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  • Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-02-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that patients deemed to have critical need are not affected by the time taken by NHS England to draft a new commissioning policy for ultra-rare treatments.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS England has responsibility for the commissioning of specialised services and is currently consulting on changes to the principles and processes by which it makes decisions on prioritising investment in specialised services.

    NHS England has provided assurance that any prioritisation which is urgent on clinical grounds will continue to be dealt with quickly through their existing procedures. The route for individual funding requests remains in place.

    The consultation can be found at:

    www.engage.england.nhs.uk/consultation/investing-in-specialised-commissioning

    “

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-02-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of income received by commissioning support units from clinical commissioning groups is spent supporting clinical commissioning groups in outsourcing NHS services.

    Jane Ellison

    This information is not collected centrally.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-02-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the oral evidence to the Health Committee of Dame Fiona Caldicott, 21 January 2015 to Question 705, what assessment he has made of whether patients who opt out of the care.data scheme will be excluded from NHS services such as bowel screening and e-referrals.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    The process for objecting (‘opting out’) will be communicated during the care.data pathfinder stage and will apply to the use of identifiable general practitioner data for purposes beyond direct care. The care.data Programme team is working closely with clinical commissioning group pathfinder practices to ensure that it is understood that the opt-out should not impact upon the sharing of information for direct care.

    The care.data Programme team is working closely with the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), NHS England and the Department in relation to ‘type 2 objections’. Appropriate communications will be agreed before starting communication activity in pathfinder areas.

    For those people who have made an existing ‘type 2 objection’, the HSCIC is committed to ensuring no patient suffers any adverse impact on their direct care through an inappropriate implementation of an objection. This means that information flows to support services such as cancer screening, electronic prescriptions and e-referrals are currently flowing and will continue to do so.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Gwynne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2015-02-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many registered nurses (a) left and (b) joined NHS employment in each of the last five years.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    There are now over 7,000 more nurses, midwives and health visitors working in the National Health Service than in May 2010.

    The attached table shows the number of registered nurses that have left and joined employment in each of the last five years.

  • Frank Field – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Frank Field – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2015-02-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve patient care for people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

    Jane Ellison

    In 2013, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a clinical guideline on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), providing evidence based advice to support clinicians in diagnosing and managing people with IPF which it expects to review in June 2015. Since then, it has published a quality standard for IPF in January 2015. This sets out the markers of high quality in the care of people with IPF and is designed to drive up standards and to reduce inequalities and variation. NICE has also recommended pirfenidone (Esbriet) as a possible treatment for some people with IPF through its technology appraisal programme.

    NHS England commissions some services for patients with IPF as part of its specialised services remit. Its respiratory interstitial lung disease (adult) service specification, which includes IPF, sets out what it expects to be in place so that providers can offer evidence based safe and effective services. This specification is currently being updated to ensure it includes the most up to date guidance on IPF including the recently published NICE quality standards. Commissioning of rehabilitation, oxygen services and acute admissions for exacerbations are covered by local commissioning arrangements.

  • David Ward – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    David Ward – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Ward on 2015-02-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that local authorities commission adult social care services at an hourly rate which provides for staff to receive the national minimum wage and includes travel time between clients.

    Norman Lamb

    High quality, compassionate care for the most vulnerable in society can only be delivered by a well-trained, motivated and appropriately remunerated workforce. The Government recognises that pay can be a particular concern for those with the responsibility for delivering those services.

    Care providers are legally obliged to pay their workers at least the national minimum wage – relevant time spent travelling between care appointments should be treated as working time for national minimum wage purposes in accordance with HM Revenue and Custom (HMRC) guidance. This is the least that care workers deserve and should expect.

    Responsibility for enforcement of the national minimum wage rests with HMRC rather than local authorities. However, the Care Act places duties on local authorities to have regard to fostering an effective workforce able to deliver high quality services.

    The Government has recently published statutory guidance to support the implementation of the Care Act that describes how local authorities must meet these new duties when commissioning, which directs that local authorities should have evidence that care providers they contract with are paying at least the national minimum wage, including factoring into those calculations any time spent travelling between care appointments and that those providers found to be recently in breach of the law, should be excluded from the contract tendering process.

    The Government has also worked with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Local Government Association to co-produce a set of commissioning standards that were launched in October 2014. These standards amplify the good practice set out in the statutory guidance in regards to fostering an effective workforce.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-02-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the total value of contracts his Department has with private sector providers was in each of the last five years for which records are available.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    Information held by the Department shows the total value of contracts with private sector providers was for each of the financial years for which we have records available at a proportionate cost:

    Financial Year

    Value of Contract

    2011/12

    £365,621,061

    2012/13

    £428,405,616

    2013/14

    £245,882,759

    2014/15

    £156,256,479

    The above figures include all spend that either currently is or was previously under contract with the third party commercial providers of the Department.

    Information for 2010/11, whilst being available, is not in a format to answer the question without the Department incurring disproportionate costs.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-02-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many of the pilots in the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund are not yet fully operational.

    Dr Daniel Poulter

    NHS England has advised that all 20 of the pilots in wave one of the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund are delivering improved access to general practice, including additional appointments on evenings and weekends. In addition, some of the pilots continue to work on further improvements that will benefit patients such as the development of healthcare apps.

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-02-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many IVF cycles have been provided on the NHS in England in each year since 2010.

    Jane Ellison

    The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has advised that the number of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) cycles that have been provided on the National Health Service in England in each year since 2010 is set out in the table below.

    Year

    NHS-funded IVF cycles

    2010

    20,828

    2011

    21,397

    2012

    21,242

    2013

    22,340

    2014

    22,238

    Note: Figures includes cycles in which embryos were created by IVF but not actually transferred to the patient.

  • Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2015-02-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many Clinical Commissioning groups are wholly compliant with NICE guidance on the provision of fertility treatment.

    Jane Ellison

    The information requested is not collected centrally. The level of provision of infertility treatment, as for all health services they commission, is decided by local clinical commissioning groups.

    NHS England expects that all those involved in commissioning infertility treatment services to be fully aware of the importance of having regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence fertility guidelines.