Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the letter from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care to the Chair of the Health and Social Care on NHS Federated Data Platform dated 30 August 2023, which 24 NHS trusts are actively realising benefits from the Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients and Care Coordination Solution programmes.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the information shared by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Lord Markham) on 30 August 2023, NHS England has continued to work with sites to deliver the Improving Elective Care Co-ordination for Patients (IECCP) programme.
Overall, there are now 31 trusts who are realising waiting list and theatre benefits under IECCP. Some of these trusts are also realising discharge benefits using the Optimised Patient Tracking and Intelligent Choices Application pilot. The 31 trusts are listed below:
- Barts Health NHS Trust;
- Bolton NHS Foundation Trust;
- Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust;
- Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust;
- Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust;
- Croydon Health Services NHS Trust;
- East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust;
- East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust;
- Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust;
- Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust;
- Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust;
- Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust;
- London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust;
- Medway NHS Foundation Trust;
- Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust;
- North Tees and Hartlepool Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- Northampton General Hospital Trust;
- Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust;
- Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust;
- Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust;
- Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust (now Mersey and West Lancashire);
- South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust;
- The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust;
- University Hospitals of Derby & Burton NHS Foundation Trust;
- University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust; and
- University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with Cloudflare on removing the website linked to deaths by suicide reported on by the BBC on 24 October 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Ministerial meetings are routinely published on gov.uk. We recognise the role of internet service providers in protecting people online. We are working with a range of organisations across the suicide prevention sector, and more widely, on this issue in order to enable better protection for individuals.
On 11 September, we published a new national suicide prevention strategy for England, with more than 100 actions to support our aim to reduce the suicide rate within two and a half years. This includes action across government and other organisations to tackle pro-suicide forums.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the letter from Lord Markham, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, to the Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, dated 30 August 2023, which are the 36 NHS trusts said in that letter to be participating in NHS England’s pilot programmes on improving elective care coordination for patients and care coordination solution.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Thirty-nine trusts signed Memoranda of Understanding indicating their intention to participate in the Improving Elective Care Co-ordination for Patients (IECCP) programme. 35 trusts are currently actively participating, with four trusts having withdrawn.
NHS England’s programmes also include the Optimised Patient Tracking and Intelligent Choices Application (OPTICA) pilot. OPTICA drives an efficient, shared way of working for health and social care teams, providing intelligence to help care teams properly plan for timely discharges.
The following table shows the 42 trusts actively participating in one or both of NHS England’s Pilot Programmes:
Trust | IECCP | OPTICA |
Barts Health NHS Trust | X |
|
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust |
| X |
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust | X |
|
East Suffolk and North East Essex NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
East Essex Healthcare NHS Trust | X |
|
Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Harrogate & District NHS Foundation Trust |
| X |
Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust |
| X |
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust | X | X |
James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust |
| X |
Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust | X |
|
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust |
| X |
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust | X | X |
Medway NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust |
| X |
North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
North Tees and Hartlepool Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust | X |
|
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn NHS Foundation Trust |
| X |
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust | X |
|
Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust | X |
|
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust | X |
|
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust | X | X |
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust | X |
|
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust | X |
|
West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | X |
|
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the letter from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Care to the Chair of the Health and Social Care on NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) dated 30 August 2023, what the benefits are for each trust participating in the FDP pilot programme.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Federated Data Platform will improve outcomes by bringing together the information needed to plan and deliver care and reduce administrative burden on staff. Pilot sites have seen the removal of patients from waiting lists and waiting times fall, meaning patients are treated faster; discharge delays have been reduced, enabling patients to leave hospital and get home sooner; and people have waited for less time to receive a diagnosis. Following are examples of benefits that have been reported within the Improving Elective Care Co-ordination for Patients (IECCP) and Optimised Patient Tracking and Intelligent Choices Application (OPTICA) pilots.
For IECCP, across trusts realising benefits, a total of 55,521 patients have been requested for removal from waitlists. There has also been a 5.7% increase in theatre utilisation per month on average compared to the six-month period before the pilot.
For OPTICA, following the implementation of the pilot in one trust, the trust realised a number of benefits including a 36% decrease in the average number of days patients are delayed from being discharged, for patients with a length of stay of 21 or more days, and a 22% reduction in average length of stay of pathway 0 patients, who do not need health support on discharge, freeing up capacity for the trust to care for patients with more complex needs.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the value for money of the Federated Data Platform contract and (b) the extent to which FDP procurement complies with the guidance entitled Managing public money.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Federated Data Platform (FDP) business case includes an assessment of the investment, the benefits anticipated, and the return of investment anticipated over the lifetime of the programme. Benefits are provided for cash, non-cash, and societal benefits and throughout the approval process were assessed by several independent assessors from both NHS England, the Department and other Government departments to ensure that investments provide value. The FDP is a Tier A Government Major Projects Portfolio programme and therefore will be required to report on the return on investment and benefits realised throughout the lifetime of the programme, to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.
NHS England has conducted a fair, open, and transparent procurement in line with Public Contracts Regulations 2015. They used the Competitive Dialogue Process, which is in line with both Cabinet Office guidance and HM Treasury guidance Managing Public Money. This process was open for any supplier to participate, subject to passing the standard selection criteria and minimum requirements. All bids were evaluated against the same objective evaluation criteria and scoring methodology which was shared with all suppliers. The evaluation criteria were developed to mitigate against unfair incumbent advantage. Over 30 independent evaluators were selected from across the National Health Service with a range of skills and experience relevant to the question they were evaluating.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
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 cost effectiveness of the use of abiraterone as a treatment for prostate cancer by the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that provides evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically- and cost-effective use of resources. The NHS is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, usually within three months of final guidance.
NICE has published guidance recommending abiraterone for the treatment of hormone-relapsed metastatic prostate cancer before chemotherapy is indicated and for the castration-resistant variant of that cancer previously treated with a docetaxel-containing regimen. NHS England funds abiraterone for these indications of prostate cancer in line with NICE’s recommendations, making it routinely available for the treatment of eligible patients.
Abiraterone is not licensed for the treatment of non-metastatic prostate cancer and has therefore not been appraised by NICE for such use. NHS England is considering a clinical policy proposal for abiraterone as a treatment option for patients newly diagnosed with high risk, non-metastatic, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, or in whom prostate cancer has relapsed after at least 12 months without treatment. This specific policy proposal is due to be discussed later in November 2023 and if supported by a clinical panel it will progress to stakeholder testing by January 2024.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward the planned review of abiraterone as a treatment for prostate cancer on the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that provides evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically- and cost-effective use of resources. The NHS is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, usually within three months of final guidance.
NICE has published guidance recommending abiraterone for the treatment of hormone-relapsed metastatic prostate cancer before chemotherapy is indicated and for the castration-resistant variant of that cancer previously treated with a docetaxel-containing regimen. NHS England funds abiraterone for these indications of prostate cancer in line with NICE’s recommendations, making it routinely available for the treatment of eligible patients.
Abiraterone is not licensed for the treatment of non-metastatic prostate cancer and has therefore not been appraised by NICE for such use. NHS England is considering a clinical policy proposal for abiraterone as a treatment option for patients newly diagnosed with high risk, non-metastatic, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, or in whom prostate cancer has relapsed after at least 12 months without treatment. This specific policy proposal is due to be discussed later in November 2023 and if supported by a clinical panel it will progress to stakeholder testing by January 2024.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of the level of availability of abiraterone on the NHS on the health of prostate cancer patients.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that provides evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically- and cost-effective use of resources. The NHS is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, usually within three months of final guidance.
NICE has published guidance recommending abiraterone for the treatment of hormone-relapsed metastatic prostate cancer before chemotherapy is indicated and for the castration-resistant variant of that cancer previously treated with a docetaxel-containing regimen. NHS England funds abiraterone for these indications of prostate cancer in line with NICE’s recommendations, making it routinely available for the treatment of eligible patients.
Abiraterone is not licensed for the treatment of non-metastatic prostate cancer and has therefore not been appraised by NICE for such use. NHS England is considering a clinical policy proposal for abiraterone as a treatment option for patients newly diagnosed with high risk, non-metastatic, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, or in whom prostate cancer has relapsed after at least 12 months without treatment. This specific policy proposal is due to be discussed later in November 2023 and if supported by a clinical panel it will progress to stakeholder testing by January 2024.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Section 2 of the Suicide Act 1961, how many times his Department has asked internet service providers to remove websites that encourage suicide in each of the last five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has not asked internet service providers to remove such websites in the last five years. However, we recognise the role of internet service providers in protecting people online. We are working with a range of organisations across the suicide prevention sector, and more widely, on this issue to enable better protection for individuals.
The Online Safety Act, which received royal assent on 26 October 2023, will tackle illegal and legal forms of self-harm and suicide content in several ways. All services in scope will need to proactively prevent all users from being exposed to priority illegal content, including content that encourages or assists suicide.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2023 to Question 160180 on NHS Trusts: Databases, whether any of the Trusts that had (a) paused and (b) suspended pilots of Palantir Foundry have (i) resumed and (ii) restarted their pilots since 23 March 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
There are currently two main Foundry pilots delivering benefits to trusts, namely the Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients (IECCP) Programme which supports trusts to effectively deliver care through the implementation of the Care Coordination Solution (CCS); and the Dynamic Discharge programme to support effective hospital discharge.
The table below shows those trusts that are listed as either pausing or suspending these pilots in March 2023 and gives the reason why for each:
Trust | IECCP solution | Dynamic Discharge solution |
Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust |
| Paused due to upgrade of supporting systems within the Trust; due to restart once upgrades are complete. |
East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust |
| Declined offer following discussions as existing system provided current capabilities. |
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust |
| Paused temporarily due to impact of strike action within Trust. |
Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | Trust chose to address internal process change before participating in a digital transformation programme. |
|
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust |
| Paused whilst work is completed to enable Dynamic Discharge module. |
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust |
| Paused due to operational pressures. |
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Foundation Trust | Trust chose to address internal process change before participating in a digital transformation programme. |
|
University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust |
| Paused due to other programmes of work within their IT department. |
University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust |
| Paused due to operational pressures, strike action and a recent EPR upgrade. |
Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital | Following discussions, it was agreed that the pilot products were not designed to address the Trust’s particular issues. |
|
University Hospital Plymouth NHS Trust | The Trust made the decision not to participate in the programme based on lack of capacity of Trust resources to engage with the programme. |
|
Notes:
- East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust;
- London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust;
- Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; and
- University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust.
- Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust;
- London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust; and
- Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.