Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to raise awareness of common eye conditions that affect elderly people, such as geographic atrophy, among clinicians and patients.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Regulated healthcare professionals are required to maintain their clinical knowledge through continued professional learning as part of their registration to practice.
In 2022, NHS England has developed 28 eye care related videos for patients, which include information on age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and cataracts. These videos are shared by clinicians with patients, including the elderly and some have been promoted on social media.
NHS England provides online resources for clinicians and commissioners of eye care services through the Future NHS Eye Care Hub. The National Health Service also provides online information on a range of eye care conditions for patients and their carers, including age-related macular degeneration. The Department also participates in National Eye Health Week, to promote the importance of good eye health, the need for regular sight tests and the availability of free NHS sight tests for eligible groups, including those aged 60 years old and over
Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase NHS capacity to deliver intravitreal injections to accommodate the prospective, novel treatment of geographic atrophy.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is currently supporting clinical trials for a number of medicines relating to geographic atrophy, including intravitreal injections. It will review the quality, safety and efficacy of these products should the manufacturers apply for licenses.
All new licensed medicines are subsequently appraised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and guidance issued to the National Health Service. In the absence of NICE’s guidance, local commissioners should consider the available evidence when determining funding for new treatments and the capacity of the local NHS to deliver the service.
Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support consistency in the uptake of the immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery to tackle the backlog in cataract surgery.
Answered by Lord Bethell
No such assessment has been made.
Immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery (ISBCS) is supported by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, who advise that ISBCS can help reduce patient visits to hospital whilst providing an optimum visual outcome, in appropriately selected and assessed patients.
Clinical commissioning groups are required to consider the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines, which state that bilateral cataract surgery should be considered for routine cases for those who are suitable, in making commissioning decisions.
Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the efficacy of immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery in treating patients at risk of sight loss.
Answered by Lord Bethell
No such assessment has been made.
Immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery (ISBCS) is supported by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, who advise that ISBCS can help reduce patient visits to hospital whilst providing an optimum visual outcome, in appropriately selected and assessed patients.
Clinical commissioning groups are required to consider the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines, which state that bilateral cataract surgery should be considered for routine cases for those who are suitable, in making commissioning decisions.
Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to (1) work with NHS Digital, commissioners and providers to encourage an appropriate reimbursement for the treatment of bilateral cataracts, and (2) ensure that the payment reflects the number of eyes treated, rather than the number of procedures performed.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Following the National Outpatient Transformation Programme for ophthalmology, NHS England and NHS Improvement conducted a survey into local pricing of bilateral cataracts in late 2020. NHS England and NHS Improvement will utilise the results of this survey to publish local pricing guidance to be used alongside the 2021-22 National Tariff Payment System.
Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, and if so, when, they intend to publish guidance for the use of personal protective equipment in social care settings for people who are deaf or have other communication difficulties.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Existing guidance documents include information that may be useful to deaf people or people with other communication difficulties, as the guidance covers adapting communication and following communication plans, where they exist, for people who have a range of communication barriers. These include Personal protective equipment (PPE) – resource for care workers working in care homes during sustained COVID-19 transmission in England and the same section of Personal protective equipment (PPE) – resource for care workers delivering homecare (domiciliary care) during sustained COVID-19 transmission in the UK, which are attached.
Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many children had a vision screen as part of the school entry health check in England in 2013–14.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Data on the number of children who received vision screening as part of the school entry health check in 2013-14 is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to reform the Primary Ophthalmic Services Regulations 2008 to ensure that entitlement for additional services includes requests made by eligible persons attending special schools.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
At present there are no plans to reform the Primary Ophthalmic Services Regulations 2008. It is already the case that under the General Ophthalmic Services Contract Regulations 2008, contractors can contract with NHS England to provide sight testing services within such schools.
Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will make available to Parliament their assessment of the impact of the stronger regulatory powers available to the Care Quality Commission since 2008 on the provision of more human-rights compatible care to all service users, including the evidence on which that assessment is based, as recommended by the Joint Committee on Human Rights in its report Legislative Scrutiny: Care Bill (11th Report, Session 2013–14, HL Paper 121).
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (2008 Act) all providers of regulated activities have to register with the CQC and meet a set of requirements of safety and quality. As the CQC is a public authority it has a legal obligation in relation to protecting, respecting and fulfilling people's rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 (1998 Act).
If a provider fails to meet these requirements the CQC has a wide range of enforcement powers that it can use to protect patients and service users from the risk of poor care.
The CQC has advised that it has taken the following published enforcement action during the financial year 2013-14.
- The CQC undertook two urgent cancellations of providers' registration;
- The CQC undertook 53 cancellations of providers' registration;
- The CQC imposed a condition on a provider on 45 occasions;
- The CQC varied a provider's condition of registration on 13 occasions;
- The CQC undertook an urgent variation of a provider's conditions of registration on 13 occasions;
- The CQC imposed 1,269 warning notices on providers and 18,408 compliance actions on providers; and
- The CQC issued over 500 fixed penalty notices.
The CQC monitors and inspects health and social care providers under regulations which stipulate that providers must deliver care and treatment to people with due regard to their age, sex, religion, sexual orientation, race, cultural and linguistic background and disability (Regulation 17).
Where services do not meet standards for Regulation 17, the CQC sets compliance actions and monitors whether providers have taken action to meet the standard. If they have not, the CQC may take enforcement action. Between 1 October 2012 and 30 September 2013, the CQC found 48 services did not comply with Regulation 17, leading to enforcement action. This enforcement action is set out in the following table.
Enforcement action around Regulation 17 in 2012-13
Acute hospitals | 1 |
Mental health hospitals/hospitals for people with a learning disability | 2 |
General practitioners | 0 |
Dentists | 2 |
Care homes | 36 |
Home care agencies | 3 |
Other social care services | 4 |
Total | 48 |
The CQC's consultation ‘A New Start', in June 2013 on how it regulates, inspects and rates services included a section on how Human Rights would be protected by changes to its regulatory model. To accompany the consultation, the CQC produced a draft document entitled, ‘Equality and Human Rights Duties Impact Analysis (decision making and policies)', to give more detail about the impact of the proposed changes on equality and human rights and how they would promote equality and human rights for people who use health and social care services.
The CQC also consulted on its approach to human rights as part of a broader consultation on changes to regulation of care services. The CQC explained its proposed strategy for delivering on its commitment to promote equality, diversity and human rights in its regulatory work; to provide detail about what the strategy will mean in practice; and to receive feedback from important stakeholders.
The CQC held the consultation between 9 April 2014 and 4 June 2014. The CQC will respond to the results of the consultation in September 2014.
The consultation can be found at the following web link:
www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/20140406_our_human_rights_approach_public_consultation_final.pdf
In January 2014 the CQC published ‘Equality Counts', a report providing information about equality in its workforce and for people who are affected by its regulatory policies and practices. The CQC will use the information in this report to drive its work in promoting equality and human rights, both in its regulatory functions and as an employer. The CQC will continue to develop its new approach to ensure equality in different types of health and social care services.
Asked by: Lord Low of Dalston (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will make available to Parliament their assessment of the impact of the stronger regulatory powers available to the Care Quality Commission since 2008 on the provision of human rights-compatible care to service users, including the evidence on which that assessment is based, as recommended by the Joint Committee on Human Rights in its report Legislative Scrutiny: Care Bill (11th Report, Session 2013–14, HL Paper 121).
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (2008 Act) all providers of regulated activities have to register with the CQC and meet a set of requirements of safety and quality. As the CQC is a public authority it has a legal obligation in relation to protecting, respecting and fulfilling people's rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 (1998 Act).
If a provider fails to meet these requirements the CQC has a wide range of enforcement powers that it can use to protect patients and service users from the risk of poor care.
The CQC has advised that it has taken the following published enforcement action during the financial year 2013-14.
- The CQC undertook two urgent cancellations of providers' registration;
- The CQC undertook 53 cancellations of providers' registration;
- The CQC imposed a condition on a provider on 45 occasions;
- The CQC varied a provider's condition of registration on 13 occasions;
- The CQC undertook an urgent variation of a provider's conditions of registration on 13 occasions;
- The CQC imposed 1,269 warning notices on providers and 18,408 compliance actions on providers; and
- The CQC issued over 500 fixed penalty notices.
The CQC monitors and inspects health and social care providers under regulations which stipulate that providers must deliver care and treatment to people with due regard to their age, sex, religion, sexual orientation, race, cultural and linguistic background and disability (Regulation 17).
Where services do not meet standards for Regulation 17, the CQC sets compliance actions and monitors whether providers have taken action to meet the standard. If they have not, the CQC may take enforcement action. Between 1 October 2012 and 30 September 2013, the CQC found 48 services did not comply with Regulation 17, leading to enforcement action. This enforcement action is set out in the following table.
Enforcement action around Regulation 17 in 2012-13
Acute hospitals | 1 |
Mental health hospitals/hospitals for people with a learning disability | 2 |
General practitioners | 0 |
Dentists | 2 |
Care homes | 36 |
Home care agencies | 3 |
Other social care services | 4 |
Total | 48 |
The CQC's consultation ‘A New Start', in June 2013 on how it regulates, inspects and rates services included a section on how Human Rights would be protected by changes to its regulatory model. To accompany the consultation, the CQC produced a draft document entitled, ‘Equality and Human Rights Duties Impact Analysis (decision making and policies)', to give more detail about the impact of the proposed changes on equality and human rights and how they would promote equality and human rights for people who use health and social care services.
The CQC also consulted on its approach to human rights as part of a broader consultation on changes to regulation of care services. The CQC explained its proposed strategy for delivering on its commitment to promote equality, diversity and human rights in its regulatory work; to provide detail about what the strategy will mean in practice; and to receive feedback from important stakeholders.
The CQC held the consultation between 9 April 2014 and 4 June 2014. The CQC will respond to the results of the consultation in September 2014.
The consultation can be found at the following web link:
www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/20140406_our_human_rights_approach_public_consultation_final.pdf
In January 2014 the CQC published ‘Equality Counts', a report providing information about equality in its workforce and for people who are affected by its regulatory policies and practices. The CQC will use the information in this report to drive its work in promoting equality and human rights, both in its regulatory functions and as an employer. The CQC will continue to develop its new approach to ensure equality in different types of health and social care services.