Tag: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-05-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of Health Education England’s demand-led approach to the assessment of the number of consultant posts needed in highly specialist fields such as clinical pharmacology.

Lord Prior of Brampton

It is Health Education England’s responsibility to ensure that there is sufficient future supply of staff, including those needed in specialist fields, to meet the workforce requirements of the English health system.

The Workforce Plan is built upon the needs of local employers, providers, commissioners and other stakeholders who, as members of its Local Education Training Boards (LETBs), shape the thirteen local plans.

The Workforce Plan is predominately an aggregate of the local LETB plans, but the final national plan is only agreed with the advice and input of its clinical advisory groups and Patients’ Advisory Forum, as well as the Royal Colleges and other stakeholders.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 2016-07-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people are employed by NHS England as (1) audiologists, (2) cardiac physiologists, (3) gastrointestinal physiologists, (4) neurophysiologists, (5) respiratory physiologists, and (6) sleep physiologists.

Lord Prior of Brampton

NHS England (legally known as the NHS Commissioning Board) does not employ any individuals with the job titles specified.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the performance of Basildon and Brentwood Clinical Commissioning Group in ensuring that mental health services are adequately funded.

Lord Prior of Brampton

No such assessment has been made by this Department. NHS England advises that Basildon and Brentwood Clinical Commissioning Group is focused on achieving the best outcomes for its patients within the available funding. It continues to work towards parity of esteem for mental health, focussing on the implementation of the national strategy, The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, while endeavouring to ensure that all services it commissions for individuals with mental health needs are based on local intelligence supported by the local Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. A copy of The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health is attached.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans are in place to evaluate the implementation of the European Professional Card for healthcare professionals in phase 1 before it is rolled out to other professions, including doctors, in the light of changes that implementation will make to the powers of UK regulators.

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 what action they have taken in the light of any representations they have received from Clinical Commissioning Groups about removing current barriers preventing them from using the drug bevacizumab in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration.

Lord Prior of Brampton

No action has been taken in response to the correspondence from clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to remove current barriers to prevent them from using bevacizumab (Avastin) in the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Bevacizumab is not licensed for use in the treatment of wet AMD. Unlicensed medicines can be used to treat patients where there is a special clinical need. There are two other effective licensed treatments for wet AMD recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust followed its own 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.

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 what account they will take of the representations by the Wound Care Alliance UK regarding the NHS Supply Chain generic project plans for a national formulary for wound care.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The NHS Supply Chain is co-ordinating the production of clinical specifications by a Clinical Specifications Working Group, who are representing their customers in capacity of experts in wound care. This group, the Clinical Specifications Working Group, is independent of the NHS Supply Chain set up by the Clinical Reference Board.

The Clinical Specification Working Group has engaged with various stakeholders, including the Tissue Viability Society, in the process and will ultimately approve the resultant specifications.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they are ensuring that the Lead Provider Framework procurement process is not used to continue employing expensive management consultants.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) will make decisions about their requirements when procuring services from the Lead Provider Framework and evaluate responses in order to appoint to the provider that represents the highest quality and best value for money.

The Framework contains nine accredited lead providers that bring together a range of partners and specialist organisations in analytical and intelligence services, contracting and transformation to ensure CCGs can source a diverse range of skills and expertise on a more efficient basis than employing management consultants.

NHS England created the Lead Provider Framework to enable CCGs to access affordable commissioning support from at scale providers so they would not have to rely on expensive management consultants sometimes of variable quality.

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 grants for higher cost students will be made to universities in respect of degree courses in nursing in 2017–18.

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

Institutional autonomy and academic freedom are key strengths of our higher education system. To protect these, the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 prohibits Ministers from being involved in decisions about funding for individual institutions or particular courses. Details on teaching grant funding will be set out in the normal way in the annual grant letter from ministers to The Higher Education Funding Council.

As part of the changes announced at the Spending Review, we will lift the cap on the number of students that can get on to nursing courses and provide nursing students with access to around 25% more financial support. We expect this reform to enable universities to provide up to 10,000 additional nursing, midwifery and allied health training places over this parliament.

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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether students qualify for the NHS Low Income Scheme.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The NHS Low Income Scheme provides income-related help with health costs to students, as for all other adults.

The extent of any help is based on a comparison between a person’s weekly income and requirements at the date they apply to the NHS Low Income Scheme. For a student, income will include any maintenance grant or loan available, the assessment of which may be based on parental income, and the amount of parental contribution assessed by an education authority as payable. Any other income a student may have, such as non-assessed contributions from parents or earnings, will also be taken into account in calculating entitlement. Bursaries will not be included so long as they are clearly not intended for day to day living expenses.