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  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many students in Lancashire studying a clinical pharmacy diploma are in receipt of a bursary.

    Ben Gummer

    Students undertaking clinical pharmacy diplomas are not eligible for NHS Bursary funding.

    Health Education England (HEE), North West, provides a range of education support primarily focused around the required pre-registration year through the provision of salary support for hospital based trainees. HEE (North West) also supports access to funded continuing professional development for clinical pharmacists. The clinical pharmacy diploma, which is not a requirement in order to practice independently, is not funded in the North West by HEE in terms of either fees or bursaries.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many students in (a) the UK, (b) the North West and (c) Lancashire are studying for a clinical pharmacy diploma.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department does not hold this information centrally.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many ambulances are currently in service in London; and how many ambulances were in service in London in each of the last five years.

    Jane Ellison

    This information is not held centrally.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the current average response times are for ambulances responding to C1 and C2 incidents.

    Jane Ellison

    Category C1 and category C2 are terms used by London Ambulance Service to describe the first two categories of green calls.

    Green calls are lower acuity calls where there is still a need for an ambulance, but in slower time scales than life-threatening or more urgent calls. They are usually split into four categories and the response times for these are agreed and set locally.

    Data on green call performance is not centrally held.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many vacancies the London Ambulance Service has for paramedics.

    Jane Ellison

    This information is not held centrally.

  • Shabana Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Shabana Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to increase the level of funding allocated for staffing in GP practices.

    Alistair Burt

    General practitioner (GP) practices are independent businesses and best placed to make the decisions about staffing numbers and skill mix to meet the needs of their patients. Funding for staffing is not allocated separately but forms part of a practice’s core funding allocation.

    The GP Forward View, published by NHS England on 21 April 2016, sets a commitment to increase overall funding for general practice by £2.4 billion a year by 2020/21. This includes core funding for practices, as well as funding for a range of national programmes to support general practice. As part of this investment, £206 million will fund a programme of measures to increase the general practice workforce.

  • Shabana Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Shabana Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with NHS England on reducing medical indemnity costs for GPs.

    Alistair Burt

    The Department is having ongoing discussions with NHS England to review the way in which indemnity costs in primary care are funded and will bring forward proposals for discussion in July 2016.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that the NHS England consultation on a proposed method to support investment decisions in specialised commissioning launched on 12 April 2016 does not disadvantage potential treatments for rare diseases.

    George Freeman

    The consultation on a proposed method to support investment decisions in specialised commissioning closed on 11 May 2016. All responses will now be independently analysed, and NHS England will consider the report before making a final decision on the method to be used by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) when it meets in June 2016 to look at areas for future investment.

    In recognition that there may be limited evidence to support proposed treatments for rare conditions, NHS England has proposed that the CPAG may recommend that interventions for rare conditions are funded where there is limited published evidence on clinical effectiveness. CPAG will also be able to seek advice from NHS England’s Rare Diseases Advisory Group – whose membership comprises of both clinicians and patient and public representatives.

    To ensure people with rare diseases are not disadvantaged, NHS England’s consultation includes an Equality Impact Assessment which explicitly considers the impact of the proposed process on people with rare conditions, and respondents to consultation have been invited to submit their views on this issue.

  • Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of replacing the NHS bursary with student loans on the number of healthcare students; and what steps he is taking to (a) maintain and (b) increase the number of such students.

    Ben Gummer

    The Government assessment undertaken to date is that nursing is consistently one of the most popular courses on University Central Administration Service with 57,000 applicants for around 20,000 nursing places in 2014. Midwifery and Allied Health Professional courses receive higher than average applications as well.

    Health Education England (HEE) funding for healthcare students is currently determined at a local level based on local need and is subject to annual workforce planning. For 2016-17, HEE will fund those commissions set out in the HEE Commissioning and Investment Plan for 2016-17. HEE will set out its plans for 2017/18 training commissions in its next annual Commissioning and Investment Plan or Workforce Plan for England which is expected to be published in December 2016 prior to the start of the financial year.

    We estimate that this reform will enable universities to provide up to 10,000 additional nursing and other health professional training places this Parliament. This reflects estimates on the level of unmet demand for places in the current system where, as an example, for nursing, around two out of three nursing applicants who currently apply for a place are turned down.

    Under the reforms full time students will have access to more upfront living cost support, typically 25% or more.

    A public consultation was published on the 7 April 2016. Preliminary Equalities Impact Analysis and Economic Impact Assessment were published alongside the consultation document.

  • Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Rebecca Long Bailey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-05-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received on the change in constitution in Rwanda; and what assessment he has made of whether that change will effect the continued provision of UK diplomatic support to the Rwandan government.

    James Duddridge

    We believe that changes to a constitution for the benefit of an incumbent risk serious damage to long-term stability. We have expressed this view publically alongside international partners, including through my statement of 21 December following the referendum results.

    The UK and Rwanda have a deep and longstanding relationship and we follow developments in the country closely. We will continue to raise these issues in our public and private dialogue with the Rwandan government and work to encourage an open civil society that can contribute to a healthy democratic process.