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Written Question
Children: Hospices
Monday 22nd May 2023

Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS England Children's Hospice Grant will be continued beyond 2023-24.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England determines the best use of its financial settlement to deliver services. Funding arrangements for children’s hospices beyond 2023/24 have not yet been agreed. Palliative and end of life care is commissioned locally by integrated care boards in response to the needs of their local population.


Written Question
NHS: Early Retirement
Tuesday 13th December 2022

Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of public pension rules on early retirement rates of health professionals from the NHS.

Answered by Will Quince

The Department announced in 'Our plan for patients' intentions to implement new retirement flexibilities to support our most experienced doctors and nurses to stay in the workforce longer and change pension scheme rules to make it easier and more attractive for retired staff to return to service. A consultation on detailed proposals has been published on the 5th of December. This is expected to propose a new partial retirement flexibility and allowing retired staff to build up more pension when returning to service. It will also propose the permanent removal of the 16-hour rule that limited the amount of work retired staff could do in the first month upon returning to service.

In addition, the Department has extended until 31 March 2025 the suspension of pension abatement for nurses and other staff who claimed their pension early using special class retirement rights. This means they can contribute additional hours without affecting their pension. We are also working with NHS England to encourage NHS Trusts to explore local solutions for senior clinicians affected by pension tax charges, including the option of employer pension contribution recycling.


Written Question
Dementia: Rural Areas
Monday 28th November 2022

Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve dementia care in rural areas.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision of dementia care services. NHS England expects ICBs to commission services based on local population needs.


Written Question
Dementia: Health Services
Thursday 10th November 2022

Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve dementia care in the NHS in the next 10 years.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

In 2021/22, £17 million was made available to clinical commissioning groups to address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses. Work to improve dementia diagnosis rates will continue in 2022/23.

We will also double funding for dementia research to £160 million a year by 2024/25. This will include research into its causes, prevention, treatment and care.


Written Question
Pain: Drugs
Tuesday 12th July 2022

Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the removal of specific pain medicines under NICE guidelines does not negatively impact people living with chronic pain.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guideline recommends that people with chronic primary pain should not initially receive commonly used drugs including paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, benzodiazepines or opioids. NICE has determined there is little or no evidence that these treatment options have an impact on quality of life, pain or psychological distress and can cause harm, including possible addiction.

While NICE guidelines are not mandatory, we expect that patients presenting with symptoms consistent with chronic long term pain conditions should be managed according to clinical need and all current guidance. NICE continues to work with system partners to support the implementation of its updated guidelines. However, NICE has stated that medicines should not be withdrawn from patients when shown to be safe and effective for the individual and recommends that clinicians should discuss the risks and benefits of medication with the patient.


Written Question
Dental Services: Rutland and Melton
Thursday 23rd June 2022

Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase NHS dental provision for (a) unregistered children and (b) vulnerable NHS patients in Rutland and Melton constituency.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

Dental patients are not registered to a particular practice outside a course of treatment. A practice can accept a patient for a course of treatment and there are no geographical restrictions on which dental practice a patient may attend, including those in Rutland and Melton.

In 2021/22, an additional £50 million was provided for National Health Service dentistry in the final quarter to provide urgent care to patients. The appointments were targeted to patients in most need of urgent dental treatment, including vulnerable groups and children. Between April and June 2022, NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked practices to deliver at least 95% of contracted units of dental activity to improve access for patients safely, including children and vulnerable patients. Specialist community dental services which treat particularly vulnerable people also benefited from this additional funding. Children, people with learning disabilities, autism or severe mental health problems were prioritised in these services.

The Department and NHS England and Improvement are working with stakeholders, including the British Dental Association, to improve to the NHS dental system. This aims to increase patient access, reduce health inequalities and make the NHS a more attractive place to work for dentists. Negotiations are currently underway on initial measures.


Written Question
Caesarean Sections: Maternity Services
Thursday 9th June 2022

Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer to Question 3755 on Caesarean Sections: Maternity Services, if he will strengthen post natal care for mothers who have had a caesarean section in the upcoming Women's Health Strategy.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

Further information on the specific topics which will be addressed in the Women’s Health Strategy will be available in due course. We will publish the Strategy later this year.


Written Question
Caesarean Sections: Maternity Services
Wednesday 25th May 2022

Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to strengthen post-natal care for mothers who have had a caesarean section in the upcoming Women's Health Strategy.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

Fertility, pregnancy, pregnancy loss and post-natal care will be priority areas in the forthcoming Women’s Health Strategy, which will be published later this year.


Written Question
Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme
Friday 20th May 2022

Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have received payments from the vaccines damages scheme in each of the last five years.

Answered by Maggie Throup

The Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme provides a one-off tax-free payment, currently £120,000, to successful applicants where vaccination has caused severe disablement. The following table shows the number of claimants which have received payments in each of the last five years.

Calendar year

Awards

2018

4

2019

2

2020

4

2021

1

2022

0


Written Question
Pregnancy: Ethnic Groups
Thursday 28th April 2022

Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will review whether the NHS's determination of full term gestation appropriately accounts for different ethnic minority gestation periods.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

There are no current plans to do so. Gestational age is measured in weeks, from the first day of the woman's last menstrual cycle to the current date. Pregnant women are offered an ultrasound scan at approximately 10 to 14 weeks of pregnancy. One of the purposes of this scan is to confirm the gestational age of the baby and the estimated date of delivery. Most babies are born between 37 weeks and 41 weeks of pregnancy. Those born at 37 to 38 weeks are considered to be ‘early-term’ and those born at 39 to 40 weeks are considered to be ‘full-term’.

Antenatal surveillance of fetal growth is an essential part of good maternity as fetal growth restriction is directly associated with stillbirth and perinatal morbidity. The Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle includes an element on ‘Risk assessment and management of babies at risk of fetal growth restriction’. This stipulates that maternity care providers may choose to use uterine artery Doppler assessment, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Green-Top Guideline 31: The Investigation and Management of the Small for Gestational Age Fetus, or the Growth Assessment Protocol, which uses growth charts customised for constitutional variation such as ethnic origin, maternal size and parity, to monitor standardised fundal height and estimated fetal weight.