Tag: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-11-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with other EU member states concerning the impact on NHS patients of the introduction of the European Professional Card for healthcare professionals.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The aim of the European Professional Card (EPC) is to simplify and streamline the recognition of professional qualifications process for the applicant. Improving the freedom of movement of professionals will give the National Health Service greater access to a range of skills to the benefit of patients.

For health and care professions, the EPC will be introduced for nurses, pharmacists and physiotherapists in 2016. It will not be introduced for doctors until 2018 at the earliest. The EPC will be introduced through an Implementing Act.

The Department was involved in extensive negotiations with the European Commission and other Member States during the development of the Implementing Act and was successful in achieving a number of positive changes including increasing access to translations of documents, and ensuring that authorities can challenge the issuance of an EPC in another Member State under ‘justifiable circumstances’, which will be an important patient safety mechanism. We will continue to work with the health and care regulators and the Commission during the implementation process to mitigate any risks.

The United Kingdom was also successful in receiving a commitment from the Commission that they will undertake an early review to ensure that any issues are resolved before the EPC is rolled out to any additional professions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-11-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency can license the drug bevacizumab in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration in the absence of an application by the company that holds the patent.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), an executive agency of the Department of Health, is responsible for the licensing of medicines. The MHRA is only able to assess and grant a licence for a particular use of a medicine once an application has been made and supporting data have been submitted to demonstrate that the quality, safety and efficacy of the medicine are satisfactory for the intended use.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-12-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to ensure that the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust deals effectively with the issues of racial discrimination and harassment identified by the Care Quality Commission.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) is monitoring and working closely with Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust to support the Trust to address these issues.

We are advised by the TDA that the Trust’s Race Equality Workforce Engagement Strategy involves multiple work streams led by area specific engagement groups to address specific issues and challenges across all areas and levels of the Trust. It was launched at the joint Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Network and Trust conference in October 2014.

A programme board was established and the first meeting was in February 2015. Programme board meetings are co-chaired by the Chief Executive and the Chair of the BME Network in order to provide oversight, performance management and governance of the race equality action plans developed by the various engagement groups.

We are assured by the TDA that the Trust followed procedures correctly in appointing the Chairman of the Trust to hear a right of appeal from nine BME members of staff against the decision of Henrietta Hill QC.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2015-12-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many of the Clinical Commissioning Groups in England and Wales have prevented access to dermatology specials for their patients on the grounds of cost in the last five years.

Lord Prior of Brampton

This information is not collected centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-01-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what costs Commissioning Support Units have incurred in spending, or have committed to spend, on external management consultancies in 2015–16, for (1) internal business support, and (2) providing support to Clinical Commissioning Groups, the NHS Commissioning Board and others.

Lord Prior of Brampton

As of December 2015, Commissioning Support Units spend on external consultancy for 2015/16 was £8.4 million with a further £1.4 million identified as future known commitments, by the end of the financial year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-01-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the planned replacement of student bursaries by loans, how many nurse placements will be funded by Health Education England in 2017–18.

Lord Prior of Brampton

It is not possible to determine these numbers at this stage as these will be based on the Health Education England (HEE) workforce plan, which is completed annually ahead of each student intake. HEE will continue to have a key leading role in the commissioning of nursing, midwifery and allied health courses. It will continue to provide sufficient clinical placement funding for those places needed to meet the workforce planning needs of the National Health Service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how much the average student spends per year on prescriptions.

Lord Prior of Brampton

We are unable to provide the cost of giving free prescriptions to students in full-time education.

The estimated cost of giving free prescriptions to those young people aged 16, 17 and 18 in full-time education for the period April 2014 to March 2015 is £68,088,373. This is based on information captured when processing National Health Service FP10 prescription forms which were dispensed in the community during the period April 2014 to March 2015.

We do not hold the information on how much the average student spends per year on prescriptions.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether NHS Improvement, in commissioning management consultancies to work with turnaround trusts, will exclude those consultancies which were engaged in any failed initiatives from the previous round of consultancy-driven financial recovery initiatives.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The guidance for use of management consultancies is set out as part of the spending approvals process. Monitor has published the following guidance for foundation trusts “Consultancy spending approval process: Initial guidance to NHS foundation trusts” with the Trust Development Authority (TDA) publishing similar for NHS trusts “Consultancy spending controls: Initial Guidance to NHS Trusts”. Copies of the guidance are attached.

The guidance is clear that expenditure on management consultancy must demonstrate that the skills and expertise of advisors cannot be delivered through use of existing resources. It is also a requirement that value for money must be demonstrated. This approach is the same for NHS providers, NHS Improvement or any NHS organisation. Therefore we are content NHS Improvement’s approach to managing turnaround programmes is consistent with this requirement.

NHS Improvement ensures that lessons learned from all financial turnaround programmes are taken into account when considering how to handle any financially challenged providers requiring turnaround actions in the future. This includes the use of the best available, most appropriate consultancies with the right blend of skills and experience required to deliver the turnaround programme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-29.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, of the schools that had their admission arrangements objected to in (1) 2014, and (2) 2015, what was the average number of School Admissions Code breaches found in each case.

Lord Nash

In 2013/14 the total number of objections upheld and partially upheld was 99, out of 161 determinations published. In 2014/15 the number was 159, out of 260 determinations published.

We do not record data on the number of breaches found in individual cases.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-03-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they will ensure that their review of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group contract with UnitingCare LLP for older people’s and adult community services will deal objectively with the role of the Strategic Projects Team.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England is responsible for the review of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG’s) contract with UnitingCare LLP. NHS England confirms that its review will look at the role of the Strategic Projects Team and the advice that it gave to the CCG.

NHS England advises that it has commissioned an independent review, so the Strategic Projects Team’s role can be considered objectively.