Written questions by Ribeiro-Addy.

How many patients with (a) leukaemia and lymphoma, (b) myeloma, (c) other cancers, (d) myelodysplastic syndromes, (e) aplastic anemia, (f) thalassemia, (g) bleeding disorders and (h) other conditions which require regular blood transfusions have developed haemolysis due to receiving a blood transfusion with unmatched blood in the last 12 months.

Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) is the United Kingdom’s independent, professionally led haemovigilance scheme. SHOT collects and analyses information on adverse events and reactions in blood transfusion from all healthcare organisations that are involved in the transfusion of blood components and specific blood products in the United Kingdom. Further information on SHOT is available at the following link:https://www.shotuk.org/The latest data available on haemolytic transfusion reactions was published in the Annual SHOT Report 2024. The report reviews reactions reported to SHOT from January to December 2024, and is available at the following link:https://www.shotuk.org/shot-reports/annual-shot-report-2024/#annual-shotOver the year, based on the available data, a total of 51 haemolytic transfusion reactions were reported. No errors were reported during the provision of blood components, meaning in all cases blood was appropriately matched, including safe substitutions where necessary, according to the patient requirements and clinical situation, as per British Society for Haematology’s guidelines, which are available at the following link:https://b-s-h.org.uk/guidelines/guidelines

If he will ensure that (a) prioritisation for medical evacuation and treatment of children from Gaza is based solely on clinical urgency and medical need and (b) it is not contingent on the availability of private funding or charitable sponsorship.

The Government is working urgently to get some of the critically ill and injured children medically evacuated from Gaza.The United Kingdom is partnering with the World Health Organization (WHO), which works on the ground and plays a critical role in supporting medical evacuations from Gaza. Clinical leaders in the NHS are working to match Gazan children to a priority list of those needing specialist medical care, provided by medical specialists in Gaza to the WHO, where there is capacity within the NHS to treat them.Children will only be transferred to the UK where it is clinically safe to do so and in the interests of each individual patient. As such, we will ensure medical assessments are undertaken before they travel.The UK Government will meet all the costs of those evacuated as part of this process.

, how many sickle cell patients have developed haemolysis due to receiving a blood transfusion with unmatched blood during the last 12 months.

Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) is the United Kingdom’s independent, professionally led haemovigilance scheme. SHOT collects and analyses information on adverse events and reactions in blood transfusion from all healthcare organisations that are involved in the transfusion of blood components and specific blood products in the United Kingdom. Further information on SHOT is available at the following link:https://www.shotuk.org/The latest data available on haemolytic transfusion reactions was published in the Annual SHOT Report 2024. The report reviews reactions reported to SHOT from January to December 2024, and is available at the following link:https://www.shotuk.org/shot-reports/annual-shot-report-2024/#annual-shotOver the year, based on the available data, a total of 51 haemolytic transfusion reactions were reported. No errors were reported during the provision of blood components, meaning in all cases blood was appropriately matched, including safe substitutions where necessary, according to the patient requirements and clinical situation, as per British Society for Haematology’s guidelines, which are available at the following link:https://b-s-h.org.uk/guidelines/guidelines

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the wholesale price increase of Mounjaro on patients managing (a) obesity and (b) type 2 diabetes.

As we shift the focus from treatment to prevention through our 10 Year Health Plan, we are determined to bring revolutionary modern treatments to everyone who needs them, not just those who can afford to pay.NHS England has worked with Eli Lilly to ensure that the list price increase will not affect National Health Service commissioning of tirzepatide in England as a treatment for eligible patients, and we remain committed to the rollout of this medicine as a weight loss treatment based on clinical priority. This will enable 220,000 eligible people to access the medication over the first three years. Not everyone who wants tirzepatide will be able to access it at first, and the initial eligibility criteria will be for people with a body mass index of 40 or more in addition to four or more qualifying comorbidities.Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have also entered equivalent agreements to maintain their current commissioning approaches.Pricing in the private market is a matter for Eli Lilly and for private providers. Private patients who are impacted by price increases should discuss any concerns with their private provider. This includes their options regarding payment plans, alternative treatments, and/or stopping or tapering off their current medication. Eli Lilly is working with private providers to support continued patient access.

How many sickle cell patients have died due to complications due to sickle cell in the last 12 months.

The Department of Health and Social Care does not hold this information. NHS England does not hold or have access to data that would accurately represent the number of sickle cell patients that have died due to complications due to sickle cell disorder (SCD) in the last 12 monthsThe National Disease Registration Service, part of NHS England, is expanding its rare disease collection to include patients with SCD in England. This will form a comprehensive national dataset to enable improved understanding of patient pathways for SCD, support planning and commissioning of services and improve patient outcomes.

How many sickle cell patients who had complications due to sickle cell listed as their cause of death experienced haemolysis in the period before their death in the last 12 months.

The Department does not hold this information. NHS England does not hold or have access to data that would accurately represent the number of sickle cell patients that have died due to complications due to sickle cell in the last 12 months, or how many of those patients experienced haemolysis in the period before their death in the last 12 months.The National Disease Registration Service, part of NHS England, is expanding its rare disease collection to include patients with sickle cell disorder (SCD) in England. This will form a comprehensive national dataset to enable improved understanding of patient pathways for SCD, support planning and commissioning of services and improve patient outcomes.

What recent discussions he has had with the NHS on its policy of informing Sickle Cell patients when they are not given Ro matched blood.

DHSC are working in partnership with NHS Blood and Transplant, NHS England and the National Blood Transfusion Committee to deliver on the recommendations detailed in the infected blood inquiry, which includes improving digital patient records and communications for patients receiving transfusions. A blood genotyping programme has also been introduced, enabling detection of previously undetectable antibodies that could cause complications. To meet the clinical need to provide better matched blood for patients with conditions like sickle cell disorder, NHS Blood and Transplant is actively recruiting donors from Black heritage backgrounds.

How many sickle cell patients whose cause of death was listed as complications due to sickle cell have had an inquest into their death.

The Department does not hold this information as we would only be made aware of inquests that result in the Department receiving a Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) Report. Not all inquests result in a PFD report, only where the coroner believes that action should be taken to prevent future deaths.The National Disease Registration Service, part of NHS England, is expanding its rare disease collection to include patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) in England. This will form a comprehensive national dataset to enable improved understanding of patient pathways for SCD, support planning and commissioning of services and improve patient outcomes.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the value of Healthy Start vouchers.

Healthy Start is a demand-led, statutory scheme and aims to support those in greatest need. An assessment was recently made of the adequacy of the value of Healthy Start funding and it was announced in Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan that we will uplift the value of weekly payments by 10%, boosting the ability to buy healthy food for those families who need it most. From April 2026, pregnant women and children aged over one and under four years old will each receive £4.65 per week, up from £4.25, and children under one years old will receive £9.30 per week, up from £8.50.The funding for Healthy Start can be used to buy, or be put towards the cost of, fresh, frozen, or tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried, and tinned pulses, milk, and infant formula. Healthy Start beneficiaries are also eligible for free Healthy Start Vitamins.

If he will consider increasing the value of Healthy Start vouchers for children from birth to one year old to meet the average cost of baby formula.

Healthy Start is a demand-led, statutory scheme and aims to support those in greatest need. An assessment was recently made of the adequacy of the value of Healthy Start funding and it was announced in Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan that we will uplift the value of weekly payments by 10%, boosting the ability to buy healthy food for those families who need it most. From April 2026, pregnant women and children aged over one and under four years old will each receive £4.65 per week, up from £4.25, and children under one years old will receive £9.30 per week, up from £8.50.The funding for Healthy Start can be used to buy, or be put towards the cost of, fresh, frozen, or tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried, and tinned pulses, milk, and infant formula. Healthy Start beneficiaries are also eligible for free Healthy Start Vitamins.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure patients receive timely updates about the status of their NHS operations through (a) the NHS App, (b) other digital platforms and (c) other means.

The National Health Service continues to invest heavily in the NHS App, and in the past two years we have been implementing digital integration between acute hospitals and the NHS App, meaning that patients can now view their clinical pathway and appointments via the NHS App. We continue to work with hospital trusts to maximise the opportunities available to update patients via the NHS App, which is a key part of the 10-year plan to reform the NHS.The NHS App has now been adopted by 88% of acute trusts, up nearly 20% since July 2024, which enables patients to view and manage their hospital appointments.Analysis shows that hospitals that make the changes to plug their systems and processes into the NHS App key app features have improved elective care waiting times.

Whether he plans to allow patients to (a) view and (b) choose from available operation appointments across different hospitals within the same region.

Patients in England can choose the hospital for their first outpatient appointments via the NHS e-Referral Service and the NHS App, allowing them to view and choose from available appointments across different hospitals within the same region.The National Health Service is a large, decentralized system, and individual NHS hospital trusts are responsible for managing their own patient portals, resulting in different systems and features. Each trust may set its own policies and internal delays before results are displayed in the portal, rather than linking them directly to the patient. A delay in displaying results is a common practice for sensitive test results linked to conditions such as cancer, to give doctors an opportunity to review them with the patient first.The NHS ensures adequate data for My Planned Care by employing a multi-faceted approach, including centralised data collection and curation, implementing shared records for better data integration across systems, establishing robust data quality checks and reporting, adhering to strict information governance and security standards, and actively working to link diverse data sources. These processes support the provision of timely and accurate information on the My Planned Care website to help patients and healthcare professionals.The NHS continues to invest heavily in the NHS App and in the past two years we have been implementing digital integration between acute hospitals and the NHS App, meaning that patients can now view their clinical pathway and appointments via the NHS App. We continue to work with hospital trusts to maximise the opportunities available to update patients via the NHS App, which is a key part of the 10-year plan to reform the NHS.The NHS App has now been adopted by 88% of acute trusts, up nearly 20% since July 2024, which enables patients to view and manage their hospital appointments.Analysis shows that hospitals that make the changes to plug their systems and processes into the NHS App key app features have improved elective care waiting times.

What steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for urgent NHS operations in cases where patients are waiting significantly beyond the clinically recommended timeframe.

It is unacceptable that patients continue to wait lengthy periods for treatment, especially where waits are for high priority surgical procedures.We are committed to driving down waiting times. In January, we published our Elective Reform Plan, which sets out the productivity and reform efforts needed to support our commitment to return to the NHS Constitutional Standard that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from Referral to Treatment, by March 2029.We have already improved performance against this standard by 2.7% compared to last year, with performance increasing from 58.9% in June 2024 to 61.5% in June 2025. In the Operational Planning Guidance, we set a national target to reach 65% for Referral to Treatment performance by March 2026. The waiting list has reduced by over 252,000 in the past year, and we have exceeded our pledge to deliver an additional two million appointments, tests, and operations, having delivered 4.9 million more since July 2024.There is a clear clinical prioritisation process, including for the cancer standards, where our expectation is that patients are seen very rapidly. All waiting lists are rightly subject to clinical prioritisation at a local level, ensuring that patients are prioritised in line with clinical need, while considering overall wait time.

What plans his Department has to increase the availability of (a) daily and (b) weekly surgical appointments for operations in NHS hospitals.

As set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients, including those waiting for surgical appointments, wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029.We are investing in additional capacity to deliver appointments to help bring lists and waiting times down. We provided additional investment in the Autumn Budget that has enabled us to fulfil our pledge to deliver over two million more elective care appointments early. More than double that number, 4.9 million more appointments, have now been delivered.We are also continuing to deliver dedicated and protected surgical hubs to deliver high volume low complexity (HVLC) surgery more efficiently. Surgical hubs help to create additional capacity for surgical appointments, whilst improving outcomes for patients. Health Foundation analysis found that HVLC activity was on average 21.9% higher in a trust with a new hub in the first year of opening, with effects seen within three months of opening.We have committed to increase the number of surgical hubs over the next three years on top of the 120 currently operational. At the Autumn Budget 2024, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced an additional £1.65 billion in funding to support NHS performance across secondary and emergency care, including for surgical hubs.

Whether his Department plans to increase the use of capacity in local private hospitals to reduce NHS waiting times for surgical procedures.

As set out in the Plan for Change, we have committed to return to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029.Independent sector providers have a role to play in supporting the NHS as trusted partners to deliver elective services by using additional capacity to tackle the backlog whilst delivering value for money, delivering more than 100,000 elective appointment and procedures every week for the NHS.Patients have a legal right to choose where they go for their first appointment when referred to consultant-led care as an outpatient. This includes the independent sector who hold contracts with integrated care boards across the country to deliver services for the NHS.The NHS and the independent sector have established a partnership agreement, the first of its kind for 25 years, setting out how we will work together to reduce the elective care waiting list (including that for surgical procedures). This will see more NHS patients able to choose to be treated in a private hospital where there is capacity, at no cost to patients.

What steps his Department is taking to improve coordination between NHS hospitals within the same region to offer patients earlier appointments at alternative sites.

As set out in the Plan for Change, we have committed to return to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment (RTT) by March 2029.Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait for 18 weeks or less by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5 percentage point improvement on current performance over that period.It is for Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to determine how best to manage their system capacity to meet this target. Mutal aid is a route some systems are using for those waiting longest. This can mean that some patients receive treatment at a different hospital to the one they originally selected (with the patient’s agreement).NHS England regional and national teams work with providers and ICBs with particularly significant waits, and this can include identifying alternative capacity outside of individual systems.Patients have a right to choose their provider when they are referred to consultant-led care as an outpatient, informed by waiting times information. Patients also have a right to request their ICB find an alternative provider if they are waiting over 18 weeks for consultant-led care.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Government’s immigration policies on trends in the level of recruitment of internationally educated nurses into (a) the NHS and (b) social care roles; and whether he has prepared contingency plans for a reduction in the level of recruitment.

The immediate changes to the skills thresholds outlined in the Immigration White Paper relate to roles below Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) level 6. Nurses meet the new skill threshold of RQF level 6 and in turn remain eligible for the Health and Care Worker visa. The Government is committed to developing homegrown talent and giving opportunities to more people across the country to join our National Health Service. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will outline strategies for improving retention, productivity, training, and reducing attrition, thereby enhancing conditions for all staff while gradually reducing reliance on international recruitment, without diminishing the value of their contributions. We acknowledge that the adult social care sector faces significant challenges in the recruitment and retention of the nursing workforce and we recognise the need for a strong emphasis on retaining nurses within adult social care, by supporting and valuing the workforce. The Department continues to monitor adult social care workforce capacity, bringing together national data sets from Skills for Care’s monthly tracking data, the Capacity Tracker tool, and intelligence from key sector partners.

Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of routinely publishing data on (a) blood donations and (b) donation deferrals.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood donation in England.NHSBT does not routinely publish data on blood donation or donation deferrals, however it agrees that there is merit in publishing this data routinely and is considering doing so on an annual basis.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 63048 on Blood: Donors, if he will publish the combined ethnic and gender breakdown of the 173,574 donors deferred due to Haemoglobin as a proportion of (a) total deferrals and (b) total deferrals per ethnic group.

NHS Blood and Transplant is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, in order to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need. From 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025, a total of 173,574 donors were deferred due to low haemoglobin. The table attached shows the combined ethnic and gender breakdown of these deferrals as a proportion of total deferrals, and the total deferrals per ethnic group.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 63048 on Blood: Donors, if he will publish the ethnic and gender breakdown of the 4,493 donors deferred due to travel as a proportion of (a) total deferrals and (b) total deferrals per ethnic group.

NHS Blood and Transplant is responsible for collecting blood donations across England, in order to fulfil hospital requests to meet patient need. From 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025, a total of 4,493 donors deferred due to travel. The table attached shows the ethnic and gender breakdown of these deferrals as a proportion of total deferrals and the total deferrals per ethnic group.