Blog

Poulter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Poulter on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will include in the next Health Education England mandate a commitment that all foundation year doctors must undertake a rotation in psychiatry.

Ben Gummer

Delivering high quality, effective, compassionate care: Developing the right people with the right skills and the right values – a mandate from the Government to Health Education England: April 2015 to March 2016, asks Health Education England (HEE) to continue to work to increase the numbers of doctors in foundation training undertaking placements in psychiatry. The content of the next mandate from the Government to HEE will be determined following the Government’s Spending Review which is due to complete on 25 November 2015.

Separately, we are due to consult on how we set the mandate to NHS England for 2016-17 prior to publication of the mandate itself. The mandate will be published following the Government’s Spending Review which is due to complete on 25 November 2015.

01/12/2022
Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve working conditions for employees in the social care sector.

Alistair Burt

The Government has taken a number of measures to improve working conditions for employees in the social care sector.

The Government has taken action where social care providers have not previously paid the National Minimum Wage, to ensure staff receive the money owed to them and are paid fairly in future. The Government will introduce a National Living Wage from April 2016 to ensure care workers are better paid for the vital work they do. Guidance from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has been updated to make it clear when staff must be paid for travelling time and rest breaks.

The Department continues to work closely with the social care sector to improve skills and is investing funding for training and developing the adult social care workforce.

01/12/2022
Philip Hollobone – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on the provision of medical supplies to NHS facilities in (a) Northamptonshire, (b) the East Midlands and (c) England of the introduction of the new IT system at NHS Supply Chain’s Regional Distribution Centre in Rugby.

George Freeman

NHS Supply Chain services are delivered by a logistics partner DHL, under the management of NHS Business Services Authority. DHL has been upgrading the main logistics IT system across its warehousing network and on 5 October 2015 commenced the upgrade at its warehouse in Rugby. Various technical issues have been encountered and, as a result, DHL has had to implement contingency measures.

Whilst there has been an administrative impact on some National Health Service trusts, we are not aware of any impact on ‘front line services’ in Northamptonshire and the East Midlands – the area served by the Rugby warehouse. DHL has been able to meet requirements from its remaining network and it expects all current issues to be resolved by 23 October 2015. When the issues have been resolved the NHS Business Services Authority will then address any ‘due compensation’ to NHS trusts affected.

01/12/2022
John Baron – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Baron on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of chronic loneliness among older people on demand for GP appointments in (a) England and (b) Basildon and Billericay constituency.

Alistair Burt

The Department has not carried out an assessment of the impact of loneliness in England or in Basildon and Billericay. The Campaign to End Loneliness report Loneliness: the State We’re In (2012) demonstrated that loneliness has a very negative impact on health. Research identified by the Campaign to End Loneliness has shown it has an effect on mortality that is similar in size to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and is worse for us than obesity. Loneliness and social isolation is also associated with conditions such as cardiovascular disease, dementia, poor sleep and depression.

The Government has not made an assessment of the steps the National Health Service and local authorities have taken to tackle loneliness. Given the complexity of loneliness and the different ways that people are affected there is no single solution that can tackle loneliness and having a range of interventions and solutions is helpful. The Department has funded the Social Care Institute for Excellence to develop and run the Prevention Library which includes examples of emerging practice to prevent, reduce or delay peoples care and support needs from deteriorating. This includes examples of what NHS bodies and local authorities have done to tackle loneliness such as the NHS Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group Living Well programme and LinkAge supported by Bristol City Council.

Prevention is core to the Government’s approach to people managing their health and care needs. My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health set out in his speech to the Local Government Association on 1 July that we all have a responsibility at an individual, family, and community level to identify people with care needs such as loneliness and provide support and improve their wellbeing.

Through the Care Act 2014 the Government has placed a duty on local authorities to have measures in place to identify people in their area who would benefit from universal services to help reduce, delay or prevent needs for care and support. This includes needs that may arise from loneliness and social isolation.

The Department has supported a ‘digital toolkit’ for local commissioners, which was developed by the Campaign to End Loneliness, and is now incorporated in their guidance Loneliness and Isolation: Guidance for Local Authorities and Commissioners. This supports commissioners in understanding, mapping and commissioning for loneliness and social isolation in their communities, and includes promising approaches to tackling loneliness.

We are building a better understanding of how prevention can maintain people’s wellbeing and the evidence base on the effectiveness of interventions is expanding. Through the Prevention Library local authorities can learn from emerging practice, and exchange ideas and experience of the impact of information, advice and befriending services.

01/12/2022

Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of people on the NHS Organ Donor Register in each of the last five years; and what the number of such people was in each region of the UK.

Jane Ellison

The number of people on the NHS Organ Donor Register in each of the last five years, broken down by region, can be found in the table below:

Number on the NHS Organ Donor Register by region: 31 March 2011-31 March 2015, together with the most up-to-date figure as of 18 October 2015

Area	31 March 2011	31 March 2012	31 March 2013	31 March 2014	31 March 2015	18 October 2015
North East	692,025	724,367	755,971	786,099	817,354	846,355
North West	1,819,300	1,898,176	1,984,094	2,061,533	2,154,676	2,238,884
Yorkshire and the Humber	1,402,162	1,470,360	1,531,114	1,595,261	1,652,951	1,703,749
East Midlands	1,203,101	1,254,266	1,312,788	1,368,396	1,432,189	1,486,106
West Midlands	1,289,144	1,352,095	1,410,060	1,470,151	1,527,821	1,582,604
East of England	1,698,671	1,785,398	1,866,624	1,955,199	2,040,484	2,111,254
London	1,842,526	1,952,484	2,038,271	2,132,217	2,228,770	2,297,952
South East Coast	1,402,501	1,465,911	1,528,297	1,568,285	1,660,143	1,737,706
South Central	1,274,839	1,344,484	1,406,769	1,476,392	1,533,499	1,584,697
South West	1,790,479	1,871,061	1,943,719	2,035,651	2,119,347	2,198,641
Wales	900,250	938,406	969,276	1,005,213	1,047,039	1,076,199
Scotland	1,856,932	2,024,867	2,146,305	2,110,394	2,166,994	2,248,191
Northern Island	485,050	520,975	548,291	582,554	618,543	649,678
Isle of Man	9,779	10,596	11,115	11,629	11,984	12,119
Channel Islands	12,772	13,257	14,347	15,923	16,326	16,865
UK Unknown	72,264	66,846	65,765	64,818	69,233	67,454

Source: NHS Blood and Transplant

01/12/2022

Tom Blenkinsop – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve tests for Lyme disease to ensure early diagnosis.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England regularly review new tests for Lyme disease and participate in a Europe wide Quality Assurance programme to ensure that the most suitable tests available are used.

01/12/2022
Tom Blenkinsop – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to address the reported shortfall of £107 million in the Department’s 2015 budget and the consequent imbalance in funding for mental health services.

Alistair Burt

With the financial controls package and help from system leads, we are working towards delivering a balanced position against the overall spending controls in this financial year, despite an unprecedented level of deficit in the National Health Service provider sector.

The NHS must now put in place cost-control measures we have introduced, like clamping down on agency spend, limiting the use of management consultants and making sure trusts have to justify the pay package of any manager who is paid more than the Prime Minister, while we continue to work with hospitals on ways to improve productivity and reduce waste.

This year, we are investing £173 million of additional money in mental health, including £30 million for services for young people with eating disorders. We are taking a targeted and phased approach to the additional investment, to enable local areas to develop additional capacity and a collaborative approach across health, education and children’s services. This is what is needed to make a real difference.

We remain committed to providing the additional £1.25 billion investment in mental health services over the next five years, as announced in the Budget 2015.

01/12/2022
Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the morale of junior doctors of proposed changes to their employment contracts.

Ben Gummer

Staff morale including junior doctors is measured annually through the National Health Service Staff Survey using staff engagement scores.

A contract proposal has not yet been made in relation to junior doctors. My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to the Chair of the Junior Doctor’s Committee Dr Johann Malawana on 8 October providingfour cast iron guarantees on contract reform. He said that he was not seeking to make savings from the pay bill, he wished to have a contract that improves patient safety, that reduces not increases the number of hours junior doctors work each week and which ensures that in future the great majority of doctors will be at least as well paid as now. In particular, he referenced negotiations with the British Medical Association (BMA) consultants committee to make sure there is proper consultant cover at weekends so junior doctors are better supported. He also wanted Health Education England and the Royal Colleges to continue working with the BMA and NHS Employers to look at how the training experience can be improved more generally for juniors to better support work life balance including leave arrangements and recognising that juniors often have family responsibilities and choose to work part time. He asked the Junior Doctor’s Committee to re-enter negotiations and to work with others on the wider work on improving the training experience.

01/12/2022
John Baron – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Baron on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of steps taken by NHS bodies to tackle loneliness.

Alistair Burt

The Department has not carried out an assessment of the impact of loneliness in England or in Basildon and Billericay. The Campaign to End Loneliness report Loneliness: the State We’re In (2012) demonstrated that loneliness has a very negative impact on health. Research identified by the Campaign to End Loneliness has shown it has an effect on mortality that is similar in size to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and is worse for us than obesity. Loneliness and social isolation is also associated with conditions such as cardiovascular disease, dementia, poor sleep and depression.

The Government has not made an assessment of the steps the National Health Service and local authorities have taken to tackle loneliness. Given the complexity of loneliness and the different ways that people are affected there is no single solution that can tackle loneliness and having a range of interventions and solutions is helpful. The Department has funded the Social Care Institute for Excellence to develop and run the Prevention Library which includes examples of emerging practice to prevent, reduce or delay peoples care and support needs from deteriorating. This includes examples of what NHS bodies and local authorities have done to tackle loneliness such as the NHS Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group Living Well programme and LinkAge supported by Bristol City Council.

Prevention is core to the Government’s approach to people managing their health and care needs. My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health set out in his speech to the Local Government Association on 1 July that we all have a responsibility at an individual, family, and community level to identify people with care needs such as loneliness and provide support and improve their wellbeing.

Through the Care Act 2014 the Government has placed a duty on local authorities to have measures in place to identify people in their area who would benefit from universal services to help reduce, delay or prevent needs for care and support. This includes needs that may arise from loneliness and social isolation.

The Department has supported a ‘digital toolkit’ for local commissioners, which was developed by the Campaign to End Loneliness, and is now incorporated in their guidance Loneliness and Isolation: Guidance for Local Authorities and Commissioners. This supports commissioners in understanding, mapping and commissioning for loneliness and social isolation in their communities, and includes promising approaches to tackling loneliness.

We are building a better understanding of how prevention can maintain people’s wellbeing and the evidence base on the effectiveness of interventions is expanding. Through the Prevention Library local authorities can learn from emerging practice, and exchange ideas and experience of the impact of information, advice and befriending services.

01/12/2022
Christopher Chope – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 15 September 2015 to Question 9845, what steps have been taken with Breast Cancer Now since the roundtable event.

George Freeman

Since the Roundtable Event, the Department has engaged with a number of key stakeholders to progress various outputs. I met Breast Cancer Now and the hon. Member for Torfaen (Nick Thomas-Symonds) who is sponsoring the Off Patent Drugs Bill recently where we discussed their views. The Government’s position on the Bill will be shared in full at its second reading on 6 November 2015.

01/12/2022