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Written Question
Health Services Safety Investigations Body
Wednesday 18th May 2022

Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the provisions of the Health and Care Act in respect of the Health Services Safety Investigation Body will be brought into force, and if he will make a statement.

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

We intend to commence provisions to enable the Health Services Safety Investigation Body to be established and fully operational by April 2023.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Screening
Wednesday 25th November 2020

Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether pooled sample testing for covid-19 is being used in (a) the UK and (b) areas of the UK where covid-19 infections are deemed to be recorded as low; and what assessment he has made of the contribution of experiences of pooled sample testing in (i) Uruguay, (ii) Rwanda, (iii) the US, (iv) Germany, (v) South Korea and (vi) India to (A) increasing the understanding of the covid-19 pandemic spread and (B) reducing the number of covid-19 required to help reduce that pandemic spread.

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

A clinical validation study has commenced at a small number of testing sites, which aims to clinically validate pooling for use on the National Testing Programme. There is also a programme about to begin at Cambridge University that we plan to monitor closely. All individuals are asked in advance if they would like to take part in this clinical validation study with the context and reasoning for the study provided. The test result for the individual is unaffected by the clinical validation study being performed.


Written Question
health Professions: Mental Illness
Tuesday 16th October 2018

Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement made by the Chief Executive of NHS England at the International Practitioner Health Summit 2018, if he has plans to extend the Practitioner Health Programme to (a) nurses, (b) midwives, (c) other NHS practitioners and (d) professionals treating NHS patients.

Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

There are no plans to include nurses, midwives, other NHS practitioners or professionals treating National Health Service patients in the roll out of the Practitioner Health Programme, which is a free, confidential service for doctors and dentists who have mental health and/or addiction concerns, or physical health issues that may be affecting their mental health or ability to work. More information on the announcement can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2018/10/nhs-to-prioritise-doctors-mental-health/

NHS Improvement’s health and wellbeing collaborative involves 73 trusts which will identify and roll out 10 high impact actions as part of the NHS commitment to reducing NHS staff sickness absence by 1% by 2020 and to the public services average by 2022.

Both the Framework and NHS Improvement health and wellbeing collaborative embed ‘Thriving at Work’ principles which are aimed at improving workplace mental health.

NHS England has an incentive programme running to 2019 which encourages trusts to invest in innovative new services to support their staff health and wellbeing. To trigger the incentive payments, trusts have to demonstrate a 5% improvement or 75% positive response to two of three NHS Staff Survey questions on health and wellbeing.


Written Question
Health Professions: Suicide
Tuesday 9th October 2018

Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) doctors and (b) dentists have died by suicide in each of the last five years; what the average age of such doctors and dentists was when they died; and whether he has plans to create a national service to help health professionals suffering from mental illnesses.

Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

This information is not collected centrally.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does collect some data relating to the number of suicides registered in England and Wales between 2013 – 2017 where the occupation was recorded as medical practitioner or dental practitioner on the death certificate.

This information is contained in the following tables.

Number of deaths1

Registration year

England

Wales

2013

20

:

2014

18

3

2015

14

:

2016

13

:

2017

18

:

Total

83

6

Number of suicides in England and Wales for dental practitioners, deaths registered between 2013 and 2017.

Number of deaths2

Registration year

England

Wales

2013

3

:

2014

3

:

2015

3

:

2016

7

:

2017

3

:

Total

19

3

Notes:

1For disclosure control, any cells where the count of deaths is lower than three have been supressed and marked “:” to show this.

2Figures are for deaths registered, rather than deaths occurring in each calendar year. Due to the length of time it takes to complete a coroner’s inquest, it can take months or even years for a suicide to be registered. More details can be found in the ‘suicide registrations in the UK’ statistical bulletin at the following link:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/suicidesintheunitedkingdom/2017registrations

Data on the average age of death by each occupation is not recorded by the ONS. Deaths registered in England and Wales between 2013 and 2017, indicate the average age of death by suicide was 45 years for medical practitioners and 49 years for dental practitioners.

Number of suicides in England and Wales for medical practitioners, deaths registered between 2013 and 2017.

Due to small numbers of deaths, ONS are unable to provide the average age of death by year for each occupation. When looking at deaths registered in England and Wales between 2013 and 2017, the average age of death was 45 years for medical practitioners and 49 years for dental practitioners. Data on occupation is restricted to those aged 20 to 64 years, those of working age; this impacts the average age of death, something that should be interpreted with caution. The average age of death does not necessarily reflect the age at which people in these professions are at highest risk of suicide, and is not comparable with statistics produced by the ONS on life expectancy in the general population.

The health and wellbeing of all our National Health Service staff is a top priority and, in July, NHS England published its NHS staff health and wellbeing framework which complements our recent announcement of quicker access to mental health services such as counselling and talking therapies for staff who need them. This will help deliver our manifesto promise to “introduce new services for employees to give them the support they need including quicker access to mental health services”.

This builds on NHS England’s “Commissioning for Quality and Innovation” incentive scheme encouraging employers to invest in services to help staff stay physically and mentally fit and well and NHS Improvement’s ongoing work in collaboration with the NHS to improve staff health and wellbeing and reduce sickness absence.

In 2017, NHS England launched the NHS GP Health service, a nationally-funded confidential service which specialises in supporting general practitioners (GPs) and trainee GPs experiencing mental ill health and which has already helped more than 1,500 GPs.


Written Question
Community Health Partnerships and NHS Property Services
Monday 11th December 2017

Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the Government's policy is on the future of (a) NHS Property Services Ltd and (b) Community Health Partnerships; what the purpose and remit is of each of those organisations; and for what reasons their functions have not been amalgamated.

Answered by Philip Dunne

NHS Property Services Ltd (NHSPS) was established and became operational on 1 April 2013 to hold many of the properties that had been owned by the primary care trusts that were abolished at that time under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. The ongoing high level objectives for NHS Property Services Ltd can be broadly summarised as:

- The provision of a high quality property service and the achievement of significant efficiency savings; and

- Timely and value for money disposals of assets declared surplus by the National Health Service to release capital for investment for the benefit of frontline NHS services.

Community Health Partnerships (CHP) was established much earlier to improve access to community based health and social care services by improving the NHS estate through public private partnerships established by the NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) programme.

CHP is the public sector shareholder in each of the 49 LIFT Companies across England, which currently provide 339 serviced buildings for the provision of primary and community healthcare. In 2013, CHP became head tenant for the NHS LIFT estate, collecting the rents and ensuring that the buildings are adequately managed to support the provision of the services delivered in them.

Sir Robert Naylor’s review of the NHS estate published in March 2017 recommended the establishment of a ‘powerful new NHS Property Board’. The Government is giving careful consideration to the recommendations of the Naylor Review and will respond in due course.


Written Question
Department of Health: European Union
Wednesday 13th January 2016

Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many staff in his Department are working on matters related to (a) European policy, (b) the future of Europe, (c) reform of the EU, (d) the renegotiation of the UK's relationship with the EU, (e) the EU referendum and (f) the consequences of the EU referendum; how many full-time equivalent staff are working on such matters; what the (i) staff and (ii) other cost of such work is; what proportion of that work is undertaken by such staff on (A) communications, (B) strategy and (C) policy; whether his Department has established any specific unit or units to deal with those matters; to whom such (1) staff and (2) units report; whether his Department has issued guidelines to staff on those matters; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Jane Ellison

The Government is fighting hard to fix the aspects of our EU membership that cause so much frustration in Britain - so we get a better deal for Britain and secure our future. The Department is appropriately resourced to support the Government's priorities in Europe, including the renegotiation and referendum.


Written Question
NHS: Safety
Wednesday 3rd June 2015

Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he expects to respond to the Sixth Report of the Public Administration Select Committee of Session 2014-15, entitled Investigating Clinical Incidents in the NHS; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Ben Gummer

We welcome the inquiry carried out by the Public Administration Select Committee into investigating clinical incidents in the National Health Service. We are considering the conclusions and recommendations in the report carefully and will respond shortly.