Tag: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-02-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government under what legal power the Secretary of State for Health is able to impose junior doctors’ contracts on NHS Foundation Trusts.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Secretary of State is not imposing the junior doctors’ contract on National Health Service foundation trusts which are free to determine the terms and conditions, including pay, for the staff they employ. Most choose to use national contracts. Senior NHS leaders have advised that the new contract, 90% of which was agreed with the British Medical Association, will be fair and reasonable for doctors in training and for the service and will be safer for patients. Health Education England has made clear that a single national approach is essential to safeguard the organisation and delivery of postgraduate medical training. NHS Improvement has stated that it will support trusts to ensure the new national contract is implemented consistently.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-03-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the current availability of school places.

Lord Nash

Local authorities are rising to the challenge of creating new school places where they are needed – 445,000 new places were added between 2010 and 2014, with many more delivered since then. This was supported by £5 billion of funding allocated to local authorities to create new places between 2011 and 2015.

Supporting local authorities in their responsibility to ensure sufficient school places in their area remains one of this Government’s top priorities. That is why we have committed to investing £23 billion in school buildings between now and 2021 to create a further 600,000 new places, open 500 new schools and address essential maintenance needs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-03-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the accuracy of official figures of the number of patients waiting for treatment for more than a year.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Consultant-led referral to treatment waiting time statistics are designated as National Statistics. This means that the statistics are produced according to sound methods, and are managed impartially and objectively in the public interest.

From time to time, for example when there are serious problems with patient administration systems, National Health Service trusts do need to temporarily suspend submissions of data for inclusion in the publication of National Statistics for reasons of data quality and completeness. Nine acute trusts did not submit data on referral to treatment waiting times for January 2016. For this reason, the published data on the number of patients waiting more than a year to start consultant-led treatment for non-urgent conditions may be understated. NHS Improvement is working intensively with these trusts so that they can begin submitting data again as quickly as possible.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-04-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will list by name and contract value the contracts that are currently being reviewed in the light of the review by David Stout into the causes of the termination of the Uniting Care Partnership contract.

Lord Prior of Brampton

This is a matter for NHS England. The Department understands that information on other contracts is in the process of being collated.

NHS England advises that it will need to review this before making decisions about sharing any of this information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-04-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to develop a national strategy for eye care.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Given the size of England, and the diversity of the health needs of different communities, we believe commissioning needs to be owned and managed locally.

Therefore, there are no plans to develop a national strategy for eye care.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning hospital eye services and for holding their providers to account in terms of contract performance. CCGs are also able to commission eye care services from community optometrists where they judge them to be needed in their areas over and above the sight tests commissioned by NHS England. Such services could include post cataract surgery reviews, glaucoma monitoring and low vision services which may reduce pressure on hospital eye departments, reduce waiting times and make patient care pathways more accessible in the community.

There is scope for further work to be done by community optometrists and the Clinical Council for eye health commissioning is working with commissioners to develop commissioning guidelines in this area.

CCGs have the ability to develop alternatives to hospital care. We would expect patients who require further planned stages of treatment in line with their agreed care plan, to receive this treatment without undue delay and in line with when it is clinically appropriate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-05-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the governance arrangements put in place to oversee the development of Sustainability and Transformation Plans will ensure appropriate accountability to Parliament for decisions made.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The development of Sustainability and Transformation Plans does not alter the existing statutory responsibilities of clinical commissioning groups, local authorities and NHS arms length bodies. Sustainability and Transformation Plans are designed to enable local health and care leaders to work together more collaboratively to help each other meet their statutory responsibilities more effectively and efficiently. They do not alter existing arrangements for accountability.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-05-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with Health Education England over any action required to stem the loss of consultant clinical pharmacologist posts in the NHS.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Figures published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that there has not been a reduction in the number of consultant clinical pharmacologists employed in the National Health Service in England.

As part of its workforce planning, Health Education England (HEE) take account of a range of factors including forecast rates of retirement. HEE has recently undertaken a review of the clinical pharmacology and therapeutics workforce, the findings of which will contribute to future workforce planning for this specialty in England.

It is for the respective Governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to consider workforce planning for their health system.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-06-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the draft recommendation from NICE not to recommend the drug Strensiq for the treatment of hypophosphatasia for critically ill infants who are otherwise likely to die, what other treatment options are available.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently evaluating Strensiq (asfotase alfa) for the treatment of paediatric-onset hypophosphatasia under its highly specialised technologies programme.

NICE’s draft guidance, published in December 2015 for consultation, did not recommended asfotase alfa. However this is not NICE’s final guidance to the National Health Service.

NICE’s draft guidance states that there are currently no other treatments available that specifically prevent or delay the progression of hypophosphatasia.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-09-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many patients were treated for hepatitis C and what were the actual or estimated costs of such treatment in each of the years 2014–15, 2015–16, and 2016–17.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Comprehensive data on all hepatitis C treatment in the United Kingdom is presented in the Public Health England annual report on Hepatitis C in the UK. The latest version published in July 2016 is called Hepatitis C in the UK 2016 report: Working towards its elimination as a major public health threat, and reported that treatment rates increased by around 40% in the calendar year 2015, up to 8,970 from an average of 6,400 in previous years. A copy of the report is attached. The report also presented preliminary figures to show that deaths in the UK from hepatitis C-related end stage liver disease and liver cancer fell for the first time in 2015, suggesting that access to new oral treatment via the early access schemes for patients with decompensated cirrhosis and cirrhosis may be having a positive impact.

In April 2014, NHS England announced an interim commissioning policy to make these new highly effective oral treatments available to patients with liver failure. In June 2014, NHS England implemented a second Interim Commissioning Policy, extending access to patients with cirrhosis.

Hepatitis C drugs are subject to commercially confidential discounts and rebate agreements. Releasing estimated or actual spend data includes the impact of these confidential prices which if released would inhibit the ability of companies to do business with the Department in the future. The Department has a duty to ensure that they adhere to the terms of confidentiality agreements when considering the release of information under the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme or other Commercial Medicines Unit drug framework agreements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-10-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to ask the competition authorities and the Care Quality Commission to review the Age UK report on self-funders in care homes published on 20 October.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Care and support is arranged on an open market where prices and fee rates are negotiated locally by commissioners for state funded clients, whilst individuals and their families do so for those who self-fund. The Government has no say in these individual negotiations.

Under the Care Act, councils are under a duty to promote their overall local provider market to ensure it remains sustainable and delivers high-quality services for all local people. Prices and fee rates paid by commissioners to provider organisations must reflect these new duties.

The Department published the Care and Support statutory guidance setting out how councils should meet these new duties when commissioning, including the consideration of the actual costs of care and support when negotiating fee levels. This guidance is an online-only resource, subject to updates.

The Department is aware of the Age UK report Behind the headlines: ‘stuck in the middle’ – self-funders in care homes. There are many reasons why individuals who self-fund may pay more than local authorities, including premium accommodation and services, and discounts that may be available to authorities for bulk purchasing and lower transaction costs.

The Government has no plans to ask the competition authorities or the Care Quality Commission to review the Age UK report, though we maintain a continuing dialogue across government and with the sector to encourage good practice and fairness to consumers.