Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 6 January (HL4779), what "generally" means in that answer, and under what circumstances women travelling from Northern Ireland to Great Britain for an abortion would not have to pay for the procedure themselves.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The general position in England is that clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) arrange health services for persons for whom they are responsible. Broadly speaking CCGs arrange secondary care, which would include abortion services.
A CCG could commission services, including abortion services, for persons ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland who are nevertheless registered (on a temporary or permanent basis) with a general practitioner who is a member of that CCG, if such services would improve the physical or mental health or treatment of illness of that person. This would be a matter for the CCG to decide however and they are free to exercise their discretion in that regard. There is no duty on a CCG to arrange health services for a person usually resident in NI (or Wales or Scotland) unless that person is present in the CCG’s area and needs ambulance services or accident and emergency services.
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 17 December (HL4320), whether the "private arrangements" for residents of Northern Ireland to access an abortion in England include a requirement for individuals to pay for such services.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Yes, women travelling from Northern Ireland to England for an abortion generally pay for the procedure themselves.
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government under what circumstances, if any, a resident of Northern Ireland who seeks an abortion in Great Britain is required to pay for the operation.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Health is a devolved matter. Residents of Northern Ireland are entitled to access abortion services in England but, in general, they must make their own private arrangements for so doing.
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria the NHS England Clinical Priorities Advisory Group uses in making commissioning decisions.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The criteria against which NHS England’s Clinical Priorities Advisory Group considers proposed investments for specialised services are as follows:
- There must be adequate and clinically reliable evidence to demonstrate clinical effectiveness;
- There must be measurable benefits to patients;
- The intervention should offer equal or greater benefit than other forms of care routinely commissioned by the NHS;
- While considering the benefit of stimulating innovation, NHS England will not confer higher priority to a treatment or intervention solely on the basis that it is the only one available;
- NHS England may agree to fund interventions for rare conditions where there is limited published evidence on clinical effectiveness;
- The intervention must be available to all patients within the same patient group (other than for clinical contra-indication);
- The intervention should be likely to reduce health inequalities and will have regard to any relevant broader equality issues;
- The intervention should benefit the wider health and care system;
- The intervention should advance parity between mental and physical health; and
- The intervention should demonstrate value for money.
The criteria are set out in NHS England’s response to a public consultation, Investing in Specialised Services, of June 2015, a copy of which is attached.
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what priority the NHS England Clinical Priorities Advisory Group gives to advice it receives from the Rare Diseases Advisory Group.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Given the range of specialised services that the NHS England Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) needs to consider for prioritisation, CPAG draws strongly on the expertise that Rare Diseases Advisory Group is able to provide on highly specialised services.
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Astor of Hever on 23 June (HL Deb, col 1059), how many general practitioners they plan to train to respond to the physical and mental health needs of veterans in (1) England, (2) Wales, (3) Scotland, and (4) Northern Ireland.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The NHS Mandate from the Government to Health Education England includes an objective to raise awareness of psychological and physical issues which are commonly faced by veterans and their families and the resources which are available to help them.
Health Education England are working to ensure that there is training available so that there can be a specialist general practitioners in all 211 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) trained in the physical and mental health needs of armed forces veterans by summer 2015. Health Education England are working with the Royal College of General Practitioners to ensure that the learning is taken up and used to support the development of care and services to veterans.
NHS England is exploring how CCGs and other local networks can best support general practitioners in using the available learning and developing the knowledge and skills needed to support this important group of patients who may have particular mental and physical health needs.
Health and social care is a devolved matter and the responsibility of individual devolved administrations and therefore we cannot respond to this question in relation to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.