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  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that individuals with muscle-wasting conditions who require a cough assist machine have access to one commissioned in the community by their clinical commissioning group.

    Ben Gummer

    NHS England has been working with Muscular Dystrophy UK through the Bridging the Gap project to address areas of concern raised by patients and their representatives, one of which is the provision of cough assist machines for people with neuromuscular conditions.

    Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning and funding cough assist machines, where appropriate. A number of CGGs have now developed commissioning policies for these devices based on one developed by Walsall CCG, which has been shared nationally as an example of good practice by Muscular Dystrophy UK.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons the data in the Mental Health Services Data Set for adults are grouped together under clusters which do not align with NICE guidelines.

    Alistair Burt

    The clusters in which the data are grouped reflect the mental health clusters which are the mandated currencies for mental health services. These reflect groupings of service users with similar levels of need, and whose care will cost on average a similar amount. For the purposes of payment, Health and Social Care Information Centre reports by cluster are required.

  • Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance NHS England provides on training district nurses in inserting nasogastric feeding tubes.

    Ben Gummer

    NHS England has not provided any specific guidance on training district nurses on the insertion of nasogastric tubes.

    The “Framework for commissioning community nursing”, published by NHS England, states that providers of community nursing should “ensure staff achieve the competencies to deliver the service”. This is to provide a quality service for the population. The Framework is available at:

    www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Framework-for-commissioning-community-nursing.pdf

    NHS England would expect providers to take account of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines Nutrition support in adults: Oral nutrition support, enteral tube feeding and parenteral nutrition, published in February 2006 and available at:

    www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg32

    These provide guidance for patients that require nutrition support, including patients receiving home enteral (tube) feeding. The guidelines recommends that all healthcare professionals who are directly involved in patient care should receive education and training, relevant to their post, on the importance of providing adequate nutrition.

    NICE has published a Medtech innovation briefings advice in January 2016, on the CORTRAK 2 Enteral Access System for placing enteral feeding tubes, available at:

    https://www.nice.org.uk/advice/mib48

    The advice aims to improve the accuracy of enteral feeding tube placement to help lower the risk of complications associated with the procedure.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of schools employ a mental health specialist as a permanent member of staff.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    This is a matter for schools to decide. We have recently commissioned an extensive survey which will provide nationally representative estimates of what provision schools and colleges offer for mental health and character education. The fieldwork will begin in the summer term.

    We are also contributing to a £3 million joint pilot with NHS England for training single points of contact in schools and specialist mental health services, to ensure that children and young people have timely access to specialist support where needed.

  • Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of provision of double rooms for married couples in care homes (a) in the North West and (b) UK; and if he will make a statement.

    Alistair Burt

    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) collects data on numbers of registered care and nursing homes in England, together with numbers of registered places within those homes, as part of its registration and regulation activity.

    We are informed by the CQC that it does not collect data on whether places in homes are provided in single or shared rooms.

    Neither the CQC nor the Department collects data on care and nursing homes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This is a matter for the devolved administrations.

  • Ben Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Ben Bradshaw – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2016 to Question 28059, whether representatives of ex-intraveneous drug users and former sex-workers will be invited to sit on the working group being formed by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs as part of its review of blood donor selection criteria.

    Jane Ellison

    Stakeholder representation on the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood Tissue and Organs’ Donor Selection Criteria Working Group consists of the Terence Higgins Trust, National Aids Trust, Patients Association, Sickle Cell Society, Thalassemia Society and the LGBT Consortium. A Stakeholder meeting is planned alongside the first meeting of the Working Group and a wider range of stakeholders is to be invited. Relevant stakeholder representatives such as former sex workers and ex-intravenous drug users will be invited to attend the Working Group when it is considering particular aspects of donor selection criteria.

  • Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kate Hollern – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hollern on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many (a) nursing homes and (b) dual registered nursing homes there were in the North West of England in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement.

    Ben Gummer

    The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. The CQC has provided the following information.

    Number of active nursing homes1 in the North West region at end of 2012, 2013 and 2014 fiscal years

    Date

    Care homes with nursing service type only

    Care homes with nursing service type and other service types

    Total care home service with nursing locations

    31 March 2013

    566

    79

    645

    31 March 2014

    568

    75

    643

    31 March 2015

    570

    77

    647

    1Nursing homes are defined as “care homes with nursing service type only”. Dual registered nursing homes are defined as “care homes with nursing service type and other service types”.

    Source: CQC database as at 7 April 2015

    Note: Service types can change over time. The numbers provided are based on the service type(s) of the location as at April 2015 or date the location de-activated if inactive as at April 2015.

    Local authorities in the North West Region: Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bolton, Bury, Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Cumbria, Halton, Knowsley, Lancashire, Liverpool, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Sefton, St. Helens, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Warrington, Wigan and Wirral.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the time taken on investigations into still births.

    Ben Gummer

    The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ Green-top Guideline 55 on Later Intrauterine Fetal Death and Stillbirth (2010) guidance for obstetricians and midwives states that all stillbirths should be reviewed in a multi-professional meeting using a standardised approach to analysis. This will enable the identification of substandard care and establish whether any future preventative measures are required. Results of the review should be discussed with the parents.

    The Government is investing £500,000 to develop and roll out by March 2017 a new web-based system to be used consistently across the National Health Service so staff can review and learn from every stillbirth and neonatal death.

    All stillbirths should also be reported to the MBRRACE-UK collaboration (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK) which undertakes national surveillance of late fetal losses, stillbirths and infant deaths.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV is on the list of drugs being referred to NHS England’s Clinical Priorities Advisory Group for decision.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England does not now consider pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV is suitable for prioritisation of specialised commissioning spend as it is a preventative measure. However given the potential benefits in this area, NHS England wants to build on the work to date and will be making available up to £2 million over the next two years to run a number of early implementer test sites. These will be undertaken in conjunction with Public Health England and will seek to answer the remaining questions around how PrEP could be commissioned in the most cost effective and integrated way to reduce HIV and sexually transmitted infections in those at highest risk.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-03-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of ending NHS bursaries on the ability of the NHS to recruit nurses from within the UK from 2020 onwards.

    Ben Gummer

    The Government assessment undertaken to date is that nursing is consistently one of the most popular courses on University Central Administration Service with 57,000 applicants for around 20,000 nursing places in 2014. Midwifery and Allied Health Professional courses receive higher than average applications as well.

    Rather than denying thousands of United Kingdom applicants a place to study nursing at university and then being forced to hire new nurses from overseas and others from expensive agencies, these reforms will be boosting participation and securing the future supply of home-grown nurses to the National Health Service. The reforms will enable the creation of up to 10,000 additional nursing, midwifery and allied health professional university training places in this Parliament.

    A public consultation will be published during March 2016, an Equalities Analysis and Economic Impact Assessment will be published alongside the consultation document.