Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions (1) the Department of Health and Social Care, and (2) NHS England have had with suppliers and manufacturers of general sales list (GSL) medicines to ensure the continued supply of GSL medicines that are important for the management of specific health conditions after the UK has left the EU.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Leaving the European Union with a deal remains the Government’s top priority. However, as a responsible Government we must plan for every possible outcome including ‘no deal’. The Department has published guidance to industry and the health and care system to allow them to make informed plans and preparations. This is available online at GOV.UK.
The Government has been working closely with industry to ensure the supply of medicines can continue uninterrupted in the event of a ‘no deal’ EU exit, including building stockpiles, providing additional warehousing space and buying freight capacity on alternative ferry routes. Our plans cover all medicines and medical products, including general sales list medicines.
The Department will continue to work on its ‘no deal’ plans, and we are writing in similar terms to all other organisations in the health and care system to ask them to continue and not to wind down their contingency plans at this stage. The Department wrote to all suppliers of medicines to the United Kingdom on 26 March to advise them of the changes to EU exit dates, and ask them to continue with preparations to protect patients in all possible outcomes.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, whether they will update their guidance given to companies that supply (1) prescription only, (2) pharmacy, and (3) general sales list, medicines if Article 50 is extended.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Leaving the European Union with a deal remains the Government’s top priority. However, as a responsible Government we must plan for every possible outcome including ‘no deal’. The Department has published guidance to industry and the health and care system to allow them to make informed plans and preparations. This is available online at GOV.UK.
The Government has been working closely with industry to ensure the supply of medicines can continue uninterrupted in the event of a ‘no deal’ EU exit, including building stockpiles, providing additional warehousing space and buying freight capacity on alternative ferry routes. Our plans cover all medicines and medical products, including general sales list medicines.
The Department will continue to work on its ‘no deal’ plans, and we are writing in similar terms to all other organisations in the health and care system to ask them to continue and not to wind down their contingency plans at this stage. The Department wrote to all suppliers of medicines to the United Kingdom on 26 March to advise them of the changes to EU exit dates, and ask them to continue with preparations to protect patients in all possible outcomes.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, whether they have made any further preparations on stockpiling (1) pharmacy, and (2) general sales list, medicines in the event that Article 50 is extended.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Leaving the European Union with a deal remains the Government’s top priority. However, as a responsible Government we must plan for every possible outcome including ‘no deal’. The Department has published guidance to industry and the health and care system to allow them to make informed plans and preparations. This is available online at GOV.UK.
The Government has been working closely with industry to ensure the supply of medicines can continue uninterrupted in the event of a ‘no deal’ EU exit, including building stockpiles, providing additional warehousing space and buying freight capacity on alternative ferry routes. Our plans cover all medicines and medical products, including general sales list medicines.
The Department will continue to work on its ‘no deal’ plans, and we are writing in similar terms to all other organisations in the health and care system to ask them to continue and not to wind down their contingency plans at this stage. The Department wrote to all suppliers of medicines to the United Kingdom on 26 March to advise them of the changes to EU exit dates, and ask them to continue with preparations to protect patients in all possible outcomes.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cancer diagnoses were made at each rapid diagnosis and assessment centre in 2018, broken down by cancer type.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Ten multi-disciplinary diagnostic centres are being piloted through the Accelerate, Co-ordinate, Evaluate (ACE) partnership between Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and NHS England. This pilot programme will end in March 2019. Early findings from those sites informed the plans for roll out of the Rapid Diagnostic Centres as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. During 2019/20, the ACE Programme will share further evaluation from the pilot centres. The findings will continue to inform plans for expansion of the Rapid Diagnostic Centres, alongside work being led by Cancer Alliances to improve early diagnosis.
Data covering the pilot period will be available later in 2019.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of rapid diagnosis and assessment centres in improving cancer diagnosis rates.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Ten multi-disciplinary diagnostic centres are being piloted through the Accelerate, Co-ordinate, Evaluate (ACE) partnership between Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and NHS England. This pilot programme will end in March 2019. Early findings from those sites informed the plans for roll out of the Rapid Diagnostic Centres as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. During 2019/20, the ACE Programme will share further evaluation from the pilot centres. The findings will continue to inform plans for expansion of the Rapid Diagnostic Centres, alongside work being led by Cancer Alliances to improve early diagnosis.
Data covering the pilot period will be available later in 2019.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much was allocated to each local authority in England to be spent on public health in each year from 2010 to 2018 inclusively.
Answered by Baroness Manzoor
Information on public health grant allocations to local authorities from 2013, when public health funding was devolved to local authorities, to 2019/20 is attached, due to the size of the data.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that social care providers and staff are not penalised financially if local authorities decide to reduce the fees at which they commission future sleep-in shifts.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Updated Government guidance National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage: Calculating the minimum wage was published on 8 November setting out the implications for paying workers for sleep-in shifts following the ruling by the Court of Appeal in Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake and Shannon v Rampersad. The Government sent advance notice of the publication to local government representatives. A copy of the guidance is attached.
The Government is sending a clear message that the judgment should not be used as an opportunity to make ad-hoc changes to the fees paid to providers. Commissioners and providers should be working together to determine a fair rate of pay for sleep-in shifts to fit their local labour market conditions.
The Government has given councils access to up to £3.6 billion more, dedicated for adult social care in 2018-19 and up to £3.9 billion for 2019-20. Overall, councils are able to increase spending on adult social care by 9% in real terms from 2015/16 to 2019/20. The Government encourages employers to pay more than the minimum wage wherever possible but recognises that employers’ ability to do so will depend on a range of factors.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they provide to local authorities about the payment of sleep-in shifts; and whether any such guidance has been updated following the ruling by the Court of Appeal in Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake and Shannon v Rampersad [2018] EWCA Civ 1641.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Updated Government guidance National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage: Calculating the minimum wage was published on 8 November setting out the implications for paying workers for sleep-in shifts following the ruling by the Court of Appeal in Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake and Shannon v Rampersad. The Government sent advance notice of the publication to local government representatives. A copy of the guidance is attached.
The Government is sending a clear message that the judgment should not be used as an opportunity to make ad-hoc changes to the fees paid to providers. Commissioners and providers should be working together to determine a fair rate of pay for sleep-in shifts to fit their local labour market conditions.
The Government has given councils access to up to £3.6 billion more, dedicated for adult social care in 2018-19 and up to £3.9 billion for 2019-20. Overall, councils are able to increase spending on adult social care by 9% in real terms from 2015/16 to 2019/20. The Government encourages employers to pay more than the minimum wage wherever possible but recognises that employers’ ability to do so will depend on a range of factors.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to expand the range of drugs covered by the New Medicines Scheme in community pharmacies.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
There are no current plans to expand the New Medicine Service. All changes to the community pharmacy contractual framework are made following negotiations with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.
Asked by: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to expand the number of prescribing pharmacists.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Pharmacists prescribers are currently working across a range of services in both secondary and primary care. As part of a planned programme of expansion, additional pharmacists are being recruited to work in patient facing roles in general practice. They will be treating patients using their expert knowledge of medicines for specific disease areas and they will either be prescribers, or training to become one. As of October 2018, 876 clinical pharmacists have been recruited, and we have been informed by NHS England that it is committed to recruiting an additional 1,950 clinical pharmacists in general practice by 2020/21.