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  • Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on pharmacy services in (a) the North East, (b) County Durham and (c) Easington constituency of the Government’s proposed changes to the budget for community pharmacy.

    David Mowat

    The proposals on which we have consulted will apply throughout England.

    Our proposals are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. The Government believes these efficiencies can be made within community pharmacy without compromising the quality of services or public access to them.

    We have been consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared with others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.

    In addition we are providing a further £112 million to ensure that an additional 1,500 pharmacists join general practices by 2020. This initiative includes coverage of the three regions referenced.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many hospital-borne cases of sepsis in England were recorded in (a) 2000, (b) 2005, (c) 2010 and (d) 2015.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    Public Health England and NHS Digital do not collect this data to the level of detail and format as requested.

    NHS Digital is unable to identify the source of a sepsis infection. They are only able to provide data on a count of the number of Finished Discharge Episodes with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis.

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon MP) to Question 45207 regarding available information on sepsis.

  • Jake Berry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jake Berry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jake Berry on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing in the UK initiatives for people with (a) fibromyalgia and (b) other central sensitivity syndromes similar to those introduced in Spain.

    David Mowat

    The Department is aware of ongoing clinical trials and research projects which deal with the assessment and treatment of people with fibromyalgia. Whilst the results of the studies in Spain concerning the merits of ophthalmologic tests in diagnosis and fibromyalgia and helping guide disease management are interesting, larger, high quality clinical trials would be needed to demonstrate the efficacy before introducing such initiatives in the United Kingdom.

  • Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans routinely to offer screening tests for Group B Strep to pregnant women as part of their antenatal care.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is in the process of updating its evidence review into antenatal screening for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) in accordance with its published three year review cycle.

    When the update is completed, a public consultation on the evidence review document will begin, and will remain open for a three month period.

    The UK NSC will then review the recommendation for GBS, taking into consideration the outcomes of the public consultation and the evidence review, at the successive meeting.

    More information and how to contribute to the public consultation will be available at the following link:

    http://legacy.screening.nhs.uk/screening-recommendations.php

    “

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many hospital-borne infectious diseases were recorded in England in (a) 2000, (b) 2005, (c) 2010 and (d) 2015.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    In April 2013, Public Health England took over the mandatory surveillance of healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs), formerly undertaken by the Health Protection Agency.

    The total number of trust apportioned cases of HCAIs can be found in Table 1. For the purposes of answering this question trust apportioned cases can be considered “hospital-borne” infections.

    Data for the years 2000 and 2005 are not available.

    Table: Counts of trust apportioned HCAIs by financial year in 2010 and 2015:

    April 2010 to March 2011

    April 2015 to March 2016

    Meticillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA)

    ND

    2,910

    E.coli

    ND

    7,692

    Clostridium difficile infection (patients aged 2 years and over)

    10,417

    5,164

    Meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

    688

    297

    Notes:

    1. ND – Not Determined
    2. Cases are deemed to be trust apportioned if the following criteria are met:-

    – The location where the specimen was taken is given as ‘acute trust’ or is not known;

    – The patient was either an ‘In-patient’, ‘Day-patient’, in ‘Emergency assessment’ or is not known.

    – Patient’s specimen date is on, or after, the third day of the admission (or admission date is null), where the day of admission is day 1 (for MSSA or E. coli bacteraemia)

    Or

    – Patient’s specimen date is on, or after, the fourth day of the admission (or admission date is null), where the day of admission is day 1 (for Clostridium difficile infection).

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many hospital-borne cases of MRSA were recorded in England in (a) 2000, (b) 2005, (c) 2010 and (d) 2015.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    In April 2013 Public Health England took over the surveillance of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteraemia, formerly undertaken by the Health Protection Agency. We do not hold the data for 2000 and 2005.

    Cases are published according to both trust apportionment and trust assignment. For the purpose of answering this question trust apportionment or assignment can be considered as “hospital borne” cases.

    The assignment process was added to the MRSA surveillance in 2013 superseding the previously used apportionment method. The assignment process utilises individual case review and therefore allows for a much more considered categorisation of a case and associated learning to prevent similar cases occurring in the future, than was previously possible. The assignment process was only introduced in 2013 as MRSA numbers were previously considered to be too high to make this resource demanding method viable.

    The total number of trust apportioned and trust assigned cases are displayed in Tables 1 and 2 respectively.

    Table 1: Trust apportioned counts of MRSA bacteraemia in 2008, 2010 and 2015.

    April 2008 to March 2009

    April 2010 to March 2011

    April 2015 to March 2016

    1,606

    688

    297

    Table 2: Trust assigned counts of MRSA bacteraemia in 2015.

    April 2015 to March 2016

    302

    Notes:

    1. Cases are published on a financial year basis.
    2. Trust apportioned data are not available for the years 2000 and 2005.
    3. Trust assigned are not available for the years 2000, 2005 and 2010.
    4. Cases are deemed to be Trust apportioned if the following criteria are met:-

    – The location where the specimen was taken is given as ‘acute trust’ or is not known;

    – The patient was either an ‘In-patient’, ‘Day-patient’, in ‘Emergency assessment’ or is not known.

    – Patient’s specimen date is on, or after, the third day of the admission (or admission date is null), where the day of admission is day 1.

    1. Cases are deemed to be trust assigned on the basis of Post Infection Review (PIR) assignment and relevant cases are assigned to acute trusts.
    2. The trust assignment method supersedes the apportionment one post 2013 and utilises case review by the teams caring for the patient.

    “

  • Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jon Trickett on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many trainee GPs have been informed by Capita and Primary Care Support England that they are no longer allowed to practice as they are not currently on the national list for medical performers.

    David Mowat

    NHS England advises that, currently, there are approximately 720 applications for general practitioner (GP) trainees to be added to the performers list.

    The processing of applications to join the National Performers List was taken over by Capita in September 2015, and there have been some delays in Capita’s processing of applications. NHS England is working closely with Capita to identify all cases which may be affected by delays in processing applications, and those identified are being investigated and urgent cases prioritised. NHS England expects all GP trainees to be on the performers list by the end of October when their grace period for inclusion ends.

    The decision to admit a GP trainee to the performer list is the sole responsibility of NHS England rather than Capita. There have been some instances where Capita have informed GPs that they cannot practice because their application to the performer list has not been completed. Where we are aware of such instances, those GPs have been contacted by NHS England and provided with the correct advice relating to their individual circumstances. Where necessary, NHS England has taken further action to expedite the performers’ list process.

  • Poulter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Poulter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Poulter on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the budget for Health Education England (a) was in each year since 2012 and (b) will be for 2017-18.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    In 2012-13, the strategic health authorities nationally were allocated £4.879 billion to spend on education and training in the National Health Service. This budget was transferred to Health Education England (HEE) from 1 April 2013 when it assumed full operational responsibilities for workforce planning, education and training.

    From 2013 to 2016, HEE received the following annual budget allocations from the Department: £4.867 billion in 2013/14; £4.933 billion in 2014/15; and £4.912 billion in 2015/16.

    For the current year, HEE’s revenue allocation is £4.995 billion as at 31 July 2016. Further in-year capital and revenue allocations will be made to HEE later in this financial year.

    HEE’s budget for 2017-18 is yet to be determined through the Departmental business planning process.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2016 to Question 45660, what estimate he has made of the number of general practices that require assistance from the new practice resilience programme.

    David Mowat

    Following the launch of the General Practice Resilience Programme in July 2016, NHS England’s local teams have been working to finalise a range of offers that can be put in place to support practice sustainability and resilience. This includes selecting which practices will receive this support, by using nationally published criteria.

    NHS England was initially due to set out which practices would be included in the first cohort to receive support through this programme, on 30 September 2016. The deadline for this assessment and report has been revised to 18 October 2016, to allow greater opportunity for practices to self-refer for assessment. The Department cannot provide an estimate of the number of general practices requiring assistance from the new practice resilience programme until this date, when NHS England will have completed its assessment and report.

    Identifying practices in need of support is challenging, as there are elements which are subjective and it can be hard to measure the nature, severity and weight of issues facing individual practices. The national criteria seek to chart a middle route between those aspects that are measurable and those less tangible issues. The nature of the issues facing a practice can be generally grouped as follows; demand, capacity and internal issues. The national criteria acknowledges the importance of local input from clinical commissioning groups and local medical committees, as well as how self-referral of general practices is legitimate as a self-declaration of their support needs.

    An earlier NHS England programme, the Vulnerable Practice Programme, launched in December 2015, identified around 900 practices as potentially vulnerable and in need of support.

  • Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Helen Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received on behalf of local independent pharmacies in Warrington on their future funding.

    David Mowat

    We have received representations from individuals, including the hon. Member and from a number of organisations representing pharmacies, pharmacists and patients in Cheshire, on our proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond.

    We have also received representations from the National Pharmacy Association and Pharmacy Voice, of which the Association is a member. These include written communications and official meetings.