Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2014 to Question 217334, what plans his Department has to review the costs of delivering care in multiple pregnancies antenatally, in delivery and postnatally; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Dan Poulter
Information on the tariff each individual multiple pregnancy attracts is not collected centrally.
NHS England is undertaking a major review of the commissioning of NHS maternity services, in line with commitments made in the NHS Five Year Forward View. The review will assess current maternity care provision and consider how services should be developed to meet the changing needs of women and babies.
The maternity pathway payment system was first mandated for use in 2013-14, from 2014-15, national tariffs will be set by Monitor. Monitor and NHS England have jointly established a review process and will monitor how the new system is working.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many local winter pressure resilience plans developed for the 2014-15 winter period include reference to vaccinations.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Operational Resilience and Capacity Planning 2014/15 published in June 2014 required System Resilience Groups (SRGs) to produce plans which demonstrated comprehensive flu planning in line with guidance published by Public Health England in 2014. SRGs needed to demonstrate flexible preparations for the unpredictability of flu, how vaccination requirements would be met, extending to voluntary and independent sector organisations where appropriate.
The plan assurance process showed all systems had addressed flu planning requirements as part of their resilience and capacity plans.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what funding he has allocated to improving vaccination coverage as part of local winter pressure resilience plans developed for the 2014-15 winter period.
Answered by Jane Ellison
A total of £700 million of operational resilience funding was made available in 2014/15 to support cross-system resilience, with £640 million made directly available to System Resilience Groups (SRGs) through clinical commissioning groups. SRGs agreed locally how this money was to be spent.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department issues to hospitals on the role of improved vaccination in reducing seasonal pressures.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Annual Flu Plan and Annual Flu letter provide guidance on the seasonal flu vaccination programme, and is sent to a range of healthcare professionals. This provides the necessary information to help local areas prepare for vaccinating eligible groups with the seasonal flu vaccine, and highlights the importance of the programme in helping to reduce pressure on the National Health Service.
When appropriate a letter from the Chief Medical Officer is sent to the NHS recommending the use of anti-viral medicines for appropriate groups.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2014 to Question 217336, what (a) damages, (b) defence costs, (c) claimant costs and (d) periodic payment orders were paid in each (i) hospital trust and (ii) region in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Dan Poulter
This information is attached.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make it her policy that the declaration of the UNICEF Heads of Government meeting in September 2015 should prioritise the ending of abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence and torture against children; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
The UK Government fully supports efforts to end all forms of violence against children through its humanitarian and development programmes. Peaceful societies, good governance and the rule of law are all important development priorities for the UK and are central to protecting children globally. DFID is supporting programming in conflict-affected countries to assist and protect children, working with mandated child protection agencies including UNICEF. In Syria and the wider region more than £800 million in humanitarian aid is helping those affected, for example through the No Lost Generation Initiative which is providing education and psychosocial support to children to protect them from violence, abuse and exploitation.
In September Heads of Government will meet at the UN General Assembly to agree a Post-2015 development framework. The UK Government strongly supports goal 16 on peaceful and inclusive societies, which has a specific target on ending all forms of violence against children.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve the UK's patient safety OECD ranking for patient safety incidents involving multiple pregnancies; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development rankings on patient safety are informed by the Health Care Quality Indicators which currently do not compare or rank nations specifically by patient safety incidents involving multiple pregnancies. There are five indicators which are used to rank countries for patient safety:
Women should receive excellent maternity care that focuses on the best outcomes for women and their babies and on women’s experience of care.
There must be a relentless focus on safe care, right first time. This means creating a culture within the National Health Service that is open. A culture that reports errors, analyses what went wrong, and puts those lessons into practice as quickly as possible.
A safety culture is open and fair, shares information openly and freely, delivers fair treatment for staff when an incident happens, and encourages people to speak up about mistakes.
The Department commissioned the National Institute of Care and Excellence (NICE) to produce clinical guidelines and quality standards for the management of twin and triplet pregnancies in the antenatal period. NICE have also produced a pathway to support professionals to care for women with multiple pregnancies who suffer from complications.
NHS England has developed a Maternity Safety Thermometer – which is available to all trusts and allows maternity teams to take a temperature check on harm and records the proportion of mothers who have experienced harm free care, but also records the number of harm(s) associated with maternity care. It supports improvements in patient care and patient experience, prompts immediate actions by healthcare staff and integrates measurement for improvement into daily routines.
The Maternity Safety Thermometer was tested in a pilot phase from June 2013 until October 2014 and is now fully released and available to any organisation wanting to use it.
NHS England is undertaking a major review of the commissioning of NHS maternity services, in line with commitments made in the NHS Five Year Forward View. The review will assess current maternity care provision and consider how services should be developed to meet the changing needs of women and babies.
Recent advances in maternity care, changes in the demographics of women having babies, and preferences of where they want to give birth will form a key focus. Firstly, the review will evaluate the United Kingdom and international evidence and make recommendations on safe and efficient models of maternity services. Secondly it will ensure that the NHS supports and enables women to make safe and appropriate choices of maternity care for them and their babies. Thirdly it will support NHS staff including midwives to provide responsive care.
The terms of reference for the review were published on the 3 March. They can be found online at:
http://www.england.nhs.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2015/03/maternity-rev-tor.pdf
This review, which is expected to report in by the end of the year, will be led by an external chair, supported by a diverse panel.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to support (a) research into still births and neonatal deaths and (b) the dissemination of clinical best practice in multiple pregnancies.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), who are an independent body, publishes a range of support tools and advice to help the National Health Service locally to implement its guidance. Further information can be found at:
https://www.nice.org.uk/about/what-we-do/into-practice/help-implement-nice-guidance
The implementation or communication of clinical guidance for women with multiple pregnancies is a matter for NICE and local trusts.
A range of research relating to causes, risk factors and prevention of stillbirth and neonatal death is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the Department’s Policy Research Programme (PRP).
The NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme is currently funding a £6 million trial of an intelligent system to support decision making in the management of labour using the cardiotocogram. The study started in 2009 and is led by University College London. It will test whether an intelligent computer program can help midwives and doctors improve the care they give in response to abnormalities of the baby's heart rate and whether this will lead to fewer babies being harmed because of a lack of oxygen.
The NIHR is funding a £1.1 million clinician scientist award looking at preventing adverse pregnancy outcome in women at increased risk of stillbirth by detecting placental dysfunction.
The NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre both have ongoing programmes of research on women's health, including research relevant to the prevention of stillbirth and neonatal death.
The PRP is funding the Policy Research Unit in Maternal Health and Care based in the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2014 to Question 217331, what steps his Department is taking to support NICE and other stakeholders disseminate and implement NICE guidance for multiple pregnancies within the NHS; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), who are an independent body, publishes a range of support tools and advice to help the National Health Service locally to implement its guidance. Further information can be found at:
https://www.nice.org.uk/about/what-we-do/into-practice/help-implement-nice-guidance
The implementation or communication of clinical guidance for women with multiple pregnancies is a matter for NICE and local trusts.
A range of research relating to causes, risk factors and prevention of stillbirth and neonatal death is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the Department’s Policy Research Programme (PRP).
The NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme is currently funding a £6 million trial of an intelligent system to support decision making in the management of labour using the cardiotocogram. The study started in 2009 and is led by University College London. It will test whether an intelligent computer program can help midwives and doctors improve the care they give in response to abnormalities of the baby's heart rate and whether this will lead to fewer babies being harmed because of a lack of oxygen.
The NIHR is funding a £1.1 million clinician scientist award looking at preventing adverse pregnancy outcome in women at increased risk of stillbirth by detecting placental dysfunction.
The NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre both have ongoing programmes of research on women's health, including research relevant to the prevention of stillbirth and neonatal death.
The PRP is funding the Policy Research Unit in Maternal Health and Care based in the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford.
Asked by: Bob Russell (Liberal Democrat - Colchester)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department issues on consultation with the Ministry of Defence to local authorities with Ministry of Defence facilities or land within their street lighting provision which plan to turn off street lighting for periods during the night.
Answered by Kris Hopkins
My Department has not issued any guidance to local authorities in consultation with the Ministry of Defence about street lighting. It is up to locally elected councillors to make decisions on street lighting reflecting local circumstances and views.
Although there is no prescriptive Whitehall guidance on street lighting, the Government publication, Manual for Streets (2007), while out of date in certain areas (e.g. on parking and density), contains some useful guidance on getting the balance right when providing street lighting, taking into account the different issues around safety, street clutter and light pollution. It can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/maual-for-streets.