Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the NHS spends on mental health services in England; and what proportion of that amount is spent on community eating disorder services for adults.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health Dashboard shows that £9.722 billion was spent by clinical commissioning groups on mental health services in England in 2016/17. The Dashboard also shows progress towards key targets set our within the Five Year Forward View (including targets for delivery of eating disorder services). The Dashboard is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/taskforce/imp/mh-dashboard/
Specific figures for the costs of providing community eating disorders services to adults are not available.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to increase the number of nursing degree places offered at universities in the UK.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
In August 2017 the Government changed the funding system for pre-registration undergraduate nurse training. The funding reforms mean we have moved away from centrally imposed number controls and financial limitations, creating a sustainable model for universities and the healthcare workforce supply.
In order to meet the growing need to increase the future supply of registered nurses, additional clinical placement funding was announced by the Department in August and October 2017. This will enable around 5,000 more nursing students to enter training each year from September 2018; a historic 25% increase.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps the Government has taken financially to assist people who are seeking to train as a nurse.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
A number of provisions are available to support pre-registration nursing, midwifery and allied health profession students. These include child dependants allowance, travel and dual accommodation support and, in eligible cases, an exceptional hardship fund. Allowing students to access the student loans system also enables them to be up to 25% better off while they study than under the previous funding system.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has (a) conducted and (b) is aware of any research into whether women and children in any (i) post code and (ii) county area were disproportionately affected by hormone pregnancy testing.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department has not conducted research into whether women and children in any post code or county area were disproportionately affected by hormone pregnancy testing, nor is it aware of published scientific research on this topic.
Hormone Pregnancy Tests were available from 1958-1978. The Commission on Human Medicines Expert Working Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests reviewed all the available evidence on the possible association between exposure in pregnancy to hormone pregnancy tests and adverse outcomes in pregnancy. The Group concluded that, taking all aspects into consideration, the available evidence did not support a causal association between the use of hormone pregnancy tests during early pregnancy and birth defects or miscarriage.
The Government’s priority, as always, is the safety of patients. The Expert Working Group made a number of forward-looking recommendations to further strengthen the scientific evidence which supports safety monitoring of medicines in pregnancy and current focus is on implementing these recommendations.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) bodies and (b) processes there are to review the joint performance of the Care Quality Commission and Clinical Commissioning Groups on care home inspections.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
There are no existing bodies or processes which review the joint performance of the Care Quality Commission and clinical commissioning groups on care home inspections. The Department is working with the Care Quality Commission, NHS England and partners across the adult social care sector to implement Quality Matters – a shared commitment to take action to achieve high quality, person-centred adult social care.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to improve the regulation and oversight of the performance of care homes; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Care Act 2014 placed duties on local authorities to shape their local markets to ensure all adult social care service users have a choice of high quality services. The Department is working with the Care Quality Commission and partners across the adult social care sector to implement Quality Matters – a shared commitment to take action to achieve high quality, person-centred adult social care.
The Care Quality Commission has provided the following response:
The Care Quality Commission introduced an updated inspection methodology from 1 November for adult social care services, including care homes. The new methodology took into account learning from the inspection and rating of these services from October 2014 onwards as well as undertaking a public consultation in 2017.
Changes introduced include more proportionate and targeted inspections; a stronger regulatory focus on services rated as requires improvement, using enforcement powers to require providers to take action when they need to improve; improvements in identifying, monitoring and responding to risks; developing and sharing information from providers, collected online, as a single shared view of quality; and on reporting, making reports clearer and more informative, including reference to serious incidents.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to improve the way local authorities and the Care Quality Commission (a) coordinate inspections of and (b) share information on care homes classed as (i) requiring improvement and (ii) inadequate.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In October 2017 the Care Quality Commission reported 80% of adult social care providers had been rated as good or outstanding. However, when standards fall below those rightly expected by care home residents and their families, it is right that information is shared across the system. The Department is working with the adult social care sector to implement Quality Matters – a shared commitment to take action to achieve high quality, person-centred adult social care. This includes actions to improve information collection and sharing and to support organisations to improve care services.
The Care Quality Commission has provided the following response:
There are a range of meetings by which the Care Quality Commission and local authorities share information. There are also protocols, and requirements that exist to coordinate between the Care Quality Commission and local authorities. For Inadequate or Requires Improvement services, if the Care Quality Commission take certain enforcement action, such as issuing a notice of proposal or a notice of decision, there is a requirement to share notices with the Association of Directors of Social Care Service and other relevant partners such as clinical commissioning groups.
The Care Quality Commission inspectors regularly communicate with staff in local authorities as part of their everyday routine engagement, which informs inspection planning and whether risk needs to be escalated, or if joint visits are required.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to assist those affected by complications relating to transvaginal mesh implants.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England’s Mesh Oversight Group published its final report in July 2017. This outlined actions and recommendations to address the three major areas of concern identified by patients and experts - clinical quality, data and information, and informed consent.
Work continues on implementation, and a number of early actions have been taken, including the provision of patient information leaflets to support decision-making, learning resources for general practitioners, and the designation of 18 National Health Service trusts as specialist centres to identify and treat complications. In addition, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has also advised those women who suffer ill effects as a result of these procedures to report them through the Yellow Card Scheme.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many pharmacies he estimates will close in (a) Welwyn Hatfield constituency and (b) England in the next 12 months.
Answered by David Mowat
Our reforms are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. A consequence may be the closure of some pharmacies but that is not our aim.
In the Spending Review the Government re-affirmed the need for the National Health Service to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a vital part of the NHS and can play an even greater role. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of community pharmacy services including public access to medicines.
Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we have a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many jobs he estimates will be lost in (a) Welwyn Hatfield constituency and (b) England in the 12 months after the discussion to reduce spending on community pharmacies.
Answered by David Mowat
Our reforms are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. A consequence may be the closure of some pharmacies but that is not our aim.
In the Spending Review the Government re-affirmed the need for the National Health Service to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a vital part of the NHS and can play an even greater role. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of community pharmacy services including public access to medicines.
Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we have a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.