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  • Margaret Ritchie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Margaret Ritchie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that NHS England’s new prioritisation framework for making decisions on investment in specialised services will be aligned with the recommendations of the accelerated access review.

    George Freeman

    The Accelerated Access Review team has been working closely with colleagues across NHS England, including the specialised commissioning team to ensure that policy is aligned.

  • Margaret Ritchie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Margaret Ritchie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Margaret Ritchie on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when NHS England plans to publish its response to its consultation on developing a method to assist investment decisions in specialised services.

    George Freeman

    The proposed prioritisation methodology which went out to consultation was signed off by the Specialised Commissioning Committee at its meeting on 31 May 2016 – for use in 2016/17.

    The consultation outcome document will now be published on the website imminently.

    There will be further work undertaken on the methodology in due course to refine and improve it for use in future years.

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

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many visits by (a) Ministers and (b) officials from his Department were made to Coventry in each of the last five years.

    Jane Ellison

    The Secretary of State for Health and his team have visited the following in an official capacity in the last five years:

    The former Secretary of State (Mr Andrew Lansley)

    1 March 2012 University Hospital Coventry

    The former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Anna Soubry)

    16 October 2012 Coventry City Council

    The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Jane Ellison)

    16 September 2014 Warwick University

    15 September 2015 Warwick University

    The former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Dr Daniel Poulter)

    24 January 2013 University Hospital Coventry

    The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)

    18 April 2013 Warwick University

    16 September 2015 Warwick University

    Information on visits by officials is not routinely collected and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

  • Wendy Morton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Wendy Morton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Wendy Morton on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the availability of (a) special care neonatal and level three cots and (b) transfers between neonatal units and between neonatal intensive care units.

    Ben Gummer

    The NHS Toolkit for High Quality Neonatal Services (2009) and NHS England’s service specification for Neonatal Intensive Care Transport (2013) sets out standards that neonatal services in England should be meeting to make sure babies born premature or sick get the care they need and deserve. For those babies who are born sick or premature, NHS England commissions Neonatal Care from 165 neonatal units. These units are organised and supported by 13 Operational Delivery Networks with well-defined service standards for all levels of neonatal care within the NHS England Maternity, Children and Young People Managed Clinical Networks. These are intended to provide appropriate levels of care for all babies identified with problems both before and following delivery. Neonatal transport services are a vital part of care for premature and sick babies, to ensure that babies can be moved quickly for the right care in the right place for their needs.

    We know that that there is still more to do to ensure neonatal services are consistent across the country and that is why the Neonatal Clinical Reference Group at NHS England has committed to review the findings of the ‘Bliss Baby report 2015’, (http://www.bliss.org.uk/babyreport) and consider plans for improvement in neonatal services.

    “

  • Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of NHS blood donation services.

    Jane Ellison

    NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is operationally responsible for providing a safe and reliable supply of blood, blood products and expertise to hospitals in England. Each year, donors voluntarily give around 1.7 million units of blood to ensure that hospitals receive the 6,000 blood donations they need every day, to treat patients. There has not been a shortage of blood for many years.

    NHSBT recruits around 200,000 new donors each year to replace those who can no longer donate for reasons such as ill health, pregnancy or foreign travel.

    To meet an on-going overall drop in demand but a more complex need for specific blood groups, NHSBT is increasing donation from O negative blood donors, A negative platelet donors and donors from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities. To increase blood donation, NHSBT recently launched a BAME toolkit to be used by Members of Parliament seeking to increase blood and organ donors in their constituencies.

    The toolkit can be found at:

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i5d5f93ppiqys38/AAB_Q44nwfOiRFMYUx9qKlH8a?dl=0

    “

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

    Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that training in the diagnosis and treatment of ME forms part of medical students’ training.

    Ben Gummer

    It is the responsibility of the professional regulators, such as the General Medical Council (GMC), to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricula to ensure newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care.

    Higher Education Institutions are responsible for ensuring the programmes they provide allow healthcare students to meet the outcomes set out by the regulators upon graduation.

    The royal colleges, for example the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of Surgeons, also have responsibility for developing curricula for doctors and nurses, in particular postgraduate curricula.

    Health Education England works with bodies that set curricula such as the GMC and the royal colleges to seek to ensure training meets the needs of patients.

  • Rachael Maskell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Rachael Maskell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rachael Maskell on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his policy is on the introduction of abortion up to birth.

    Jane Ellison

    The Abortion Act 1967 sets out that an abortion may be carried out after 24 weeks gestation only where:

    ― the termination is necessary to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman Section 1(1)(b); or

    ― the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated Section 1(1)(c); or

    ― there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped Section 1(1)(d).

    In England and Wales it is accepted Parliamentary practice that proposals for changes to the Abortion Act come from backbench members and that decisions are made on the basis of free votes. The Government has no plans to review this legislation.

  • Rachael Maskell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Rachael Maskell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rachael Maskell on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to review the current time limits for abortion.

    Jane Ellison

    The Abortion Act 1967 sets out that an abortion may be carried out after 24 weeks gestation only where:

    ― the termination is necessary to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman Section 1(1)(b); or

    ― the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman, greater than if the pregnancy were terminated Section 1(1)(c); or

    ― there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped Section 1(1)(d).

    In England and Wales it is accepted Parliamentary practice that proposals for changes to the Abortion Act come from backbench members and that decisions are made on the basis of free votes. The Government has no plans to review this legislation.

  • Fabian Hamilton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Fabian Hamilton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fabian Hamilton on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many heart valve replacements have been undertaken in the last five years for which figures are available; and whether those figures are comparable to France and Germany.

    Jane Ellison

    The number of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) with a main or secondary procedure for a heart valve replacement in England from 2010/11 to 2014/15 is shown in the table below:

    Year

    FCEs

    2010-11

    10,543

    2011-12

    11,360

    2012-13

    11,434

    2013-14

    12,137

    2014-15

    12,833

    The Government does not hold comparable data for heart valve replacement in France and Germany.

  • Andrea Jenkyns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrea Jenkyns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrea Jenkyns on 2016-05-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the relationship between hand hygiene compliance levels across the NHS and rates of trust-assigned MRSA bacteraemia in 2015.

    Ben Gummer

    As hand hygiene is known to be an important part of a robust approach to infection prevention and control the Department’s guidance to the National Health Service on infection prevention and control was strengthened last year. However, a national assessment for 2015 is not available as information on hand hygiene compliance is not collected centrally. Auditing of hand hygiene is a local responsibility.