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Written Question
Influenza: Mortality Rates
Thursday 21st October 2021

Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the influenza infection fatality rate in the UK in each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Maggie Throup

Influenza infection levels and related deaths are not routinely collected in the format requested, therefore this specific estimate has not been made. The number of influenza infections and deaths due to influenza-related complications varies with each flu season.


Written Question
Dental Services
Tuesday 8th May 2018

Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to make it mandatory for NHS dentist practices to notify all stakeholders of a planned closure one year in advance.

Answered by Steve Brine

NHS England has no plans to make it mandatory for National Health Service dental practices to notify all stakeholders of a planned closure one year in advance.

The General Dental Services Regulations and Personal Dental Services Agreement Regulations state that, either commissioners or NHS providers may terminate the contract by providing a minimum three months’ notice.


Written Question
Drugs: Misuse
Wednesday 13th December 2017

Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 22 November 2017 to Question 113472, for what reasons the period from April 2010 to March 2013 was excluded from the total amount of money from the public purse spent on Talk to Frank since its creation.

Answered by Steve Brine

The Talk to FRANK service is currently operated by Public Health England (PHE), and the information supplied in response to Question 113472 was drawn from PHE financial records.

During the period April 2010 to March 2013, the Talk to FRANK service was operated jointly by the Home Office and the Department of Health.

In the 2017 report ‘An evaluation of the Government’s Drug Strategy 2010’, the Government spend on media and information activity under the Drug Strategy 2010, 2010/11 to 2014/15 (including on FRANK) is provided on page 73:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/628100/Drug_Strategy_Evaluation.PDF


Written Question
Drugs: Misuse
Wednesday 22nd November 2017

Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much money was spent from the public purse on the drug information service FRANK in (a) the most recent year for which information is available and (b) total since FRANK was established.

Answered by Steve Brine

During the financial year April 2016 to March 2017 Talk to FRANK received 94,760 calls. It should be noted that the Talk to FRANK service offers a range of contact methods and its customer support team also answered 39,163 emails, texts and webchat messages. The FRANK website also received five million web visits in 2016/17.

During the current financial year (April 2017 to March 2018) we are planning to spend £978,000 on the Talk to FRANK service.

Since the Talk to FRANK service was established in 2003 (but excluding the period April 2010 to March 2013) £9,117,242 has been spent on the service (including the current year’s £978,000 budget).


Written Question
Drugs: Misuse
Wednesday 22nd November 2017

Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many telephone calls the service Talk to FRANK received in the most recent year for which data is available.

Answered by Steve Brine

During the financial year April 2016 to March 2017 Talk to FRANK received 94,760 calls. It should be noted that the Talk to FRANK service offers a range of contact methods and its customer support team also answered 39,163 emails, texts and webchat messages. The FRANK website also received five million web visits in 2016/17.

During the current financial year (April 2017 to March 2018) we are planning to spend £978,000 on the Talk to FRANK service.

Since the Talk to FRANK service was established in 2003 (but excluding the period April 2010 to March 2013) £9,117,242 has been spent on the service (including the current year’s £978,000 budget).


Written Question
Tuberculosis: Vaccination
Monday 16th October 2017

Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to make the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination available on the NHS to all babies and children under the age of 16.

Answered by Steve Brine

The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) immunisation programme is a risk-based programme, with the key component being the neonatal programme which targets those most at risk from or exposure to tuberculosis. The BCG vaccine is also offered to at risk individuals under the age of 16. There are no plans to extend this further.


Written Question
Tuberculosis: Disease Control
Monday 16th October 2017

Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to eradicate tuberculosis.

Answered by Steve Brine

The Department recognises the challenges posed by tuberculosis (TB) and supports NHS England in its collaboration with Public Health England (PHE) for a five-year national TB strategy.

In January 2015, PHE and NHS England jointly published the ‘Collaborative TB Strategy for England, 2015-2020’ available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/collaborative-tuberculosis-strategy-for-england

The strategy has three aims: a year on year reduction in TB incidence in England, a reduction in health inequalities, and to contribute to eventual elimination of TB as a public health problem in England.

To achieve these aims the Strategy sets out 10 key ‘areas for action’, which include improving diagnosis and treatment, ensuring comprehensive contact tracing, improving vaccination uptake, reducing inequalities and tackling drug-resistant TB.


Written Question
Drugs: Misuse
Monday 27th February 2017

Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients have been treated by the NHS for drug abuse in (a) the UK and (b) South Thanet constituency in each of the last five years.

Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford

The following table shows the number of individuals, in contact with specialist treatment services citing problematic drug use in England and Kent in each of the last five years.

Year

England

Kent

2011-12

213,149

3,669

2012-13

209,561

3,316

2013-14

210,293

3,240

2014-15

206,117

3,474

2015-16

203,808

3,448

The commissioning of drug treatment services in England is done by local authorities and the services are provided by a combination of National Health Service or third sector providers.

As health is a devolved matter, figures are for England only. The National Drug Treatment Monitoring System collects data by local authority areas in England; it is not available for parliamentary constituency areas.


Written Question
Tobacco: Retail Trade
Monday 27th February 2017

Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make an assessment of the cumulative effect of tobacco control measures on small retailers over the last 10 years.

Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford

The Department reviews the impact of tobacco control measures on an ongoing basis, including by statutory requirement, as part of its policy development. The impact of individual measures is also assessed in advance of implementation through impact assessments, which are made publically available.


Written Question
Pharmacy: Finance
Thursday 13th October 2016

Asked by: Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of proposed reductions in pharmacy funding on specific patient populations.

Answered by David Mowat

The Government’s proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond, on which we have consulted, are being considered against the public sector equality duty, the family test and the relevant duties of my Rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health, under the National Health Service Act 2006.

Our assessments include consideration of the potential impacts on the adequate provision of NHS pharmaceutical services, including the supply of medicines, access to NHS pharmaceutical services, supplementary hours, non-commissioned services, individuals with protected characteristics, impacts on other NHS services, health inequalities, individuals with restricted mobility and access to healthcare for deprived communities.

An impact assessment will be completed to inform final decisions and published in due course.

Our proposals are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. We believe these efficiencies can be made within community pharmacy without compromising the quality of services or public access to them.

Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive. We are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared with others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.

We want a clinically focussed community pharmacy service that is better integrated with primary care and public health in line with the Five Year Forward View. This will help relieve the pressure on general practitioners and accident and emergency departments, ensure better use of medicines and better patient outcomes, and contribute to delivering seven day health and care services.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England, Dr Keith Ridge has commissioned an independent review of community pharmacy clinical services. The review is being led by Richard Murray, Director of Policy at The King’s Fund. The final recommendations will be considered as part of the development of clinical and cost effective patient care by pharmacists and their teams.

NHS England is also setting up a Pharmacy Integration Fund to support the development of clinical pharmacy practice in a wider range of primary care settings, resulting in a more integrated and effective NHS primary care patient pathway.

The rollout of the additional 1,500 clinical pharmacists announced by NHS England will help to ease current pressures in general practice by working with patients who have long term conditions and others with multiple medications. Having a pharmacist on site will mean that patients who receive care from their general practice will be able to benefit from the expertise in medicines that these pharmacists provide.