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 guidance she issues tor GPs on working with Pharmacy First to reduce their workloads.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pharmacy First was launched on 31 January 2024, and as the service embeds, we will monitor and evaluate the service and keep the conditions covered by Pharmacy First under review, but it is too early to consider expanding the clinical pathways.
In the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, we estimated that Pharmacy First, together with the expanded blood pressure check and contraception service, once fully scaled, could remove up to 10 million general practice (GP) appointments. We are monitoring the number of Pharmacy First consultations in community pharmacy but it is not possible to monitor the number of GP appointments Pharmacy First frees up. However, we know that Pharmacy First will enable GPs to see patients with more complex needs quicker.
Since 2019, GPs and their teams have already been referring patients to community pharmacies for minor illnesses and Pharmacy First builds on this. NHS England has engaged with GPs during the development and launch of Pharmacy First and Community Pharmacy England has launched a dedicated website for GPs supporting them with Pharmacy First referrals.
Pharmacies are not paid an establishment grant. Contractors who have signed up to deliver Pharmacy First received a £2,000 set-up fee, they receive £15 per consultation and £1,000 for each month they reach an agreed minimum number of consultations. Funding for community pharmacies, including the funding for Pharmacy First, is expected to pay for all their costs in providing the service. There are no delays to Pharmacy First payments. All payments are made in line with the usual schedule of payments.
The statutory National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage is based on advice of the Low Pay Commission, which takes into account the impact on business and the wider economy, as well as the living standards of workers.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
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 reduce Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services waiting lists.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are committed to expanding and transforming National Health Service mental health care through the NHS Long Term Plan so more people, including children and young people, can be supported more quickly. The NHS forecasts that, between 2018/19 and 2023/24, spending on mental health services has increased by £4.7 billion in cash terms, compared to the target of £3.4 billion set out at the time of the NHS Long Term Plan. Nationally, overall spend on children and young people’s mental health services has increased from £841 million in 2019/20 to just over £1 billion in 2022/23. In the year to December 2023, over 750,000 children and young people aged under 18 years old were supported through NHS funded mental health services, a 31% increase since March 2021.
We are rolling out Mental Health Support Teams in schools and colleges in England, and as of May 2023, these teams cover 3.4 million pupils in England, or the equivalent to 35% of pupils. We expect this to increase to 44% by spring 2024, and we are extending coverage to 50% of pupils by the end of March 2025. We are also providing £8 million to fund 24 early support hubs across the country. This will improve access for children and young people to vital mental health support in the community, offering early interventions to improve wellbeing before their condition escalates further.
In addition, the NHS is working towards implementing five new waiting time standards for people requiring mental healthcare in both accident and emergency and in the community, to ensure timely access to the most appropriate, high-quality support. Four of these include children and young people.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that people operating as (a) hypnotherapists and (b) psychotherapists are (i) registered and (ii) regulated.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Hypnotherapists and Psychotherapists are not statutorily regulated, and there are no current plans to introduce statutory regulation for either profession. The Professional Standards Authority for health and social care operates an accredited voluntary registers programme, providing a proportionate means of assurance for unregulated professions, by setting standards for organisations holding voluntary registers. There are currently two accredited registers related to hypnotherapy, and twelve accredited registers related to psychotherapy.
The Government keeps the professions subject to statutory regulation under review, and in 2022, published the consultation Healthcare regulation: deciding when statutory regulation is appropriate, which sought views on the criteria used to decide when regulation is necessary, and whether there are any unregulated professions that should be brought into statutory regulation. The Government will publish its response to the consultation in due course.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of Pancreatic Cancer UK's Optimal Care Pathway recommendations.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is delivering a range of interventions that are expected to increase early diagnosis, and improve outcomes for those with pancreatic cancer. This includes providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those at inherited high-risk, to identify lesions before they develop into cancer and diagnose cancers sooner, creating new pathways to support faster referral routes for people with non-specific symptoms that could be linked to a range of cancer types, and increasing general practice direct access to diagnostic tests. NHS England has also formed an expert group to consider a pathway for hepato-pancreato-biliary cancers, including pancreatic cancer.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
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 potential impact of outsourcing dialysis services in Lambeth on patient care.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Any service changes should be based on clear evidence that they will deliver better patient outcomes.
Within Lambeth, patients who will receive dialysis at the new site in Brixton will receive care in a significantly improved environment within brand new facilities in a great example of innovative public/private partnership.
NHS England has established the Renal Services Transformation Programme to reduce unwarranted variation in the quality and accessibility of renal care.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with healthcare professionals on minimum service levels during strikes in the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the consultations on introducing minimum service levels in both ambulance and hospital services, the Department hosted workshops to which a wide range of representative groups were invited. This included employer and provider organisations, and unions representing healthcare professionals.
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, whether she plans to develop vaping cessation programmes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Vaping can be an effective tool for adult smokers to quit smoking. However, the health advice is clear, if you don’t smoke, don’t vape, and children should never vape. We are concerned about the worrying rise in vaping among children, with youth vaping tripling in the last three years, and one in five children having now used a vape.
Whilst anyone smoking should focus on giving up cigarettes before giving up vaping, giving up vaping is an important step in overcoming nicotine dependence. We are working with the NHS Better Health website to provide advice for people who want to quit vaping. The National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training has produced guidance for local Stop Smoking Service staff on how best to support vapers to quit. We are also exploring further ways to support people to quit vaping, as part of the national Swap to Stop programme.
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, if she will take steps to monitor the number of GP appointments that are freed up as a result of Pharmacy First.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pharmacy First was launched on 31 January 2024, and as the service embeds, we will monitor and evaluate the service and keep the conditions covered by Pharmacy First under review, but it is too early to consider expanding the clinical pathways.
In the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, we estimated that Pharmacy First, together with the expanded blood pressure check and contraception service, once fully scaled, could remove up to 10 million general practice (GP) appointments. We are monitoring the number of Pharmacy First consultations in community pharmacy but it is not possible to monitor the number of GP appointments Pharmacy First frees up. However, we know that Pharmacy First will enable GPs to see patients with more complex needs quicker.
Since 2019, GPs and their teams have already been referring patients to community pharmacies for minor illnesses and Pharmacy First builds on this. NHS England has engaged with GPs during the development and launch of Pharmacy First and Community Pharmacy England has launched a dedicated website for GPs supporting them with Pharmacy First referrals.
Pharmacies are not paid an establishment grant. Contractors who have signed up to deliver Pharmacy First received a £2,000 set-up fee, they receive £15 per consultation and £1,000 for each month they reach an agreed minimum number of consultations. Funding for community pharmacies, including the funding for Pharmacy First, is expected to pay for all their costs in providing the service. There are no delays to Pharmacy First payments. All payments are made in line with the usual schedule of payments.
The statutory National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage is based on advice of the Low Pay Commission, which takes into account the impact on business and the wider economy, as well as the living standards of workers.
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 potential impact of the new Living Wage rate on community pharmacies.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pharmacy First was launched on 31 January 2024, and as the service embeds, we will monitor and evaluate the service and keep the conditions covered by Pharmacy First under review, but it is too early to consider expanding the clinical pathways.
In the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, we estimated that Pharmacy First, together with the expanded blood pressure check and contraception service, once fully scaled, could remove up to 10 million general practice (GP) appointments. We are monitoring the number of Pharmacy First consultations in community pharmacy but it is not possible to monitor the number of GP appointments Pharmacy First frees up. However, we know that Pharmacy First will enable GPs to see patients with more complex needs quicker.
Since 2019, GPs and their teams have already been referring patients to community pharmacies for minor illnesses and Pharmacy First builds on this. NHS England has engaged with GPs during the development and launch of Pharmacy First and Community Pharmacy England has launched a dedicated website for GPs supporting them with Pharmacy First referrals.
Pharmacies are not paid an establishment grant. Contractors who have signed up to deliver Pharmacy First received a £2,000 set-up fee, they receive £15 per consultation and £1,000 for each month they reach an agreed minimum number of consultations. Funding for community pharmacies, including the funding for Pharmacy First, is expected to pay for all their costs in providing the service. There are no delays to Pharmacy First payments. All payments are made in line with the usual schedule of payments.
The statutory National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage is based on advice of the Low Pay Commission, which takes into account the impact on business and the wider economy, as well as the living standards of workers.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman entitled End-of-life care: improving 'do not attempt CPR' conversations for everyone, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the recommendation that for advance care planning conversations the primary care electronic patient record needs to be (a) the single place for holding (i) end-of-life care plans and (ii) Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation records and (b) accessible across all health settings.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department will respond to the report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman entitled End-of-life care: improving 'do not attempt CPR' conversations for everyone, in due course.