Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the consistency of provision of palliative and end of life care across the prison estate.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
No specific assessments have been made.
However, the ‘National Partnership Agreement for Prison Healthcare in England 2018 – 2021’ has supported the implementation of the Dying Well in Custody Charter in the English estate. The National Partnership Agreement's workplan sets out how NHS England and HM Prison and Probation Service can continue improvements to health and social care outcomes for older people and those with serious illnesses, including palliative and end of life care. A revised workplan for 2022 to 2025 is currently being developed.
NHS England is convening a joint working group with HM Prison and Probation Service to conduct a review of current progress in delivering the Dying Well in Custody Charter workplan. This group will also consider opportunities to develop networks and forums for sharing good practice. The Ministry of Justice will publish the Aging Prison Population Strategy in due course and how the Dying Well in Custody Charter will be embedded within prisons.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment she has made of the (a) access to and (b) quality of palliative and end of life care in (i) prisons and (ii) the community.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
No specific assessments have been made.
However, the ‘National Partnership Agreement for Prison Healthcare in England 2018 – 2021’ has supported the implementation of the Dying Well in Custody Charter in the English estate. The National Partnership Agreement's workplan sets out how NHS England and HM Prison and Probation Service can continue improvements to health and social care outcomes for older people and those with serious illnesses, including palliative and end of life care. A revised workplan for 2022 to 2025 is currently being developed.
NHS England is convening a joint working group with HM Prison and Probation Service to conduct a review of current progress in delivering the Dying Well in Custody Charter workplan. This group will also consider opportunities to develop networks and forums for sharing good practice. The Ministry of Justice will publish the Aging Prison Population Strategy in due course and how the Dying Well in Custody Charter will be embedded within prisons.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that every prison in England is (a) aware of the Dying Well in Custody Charter and (b) uses the Charter to improve the palliative and end of life care their prisoners receive.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
No specific assessments have been made.
However, the ‘National Partnership Agreement for Prison Healthcare in England 2018 – 2021’ has supported the implementation of the Dying Well in Custody Charter in the English estate. The National Partnership Agreement's workplan sets out how NHS England and HM Prison and Probation Service can continue improvements to health and social care outcomes for older people and those with serious illnesses, including palliative and end of life care. A revised workplan for 2022 to 2025 is currently being developed.
NHS England is convening a joint working group with HM Prison and Probation Service to conduct a review of current progress in delivering the Dying Well in Custody Charter workplan. This group will also consider opportunities to develop networks and forums for sharing good practice. The Ministry of Justice will publish the Aging Prison Population Strategy in due course and how the Dying Well in Custody Charter will be embedded within prisons.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress the Government has made on adopting a similar model to the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool for (a) male and (b) female prisoners with built-in evaluation.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
There are no plans to do so as the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool is used only in the children and young people estate and is not appropriate for the adult estate. Adults entering prisons in England receive an initial health screening based on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance. NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently reviewing the existing reception screening tool within the female estate. The outcome of this review is due to be reported in late summer.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many prisoners received end of life care in the last year.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
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 prisoners received mental health screening check on entering prison.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Each prisoner is offered a healthcare screen at reception on arrival before being escorted to the residential unit. The reception screening is designed to ensure that the individual is safe before the offer of a second screen within seven days.
Both reception and secondary health screenings contain mental health screening questions to identify immediate risks and whether a referral to the prison integrated mental health service is required. Between April 2021 and February 2022, 87% of people entering prison received a reception screen within 24 hours of arriving.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
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 ability of long covid clinics to offer a full range of treatments and advice for patients in a timely manner.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has not made a formal assessment.
NHS England and NHS Improvement operate 90 post-COVID-19 assessment services across England and publish national guidance which supports commissioners to design and implement local care pathways. This has been developed using guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. NHS England and NHS Improvement have also established 14 children and young people’s hubs in England to coordinate care across a range of services.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have published data on waiting times for an initial assessment at a post-COVID-19 service since October 2021. From 30 August to 26 September 2021, 31% of those who had their initial specialist assessment were seen within six weeks, 43% within eight weeks and 33% of patients waited longer than 15 weeks. As this is experimental data, there may be some variation due to incomplete data submissions.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what further steps he will take to ensure long covid clinics can deal effectively with caseloads.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department has invested over £50 million in dedicated research to improve the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of the long term effects of COVID-19. The research includes projects focused on service evaluation, such as the LOCOMOTION project which aims to establish a ‘gold standard’ of care which can be shared in England and the rest of the United Kingdom drawing from the experiences of current patients and National Health Service professionals.
Post-COVID-19 assessment services are operated by NHS England and NHS Improvement. In July 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement confirmed an additional £100 million investment in these services with the total NHS funding in England of £134 million. NHS England and NHS Improvement have developed an assurance process to address the regional variation in access to services in a streamlined process, identifying and providing bespoke support to systems.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are currently awaiting a first assessment at a long covid clinic.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Since September 2021, information on activity and demographics of patients who have been referred to a post-COVID-19 assessment service in England have been published as part of the official statistics publication, which can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-post-covid-assessment-service/
Data on waiting times was first added to this publication in October 2021, for the period from 2 August. As this is a relatively new data collection and this is experimental data, some variation may be due to incomplete data submissions.
The attached table shows the waiting times of patients who had an initial assessment at a post-COVID-19 assessment service between 27 September and 24 October 2021.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for a first assessment at a long covid clinic.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Since September 2021, information on activity and demographics of patients who have been referred to a post-COVID-19 assessment service in England have been published as part of the official statistics publication, which can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-post-covid-assessment-service/
Data on waiting times was first added to this publication in October 2021, for the period from 2 August. As this is a relatively new data collection and this is experimental data, some variation may be due to incomplete data submissions.
The attached table shows the waiting times of patients who had an initial assessment at a post-COVID-19 assessment service between 27 September and 24 October 2021.