Hi all,
We asked Alan Johnson to send a few advance answers through - as it's unlikely he's going to be able to cover everthing in the alloted time. Here they are for you to digest. He'll be back in an hour or so to talk more.
Best,
MNHQ
Alan Johnson:
Hello everyone, and thank you for inviting me to Mumsnet. I probably won?t have time to answer all of your questions, but I?ll do my best to get through as many as I can ? I?ll start with a few that were posted yesterday.
Several of you asked about breastfeeding, and support for mothers who want to breastfeed. I agree that breastfeeding is best for babies, and the government recommends breastfeeding for the first six months of a baby?s life. More mums do breastfeed now ? more than three-quarters ? but breastfeeding rates are lower among mothers under 20 and those from disadvantaged groups, and so apart from all the other benefits, increasing breastfeeding will help us tackle health inequalities ? a key Labour government priority. Our recent Obesity Strategy highlighted breastfeeding as a key way of reducing childhood obesity rates, and we?re doing a number of things to promote breastfeeding as the norm for mothers. A lot of that is about education, with an information campaign along with continued support for National Breastfeeding Awareness Week, a National Helpline for breastfeeding mothers, and work to ensure that maternity units have an environment that supports breastfeeding. But we also want to do more to encourage employers and businesses to support employees and customers who breastfeed.
A few questions about dentistry ? I know lots of people are concerned about access to NHS dentistry, and we do need to increase access. But we should acknowledge the wider context: children?s oral health is better than it?s ever been. We are making real improvements, and we?re allocating more money to NHS dentistry, ring-fencing dental budgets until 2011, and demanding that Primary Care Trusts deliver year on year increases in the numbers of patients accessing dental services. Also, local health services now have a duty to provide urgent dental treatment to those who need it, so you can get treatment if it?s clinically necessary, even if you don?t have a regular dentist. And we?ve simplified the system of charging for dental treatment, replacing the old system of almost 400 different charges with just three charge bands and cutting the maximum charge by 50%. By the way, as you probably know, children under 18, pregnant women and women who?ve had a baby in the last 12 months are among the groups entitled to free NHS dental treatment.
On maternity services and midwife shortages ? the birth rate is rising, and we need to keep pace with that. We?ve recently announced £330 million in extra funding for maternity services over the next three years, and that will pay for a substantial increase in the number of midwives ? an extra 1000 by 2009, and an extra 4000 by 2012. That includes encouraging former midwives back into the profession with a ?golden hello? package with a grant, free training and help with childcare and travel costs ? we want to bring back the expertise of good midwives who?ve left the NHS. This will help us with our commitment to deliver by 2009 choice for all women in where and how they have their baby and what pain relief to use, depending on their circumstances. We?ll also give more choice in antenatal and postnatal care.
Sfxmum asked about MMR ? why not make single vaccines available on the NHS? Well, the simple answer to that is that MMR is safe. There just isn?t any credible evidence linking MMR to autism and bowel disease, and more and more evidence that there is no link. We have to base our policies on the evidence available, and the evidence says that MMR is the safest way to protect children against measles, mumps and rubella. We don?t offer single vaccines because this involves more appointments, and more chances that children will miss appointments or catch measles, mumps or rubella in the gaps between the vaccines ? if we offered single vaccines, more children would get ill. About 85% of children have received their MMR vaccine by their 2nd birthday, and this figure is going up. That?s good news. But obviously lots of parents are concerned: getting the facts on MMR is really important, and for more on this you should visit www.mmrthefacts.nhs.uk.