Asked by: David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has plans to make (a) adult MMR and (b) shingles vaccines available in community pharmacies for people who meet the NHS eligibility criteria.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Routine vaccinations, including the shingles vaccine, are not currently available at community pharmacies via the National Health Service. This is with the exception of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine where, in response to the current measles outbreak, some areas have stood up community pharmacy sites on a time-limited basis, to deliver the MMR vaccine to specific cohorts.
The NHS vaccination strategy signals an intent to give local systems the responsibility and flexibility to design and deliver vaccination services to meet their population needs. This includes commissioning the optimal provider network, which may include community pharmacy and hospital hubs, and continuing to use the expertise of primary care, including general practices and practice nurses, to maximise uptake.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to implement section 95 of the Health and Care Act 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department plans to implement Section 95 later this year. This will be subject to Parliament’s approval of the regulations setting out the procedure for preparing and publishing mandatory information standards, on which the Department has recently consulted.
Once Section 95 is in force and compliance with information standards becomes mandatory, the Department will use section 251ZA, where appropriate, to monitor compliance with information standards, including by requiring National Health Service providers and others to whom information standards apply, to provide information for this purpose.
NHS England is responsible for the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), and plans to update the AIS to take account of the statutory approach to information standards in due course. NHS England has also completed a review of the AIS to help ensure that the communication needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss are met in health and care provision. One of the aims of the review was to strengthen assurance of implementation of the AIS, and a self-assessment framework has been developed to support providers of NHS and social care services to measure their performance against the AIS, and develop improvement action plans to address gaps in implementation.
NHS England will publish a revised AIS in due course. Following publication, NHS England will continue work to support its implementation with awareness raising, communication and engagement, and updated e-learning modules on the AIS, to ensure NHS staff are better aware of the standard, and their roles and responsibilities in implementing it.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made with Cabinet colleagues of the impact of trends in the number of patients waiting for mental health treatment on the economy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
While no such assessments have been made, through the NHS Long Term Plan the Government is providing record levels of investment and increasing the mental health workforce, to expand and transform National Health Service mental health services in England, helping to reduce waiting times. The NHS is also working towards implementing new waiting time measures for people requiring mental healthcare in both accident and emergency and in the community, to increase transparency, drive improvements in the quality of data, promote timely access to the most appropriate and high-quality support, and drive accountability in local systems.
The 2023 Spring Budget contained a package of over £400 million to support the long-term sick and disabled in remaining in or entering employment. This included approximately £75 million for the expansion of the Individual Placement and Support scheme, to help people with severe mental illness into employment. At the 2023 Autumn Statement, we announced a further £795 million of funding to increase the number of sessions per course of Talking Therapies treatment and broaden access, leading to an expected additional 384,000 people completing a course of treatment by 2028/29. It will also fund an additional 100,000 Individual Placement and Support places over five years, which will help people with severe mental illness gain and retain paid employment.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of (a) complaints and (b) litigation claims against the NHS; and what steps she is taking to support the resolution of those complaints.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are a range of factors that affect trends in the level of complaints and litigation claims against the National Health Service, that go beyond the Department’s policies. On complaints, factors that affect trends include things like how well NHS organisations resolve concerns before they escalate to written complaints, and how well publicised and accessible their complaints handling processes are. To support effective resolution of complaints, we have worked closely with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman on their work to develop the NHS Complaint Standards, which set out how organisations providing services in the NHS should approach complaint handling to ensure they are handled and resolved effectively.
NHS Resolution (NHSR) manages clinical negligence and other claims against the NHS in England. NHSR is committed to helping the NHS learn from claims. It is working directly with providers of healthcare services, alongside other national and local bodies working on patient safety, to share learning and best practice across the NHS, to drive safety improvement. In 2022, NHSR published a new three-year strategy which extends and enhances its focus on prevention, learning, and early intervention following incidents of harm. NHSR is committed to improving the claims process, including innovative approaches to dispute resolution. This work includes a number of pilots exploring various dispute resolution techniques which can result in faster resolution and reduced legal costs for both sides.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has taken recent steps to help increase the supply of free lateral flow tests to people who are at risk of becoming seriously ill if they contract covid-19.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This year, the National Health Service will offer free COVID-19 lateral flow tests and treatments to an additional 1.4 million people at the highest risk of severe illness, on top of the 3.9 million people already eligible for free COVID-19 lateral flow tests and treatments.
Those who are at highest risk of becoming seriously ill, who are eligible for COVID-19 treatments, can continue to access free COVID-19 lateral flow tests from their local pharmacy. This cohort of people are encouraged to test regularly, to gain timely access to treatments. A full list of those who are eligible, as well as information on how to access the tests, is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/covid-19/treatments-for-covid-19/
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many women and girls are waiting for (a) autism and (b) ADHD assessments in the London Borough of Lewisham; and what the average waiting time is for such assessments.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information requested is not held centrally, but may be held by individual providers or integrated care boards (ICBs). However, some relevant information is available for autism assessments. In the NHS South East London ICB, in December 2023, there were a total of 1425 patients with an open suspected autism referral. The median waiting time of patients in this ICB with an open suspected autism referral, where their first care contact was in the quarter, was 545 days. Across England, in December 2023, 80,718 female patients had an open suspected autism referral.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to implement the recommendations of the Second interim report of the Infected Blood inquiry on psychological services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
A bespoke psychological support service for infected blood victims, commissioned by NHS England, is currently being developed, and is planned to go live in early summer 2024.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Care Quality Commission in enforcement of the Accessible Information Standard across the NHS.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Compliance with the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) is not directly assured by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). However, the performance of organisations in meeting people’s needs is considered in CQC assessment and ratings. Where the CQC has information through NHS England’s AIS self-assessment framework, or other sources, that an organisation is not meeting accessible communication needs, it can use its regulatory powers.
NHS England has completed a review of the AIS to help ensure that everyone’s communications needs are met in health and care provision. An AIS self-assessment framework has been developed to support providers of National Health Service and social care services, to measure their performance against the AIS and develop improvement action plans to address gaps in implementation. The AIS self-assessment framework is designed to enable enhancements around assurance and allows organisations, commissioners, and the CQC to judge performance and compliance.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to make an assessment of the potential impact of any proposed amendments to Part IX of the Drug Tariff on (a) patients with continence care needs, (b) continence care services, (c) the range of continence devices available to clinicians and patients and (d) new product development and innovation in medical devices in the continence sector.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Part IX will remain a list of devices available to be prescribed in the community, via the FP10 prescription route. The Department believes that it is currently difficult to identify which devices are broadly comparable, and whether more expensive devices provide added value. The proposed amendments that were consulted on were intended to increase meaningful choice, not to decrease the choice for clinicians and patients. Comparison between products can increase awareness of different brands amongst prescribers, which can support small and medium sized businesses in entering the market.
The consultation response on the proposed amendments to Part IX is expected to be released in May 2024, which will outline the Government’s response. Any amendments that are taken forward will happen gradually, with review points and engagement with stakeholders, including industry, patient representatives, clinicians, and National Health Service organisations. We are aware that there are some very good devices in use, relied upon by clinicians and patients.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the supply of prostheses to NHS patients.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions 35 prosthetic centres in England to provide specialised prosthetic services. NHS England completed a Prosthetic Services Review between 2018 and 2022, which was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. The recommendations from the review have been incorporated within the service specification, Complex Disability Equipment – Prosthetic Specialised Services For People Of All Ages With Limb Loss, which has been updated in line with the service Specification Methods process, and will be subject to stakeholder testing during April 2024.