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  • Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Debbie Abrahams – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Debbie Abrahams on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the quality and geographical variability of speech and language therapy available to stroke survivors in England.

    Jane Ellison

    One of the actions set out in the 2007 National Stroke Strategy was to increase the rate of thrombolysis (treatment with clot busting drugs), which stood at around 1% of stroke admissions. Data from the Stroke Sentinel Audit Programme (SSNAP) suggests this rate has risen to 11-12%, with around 9,600 stroke patients now benefiting from treatment with thrombolysis each year. Evidence suggests that, on average, 13% of those treated with thrombolysis will have reduced disability as a result. It is therefore likely that more than 1,200 stroke patients per year now benefit from reduced disability due to thrombolysis.

    Although the Government has made no assessment of the quality and variation of rehabilitation and speech and language therapy available to stroke survivors in England, SSNAP has collected data over the last three years on the rehabilitation that patients get in hospital and when they are discharged in to the community.

    SSNAP also undertook an audit in 2015 of the provision and organisation of post-acute stroke care which includes details on the provision of speech and language therapy. It shows there are variations around the country in the availability of these services to stroke survivors. The Strategic Clinical Networks and the National Clinical Director for Stroke are working with clinical commissioning groups to help address this.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with clinical commissioning groups on the provision of support to people with mild to moderate dementia to allow them to remain in their own homes as long as possible.

    Jane Ellison

    Whilst we are not aware of such specific discussions, dementia is a key priority for the Government. On 6 March 2016, we launched the Implementation Plan to support the Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia 2020. The Implementation Plan sets out the actions partners, including clinical commissioning groups, will take to ensure commitments in the PM Challenge 2020 are delivered. A key commitment in the Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia 2020 is to support people with dementia to be able to live longer in their own homes.

    The publication ‘Dementia & Homecare: Driving Quality & Innovation’ published as part of the Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia provides clear, practical ideas and suggestions to further dementia care in the community. Driving improvements in homecare will not only help ensure people stay independent for longer but will also support our ambition for people to receive meaningful care following a diagnosis of dementia.

    As part of the Implementation Plan, the Department will work with the Life Story Network to focus on older people and people with dementia who live in social housing to ensure they are supported to live in their homes for longer with a greater focus on independent living.

    NHS England is fully supportive of enabling people with dementia to live at home independently for as long as they want to do so. NHS England’s well-pathway for dementia includes streams on both living well and supporting well.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the proportion of people receiving social care in (a) Dartford and (b) Kent who are entitled to public funding to support that care.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department does not hold this information in the format requested.

    Data collected by the Health and Social Care Information Centre indicates that in 2014/15 there were 4,175 local authority supported long term residential and nursing care users aged 65 years and over supported by Kent County Council. This data is not available for the individual district councils in Kent, of which Dartford is one.

    The data can be found at:

    http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB18663

    An internal estimate carried out by the Department in 2012/13 estimated that 48% of people aged 65 and over in residential and nursing care in Kent were receiving local authority support at that time.

    “

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of specialist dementia (a) residential and (b) nursing home places in Kent.

    Alistair Burt

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

    Active care home locations with the Dementia Service User Band in the Kent local authority

    Type of home

    Number of beds

    Number of locations

    Nursing home

    3,663

    62

    Residential home

    4,229

    136

    Grand Total

    7,892

    198

    Source: CQC database at 11 April 2016

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential health risks of the use of lasers by driverless vehicles.

    Andrew Jones

    The General Product Safety Regulations prohibit a product from being placed on the market, or otherwise supplied, unless it is safe. The lead department for these regulations is the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

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

    David Lammy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many adults were refused NHS treatment on the basis of their immigration status in (a) 2013, (b) 2014, (c) 2015 and (d) 2016 to date.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department does not hold this information.

    National Health Service hospital treatment is free to those people who are ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, or those exempt from charge under the NHS (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015, as amended. Anyone else should present a European Health Insurance Card, S1 or S2 form or pay direct for their NHS care. Those who need care and treatment urgently will still receive it even if they are chargeable and cannot pay straight away.

  • Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has for the future levels of bursaries and salary support for trainee child and adolescent psychotherapists.

    Ben Gummer

    Those undertaking training in child and adolescent psychotherapy are not currently eligible for NHS Bursary funding and tuition funding is determined by Health Education England (HEE) at a local level based on local need.

    For 2016/17, HEE will fund those commissions set out in the HEE Commissioning and Investment Plan 2016/17 which was published in December 2015. HEE’s plans for commissioning child and adolescent psychotherapist training places remain unchanged from 2015/16.

    The Government is working with HEE and other delivery organisations to ensure that the future supply of qualified healthcare professionals continues to meet the needs of the health service.

  • Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of e-cigarette users who have (a) resumed smoking and (b) purchased vaping supplies from black market sources.

    Jane Ellison

    The best thing a smoker can do to improve their health is to quit smoking for good.

    The Department recognises that electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) can help smokers quit and the evidence indicates that they are considerably less harmful to health than cigarettes.

    This Government has committed to publishing a new tobacco control plan to further reduce the prevalence of smoking in England. The development of this plan is underway and will be published later this year. The new strategy will consider the role of e-cigarettes in further reducing the prevalence of smoking in England. To help inform this element of the strategy the Department has been engaging with e-cigarette experts to ensure that local authorities and Stop Smoking Services are provided with up to date, evidenced based advice on e-cigarettes.

    Whilst the Department has not made a formal assessment of the number of e-cigarette users who have resumed smoking, the evidence suggests that in the short-term, relapse rates are lower in those using e-cigarettes to quit.

    The Department has not made an assessment of the number of e-cigarette users who have purchased vaping supplies from black market sources.

  • Tom Pursglove – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Tom Pursglove – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Pursglove on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what help is available to people with hepatitis C infection from contaminated blood.

    Jane Ellison

    Under the current support arrangements, people infected with hepatitis C through the use of National Health Service blood products are offered a lump sum payment of £20,000 on registering and the option to apply for certain discretionary support: both financial and non-financial. Should they develop “Stage 2” hepatitis C, the later stage of the disease, patients are then offered an additional lump sum of £50,000 and a regular annual payment of £14,749. Those people co-infected with hepatitis C stage 2 and HIV are offered a regular annual payment of £29,498. Currently 595 people are receiving these regular annual payments. In addition, 242 people are receiving regular payments for HIV infection.

    However, the Department is consulting on options for a future support scheme which aims to ensure all of those infected with hepatitis C and registered with the payment schemes would receive regular annual payments, up to £15,000. There are currently 2,424 people with “stage 1” hepatitis C currently registered with the payment schemes who would benefit additionally from this proposed change.

  • Andrew Bridgen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Bridgen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken in response to the findings of the first set of operational data collected by NHS England on wheelchair services; and what steps he is taking to ensure that short-term wheelchair loans are available for people waiting for provision of NHS wheelchairs.

    Alistair Burt

    The national wheelchair services data collection was introduced by NHS England in July 2015 and requires clinical commissioning groups to submit quarterly data on their wheelchair services. Data has so far been published for quarter two and quarter three 2015/16. This is a new collection and therefore does not yet provide an opportunity to draw national or regional comparisons. The vast majority of short term wheelchair loans are provided through charities such as the Red Cross and not via the National Health Service.