Tag: Baroness Masham of Ilton

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2016-06-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to develop a workforce register of heart failure specialist nurses in England.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Government does not plan to develop a workforce register of heart failure specialist nurses in England.

It is for local National Health Service organisations with their knowledge of the healthcare needs of their local population to invest in training for specialist skills and to deploy specialist nurses.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage GPs to undertake out-of-hours shifts in primary care.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department and NHS England are committed to addressing the issue of increasing medical indemnity costs for general practitioners (GPs), including those working out of hours.

Increasing costs of indemnity cover associated with out of hours work may discourage GPs from undertaking out-of-hours shifts in primary care.

The Department was represented at a roundtable event held by NHS England on 17 November 2015 to develop a shared understanding of how to address rising medical indemnity costs. A range of stakeholders, including the British Medical Association and Medical Defence Organisations, also attended.

On 9 December 2015, NHS England announced a winter indemnity scheme to offset the additional indemnity premium for GPs who wish to work additional sessions for their out-of-hours providers.

Discussions are ongoing between the Department and NHS England on a long-term solution.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2016-06-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to increase patients’ access to specialist multi-disciplinary teams to improve care for heart failure patients in the community.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England is working with key partners to ensure better co-ordination and integration of all services with the aim of delivering person-centred and coordinated care which is tailored to the needs and preferences of the individual, their carer and family.

In particular, to encourage better practice in the caring for heart failure patients, NHS England has established a best practice tariff for acute heart failure. It is also working with Health Education England to explore ways of improving the provision of and increasing access to echocardiography, which is used for the diagnosis of heart failure.

To help the NHS understand what a good quality service looks like, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publish quality standards which define best practice within a topic area and it has published quality standards for acute and chronic heart failure. NHS England expects all commissioners and providers to take account of quality standards in the services that are delivered to patients.

NICE has developed a commissioning toolkit for the use of natriuretic peptides assessment in primary care for suspected heart failure. It has also produced guidance on acute heart failure and chronic heart failure, both of which cover the use of natriuretic peptides.

NICE guidance and quality standards are published online only, but due to the complexity and length of their content, they cannot be included as attachments.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the role of social enterprises in delivering high-quality healthcare services.

Lord Prior of Brampton

It is a statutory obligation that decisions on healthcare provision should be taken independently by local commissioners. Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) must decide how to use their resources in a way which is evidence based, clinically-led and cost-effective in order to provide high-quality healthcare for people in their area. CCGs must also balance both short-term need and long-term transformation in line with the NHS Five Year Forward View’s (5YFV) objectives.

However, the Government firmly believes that providers from all sectors, including social enterprises, play an important role in providing high quality, safe and efficient care to patients, as well as helping to realise the ambitions set out in the NHS 5YFV.

The NHS 5YFV partners have recently published an updated national support package for the vanguards, ‘The Forward View into action: New Care Models support for the vanguards’, which emphasises the importance of drawing on the expertise and resources of the voluntary and social enterprise sector. A copy of the updated support package document is attached.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2016-06-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to implement health education as a compulsory part of the PSHE curriculum, inspected by Ofsted, from age five to 18, in the light of the recommendation from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Primary Care and Public Health’s Inquiry Report into NHS England’s Five Year Forward View: Behaviour Change, Information and Signposting published in March 2016.

Lord Nash

All schools are required to teach a balanced and broadly based curriculum that promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and prepares them for adult life.

The national curriculum focuses on the essential knowledge children need so that teachers can design a wider school curriculum that is responsive to the needs of their pupils. This teaching can include a range of topics that fall under PSHE, such as health education and health awareness.

To help schools plan their provision, the PSHE Association has produced a suggested programme of study for schools to follow, which includes content about ‘Health and Wellbeing’.

Ofsted do not inspect individual curriculum subjects. Instead, the framework enables important aspects of PSHE to be considered in a proportionate and integrated way, linked to the core inspection areas.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2016-02-29.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the impact of the price of five per cent coal tar ointment on the NHS Drug Tariff for England and Wales on Clinical Commissioning Groups’ decision to pay for that treatment.

Lord Prior of Brampton

We have made no such assessment.

In primary care, the prescribing decision rests with the patient’s general practitioner. The cost of any medicine has to be balanced against the importance of meeting the individual treatment needs of patients and potential adverse consequences for patients and additional costs to the National Health Service if supply is interrupted, for example the re-emergence of symptoms or relapse of the condition on stopping treatment.

Clinical commissioning groups can issue prescribing advice taking into account the cost of medicine.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2016-09-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the replenishment target of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is met at the Pledging Conference in Montreal on 16 September.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

My Right Hon Friend, the Secretary of State for International Development, announced an investment of £1.1billion in the Global Fund, including a commitment to double private sector contributions for tackling malaria, up to a maximum of £200million, and £90 million tied to successful delivery against a performance agreement.

The UK’s investment will fund 40 million bednets to tackle malaria; provide enough lifesaving anti-retroviral therapy for 1.3 million people with HIV; and support the treatment of 800,000 people with tuberculosis.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2015-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether NHS England will hold a consultation on generic commissioning policies, including for Individual Funding Requests, and if so, when details of that consultation will be published.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England has advised that it is planning to consult early in the new year on the generic commissioning policies, including on Individual Funding Requests. Publication details will be announced following completion of the consultation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2015-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the timetable for (1) the completion, and (2) the publication, of the hepatitis C improvement framework.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Completion and publication dates for the hepatitis C framework have not yet been confirmed. In the meantime, Public Health England continues working with NHS England and Operational Development Networks to establish a process of monitoring treatment access and uptake.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton on 2015-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, to date, how many patients have commenced treatment under NHS England’s commissioning policy for the treatment of cirrhosis in adults with hepatitis C, and how much that commissioning policy has cost.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England has invested in two policies enabling access to some of the new treatments (in advance of the publication of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence technology appraisals) for patients with hepatitis C with the greatest clinical need.

NHS England’s Interim Clinical Commissioning Policy Statement of April 2014 provided an Early Access Scheme for around 1,000 patients with decompensated cirrhosis. Then in June 2015, NHS England extended that policy so the next group of patients with the greatest clinical need, those with cirrhosis, could also benefit from the new Direct Acting Antivirals. A copy of both of these policies has been attached.

Between publication of the cirrhosis policy in June and 19 October, NHS England received over 1,900 notifications of decisions to treat under the policy. These notifications are submitted by treating clinicians and confirm that patients meet the policy criteria.

In order to confirm the actual cost of this policy, NHS England needs to complete a process of validating treatment notifications against actual trust reported activity and invoicing data on dispensed drugs. These data sources are submitted at different times and so an accurate assessment of the cost of the policy to date will not be able to be possible until the end of the year. Any data shared on the cost of the policy will need to observe commercial in confidence pricing agreements.

Based on preliminary modelling, NHS England set aside £190 million in 2015-16 for the treatment of hepatitis C.