Asked by: Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)
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 take-up of the new enhanced influenza vaccine for the over-65s by (i) GPs and (ii) pharmacies in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 influenza seasons.
Answered by Steve Brine
The adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine was not available for use in 2017/18.
General practitioners (GPs) and pharmacies are responsible for ordering and purchasing flu vaccines for the adult seasonal flu programme (eligible individuals aged 18 years and over) directly from manufacturers.
Information on what vaccines are being ordered by these independent contractors is not routinely collected. Information on vaccines used by pharmacies and GPs will be available after the end of a flu season when practice/pharmacies claim reimbursement for the cost of the vaccines they have used.
Asked by: Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to encourage the take-up of the new enhanced influenza vaccine for the over-65s for the 2018-19 influenza season with GPs and pharmacies.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England has updated their advice in the Green Book chapter on influenza so that clinicians are aware of the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation in relation to the adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine.
In addition, NHS England wrote to general practitioners and clinical commissioning groups (via NHS England local teams) in December 2017 to provide an update on the use of the adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine for 2018/19.
This update will also be made available to community pharmacies as part of confirming that the Advanced Influenza Vaccination service has been recommissioned in early 2018. Community pharmacies are able to order relevant vaccines as detailed in the service specification, including the enhanced vaccine for patients within the relevant cohort.
Asked by: Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans the Government has to develop a national strategy for self care.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Five Year Forward View made a specific commitment to do more to support people with long term conditions manage their own health. Further to this, sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) have a remit to consider how to improve self-care.
In 2015 NHS England established the Realising the Value Programme. This was designed to identify evidence-based approaches that engage people in their own health and care and develop practical tools to support implementation. The programme has now published tools and guidance for local health economies, as well as an economic modelling tool to help services understand the costs and benefits.
NHS England is also rolling out the Patient Activation Measure (PAM). The PAM is a tool which captures the extent to which people feel engaged and confident in taking care of their health and wellbeing, helping professionals to tailor support. NHS England has agreed to grant 1.8 million people with long term conditions across 27 areas access to the tool.
Eight STP areas to take part in its new one year Building Health Partnerships programme supported by NHS England to facilitate strong engagement with the voluntary sector and local communities on actions that improve wellbeing and self-care. NHS England is also working with 15 new care models across the country to test how to deliver support for self-care, systematically and at scale. By working with the new care models, NHS England plans to offer tailored self-care support to 25,000 – 30,000 people by end of March 2018, delivered through health coaching/self-management education and social prescribing, supported by use of the PAM.
Asked by: Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many ambulance call outs were for type 3 conditions in (a) England and (b) each clinical commissioning group in each year since 2012.
Answered by Philip Dunne
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the range of illnesses included in type three attendances to accident and emergency departments; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Philip Dunne
There has been no such assessment.
Asked by: Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to encourage clinical commissioning groups and local authorities to participate in national Self Care Week 2017 in order to empower people to look after their own health better.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England has worked alongside the Self Care Forum to promote Self Care Week across the National Health Service, including showcasing best practice on social media. References can be found to the campaign both via NHS Choices and on NHS England’s on-going winter campaign, Stay Well this Winter. Links can be found below:
www.nhs.uk/selfcare/Pages/self-care-week-2017.aspx
www.nhs.uk/staywell/#SoKX6vgcUb035h8m.97
Asked by: Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential savings that self care for self-treatable conditions can achieve in (a) general practice and (b) A&E.
Answered by Steve Brine
There is a growing body of evidence for the benefits of self-care both in improved patient outcomes and reductions in demand on the National Health Service. ‘Self-care’ covers a broad spectrum of interventions and is defined in different ways in different situations. We do not hold national data on the potential savings linked directly to self-care.
Asked by: Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of minor ailment schemes in community pharmacies on the costs associated with a reduction in the number of GP consultations as a result of those schemes; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England and clinical commissioning groups commission minor ailment services from community pharmacies to meet local need. These services have been developed in areas of high demand on general practices, to treat minor illnesses and are reviewed locally by the commissioner of the service.
Whilst the Government has not made an assessment of the impact of the costs associated with a reduction in the number of general practitioners consultations, Monitor in its publication in 2013 “Closing the NHS Funding Gap – How to get Better Value Healthcare for Patients” estimated that with a 1% uptake of pharmacy-led minor ailments schemes nationally, £64 million could be saved.
Asked by: Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of visits to (a) A&E and (b) general practice were type three attendances in (i) England, (ii) each NHS trust and (iii) each clinical commissioning Group in each of the last two years.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Information is not available in the format requested. However, the attached table provides the total number of accident and emergency attendances and the proportion of those at ‘type 3’1 sites, for England and by provider for the period November 2015 to October 2017. These data are not broken down at general practice or clinical commissioning group level.
Note:
1‘Type 3’ sites include a range of facilities such as hospitals and other sites, including walk-in centres and urgent care centres, that can be general practitioner-led.
Asked by: Kevin Barron (Labour - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when his Department plans to respond to the Murray review of community pharmacy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England commissioned the Murray review and is now actively progressing transformation of pharmacy practice and working with the pharmacy professions to improve the quality and efficiency of services in line with many of the recommendations set out in the Review. This includes:
- An increased focus on improving value and outcomes from medicines.
- Measures to promote pharmacist and pharmacy technician integration in primary care settings, making the most of their clinical skills, supported by the Pharmacy Integration Fund (PhIF).
Some examples of the actions underway as part of this include:
- Programmes to deploy pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in integrated multi-disciplinary teams to carry out medicines optimisation and relieve the pressures on general practitioner practices and hospital admissions, funded by the PhIF and with evaluation in place. These include recruiting pharmacists to work in the Integrated Urgent Care Clinical Assessment Service contact centres and NHS 111 services, and the ongoing development of a care homes medicines optimisation scheme to tackle inappropriate polypharmacy.
- A programme of education and development is being developed in collaboration with Health Education England to support this transformation. This will include access to post-registration training and development for community pharmacists, equivalent to 1,000 postgraduate diplomas a year up to 2019, a new training pathway for pharmacists who work in care homes and integrated urgent care hubs/NHS 111, and independent prescribing qualifications for up to 2,000 pharmacists.
- A digital medicines strategy for pharmacy to upgrade the digital infrastructure to support transformation.
- NHS England has set up four Regional Medicines Optimisation Committees, chaired by regional medical directors, which are working to ensure system wide medicines optimisation.