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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what extra funding will be made available to deliver seven day services in the NHS; and when such funding will be made available.

Ben Gummer

The Spending Review provided the National Health Service in England £10 billion per annum additional funding in real terms by 2020-21 compared to 2014-15, with £3.8 billion real terms growth in 2016-17. This fully funds the NHS’s own Five Year Forward View and will enable it to deliver services seven days a week by 2020. Local NHS organisations will need to plan how they can most effectively and efficiently deliver seven day services within the overall funding available to them. Further details will be set out in the coming weeks as the mandate to NHS England is published, followed by funding allocations to clinical commissioning groups, the publication of planning guidance for the NHS and consultation on tariff prices for providers of NHS services.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to ensure that emergency care is prioritised following the implementation of seven day services in the NHS.

Ben Gummer

More seven day services in hospital will be achieved through the delivery of four clinical standards that describe the urgent and emergency care patients should expect to receive seven days a week.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress his Department has made in achieving seven day services in the NHS which provides the same consultant assessment, diagnostic tests and consultant led interventions for patients seven days a week for (a) 50 per cent of the population by 2018 and (b) 100 per cent of the population by 2020.

Ben Gummer

The Government has set out that hospitals will achieve more seven day services by delivering four priority clinical standards developed by the NHS Services, Seven Days a Week Forum. NHS England will work with the National Health Service and NHS Improvement to support the NHS to meet the four clinical standards and realise the benefits of seven day services for patients.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many consultants have opted out of routine weekend working through the schedule 3 paragraph 6 of the NHS consultant contract in the last year.

Ben Gummer

This information is not held centrally.

Schedule 3 Paragraph 6 of the 2003 NHS consultant contract allows consultants to refuse non-emergency work after 7pm and before 7am during weekdays and weekends. The definitions section clarifies that this also applies to emergency work for those consultants whose specialty by its nature involves dealing routinely with emergency cases, e.g. accident and emergency consultants.

NHS trusts hold information on consultant working patterns. However, this information would not reveal how many individuals have relied on the clause to not participate in weekend work as part of their contract, or to work them at expensive locally negotiated rates.

In its 2013 report ‘Managing NHS hospital Consultants’ the National Audit Office (NAO) reported that 91% of trusts who responded to its survey paid for additional work using locally agreed rates, with rates of up £200 per hour reported. The NAO expressed the view that “This is likely to be linked to the fact that the contract allows consultants to refuse to work outside 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday.”

A subsequent report by the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts concluded that as a result of the opt out, hospitals struggle to provide the appropriate level of consultant-led care for patients.