Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
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 deliver age-appropriate (a) care and (b) settings for teenagers and young adults with cancer.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to improving outcomes and patient experience for teenagers and young adults with cancer. We recognise that cancer in teenagers and young people is different to cancer in adults and children, and so age-appropriate care is necessary, particularly regarding treatment, diagnosis, and wider support.
A national service specification is in place for the provision of teenage and young adult (TYA) cancer services. This sets out requirements for treatment and care to be delivered in age-appropriate settings, as well as the provision of age-appropriate patient information. A dedicated TYA multidisciplinary team must oversee the care of each young person, taking into account their holistic needs, including the appropriate location of all aspects of care. Further information on the national service specification is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-b/b05/
We are committed to carefully considering this as part of our work through the relaunch of the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce in 2025, which will focus specifically on teenagers and young adults as well as children, ensuring that their clinical and non-clinical needs are met. We will set out further details on next steps in due course.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the potential cost saving to the public purse of GP's using online appointment forms promoted in the Help Us to Help You advertising scheme (a) in total and (b) per GP.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To date, no Help Us Help You national advertising campaign activity has promoted the use of online consultation request forms in general practice.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the FTE staff hours that have been saved (a) in total and (b) per practice as a result of GPs using online forms promoted in the ‘Help Us Help You’ advertising scheme.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To date, no Help Us Help You national advertising campaign activity has promoted the use of online consultation request forms in general practice.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
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 GP practices use online forms promoted in the Help us Help You advertising scheme.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To date, no Help Us Help You national advertising campaign activity has promoted the use of online consultation request forms in general practice.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of GP appointments that have been booked through online forms as a result of the Help Us Help you advertising scheme since the inception of that scheme.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To date, no Help Us Help You national advertising activity has promoted the use of online consultation request forms in general practice.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
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 the potential merits of ensuring that patients in NHS Accident and Emergency waiting rooms are frequently monitored by clinicians.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients who attend emergency departments are triaged on arrival. This is a clinical assessment, often carried out by a registered nurse, to prioritise patients based on the urgency of their care. All National Health Service providers must have systems in place to appropriately manage clinical priority and patient safety within their emergency departments.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
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 the adequacy of the practice of GP surgeries charging fees to patients for (a) signed certificates, (b) reports and (c) medical letters.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For general practices (GPs), there are some medical evidence letters, certificates, or reports that GPs may charge for, and other certificates that they must not charge patients for. The legislation that sets this out is the General Medical Services and Personal Medical Services Regulations, which form the basis of the GP Contract with the National Health Service. There is no statutory limit to the level of such fees, as this is outside of core NHS work. However, we would expect the practice to charge a reasonable sum appropriate for the workload involved.
The Professional Fees Committee of the British Medical Association (BMA) suggests guideline fees for such services to help doctors set their own professional fees. However, these fees are guidelines only, not recommendations, and a doctor is not obliged to charge the rates suggested. Where doctors intend to charge for services to patients, the BMA advises them to forewarn patients at the earliest opportunity of the likely level of fees.