Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent guidance his Department has issued on safe staffing limits for nurses qualified in intensive neonatal care in a high-risk neonatal unit.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England recently completed an update to the Neonatal Critical Care service specification. Service specifications set national standards which all commissioned providers of Neonatal Critical Care services are required to meet. The updated specification for Neonatal Critical Care outlines nurse staffing requirements for the three different levels of neonatal care, including high-risk neonatal intensive care services. The specification requires neonatal units to meet the British Association of Perinatal Medicine’s (BAPM) standards in relation to safe staffing limits for registered nurses with a neonatal Qualification in Specialty. The service specification is available at the following link:
Furthermore, the BAPM standards are available at the following link:
https://www.bapm.org/resources/service-and-quality-standards-for-provision-of-neonatal-care-in-the-uk
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional funding NHS trusts receive per cot for high-risk neonatal units.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All neonatal units receive funding depending on the number of days that care is provided, as well as the type of care provided. Specific prices for a ‘cot day’ of neonatal care activity are agreed between local commissioners and National Health Service providers.
From the most recent National Cost Collection for the NHS, in 2022/23, the average national unit cost for neonatal intensive care was £1,879 per bed day. The average national unit cost for neonatal intensive care, special care without an external carer, was £976 per bed day.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional funding NHS trusts receive per cot for low-risk neonatal units.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All neonatal units receive funding depending on the number of days that care is provided, as well as the type of care provided. Specific prices for a ‘cot day’ of neonatal care activity are agreed between local commissioners and National Health Service providers.
From the most recent National Cost Collection for the NHS, in 2022/23, the average national unit cost for neonatal intensive care was £1,879 per bed day. The average national unit cost for neonatal intensive care, special care without an external carer, was £976 per bed day.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the infant mortality rate was in intensive neonatal care units in each year between 2010 and 2023; and if he will hold discussions with his counterpart in the Welsh Government on providing comparative data for Wales.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reporting of neonatal mortality in neonatal care units is conducted through audit programmes. Data is published by the National Neonatal Audit Programme (NNAP), with the figures for January 2017 to June 2024 available at the following link:
https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/nnap-data-dashboard#view-the-dashboard
In addition, Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK (MBRRACE-UK) also report neonatal mortality in neonatal care units, with the figures for 2017 to 2022 available at the following link:
https://timms.le.ac.uk/mbrrace-uk-perinatal-mortality/surveillance/
The NNAP covers England, Wales, and in more recent years, Scotland, and reports the proportion of very preterm babies, those born at 24 to 31 weeks completed gestation, who are admitted to a neonatal unit and die before discharge home, or 44 weeks post-menstrual age, whichever occurs sooner. It does not, therefore, report on babies born before 24 weeks or after 31 weeks, or babies not admitted to a neonatal unit.
The MBRRACE report covers the United Kingdom and captures mortality rates up to 28 days after birth, broken down by the level of neonatal care provided by the trust or health board where the birth occurred.
These data sources only give a partial view of infant mortality in England. All infant deaths, both neonatal and post-neonatal, in England and Wales are reported by the Office for National Statistics, and are available at the following link:
Department officials meet with Welsh authorities on a regular basis to discuss a range of maternity and neonatal-related issues.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of nurses are qualified in intensive neonatal care and work in high-risk neonatal units.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Of the 3,898 registered nursing staff working in Neonatal Intensive Care Units, 2,251 have a qualification in specialty (QIS) for neonatal care. QIS-trained nurses are constantly supporting and directly supervising non-QIS-trained nurses in the day-to-day care of babies within low to high-risk neonatal units.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS trusts receive funding for high-risk neonatal services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently 43 Neonatal Intensive Care units in England providing care to high-risk babies.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many newborns died at the Countess of Chester hospital's maternity unit in (a) 2013, (b) 2014, (c) 2015, (d) 2016, (e) 2017 and (f) 2018, broken down by month.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
This information is not held in the format requested.
The number of neonatal deaths at the Countess of Chester Hospital is available publicly at the following link:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/neonatal_deaths_and_fois#incoming-1255362
Additionally, data published by the Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK (MBRRACE-UK) programme can be filtered by Trust, including the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Data published by MBRRACE-UK which shows the neonatal mortality rate for the Countess of Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for the years 2013 to 2018 can be found at the following link:
https://www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/mbrrace-uk/reports/perinatal-mortality-surveillance
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many newborns died at the Countess of Chester hospital's neonatal unit in (a) 2013, (b) 2014, (c) 2015, (d) 2016, (e) 2017 and (f) 2018, broken down by month.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
This information is not held in the format requested.
The number of neonatal deaths at the Countess of Chester Hospital is available publicly at the following link:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/neonatal_deaths_and_fois#incoming-1255362
Additionally, data published by the Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK (MBRRACE-UK) programme can be filtered by Trust, including the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Data published by MBRRACE-UK which shows the neonatal mortality rate for the Countess of Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for the years 2013 to 2018 can be found at the following link:
https://www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/mbrrace-uk/reports/perinatal-mortality-surveillance
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data sets will flow into the Federated Data Platform; and what her planned timetable is for each of those data sets to be (a) visible and (b) in use on the Federated Data Platform by participating hospital trusts.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The NHS Federated Data Platform will deliver measurable improvements for patients. It will allow people to be discharged quicker, and for waiting lists to be shortened, through making better use of data.
It will securely bring together information already available to trusts, in hospital health records, waiting lists, and theatre and staff rosters, to better manage patient care. Each NHS organisation will be the data controller for their instance of the platform. Data will always remain under the full control and protection of the NHS and is only visible to approved users.
The NHS Federated Data Platform will provide trusts and integrated care boards, on behalf of local integrated care systems, with a set of core capabilities and nationally developed products, to support five key National Health Service priorities: elective recovery; care-co-ordination; vaccination and immunisation; population health management; and supply chain management.
A suite of products will sit under each of the use cases. A product is a software solution to address a particular NHS need, for example a patient discharge product which brings together data to help support discharge teams in hospitals in getting patients the right care in the right place. As each product is developed or transitioned to the NHS Federated Data Platform, a privacy notice will be published, setting out the data that will be utilised within the product. These are available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/privacy-notice/how-we-use-your-information/nhs-federated-data-platform-privacy-notice/fdp-products-and-product-privacy-notices/
The NHS Federated Data Platform is being implemented in phases, with the first phase, from March to July 2024, being a transition of existing National Data Platform products to the national instance of the NHS Federated Data Platform, and the transition of 44 pilot sites to local instances. The second phase, from May 2024 to March 2027 and following the successful transition phase, is the rollout of instances of the platform to new trusts and integrated care boards. Once trusts and boards have their local instance of the platform, they can choose to use any of the nationally commissioned products, and develop new or additional products locally, to address local issues. This is when the data will become visible to approved users.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
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 29 April 2024 to Question 23378 on Ambulance Services: Databases, which directive issued under section 254 of the Health and Social Care 2012 Act NHS England is using to process de-identified data for use in the ambulance data services dashboard in the federated data platform product.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Federated Data Platform will bring together information on services, waiting times, equipment, and medicines, allowing the National Health Service to use data to improve outcomes for patients. The directions used to process de-identified data for use in the ambulance data services dashboard in the Federated Data Platform, is NHS England’s De-Identified Data Analytics and Publication Directions 2023, which is available at the following link:
These are directions given by my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to establish arrangements for the governance of the ongoing processing of de-identified data, and to act as a framework for the future analysis, linkage, and de-identification of data for analysis by NHS England. The Ambulance Data Services Dashboard in the Federated Data Platform also aligns to the Ambulance Data Set Directions 2022, which is available at the following link:
These are directions originally given by NHS England to NHS Digital, to establish and operate a system for the collection and analysis of nationally consistent operational and clinical data from all ambulance services in England.
The legal bases for these specific directions are s261(5)(d) and s13Z3 (e) and (f), of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Further information on the legal grounds for data processing in relation to the Ambulance Data Services Dashboard can be found in the privacy notice. This is available at the following link: