Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's policy is on commissioning research into trigeminal neuralgia.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department funds research mainly through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The usual practice of the NIHR and other research funders is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including on trigeminal neuralgia.
Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. The amount of NIHR funding in a disease area therefore depends on the quality and volume of scientific activity.
The NIHR Clinical Research Network is available to support the set-up and timely delivery of commercial and non-commercial studies and trials in England which would include studies on trigeminal neuralgia. The NIHR has previously funded research projects on chronic facial pain as part of the range of NIHR training schemes that support future research leaders and would welcome further applications for training awards based on research on trigeminal neuralgia.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made under its Childhood Obesity Plan to develop an interactive online tool for schools to help plan opportunities for children to be physically active.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Active School Planner was launched in October 2017. This interactive online tool will help schools identify gaps in the existing opportunities for children to be active and will recommend a number of solutions they can choose, for example after school clubs, initiatives such as the daily mile, creating an active playground or having an active lesson.
The tool is available at:
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money from the public purse has been available for the provision of NHS services in Swindon in each year since 2010.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Information relating to the revenue funding allocations made to Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) are provided in the following table. Figures are not directly comparable between primary care trusts (PCTs) and CCGs due to changes in geographic cover and commissioning responsibilities.
National Health Service Body | Year | Total Revenue Allocation £000’s |
Swindon PCT1 | 2010-11 | 294,545 |
| 2011-12 | 315,703 |
| 2012-13 | 325,407 |
Swindon CCG2 | 2013-14 | 219,930 |
| 2014-15 | 228,966 |
| 2015-16 | 247,013 |
| 2016-17 | 257,364 |
| 2017-185 | 293,574 |
Notes:
1As a result of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, Swindon PCT ceased to exist as at 31 March 2013 and the commissioning functions of the PCT passed to various organisations (NHS England became responsible for: primary care contracts, secondary care dental, military health, some public health functions and specialist commissioning contracts).
2Swindon CCG allocations from 2013/14 onwards only include Core Allocations.
2015/16 CCG allocations include mid-year adjustments.
2017/18 allocations are as published in 2016 and do not include any subsequent adjustments.
5Swindon CCG became delegated for Primary Care Medical from 1 April 2017, so the Primary Care Medical allocation has been included in the core allocation for 2017/18.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to share best practice in providing triage services for patients among hospital trusts.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
NHS Improvement, working with NHS England and key stakeholders, have produced a series of publications and learning events supporting trusts to ensure good patient flow in acute care. This includes ‘Good Practice Guide: Focus on Improving Patient Flow’1 and a series of national conferences on patient flow and streaming delivered by Emergency Care Improvement Partnership.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are also jointly leading work to ensure that patients are appropriately triaged at their first point of contact with the National Health Service to ensure that they are treated in the most appropriate healthcare setting. This includes primary care streaming for people attending accident and emergency and triage services for patients being referred by their general practitioner for planned hospital care where there are community health services available to provide their treatment.
Note:
1https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/good-practice-guide-focus-on-improving-patient-flow/
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital administrative staff are paid an annual salary of more than £150,000.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
There are 308 full time and 25 part time hospital administrative staff paid an annual salary of more than £150,000 pro rata.
These staff are either chief executives and executive directors on the boards of National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts or other very senior managers employed on local contracts, who hold positions that do not require a clinical qualification.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
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 communicate to the public the value of increases in the health budget.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Documents relating to the recent autumn Budget announcement are published online and can be accessed via the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/autumn-budget-2017
NHS England wrote to all trusts on 15 December 2017 informing them of their individual allocation of the additional £337 million winter funding in 2017/18.
NHS England and NHS Improvement will issue revised allocations and guidance to providers and commissioners shortly.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospitals have a GP co-located on site to provide triage services for patients.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
NHS Improvement report that in December 2017 (2017-18 Quarter 3), 134 out of 136 (98.5%) trusts with a Type 1 accident and emergency department have primary care streaming in place. This is an improvement from the November 2017 (Quarter 2) position of 91% (125/136) and the July 2017 (Quarter 1) position of 30% (41/136).
There are two trusts still to implement primary care streaming (Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust). NHS Improvement are working with these trusts on implementation.
Birmingham Women and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are exempt based on local requirements.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) doctors, (b) nurses) and (c) other clinical staff worked at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon in (i) May 2010 and (ii) the most recent date for which data is available.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Data is not available in the format requested. NHS Digital publishes workforce statistics, and is only available to the level of individual trusts and clinical commissioning groups.
Nationally, the latest workforce statistics show an increase in professionally qualified clinical staff of almost 42,700 since May 2010, including over 14,900 more doctors and almost 14,200 more nurses on our wards since May 2010.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of people presenting at A&E who do not require hospital treatment.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
NHS Digital and NHS England’s joint ‘Hospital Accident and Emergency Activity 2016-17’ publication shows accident and emergency (A&E) activity in the 2016-17 financial year.
The publication shows the number of attendances categorised by ‘first A&E treatment’, including those which were subsequently categorised as not needing hospital treatment. These are categorised as “none (consider guidance/advice option)”.The data for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years is available in the table below:
Year | Number of A&E attendances not requiring hospital treatment | Percentage of all A&E attendances |
2015-16 | 2,164,828 | 10.6% |
2016-17 | 2,117,049 | 10.1% |
Source: Hospital Accident and Emergency Activity 2016-17
The ‘Hospital Accident and Emergency Activity 2016-17’ publication is available via the link below:
http://digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB30112
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had with coffee companies on reformulating products to reduce their sugar content.
Answered by Steve Brine
Since March 2017, Public Health England (PHE) has instigated a specific programme of engagement with all of the food industry (retailers and manufacturers) and this has included businesses that provide the food purchased and consumed out of home (such as coffee and sandwich shops). This engagement has focussed on encouraging industry to reformulate products to reduce their sugar content, as part of the wider sugar reduction programme set out in ‘Childhood obesity: a plan for action'. The issues discussed at these meetings have included the expectation that businesses will undertake work to meet the 20% reduction in sugar by 2020, and has covered businesses’ achievements to date and discussion of any technical challenges faced in terms of making current and future changes.
Further discussions will continue to take place over the coming months to ensure that these businesses play their role in helping to reduce sugar consumption. A list of PHE’s industry and other stakeholder engagement on this agenda was published in March and can be viewed here:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/sugar-reduction-and-wider-reformulation-stakeholder-engagement
Further updates on engagement will also be published at regular intervals.