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  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of staff retention in the NHS of his decision to impose a new contract on junior doctors.

    Ben Gummer

    Senior National Health Service leaders have advised that the new contract, 90% of which was agreed with the British Medical Association, will be fair and reasonable for doctors in training and for the service and will be safer for patients. We believe that this, and the fact that the new contract will better support training, will be clear to individual junior doctors from the details that have been sent to them all. The contract includes specific provisions to ensure recruitment and retention in hard-to-fill training programmes, and the groups to which this applies will be kept under review.

  • John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if NHS England will issue a consultation on a new Prioritisation Framework for making decisions on investment in specialised services and highly specialised services.

    George Freeman

    In its response to the public consultation "Investing in Specialised Services" in June 2015, NHS England described the work planned to further develop a prioritisation framework for specialised services. This document stated that NHS England will ensure there is proper stakeholder engagement, potentially including a short formal consultation.

    NHS England is currently testing a potential method for prioritisation for use in the 2016/17 business planning round, and will decide if a formal consultation is appropriate as part of this process.

  • John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans NHS England has to involve NICE in the specialised commissioning policy development process.

    George Freeman

    NHS England is in discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in relation to two areas of potential support to its clinical commissioning policy development process for directly commissioned specialised services from 2016/17.

    The first is the delivery of rapid evidence reviews (systematic reviews of the available evidence of clinical effectiveness for particular treatments and indications). The second is the production of commissioning support documents for licenced drugs which NHS England commissions directly.

  • John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if NHS England will publish a list of the commissioning policies scheduled to be developed in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18.

    George Freeman

    There are no plans for NHS England to publish the list of clinical policies in development.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will place in the Library copies of the local blueprint submissions for the NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan.

    George Freeman

    These plans are for local use, and there are no plans to publish them centrally. Local areas may publish their plans if they so choose.

  • Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many members of staff aged under 18 have been employed by NHS 111 in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available.

    Jane Ellison

    This information is not held centrally.

  • John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    John Glen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Glen on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if NHS England will publish the (a) agendas and (b) minutes of all future meetings of the (i) Clinical Advisory Group and (ii) Specialised Commissioning Committee within a reasonable period after each such meeting takes place.

    George Freeman

    The specialised services commissioning committee provides regular updates of its business to NHS England’s public board, of which a summary is published online.

    NHS England is considering how to further improve transparency, while not inhibiting the free and frank exchange of views.

  • Siobhain McDonagh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Siobhain McDonagh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Siobhain McDonagh on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time for an outpatient paediatric ophthalmology appointment was in 2014-15.

    Alistair Burt

    The information is shown in the following table.

    Information on outpatient paediatric ophthalmology appointments in 2014-15

    Median waiting time in days for a first appointment1

    53 days

    Number of appointments that were cancelled by the hospital

    36,533

    Number of appointments that were cancelled by the patient

    33,448

    Number of appointments that the patient did not attend

    65,436

    National average unit cost of a first appointment2

    £118

    Sources:

    Hospital episode statistics, Health and Social Care Information Centre

    Reference costs, Department of Health

    Notes:

    1Waiting time is defined as the time in days between the date the referral request was received and the date of the first appointment, whether it was attended or not.

    2Defined as a consultant-led single-professional first appointment. Separate data are collected are collected on non-consultant-led, multi-professional, and follow-up appointments.

  • Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the average change in the level of pay for those junior doctors who will be offered pay protection as part of the transition to a new contract.

    Ben Gummer

    Over three quarters of junior doctors moving on to the new contract pay terms in August 2016 are expected to experience a rise in earnings. Those that do not will receive pay protection.

  • Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Heidi Alexander – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-02-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what risk assessment was carried out on his policy to impose a new contract on junior doctors.

    Ben Gummer

    Sir David Dalton, who led recent negotiations on behalf of the National Health Service, advised my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health that the offer made to the British Medical Association (BMA) was developed with the input of a senior reference group of NHS leaders and shared with a wider group of senior NHS leaders, all of whom agreed it to be fair and reasonable for doctors in training and for the service. In negotiations, agreement had been secured with the BMA on approximately 90% of the issues discussed. Sir David’s letter advised the government “to do whatever it deems necessary to end uncertainty for the service and to make sure that a new contract is in place which is as close as possible to the final position put forward to the BMA”.