Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reviewing the boundaries for the High Cost Area allowance.
Answered by Will Quince
As per paragraph 4.8 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook, it will be open to the NHS Pay Review Body to make recommendations on the future geographic coverage of high-cost area supplements (HCAS) and on the value of such supplements. As such, no assessment has been made by the Department with regards to a review of HCAS boundaries.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
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 improve (a) treatment and (b) support for chronic lyme disease patients.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Research shows that the vast majority of patients with Lyme disease will experience a full recovery. A minority of patients may experience more protracted symptoms, known as Post-treatment Lyme disease Syndrome (PTLDS). Why some patients experience PTLDS and others do not is unclear. There is no current proven treatment for PTLDS, however research is looking at the best way to manage patients.
Specific training for general practitioners (GPs) and infection specialists on Lyme disease is held regularly. Lyme Disease Action has an e-learning module for GPs, recommended by the Royal College of General Practitioners. Guidelines for Healthcare professionals and providers, and people with Lyme disease, their families and carers, are published by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of public information campaigns on (a) safety relating to ticks and (b) tick-bite prevention measures in (i) GP surgeries and (ii) outdoor spaces.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), along with local authority partners, developed a Tick Awareness Toolkit, available at the following link:
The toolkit can be used by local authorities and other organisations to deliver tick awareness messaging, including safety relating to ticks and the promotion of tick-bite prevention behaviours. This can be deployed in a variety of settings, including general practitioner surgeries and outdoor spaces. The toolkit also encourages local authorities to evaluate the impact of any campaign work.
UKHSA have also used the Tick Surveillance Scheme and Lyme Disease Fingertips datasets to identify potentially higher risk locations in England. This information has been shared with local authorities, along with the resources in the Tick Awareness Toolkit, to enable them to produce more targeted campaigns.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
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 support the appointment of a clinical women’s health lead for NHS England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
NHS England are continuing to work with the Women’s Health Ambassador and the Department with the aim of appointing a Women’s Health lead in due course.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the potential additional annual cost to the public purse of using locum rather than directly employed doctors in the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
In 2020/21, expenditure on agency doctors was £918,879,984 or 6.6% of the substantive spending on doctors that year. Maximum hourly rates for agency staff are governed by NHS England’s price cap which is calculated at 55% above substantive rates. For agency medical consultants, this is £80.61 or £107.47 for unsocial hours, defined as those outside of 7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday and bank holidays. Exceptions exist, including for circumstances concerning patient safety. The suitable rates for extra-contractual working hours are agreed locally. The agency rates include worker pay, holiday pay, National Insurance and pension contributions and an agency fee.
For doctors employed on nationally agreed terms and conditions, the highest hourly pay is for a medical consultant. The hourly basic pay rate based on 40 hours per week for a consultant at the maximum of the pay scale is £57.12 per hour. This does not include enhancements for working unsocial hours or National Insurance and pension contributions. Locum medical staff provide a flexible resource when demand is high or during times of sickness or other absences. We are reducing the cost of flexible staffing through price caps, procurement frameworks, expenditure ceilings and working with National Health Service trusts to develop staff banks.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the estimated cost to Government of training a single doctor from medical school through to the completion of the Foundation Programme.
Answered by Will Quince
The Personal Social Services Research Unit at the University of Kent estimates that the cost of training an individual from the beginning of medical school to the end of the foundation training programme is approximately £327,000. This includes discounting, salaries to the trainee during the foundation stage, living expenses and other costs of training.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of compensating the national governments of countries on the WHO’s Workforce Support and Safeguard List when the doctors trained in those countries register to work for the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made.
The Government’s Code of Practice for the International Recruitment of Health and Social Care Personnel prohibits active recruitment from the countries identified by the World Health Organization’s Workforce Support and Safeguard List. However, individuals in these countries retain the right to migrate and can make direct applications for vacancies in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of clinical trial participants were recruited to industry sponsored clinical trials supported by the NIHR Clinical Research Network in (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19, (c) 2019-20, (d) 2020-21 and (e) 2021-22.
Answered by James Morris
The information requested is shown in the following table.
2017/18 | 3% |
2018/19 | 3% |
2019/20 | 2% |
2020/21 | 1% |
2021/22 | 1% |
‘The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery’, published in March 2021, sets out the ambition to increase participation of patients to clinical trials, including industry sponsored trials. ‘The Future of Clinical Research Delivery: 2022 to 2025 implementation plan’, published on 30 June 2022, summarises progress to date and the actions which will be taken over the next three years to increase participation in clinical trials.
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many participants were recruited to industry sponsored clinical trials supported by the NIHR Clinical Research Network in (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19, (c) 2019-20, (d) 2020-21 and (e) 2021-22.
Answered by James Morris
The information requested is shown in the following table.
2017/18 | 24,073 |
2018/19 | 29,416 |
2019/20 | 15,006 |
2020/21 | 28,560 |
2021/22 | 18,425 |
Asked by: Anthony Browne (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of participants recruited to interventional studies supported by the NIHR Clinical Research Network were recruited to non-covid-19 clinical trials in (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21 and (c) 2021-22.
Answered by James Morris
The information requested is shown in the following table.
2019/20 | 99.5% |
2020/21 | 10% |
2021/22 | 42% |