Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the average response times for each ambulance category by month from April to September 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar
Information on the longest waiting time for a 999 call to be answered by each ambulance service is not routinely collected centrally. Information on the number of ambulance handover delays by trust since 1 April 2021 is not available in the format requested, as the information is not routinely collected centrally outside of the winter period. The following table shows the mean average response times in hours, minutes and seconds for each ambulance category in each month from April to September 2021.
Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 | Category 4 | |
April | 07:00 | 20:16 | 59:21:00 | 01:45:36 |
May | 07:25 | 24:35:00 | 01:24:22 | 02:31:44 |
June | 07:54 | 30:42:00 | 01:54:40 | 02:30:34 |
July | 08:33 | 41:04:00 | 02:33:43 | 02:57:40 |
August | 08:28 | 38:39:00 | 02:14:24 | 02:39:44 |
September | 09:01 | 45:30:00 | 02:35:45 | 03:07:45 |
Source: Statistics » Ambulance Quality Indicators (england.nhs.uk)
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the longest waiting time for a 999 call to be answered by each ambulance service (a) from 1 to 15 October 2021 and (b) for the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Edward Argar
Information on the longest waiting time for a 999 call to be answered by each ambulance service is not routinely collected centrally. Information on the number of ambulance handover delays by trust since 1 April 2021 is not available in the format requested, as the information is not routinely collected centrally outside of the winter period. The following table shows the mean average response times in hours, minutes and seconds for each ambulance category in each month from April to September 2021.
Category 1 | Category 2 | Category 3 | Category 4 | |
April | 07:00 | 20:16 | 59:21:00 | 01:45:36 |
May | 07:25 | 24:35:00 | 01:24:22 | 02:31:44 |
June | 07:54 | 30:42:00 | 01:54:40 | 02:30:34 |
July | 08:33 | 41:04:00 | 02:33:43 | 02:57:40 |
August | 08:28 | 38:39:00 | 02:14:24 | 02:39:44 |
September | 09:01 | 45:30:00 | 02:35:45 | 03:07:45 |
Source: Statistics » Ambulance Quality Indicators (england.nhs.uk)
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of the 1,500 maternity safety recommendations made to maternity units in England by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch in 2020-21 his Department has assessed as having been implemented in full.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch’s (HSIB) national patient safety recommendations rest with the recipient organisations. The National Patient Safety Committee, coordinated by NHS England and NHS Improvement, has established a pilot to examine how the implementation of all the HSIB’s national recommendations could be monitored, the potential resources required and information that may aid future evaluation. The National Patient Safety Committee’s draft report on the pilot is currently undergoing review and is expected to be finalised this year.
Responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the maternity safety recommendations made by the HSIB rests with individual National Health Service trusts. The HSIB works closely with trusts on addressing emerging themes from the investigations and has quarterly review meetings where trusts provide feedback on the actions being taken to implement the recommendations. The HSIB will raise any immediate concerns to the Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement via governance and assurance meetings.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of the 39 national patient safety recommendations made by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch in 2020-21 his Department has assessed as having been implemented in full.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch’s (HSIB) national patient safety recommendations rest with the recipient organisations. The National Patient Safety Committee, coordinated by NHS England and NHS Improvement, has established a pilot to examine how the implementation of all the HSIB’s national recommendations could be monitored, the potential resources required and information that may aid future evaluation. The National Patient Safety Committee’s draft report on the pilot is currently undergoing review and is expected to be finalised this year.
Responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the maternity safety recommendations made by the HSIB rests with individual National Health Service trusts. The HSIB works closely with trusts on addressing emerging themes from the investigations and has quarterly review meetings where trusts provide feedback on the actions being taken to implement the recommendations. The HSIB will raise any immediate concerns to the Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement via governance and assurance meetings.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the (a) national patient safety recommendations and (b) maternity safety recommendations made by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch’s (HSIB) national patient safety recommendations rest with the recipient organisations. The National Patient Safety Committee, coordinated by NHS England and NHS Improvement, has established a pilot to examine how the implementation of all the HSIB’s national recommendations could be monitored, the potential resources required and information that may aid future evaluation. The National Patient Safety Committee’s draft report on the pilot is currently undergoing review and is expected to be finalised this year.
Responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the maternity safety recommendations made by the HSIB rests with individual National Health Service trusts. The HSIB works closely with trusts on addressing emerging themes from the investigations and has quarterly review meetings where trusts provide feedback on the actions being taken to implement the recommendations. The HSIB will raise any immediate concerns to the Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement via governance and assurance meetings.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects to have completed his consideration of recommendation 1 of the Health and Social Care Select Committee's report on the safety of maternity services in England, HC 19, published on 6 July 2021.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Government response to the Committee’s report set out that we would consider an assessment of midwifery and obstetric workforce levels to inform considerations of future funding. In early 2022, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists will provide information on the number of obstetricians at all grades required in maternity units. By June 2022, a complex workforce tool will be developed which can be used by maternity units to calculate the number of obstetricians required. This information will inform considerations of the Committee’s recommendation.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects the new maternity workforce planning tool that he commissioned from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to be ready.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Department awarded a grant to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in July 2021 to develop a tool calculate the requirements for the number of obstetricians in maternity units in England. In early 2022, the College will provide detailed information on the number of obstetricians required with the tool to be developed by June 2022.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) midwives and (b) obstetricians there are working in NHS England.
Answered by Edward Argar
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), but excludes staff working in primary care, general practitioner surgeries, local authorities, and other providers.
As of the end of July 2021, there were 21,942 full time equivalent (FTE) midwives working in National Health Service trusts and CCGs. As of the end of June 2021, there were 6,305 FTE doctors working in the speciality of obstetrics and gynaecology in NHS trusts and CCGs. This includes 2,542 FTE consultants.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that carers have access to breaks from their caring responsibilities.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Care Act 2014 secured important rights for carers, including an assessment of, and support for, their specific needs where eligible. Local authorities have been able to access the £1.49 billion Infection Control Fund which has been used to help day services reopen safely or be reconfigured to work in a COVID-19 secure way. We have also committed at least £6.9 billion in 2021-2022 to the Better Care Fund, which includes funding that can be used for respite services. In addition, we have worked with the Social Care Institute for Excellence to publish guidance for day care managers, commissioners, and providers, to help them make decisions on the safe operation of day services.
We will continue to work with local authorities, in collaboration with Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, to ensure, where possible, the safe resumption of these services.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
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 quality of elderly care in care homes across England.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government is committed to the sustainable improvement of adult social care, including care for the elderly and will bring forward proposals later this year on plans for reform.
We published a White Paper on 11 February 2021 which sets out proposals to introduce, through the Health and Care Bill, a new duty for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to review and assess local authorities’ delivery of their adult social care duties and publish their assessment. This is alongside powers for the Secretary of State to intervene and provide support where, following review by the CQC, it is considered that a local authority is failing to meet their duties.
These changes will support improved quality of care and access, with improved oversight and transparency providing insight into how good commissioning works, allowing for best practice to be shared and helping to address inefficiencies and poor practice.