Tag: Heidi Alexander

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the Care Quality Commission has conducted an impact assessment of the proposed changes to the contract of Experts by Experience.

Ben Gummer

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and adult social care. The CQC is responsible for its own staffing requirements, including any decisions on contracts around the supplying of experts by experience for its inspections of providers.

In line with Cabinet Office approvals processes, the Department:

– gave approval for the CQC to invite tenders for the Experts by Experience programme; and

– having sought and received clarification of the business case from the CQC, the department approved the business case, to enable the CQC to proceed with finalising new contracts for Experts by Experience.

Regulatory impact assessments for the Experts by Experience programme were carried out by the CQC as part of the development of the new regulatory framework in 2014.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which residential and nursing homes he has visited in an official capacity in 2016; and what the date was of each such visit.

Jane Ellison

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and his team have visited the following hospitals in an official capacity in 2016 to date.

Secretary of State for Health

29 January 2016 Kings College Hospital, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, King’s Health Partners

5 February 2016 Coombe Wood Perinatal Mental Health Unit, Park Royal Centre for Mental Health, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

14 April 2016 Oxford University, Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust

Lord Prior

6 January 2016 Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust

20 January 2016 East Surrey Hospital, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

3 February 2016 St Thomas Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

18 February 2016 Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

16 March 2016 Southmead Hospital, North Bristol NHS Trust

22 March 2016 Guy’s Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

24 March 2016 Royal Derby Hospital, Derby Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust

24 March 2016 Lings Bar Hospital, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

12 April 2016 Royal Brompton Hospital, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust

Ben Gummer

14 January 2016 Watford General Hospital, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust

21 January 2016 Salford Royal Hospital, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust

21 January 2016 St Mary’s Hospital, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

15 February 2016 Royal Cornwall Hospital, at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

16 February 2016 Mount Gould Hospital, Livewell Southwest

16 February 2016 Tiverton and District Hospital, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust

17 February 2016 Dorset County Hospital, Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

17 February 2016 Southampton General Hospital, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

29 February 2016 St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

14 March 2016 St Thomas’ Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

Alistair Burt

3 March 2016 St Pancras Hospital, Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust

11 March 2016 Wythenshawe Hospital, University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust

17 March 2016 Kings College Hospital, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

14 April 2016 Clock View Hospital and Ashworth Hospital, Mersey Care NHS Trust

George Freeman

7 March 2016 CityLabs, Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, Oxford Rd, Manchester

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and his team have visited the following primary care services in an official capacity in 2016 to date.

Secretary of State for Health

15 January 2016 Hillfoot Surgery, Pudsey, West Yorkshire

Alistair Burt

11 February 2016 Copes Pharmacy Ltd, London

11 March 2016 Five Oakes Family Practice, Manchester

Jane Ellison

4 February 2016 The Acton African Well Woman Clinic, Hillcrest Surgery, London

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and his team have visited the following residential and nursing homes in an official capacity in 2016 to date.

Secretary of State for Health

5 February 2016 Coombe Wood Perinatal Mental Health Unit, Park Royal Centre for Mental Health, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

Ben Gummer

15 February 2016 St Julia’s Hospice, Cornwall Hospice Care

Alistair Burt

25 February 2016 The Betty and Asher Loftus Centre, London

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2015-11-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his oral contribution of 28 October 2015, Official Report, column 429, on junior doctors’ pay, what assessment he has made of the proportion of the junior doctor workforce that will not have their pay reduced.

Ben Gummer

Our offer for a new contract for junior doctors guarantees that the 99% of junior doctors who work legal and safe hours will not receive a pay cut compared to their current contract.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on public health of rising levels of alcohol consumption in England.

Jane Ellison

There has been a reduction in overall consumption in recent years which is welcome, but there is no room for complacency. Harms such as liver disease remain much too high.

To help people understand how to keep health risks from alcohol consumption low, the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers published new low risk alcohol guidelines on 8 January 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people were diagnosed with secondary breast cancer in the last three months.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England (PHE) is responsible for collecting cancer data to support national cancer registration in England and recognises the importance of collecting data on recurrent breast cancer.

At present pilot work in acute trusts has improved the reporting for breast cancer recurrence and metastasis to the National Cancer Registration Service but the uptake has been slow and the data is not complete. Further work is being scoped by NHS England and PHE based on the recommendation in the recent Independent Cancer Taskforce report to establish robust surveillance systems to collect this data on all cancers.

Data on the number of people diagnosed with secondary breast cancer is not currently available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 28 April 2016 to Question 36036, for what reason the awareness campaign on the symptoms of serious infections in children is not being extended to all adults including those who are not parents.

Jane Ellison

Infections can be serious in both adults and children. Public Health England has been commissioned to develop a public awareness campaign for parents and families about serious infections in children, including meningitis, septicaemia and sepsis. Health Education England have been asked to work with National Health Service organisations to develop parallel professional awareness materials for healthcare professionals who work with both children and adults who have serious infections, including sepsis. A range of information materials for the public are also available on the UK Sepsis Trust website and NHS Choices.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2015-11-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the total amount that will be spent on pay for junior doctors in 2015-16; and how many junior doctors will be employed in that year.

Ben Gummer

Data on the junior doctor paybill for 2015/2016 and those that will be employed over this financial year is not yet available.

The latest data available relates to the financial year 2014/2015. For that year the substantive junior doctor paybill was £3.1 billion; and there were an average of around 53,000 full-time-equivalent junior doctors employed over the year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2015 to Question 20039, on cancer drugs, if he will place in the Library a copy of the draft impact assessment for NHS England’s consultation on proposals for a new Cancer Drugs Fund; for what reasons NHS England has not published the draft impact assessment alongside its consultation on those proposals; what guidance his officials have given on whether draft impact assessments should accompany NHS England consultations; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman

NHS England has advised that it will not complete its assessment of the impact of the proposals on the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) until the outcomes from the current consultation on the future of the CDF are known. The formal consultation, as well as the wider engagement activity in progress, will be critical in helping to understand the potential impacts of the proposed changes.

The Better Regulation requirements, including the preparation of impact assessments, apply to the regulation of business. Where an impact assessment is required to accompany an NHS England consultation, the Department and NHS England work closely to prepare this.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-03-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2016 to Question 23092, how the figure of 10,000 for the number of additional training places universities will be able to provide by the end of the current Parliament was calculated.

Ben Gummer

As announced by the Chancellor in the Spending Review in November 2015, the Government has committed to remove the cap on the number of students studying nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions from 1 August 2017. This will enable universities to offer up to 10,000 new training places for students to start these courses in 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.

The Government is working with health and higher education delivery organisations to determine an appropriate baseline as part of implementing the reforms.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department exceeded its expenditure limit in 2015-16.

Alistair Burt

Confirmation of the spending outturn against all expenditure limits will be provided in the Department of Health’s Annual Report and Accounts 2015-16, due to be published in July 2016.