Tag: Lord Black of Brentwood

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that best practice on diagnosing atrial fibrillation and preventing atrial fibrillation-related stroke is shared between Strategic Clinical Networks.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England’s Sustainable Improvement Team, which has taken over the work of NHS Improving Quality, is taking action to promote the use of GRASP-AF (Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation) within general practitioner (GP) practices in England. GRASP-AF is an audit tool developed by and trialled in the National Health Service, which greatly simplifies the process of identifying patients with AF who are not receiving the right management to help reduce their risk of stroke. The Sustainable Improvement Team is currently collaborating with partner organisations, including charities, to support the nationwide roll-out of GRASP-AF.

To support this work, an analysis of the costs and benefits of using the anticoagulant drug warfarin to help prevent stroke in people with AF was recently published. A copy of this analysis is attached.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence also published a Quality Standard on AF in July 2015, which sets out what a high quality AF service should look like and will help drive improvement locally. A copy of this Quality Standard is attached.

There is also a wealth of information available on the detection and management of people who have AF. The NHS Atlas of Variation includes such data and similarly Public Health England (working with stakeholders) has produced information for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to enable them to identify and encourage poorly performing areas to improve their detection and management of people with AF. The Atlas is an online tool and therefore it is not possible to attach a copy.

These resources are available to Strategic Clinical Networks to help them with their work to improve the prevention and diagnosis of AF locally.

AF related stroke prevention has been a significant area of focus for the East Midlands Cardiovascular Strategic Clinical Network in recent years. Actions include:

– providing individual advice to CCGs in the area, supporting CCGs to implement AF training for GPs;

– supporting CCGs to implement GRASP-AF;

– developing a non-valvular AF anticoagulation algorithm which has informed updates to local AF guidelines;

– developing an electronic clinical template for the diagnosis and management of AF; and

– promoting the use of the warfarin patient safety audit tool.

AF is also covered as in the National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network’s masterclass programme aimed at all NHS health professionals within CCGs, local authorities and clinical services with an interest in cardiovascular disease data tools and information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to consult family members and children in the London Borough of Lambeth about their experience of children’s services in the Borough.

Lord Nash

As part of Ofsted’s inspection of children’s social care services in Lambeth (reported on 12 May 2015), Ofsted met with children, young people, parents, carers, care leavers and Lambeth’s Children in Care Council, who provided direct evidence about their experiences of Lambeth’s children’s services.

Ofsted inspectors also talk to young people as part of bi-annual visits to children’s homes; and take children’s and parents’ views as part of an annual survey of all children’s homes and fostering agencies. These surveys inform Ofsted’s lines of enquiry for subsequent inspections and decisions about the timing of inspections.

The independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, led by the Hon. Dame Lowell Goddard DNZM, is taking evidence from those affected by child sexual abuse in Lambeth.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2015-11-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the number of people in the UK who suffer from Charles Bonnet syndrome.

Lord Prior of Brampton

No assessment has been made of the number of people in the United Kingdom who suffer from Charles Bonnet syndrome.

However, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) estimate there are more than 100,000 cases of Charles Bonnet Syndrome in the UK.

To raise awareness, the NHS Choices website provides information on Charles Bonnet Syndrome. This can be found at:

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/charles-bonnet-syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx.

A copy of this web page is attached.

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action NHS Improving Quality is taking to increase the number of general practitioner practices using the GRASP-AF tool.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England’s Sustainable Improvement Team, which has taken over the work of NHS Improving Quality, is taking action to promote the use of GRASP-AF (Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation) within general practitioner (GP) practices in England. GRASP-AF is an audit tool developed by and trialled in the National Health Service, which greatly simplifies the process of identifying patients with AF who are not receiving the right management to help reduce their risk of stroke. The Sustainable Improvement Team is currently collaborating with partner organisations, including charities, to support the nationwide roll-out of GRASP-AF.

To support this work, an analysis of the costs and benefits of using the anticoagulant drug warfarin to help prevent stroke in people with AF was recently published. A copy of this analysis is attached.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence also published a Quality Standard on AF in July 2015, which sets out what a high quality AF service should look like and will help drive improvement locally. A copy of this Quality Standard is attached.

There is also a wealth of information available on the detection and management of people who have AF. The NHS Atlas of Variation includes such data and similarly Public Health England (working with stakeholders) has produced information for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to enable them to identify and encourage poorly performing areas to improve their detection and management of people with AF. The Atlas is an online tool and therefore it is not possible to attach a copy.

These resources are available to Strategic Clinical Networks to help them with their work to improve the prevention and diagnosis of AF locally.

AF related stroke prevention has been a significant area of focus for the East Midlands Cardiovascular Strategic Clinical Network in recent years. Actions include:

– providing individual advice to CCGs in the area, supporting CCGs to implement AF training for GPs;

– supporting CCGs to implement GRASP-AF;

– developing a non-valvular AF anticoagulation algorithm which has informed updates to local AF guidelines;

– developing an electronic clinical template for the diagnosis and management of AF; and

– promoting the use of the warfarin patient safety audit tool.

AF is also covered as in the National Cardiovascular Intelligence Network’s masterclass programme aimed at all NHS health professionals within CCGs, local authorities and clinical services with an interest in cardiovascular disease data tools and information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-06-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the National Institute for Health Research expects project HTA-14/141/01 on screening strategies for atrial fibrillation to be published.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The final report from this project is expected to be published in spring 2017 at the earliest.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2015-11-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to amend road traffic legislation to make it compulsory for drivers who run over a cat to report it to the police.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government has no plans to amend the legislation.

The Highway Code advises drivers to report any accident involving an animal to the police, which I hope would lead to domestic animal owners whose animals are killed in road accidents being made aware of their loss.

The police also advise drivers that, if possible, they should make enquiries to ascertain the owner of domestic animals, such as cats, and advise them of the situation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 23 July 2015 (HL1549), when they expect to publish proposals regarding the repeal of section 73 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 in the light of the consultation on the balance of payments between television platforms and public service broadcasters, and what is the reason for the delay in publication.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

The Government intends to publish its response to the Balance of Payments consultation in the coming months.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-06-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will introduce an indicator on the use of manual pulse checks to screen for atrial fibrillation.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The decision on which indicators should be included in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is decided through annual negotiations. In England, NHS Employers on behalf of NHS England, and the General Practitioners’ Committee on behalf of the British Medical Association, decide which indicators are included within the QOF.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for producing a menu of indicators suitable for inclusion in the QOF.

NICE has advised that, in February 2016, it consulted on potential new indicators for the NICE indicators menu, including two new indicators on the use of manual pulse checks for atrial fibrillation. The NICE indicators advisory committee will review feedback to the consultation at its next meeting on 13 June 2016 and the outcome of this review will determine future work in this area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2015-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 16 September (HL2087), whether they have established success criteria for the budgeted spend of £2 million for Operation Grange in 2015–16.

Lord Bates

The Home Office funds the cost of Operation Grange from the Special Grant budget. The level of funding provided to the Metropolitan Police in relation to this investigation is reviewed regularly and will continue to be monitored. The Metropolitan Police keep the Home Office informed of the progress of the investigation through regular updates. These include an assessment of the need for continued funding which is linked to whether there remain continued lines of investigation to pursue.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2015-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 16 September (HL2087), whether they have any plans to spend an amount equivalent to the spending on Operation Grange in 2015–16 on the search for Ben Needham, or other missing children; and if not, why not.

Lord Bates

This Government is clear that unresolved missing children cases, like that of Ben Needham, are never closed and will continue to support the Greek authorities in its investigations. In 2014, South Yorkshire Police requested a Special Grant payment of £700k to support its investigation into the disappearance of Ben Needham. This funding was approved. No decisions have been made in respect of police funding for 2016/17, but any request from South Yorkshire Police will be considered carefully.