17-18-to-21-22/
The Delivery Plan For Recovering Access to Primary Care, published by NHS England on 9 May 2023, recognised the benefits of moving care closer to home, and supported the vision set out in Dr Claire Fuller’s stocktake report, Next steps For Integrating Primary Care. This is backed by a major new investment into primary care services, with up to £645 million over two years to expand the services offered by community pharmacies, helping to take the pressure off GPs, and providing patients with more options for care.
Asked by: Dan Poulter (Labour - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time equivalent GPs worked in the NHS in England in each financial year since 2009-10.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is publicly available and can be accessed here:
and
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
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 help ensure public (a) safety and (b) clarity in the healthcare roles of (i) physician associates and doctors and (ii) other NHS staff.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The introduction of regulation by the General Medical Council (GMC) will provide a standardised framework of governance and assurance for the clinical practice and professional conduct of Anaesthesia Associates (AAs) and Physician Associates (PAs), and make it easier for employers, patients, and the public to understand the relationship between these roles and that of doctors.
Whilst statutory regulation is an important part of ensuring patient safety, it is also achieved through robust clinical governance processes within healthcare organisations, which are required to have systems of oversight and supervision for their staff.
NHS England is working with the relevant professional colleges and regulators to ensure the use of associate roles is expanded safely and effectively, and that they are appropriately supported, supervised, and integrated into multidisciplinary teams. NHS England has written to trusts to remind them of their responsibilities in this area, with further information available at the following link:
We are clear that AAs and PAs are not, and should never be, referred to as medical practitioners, doctors, or consultants. It is the responsibility of professionals and their employers to ensure professional titles are used appropriately. As set out in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines, all healthcare professionals directly involved in a patient's care should introduce themselves and explain their role to the patient. The GMC has published interim standards for AAs and PAs in advance of regulation, which make it clear that professionals should always introduce their role to patients and set out their responsibilities in the team.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many courses of treatment were delivered by NHS general dental practitioners in each month between January 2019 to May 2024.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Dentistry Recovery Plan will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients, and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment. We will further support dentists by raising the minimum Units of Dental Activity (UDA) rate to £28 this year, making National Health Service work more attractive and sustainable. NHS dental activity, as measured by Courses of Treatments delivered, has increased by 23% between 2021/22 and 2022/23. The number of UDAs commissioned and delivered is published each month on the NHS Business Services Authority Open Data Portal, which currently holds data from April 2016 to January 2024. Further information is available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/english-contractor-monthly-general-dental-activity
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
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 ensure there are effective pathways for early detection of liver disease in Shropshire.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Early detection of liver disease is vital to enable interventions, and encourage behavioural changes that can potentially lead to recovery. Liver disease is one of the primary risk factors for liver cancer. Across the Shropshire, Telford, and Wrekin Integrated Care Board (ICB) area, the early detection of liver disease is led by primary care partners, and the ICB encourages general practitioners to follow best practice in the delivery of patient care pathways, to ensure the early detection of liver disease in patients. The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust is working with primary care partners to increase awareness and provide tools to support this work. The hospital also carries out active outreach into the community for drug and alcohol patients.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish their Social Care regulatory reform programme and what new protected professional medical titles they are considering introducing.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no plans to publish a social care regulatory reform programme. However, the Government has consulted on its proposed approach to modernising the legislation of the professional health and care regulators. As part of this work, we will consider whether to make any changes to the medical titles protected in law. Any proposals will be subject to statutory consultation, and the affirmative parliamentary process.
The Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order 2024 was made on 13 March 2024, and will bring Aanaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates into regulation by the General Medical Council (GMC), under a reformed regulatory framework. We are currently working on the next phase of reform, which includes introducing a new regulatory framework for medical practitioners. The future GMC order relating to the medical profession will be drafted and published for consultation in due course.