Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has he made of the recent cyber attack on Pitney Bowes and its impact on the primary care provision within the (a) East Lancashire CCG and (b) East Lancashire hospitals NHS trust.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Pitney Bowes machines are not connected to National Health Service networks and therefore no effect has been seen to any NHS equipment. We are aware that East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust’s franking machines were affected and contingency plans were immediately actioned. This resulted in the Clinical Commissioning Group and a few other local companies franking the mail for the hospital in order to ensure patients received their letters.
Both East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust have confirmed that there was no impact to the provision of care as a result of the recent malware attack.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
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 East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust on preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Department is working with its partners across Government, arm’s length bodies, local authorities, industry and the wider health and care system to ensure that all relevant parties are prepared for exiting the European Union. The quality and safety of patient care is paramount in our preparedness plans.
The Department, alongside NHS England and NHS Improvement, is ensuring that there is regular communication with frontline National Health Service organisations and stakeholders in the health and social care sector regarding EU Exit preparations. NHS England will be holding EU Exit Roadshows in the lead up to 31 October building on the regular communication that the Department and NHS England has with the frontline.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Prime Minister's statement of 24 July 2019, what steps he is taking to recruit more nurses.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
There are currently over 16,700 more nurses on wards when compared to 2010. The latest data published by the University and College Admissions Service (on 11 July 2019) shows that there has been a 4.6% increase in the number of undergraduate applicants to pre-registration nursing and midwifery courses when compared to the equivalent point in 2018.
The Department has put in place a number of actions to increase nursing workforce supply, including improving staff retention, return to practice, overseas recruitment and expanding nursing associates.
The interim People Plan (published on 3 June 2019) puts staff at the heart of National Health Service policy and delivery and sets out how we will secure a capable and motivated multidisciplinary healthcare workforce, of a sufficient size, to meet population health needs. It sets out the immediate actions needed to grow the nursing workforce across all settings by over 40,000 in the next five years. A final People Plan will be published in due course.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the additional funding for the NHS announced by the Prime Minister will be used to increase the number of nursing bursaries.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The education funding reforms announced in the 2015 Spending Review started to take effect from August 2017 and pre-registration nursing students began to access student loans rather than receiving a National Health Service bursary.
In January 2019, the NHS published its Long Term Plan which sets out a 10 year vision for healthcare in England. The NHS Interim People Plan, published on 3 June, sets out the immediate actions needed to grow the nursing workforce across all settings by over 40,000 in the next five years.
We will work with the NHS and the Higher Education Institution sector to improve awareness of the financial support packages available to all undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare students and how they can be accessed.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
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 trends in the level of waiting times at A&E at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
NHS England publishes monthly performance data for accident and emergency (A&E) waiting times for each trust rather than individual hospital site level. Performance data for the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/
East Lancashire Hospitals Trust A&E performance | June 2019 | May 2019 | June 2018 |
% seen in 4 hours or less | 81.4% | 78.4% | 85.6% |
Total attendances | 15,621 | 16,180 | 17,371 |
Total attendances in 4 hours or less | 12,714 | 12,683 | 14,863 |
Source: NHS England Operational Statistics1
Despite continued high numbers of attendees, performance shows, on average, more than four out of five attendees are seen/treated/admitted/discharged within four hours of arrival. This level of performance has been sustained throughout the months of May, June and July.
The Trust is working hard to ensure robust plans are in place to achieve the A&E standard of 95% of patients admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of arrival in all types of A&E departments.
Note:
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to visit the A&E department of the Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care visits a wide range of National Health Service and social care settings. While he has no immediate plans to visit Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital, he will consider all options in plans for upcoming visits.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the sale value of NHS property has been since Sir Robert Naylor's review of NHS Property and estates; and what recent estimate he has made of the sale value of NHS property due to be sold.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The latest published data shows that National Health Service trusts, foundation trusts and the Department, including its arm’s-length bodies and wholly owned property companies, disposed of 301 surplus sites between April 2015 and March 2017, generating £439 million in receipts from unconditional sales. This data is available online, as part of Cabinet Office’s ‘Transparency Report: Government’s land and property disposals in 2015-16 and 2016-17’, published in April 2018 at the following link:
Similar data relating to the 2017-18 financial year will be published in due course.
The Department annually collects data on properties owned by NHS trusts and foundation trusts which has been declared surplus and planned for future disposal. This collection does not include properties owned by the Department, its arm’s-length bodies and wholly owned property companies. Information reported directly by trusts show that as at 31 March 2018 the total declared market value of surplus and potentially surplus land was £260 million; however, many organisations were not able to provide figures due to data limitations, including commercial confidentiality. This data is available at the following link:
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money was spent on translation services in the NHS by language in the last financial year.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Information on expenditure on translation services is not held centrally. There has been no central audit of translation services in the National Health Service, as these services are commissioned by individual NHS organisations.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department takes to audit the (a) quality, (b) necessity and (c) value for money of translation services in the NHS.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Information on expenditure on translation services is not held centrally. There has been no central audit of translation services in the National Health Service, as these services are commissioned by individual NHS organisations.
Asked by: Graham P Jones (Labour - Hyndburn)
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 NHS medium secure learning disability services in East Lancashire.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Medium Secure Unit (MSU) Learning Disability (LD) services continue to be provided at the Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Whalley site - there are 40 beds available and currently occupancy is running at 100%.
A new 40 bed MSU LD service has now been approved and building has commenced at the Maghull Health Park. This is planned to be completed by May 2020.
Following the outcome of a consultation on proposals to stop providing services at Mersey Care Whalley, NHS England have committed to the beds at Maghull being provided by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
The 40 beds at the Maghull Health Park will provide MSU LD services for the whole of the North West.