Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefit of playing chess and bridge for (1) older people, (2) those with mental health problems and (3) children.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government has made no assessment of the benefit of playing chess and bridge for older people, those with mental health problems or children.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what were the waiting times for cataract surgery for each of the past 10 years for each clinical commissioning group.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The information is not available in the format requested. Referral to treatment data are collected by 18 treatment functions and are not condition or procedure specific. Cataract surgery is included in the ophthalmology treatment function. The attached table sets out the median waiting time for completed admitted pathways for the ophthalmology treatment function, by primary care trust and clinical commissioning group, for the years that full data is available, 2007-08 to 2015-16.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they are providing to implement the UK Vision Strategy.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government supports the aims of the UK Vision Strategy of improving eye health, preventing avoidable sight loss, improving services for those who do lose sight, and maximising social inclusion and opportunities for blind and partially sighted people.
Improving the commissioning of services is a key priority for the National Health Service and social care services, and this is one way that we expect to see improvements for patients.
The Public Health Outcomes Framework is an online only data tool which examines indicators that help us to understand trends in public health. It includes an indicator on preventable sight loss which will track three of the most common causes of preventable sight loss: age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. The open availability of data provide a resource for commissioners and local health and wellbeing boards to identify what is needed in their areas and for comparisons to be made with other areas. The online data tool is available on the Public Health England website.
Our public health programmes tackling smoking and obesity will also help prevent sight loss by addressing some of the key risk factors in the development of eye disease.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people have lost their sight or had their vision impaired as a result of delays in the provision of cataract surgery.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning cataract surgery for their local populations. Patients have the right to start consultant-led treatment within 18 weeks of referral for non-urgent conditions, or alternatively have the right to ask for an alternative provider who can see them sooner. All patients should be treated without unnecessary delay and according to their clinical priority.
Where National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance does not exist on a particular treatment, it is for local National Health Service commissioners to make funding decisions based on an assessment of the available evidence and on the basis of an individual patient’s clinical circumstances. However, in light of concerns about lengthy waits for treatment and unacceptable variations in care, the Secretary of State has asked NICE to bring forward its guidance on cataracts from 2018 to 2017. This will provide NHS commissioners with evidence based guidance from NICE and ensure patients have access to the most effective treatment as early as possible.
The Government has not made an assessment of the effect of hospital-initiated postponement of cataract surgery on patients’ sight or of the impact of innovative technologies; we anticipate that these aspects will be considered by NICE in their assessment.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, what is their assessment of the impact of innovative technology and improvements in efficiency on outcomes for cataract treatment.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning cataract surgery for their local populations. Patients have the right to start consultant-led treatment within 18 weeks of referral for non-urgent conditions, or alternatively have the right to ask for an alternative provider who can see them sooner. All patients should be treated without unnecessary delay and according to their clinical priority.
Where National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance does not exist on a particular treatment, it is for local National Health Service commissioners to make funding decisions based on an assessment of the available evidence and on the basis of an individual patient’s clinical circumstances. However, in light of concerns about lengthy waits for treatment and unacceptable variations in care, the Secretary of State has asked NICE to bring forward its guidance on cataracts from 2018 to 2017. This will provide NHS commissioners with evidence based guidance from NICE and ensure patients have access to the most effective treatment as early as possible.
The Government has not made an assessment of the effect of hospital-initiated postponement of cataract surgery on patients’ sight or of the impact of innovative technologies; we anticipate that these aspects will be considered by NICE in their assessment.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the statement by the Secretary of State for Health on 10 August that any patient who needs cataract surgery should get it without delay, what is their assessment of the impact on cataract surgery waiting times and local capacity to deliver cataract treatment of a higher priority being afforded to such treatment.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning cataract surgery for their local populations. Patients have the right to start consultant-led treatment within 18 weeks of referral for non-urgent conditions, or alternatively have the right to ask for an alternative provider who can see them sooner. All patients should be treated without unnecessary delay and according to their clinical priority.
Where National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance does not exist on a particular treatment, it is for local National Health Service commissioners to make funding decisions based on an assessment of the available evidence and on the basis of an individual patient’s clinical circumstances. However, in light of concerns about lengthy waits for treatment and unacceptable variations in care, the Secretary of State has asked NICE to bring forward its guidance on cataracts from 2018 to 2017. This will provide NHS commissioners with evidence based guidance from NICE and ensure patients have access to the most effective treatment as early as possible.
The Government has not made an assessment of the effect of hospital-initiated postponement of cataract surgery on patients’ sight or of the impact of innovative technologies; we anticipate that these aspects will be considered by NICE in their assessment.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many diabetes specialist nurses are currently employed by (1) each Clinical Commissioning Group area, and (2) each hospital trust, in England.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Health and Social Care Information Centre provides information on the number of nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff employed in the National Health Service in England but it does not separately identify diabetes specialist nurses.
It is for local NHS organisations with their knowledge of the healthcare needs of their local population to invest in training for specialist skills and to deploy specialist nurses.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the current primary performance management mechanism through which NHS England hold Clinical Commissioning Groups to account for achieving progress in diabetes service improvement and quality of care.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England and Monitor are working closely together to ensure that the payment system supports service developments in the vanguard sites (including those where integrated diabetes care is a focus) as well as monitoring local innovative approaches to supporting integrated care taken by some clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). This is to ensure that the payment system keeps abreast with the development of future service models and is not a barrier to the development of new models of care.
During 2016/17, NHS England will look at the current incentives and funding arrangements for diabetes to see how greater alignment could be achieved between the financial incentives for primary and secondary care.
Information on how much money the National Health Service invested in structured education for diabetes patients is not collected centrally.
Under the Health and Social Care Act (2012), NHS England has a statutory duty to conduct an annual assessment of every CCG. Since April 2013, CCGs have been assessed twice, for the period 2013/14 and for 2014/15.
For 2016/17, NHS England will introduce a new CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework (CCG IAF). This new framework will align with NHS England’s mandate and planning process, with the aim of driving improvements in a number of key areas including the management and care of people with diabetes.
NHS England has been working with Diabetes UK on including diabetes indicators in the CCG IAF. The proposed diabetes indicators are:
- the percentage of diabetes patients that have achieved all three of the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence recommended treatment targets; and
- newly diagnosed diabetes patients referred to, or attending, a structured education course.
Under the proposals, diabetes will also be one of the six clinical priority areas in the CCG IAF that will be overseen by an independent group.
The CCG IAF proposals are subject to the outcome of an engagement process which closed for comments on February 26 2016. More information can be found at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/ccg-improvmnt/
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much money the NHS invested in ensuring access to and provision of structured education for diabetes patients in (1) 2013, (2) 2014 and (3) 2015, and what percentage those figures represent of total NHS spend on diabetes during each year.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England and Monitor are working closely together to ensure that the payment system supports service developments in the vanguard sites (including those where integrated diabetes care is a focus) as well as monitoring local innovative approaches to supporting integrated care taken by some clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). This is to ensure that the payment system keeps abreast with the development of future service models and is not a barrier to the development of new models of care.
During 2016/17, NHS England will look at the current incentives and funding arrangements for diabetes to see how greater alignment could be achieved between the financial incentives for primary and secondary care.
Information on how much money the National Health Service invested in structured education for diabetes patients is not collected centrally.
Under the Health and Social Care Act (2012), NHS England has a statutory duty to conduct an annual assessment of every CCG. Since April 2013, CCGs have been assessed twice, for the period 2013/14 and for 2014/15.
For 2016/17, NHS England will introduce a new CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework (CCG IAF). This new framework will align with NHS England’s mandate and planning process, with the aim of driving improvements in a number of key areas including the management and care of people with diabetes.
NHS England has been working with Diabetes UK on including diabetes indicators in the CCG IAF. The proposed diabetes indicators are:
- the percentage of diabetes patients that have achieved all three of the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence recommended treatment targets; and
- newly diagnosed diabetes patients referred to, or attending, a structured education course.
Under the proposals, diabetes will also be one of the six clinical priority areas in the CCG IAF that will be overseen by an independent group.
The CCG IAF proposals are subject to the outcome of an engagement process which closed for comments on February 26 2016. More information can be found at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/ccg-improvmnt/
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what work NHS England and Monitor are undertaking to develop new payment and incentives mechanisms that drive integrated care for diabetes across primary and secondary care settings; and what is the time frame for any new proposals to be published.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England and Monitor are working closely together to ensure that the payment system supports service developments in the vanguard sites (including those where integrated diabetes care is a focus) as well as monitoring local innovative approaches to supporting integrated care taken by some clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). This is to ensure that the payment system keeps abreast with the development of future service models and is not a barrier to the development of new models of care.
During 2016/17, NHS England will look at the current incentives and funding arrangements for diabetes to see how greater alignment could be achieved between the financial incentives for primary and secondary care.
Information on how much money the National Health Service invested in structured education for diabetes patients is not collected centrally.
Under the Health and Social Care Act (2012), NHS England has a statutory duty to conduct an annual assessment of every CCG. Since April 2013, CCGs have been assessed twice, for the period 2013/14 and for 2014/15.
For 2016/17, NHS England will introduce a new CCG Improvement and Assessment Framework (CCG IAF). This new framework will align with NHS England’s mandate and planning process, with the aim of driving improvements in a number of key areas including the management and care of people with diabetes.
NHS England has been working with Diabetes UK on including diabetes indicators in the CCG IAF. The proposed diabetes indicators are:
- the percentage of diabetes patients that have achieved all three of the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence recommended treatment targets; and
- newly diagnosed diabetes patients referred to, or attending, a structured education course.
Under the proposals, diabetes will also be one of the six clinical priority areas in the CCG IAF that will be overseen by an independent group.
The CCG IAF proposals are subject to the outcome of an engagement process which closed for comments on February 26 2016. More information can be found at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/ccg-improvmnt/