Asked by: Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether civil servants transferring from his Department to NHSX received changes to (a) salaries and (b) terms and conditions of employment.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHSX is a joint unit between the Department and NHS England. No staff have been transferred as NHSX is not a separate body. Departmental staff working in the joint unit remain on their existing salaries and terms and conditions of employment.
Asked by: Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the NHS spent on the NHS app before NHSX announced plans to scale back development of that App on 31 May 2019.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The NHS App is not being scaled back. The NHS App will remain the ‘digital front door to the NHS’ as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Asked by: Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department has spent on setting up and running NHSX to date.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The set up and running of NHSX has incurred additional costs of £94,516.20 to date. £79,200 of the costs relate to software licensing for NHSX staff. The remainder relates to a set up event and small elements of additional administrative purchases.
Asked by: Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many staff have been (a) transferred from his Department or other public bodies to NHSX and (b) recruited externally.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHSX is a joint Unit between the Department and NHS England. No staff have been transferred as NHSX is not a separate body. Two staff have been transferred from another Government Department. NHSX will recruit a Chief Technology Officer and other roles; at present, no staff have been recruited externally.
Asked by: Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of GP appointments have been made through the NHS App since the launch of that App in December 2018.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
This data is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of people are able to book GP appointments through the NHS app.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
We are in the process of connecting each of the 7,245 general practitioner (GP) practices with the NHS App and the ability to book GP appointments is a functionality that must be enabled locally in each practice.
77% of the GP registered population can now download the app.
Asked by: Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 May 2019 to Question 251992, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of proactively offering 36-week ultrasound scans to identify breech babies.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for providing authoritative, evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service. The NICE clinical guideline on antenatal care was published in 2008 and states that fetal presentation should be assessed by abdominal palpation at 36 weeks or later. The guideline also states that evidence does not support the routine use of ultrasound scanning after 24 weeks of gestation and therefore should not be offered.
The evidence considered by NICE in developing its recommendations can be found in NICE’s full guideline at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg62/evidence/full-guideline-pdf-196748323
However, NICE is currently updating this guideline, including its recommendations relating to monitoring fetal growth and wellbeing and expects to publish final updated guidance in December 2020 with a public consultation in summer 2020.
Asked by: Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat - East Dunbartonshire)
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 potential benefits to maternal and neonatal outcomes of offering 36 week ultrasound scans to identify breech babies.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Quality Standard relating the best antenatal care (QS22) states that women with a suspected breech presentation at 36 weeks or later should be referred for confirmatory ultrasound assessment. Quality Standard 22 was published in September 2012 and was most recently updated in April 2016.
Quality Standards are important in setting out to patients, the public, commissioners and providers what a high-quality service should look like in a particular area of care. Whilst providers and commissioners must have regard to NICE QSs in planning and delivering services, they do not provide a comprehensive service specification and are not mandatory.
Asked by: Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat - East Dunbartonshire)
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 the effect of the UK leaving the EU without a deal on the availability of technetium and krypton generators for nuclear medicine procedures in hospitals.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Our number one priority is for patients to continue to have access to medicines, including medical radioisotopes such as krypton and technetium, whatever the European Union exit outcome, and we have robust contingency plans in place.
Leaving the EU with a deal remains the Government’s top priority. However, as a responsible Government we must plan for every possible outcome including ‘no deal’. The Department has published guidance to industry and the health and care system to allow them to make informed plans and preparations. This is available on GOV.UK.
The Department has worked with the pharmaceutical industry to ensure that planes are contracted to bring in medical radioisotopes under the appropriate specialist conditions and suppliers are working closely with the National Health Service to minimise any potential impact of changes to delivery times.
We are confident that if everyone does what they need to do, the supply of medicines and other medical products, including medical radioisotopes, will be uninterrupted.
Asked by: Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat - East Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Transport on transporting technetium and krypton generators by air instead of road in the event that the UK leaves the EU without deal; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Our number one priority is for patients to continue to have access to medicines, including medical radioisotopes such as krypton and technetium, whatever the European Union exit outcome, and we have robust contingency plans in place.
Leaving the EU with a deal remains the Government’s top priority. However, as a responsible Government we must plan for every possible outcome including ‘no deal’. The Department has published guidance to industry and the health and care system to allow them to make informed plans and preparations. This is available on GOV.UK.
The Department has worked with the pharmaceutical industry to ensure that planes are contracted to bring in medical radioisotopes under the appropriate specialist conditions and suppliers are working closely with the National Health Service to minimise any potential impact of changes to delivery times.
We are confident that if everyone does what they need to do, the supply of medicines and other medical products, including medical radioisotopes, will be uninterrupted.