Tag: Helen Jones

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2014-05-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had on ways of improving awareness of transient ischaemic attacks on the part of (a) GPs, (b) staff in A&E departments and (c) other health staff.

Jane Ellison

NHS England is responsible for improving awareness of transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs) amongst front-line health staff. In addition, both the recent Act FAST campaign conducted by Public Health England and the Stroke Association campaign launched last week will improve awareness of TIAs amongst professionals and the public alike.

The provision of timely access to TIA clinics has greatly improved over recent years and more patients are having carotid surgery in a timely fashion than ever before. However, we recognise that there are still improvements to be made and part of the work of reorganising and modernising stroke services involves ensuring that TIA care is of the highest quality.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2014-05-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many specialist transient ischaemic attack clinics are currently operating in each NHS trust in each region of England.

Jane Ellison

Information from the latest Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) organisational audit published in 2012, found that 99% of acute trusts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland had a neurovascular (transient ischaemic attack) clinic with a median of 20 clinics held in each four week period. More information can be found on page 64 of the 2012 SSNAP audit report at the following link:

www.rcplondon.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/ssnap-acute-organisational-audit_2012-public-report.pdf

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, by how much each ambulance trust in England underspent or overspent their budget in each year since 2010.

Jane Ellison

National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts do not receive funding directly from the Department of Health and therefore do not have budgets against which they underspend. They are semi-autonomous organisations whose income derives from the provision of services to NHS England and clinical commissioning groups, through what might be described as trading activity.

The NHS trust and foundation trust regime has similarities to the regime for Government Trading Funds, where expenditure for Government activity is met from income from third parties, rather than direct funding from resources voted to the Department.

The equivalent “underspend” would be where the trust spends less than the income it receives as a result of its activity. This is referred to as a “surplus”.

The following table summarises the year-end surpluses for each NHS Ambulance trust in the financial years 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13.

	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13
	£000s	£000s	£000s	£000s
Isle Of Wight NHS Trust1				543
East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust	2,016	467	2,409	30
East Of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust	757	2,364	3,121	4,175
London Ambulance Service NHS Trust	1,425	1,002	2,751	262
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust2	4,736	3,120	2,312	2,340
North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust	1,041	2,065	1,558	2,707
South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust3	602	1,383	2,049	1,560
South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust4	1,130	3,153	3,486	3,055
South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust5	511	890	1,645	36,934
West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust	255	99	925	5,797
Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust	518	237	428	2,223
1Isle Of Wight NHS Trust established April 2012
2North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust – FT status established November 2011. 2009-10 to 2011-12 figures – as NHS Trust
3 South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust – FT status established March 2012. 2009-10 to 2011-12 figures – as NHS Trust
4South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust – FT status established March 2011. 2009-10 to 2010-11 – as NHS Trust
5South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust – FT status established March 2011. 2009-10 to 2010-11 – as NHS Trust

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to raise public awareness of transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs) and of the need to seek immediate treatment for TIAs; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

There are no plans for any specific marketing activity around raising public awareness of transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs). However, Public Health England continues to run the highly impactful Act FAST stroke awareness campaign that covers very similar signs with a message to call 999 if these signs are witnessed. Two new television executions ran in March 2014 with plans to run them again later in the current financial year.

NHS England produced a resource for clinical commissioning groups (CCG) to support them in setting and delivering on a level of ambition to reduce premature mortality. The resource included information on high-impact interventions that CCGs could consider commissioning to reduce premature mortality. One of these is to increase the proportion of patients with TIA treated within 24 hours from 71% to 100%.

The resource is available here:

www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/sop/red-prem-mort/

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Jones on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of patients with asthma who have received an asthma care plan; and when he expects all patients with asthma to have received such a plan.

Jane Ellison

Information on the number of asthma patients with a care plan is not collected. However, the Government’s mandate to NHS England says that by 2015, everyone with a long term condition should be offered a personalised care plan.

NHS England is supporting clinical commissioning groups to improve out of hospital treatment for those with asthma by giving doctors more control over the commissioning of asthma services and improving information links between general practitioners and hospitals. The implementation of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence asthma quality standard, that sets out what good quality care looks like, will also raise the standard of care people with asthma receive.

NHS England, through its National Clinical Director for Respiratory Disease, will continue to work with Asthma UK and professional groups in both primary and secondary care to improve outcomes for all those with asthma.