Asked by: Lord MacKenzie of Culkein (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why the COVID-19 home test kit system is not available to postcodes in (1) Sutherland, (2) Caithness, (3) Ross and Skye, (4) Lochaber, (5) Badenoch, (6) Argyll and Bute, (7) the Western Isles, (8) Orkney, and (9) Shetland; and what steps they are taking to resolve this availability.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Due to their remote geographical area, home testing kits are not available in some areas. The home test service relies on Royal Mail's 24 hour guarantee priority post-boxes to ensure tests are returned to the laboratory in a suitable timeframe. Some remote areas in the Scottish Isles have had access to a dedicated testing service set up specifically that enables people to access tests through hospitals without being admitted as a patient. This has been rolled out to the areas of most acute need across the Islands first and is being expanded to provide testing across the Highlands. Residents can also access testing via the nearest regional test site, walk in test site or mobile testing unit.
Asked by: Lord MacKenzie of Culkein (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made to date in implementing their plan to provide 10,000 additional nursing student places by 2020; and how much additional funding has been provided to universities as part of this plan.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Ministers routinely meet nursing leaders and discuss a range of issues, including recruitment and retention of nurses and midwives.
The Government remains committed to reforming nursing, midwifery and allied health pre-registration education and increasing the number of places available for students so that two in three nursing applicants are no longer turned down for a place; at the same time ensuring these students have more money available to them while they study.
Health Education England is confident that the National Health Service will have the required number of students it needs starting courses this year and will continue to work with the education sector to deliver these reforms successfully for the longer term.
Asked by: Lord MacKenzie of Culkein (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with (1) the Royal College of Nursing, (2) the Royal College of Midwives, and (3) UNISON, as a consequence of the fall since 2016 reported by UCAS in the number of applications to universities to study for nursing degrees.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Ministers routinely meet nursing leaders and discuss a range of issues, including recruitment and retention of nurses and midwives.
The Government remains committed to reforming nursing, midwifery and allied health pre-registration education and increasing the number of places available for students so that two in three nursing applicants are no longer turned down for a place; at the same time ensuring these students have more money available to them while they study.
Health Education England is confident that the National Health Service will have the required number of students it needs starting courses this year and will continue to work with the education sector to deliver these reforms successfully for the longer term.
Asked by: Lord MacKenzie of Culkein (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord O’Shaughnessy on 22 February (HL Deb, col 326), why it was said that "there has not been a drop-off in the number of EU nationals joining the NHS workforce since the referendum" when the Nursing and Midwifery Council has reported a significant reduction in the number of EU nurses admitted to the register since the referendum.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
There has been a decline in the number of European Union nurses (excluding the United Kingdom) joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register since July 2016 but the Department does not believe that it is currently possible to attribute this solely to the UK’s decision to exit the EU, other factors such as increased language testing introduced in July 2016 may play a significant part.
However, there has not been a decrease in the number of EU nurses (excluding the UK) working in the National Health Service since the referendum vote in June 2016.
The latest published figures from NHS Digital suggest that the total number of EU nurses including health visitors employed within NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups who declared their nationality as other EU nationals, excluding the UK, increased from 21,826 to 22,394 in the four months to October 2016.
The Department, together with key stakeholders including the Home Office, NHS England, NHS Improvement and Health Education England, will continue to monitor the situation to ensure the NHS has access to the workforce they require.
NHS Digital publishes data on the nationality of staff working in the NHS in England. Nationality is self-reported within the NHS human resources and payroll system, the electronic staff record.
Asked by: Lord MacKenzie of Culkein (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment has been made by (1) the Chief Nursing Officer for England, (2) NHS Improvement, and (3) Health Education England, of the early warning from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of potential supply problems as a consequence of fewer nurses from the European Union joining the nursing register.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
There has been a decline in the number of European Union nurses (excluding the United Kingdom) joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register since July 2016 but the Department does not believe that it is currently possible to attribute this solely to the UK’s decision to exit the EU, other factors such as increased language testing introduced in July 2016 may play a significant part.
However, there has not been a decrease in the number of EU nurses (excluding the UK) working in the National Health Service since the referendum vote in June 2016.
The latest published figures from NHS Digital suggest that the total number of EU nurses including health visitors employed within NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups who declared their nationality as other EU nationals, excluding the UK, increased from 21,826 to 22,394 in the four months to October 2016.
The Department, together with key stakeholders including the Home Office, NHS England, NHS Improvement and Health Education England, will continue to monitor the situation to ensure the NHS has access to the workforce they require.
NHS Digital publishes data on the nationality of staff working in the NHS in England. Nationality is self-reported within the NHS human resources and payroll system, the electronic staff record.
Asked by: Lord MacKenzie of Culkein (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the report produced by MindMetre Research <i>How Sharp Are We On Safety?</i>, they will take further steps to improve the mandatory compliance with EU Council Directive 2010/32/EU and the Health and Safety (Sharp Instruments in Healthcare) Regulations 2013.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
It is for individual National Health Service provider organisations to ensure that policies, procedures and practices in the affected clinical areas are consistent with current regulations and that requisitions for sharps clearly stipulate the requirement for safer sharps.
We are not aware of any restriction in the availability of products that comply with the Health and Safety (Sharps Instruments in Healthcare) Regulations 2013 for the areas of care as outlined within the ‘How Sharp are we on Safety’ report, published in October 2015.
Asked by: Lord MacKenzie of Culkein (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will respond to the report <i>A Review of Choice at the End of Life</i>, published by the End of Life Coalition in February 2015.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Department commissioned the independently-led Review of Choice in End of Life Care which provided advice to Ministers last year. The Review set out a vision for enabling greater choice and improving quality at the end of life for every dying person.
We want to ensure that patients have greater choice about the care they receive at the end of their life and we are working with NHS England to see how this can best be achieved. We will set out our full response to the Choice Review shortly.
Asked by: Lord MacKenzie of Culkein (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have received advice from the Council of Deans of Health about the future funding of nursing and midwifery students.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Department of Health (DH) received joint correspondence from the Council of Deans of Health and Universities UK about a number of issues relating to healthcare education funding in England.
The Council of Deans of Health and Universities UK also wrote a joint letter to DH and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Ministers on 7 August 2015 requesting a meeting to discuss a redesigned system. DH and BIS Ministers agreed to a joint meeting, which took place on the 2 December.
Asked by: Lord MacKenzie of Culkein (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have considered training nurses in England according to the approach used for trainee paramedics who receive a salary for the work they do while studying for their degree, and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Department has no plans to move to the system proposed. Under the current system student nurses are supernumerary in the workforce during their clinical placements. This was introduced in the 1990s following criticisms, led by the Royal College of Nursing, that the employment model used student nurses as a major part of the workforce which did not effectively contribute to their learning, education and development to become competent registered nurses.
Asked by: Lord MacKenzie of Culkein (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the capped number of nursing and midwifery students in each year since 1999.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The following table shows the number of pre-registration nursing and midwifery places (degree and diploma courses) that were commissioned by year, for the period 2000-01 to 2015-16. Information on planned commissions for the period 1999-2000 is not available.
Year | Nursing | Midwifery |
2000-01 | 19,460 | 1,983 |
2001-02 | 20,668 | 2,029 |
2002-03 | 21,949 | 2,250 |
2003-04 | 23,553 | 2,285 |
2004-05 | 24,956 | 2,425 |
2005-06 | 24,520 | 2,380 |
2006-07 | 22,964 | 2,170 |
2007-08 | 21,569 | 2,115 |
2008-09 | 21,732 | 2,274 |
2009-10 | 21,337 | 2,537 |
2010-11 | 20,327 | 2,493 |
2011-12 | 18,069 | 2,507 |
2012-13 | 17,546 | 2,578 |
2013-14 | 18,056 | 2,588 |
2014-15 | 19,206 | 2,563 |
2015-16 | 20,033 | 2,605 |
Source: multi professional education and training budget monitoring returns
Health Education England are the in process of developing commissioning plans for 2016-17. This process will conclude later this month with the publication of the Workforce Plan for England 2016-17.