Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
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 9 April 2019 to Question 238669 on mental health services: veterans, what the outcome was for the armed forces personnel who were referred for mental Health treatment but did not enter into such treatment in each of the last four quarters.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Health is a devolved matter and as such as we are only able to answer in respect of mental health services provided in England.
NHS England does not record the reasons that former armed forces personnel do not attend services to which they are referred; either to main stream services or to the veteran specific NHS Veterans' Mental Health Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service and does not plan to record such information.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many former Armed Service personnel in England are (a) receiving in patient mental health treatment, (b) receiving outpatient mental health treatment and (c) estimated to have mental health symptoms but are not in any form of treatment.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The following table is the Count of referrals received, entering treatment and finishing a course of treatment who recorded as being an ex-British Armed Forces member for Quarter 4 2017/18, Quarter 1, Quarter 2 and Quarter 3 2018/19 in England.
Quarter | Referrals Received | Referrals Entering Treatment | Referrals Finishing a Course of Treatment |
Q3 2018/19 | 5,505 | 4,294 | 2,438 |
Q2 2018/19 | 5,417 | 4,137 | 2,310 |
Q1 2018/19 | 5,237 | 4,116 | 2,520 |
Q4 2017/18 | 5,219 | 4,097 | 2,362 |
There is no central estimate on number of ex-armed forces personel that are experiencing poor mental health but are not receiving treatment.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) drug and (b) alcohol treatment services have been commissioned by his Department in each prison in England and Wales.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether public and private sector prisons have different healthcare providers; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Prisoners should have access to the same range and quality of health services, including mental health services, as the general public receives from the National Health Service.
Since 2013, NHS England has been responsible for commissioning healthcare in all prisons in England. However, there are five private prisons where primary healthcare services are commissioned by the Ministry of Justice. In these five private prisons some secondary healthcare services, including substance misuse and mental health, are commissioned by NHS England.
Healthcare services are provided by a range of NHS and non-NHS organisations.
Local Health Boards are responsible for commissioning healthcare services in public sector prisons in Wales.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many complaints were made by prisoners in (a) public and (b) private sector prisons in each of the last three years; and how many of those complaints were escalated to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman in each of those years.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
National Health Service complaints are recorded by subject of the complaint, the organisation being complained about and the professional grouping. Prisoners are not specifically identified in these data sets and it is therefore not possible to provide figures in the format requested.
Data in respect of complaints referred to the Health Services Ombudsman is not collected. However the Ombudsman publishes annual data on the number of complaints they receive.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the planned date of publication is for statistics on the number of current or former armed forces personnel referred to and seen by the NHS Veterans' Mental Health Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England is currently considering the most appropriate format and mechanism for the information around the number of current or former armed forces personnel referred to and seen by the NHS Veterans' Mental Health Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service to be published. No date for publication has been set.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether public and private sector prisons have different healthcare providers; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Prisoners should have access to the same range and quality of health services, including mental health services, as the general public receives from the National Health Service.
Since 2013, NHS England has been responsible for commissioning healthcare in all prisons in England. However, there are five private prisons where primary healthcare services are commissioned by the Ministry of Justice. In these five private prisons some secondary healthcare services, including substance misuse and mental health, are commissioned by NHS England.
Healthcare services are provided by a range of NHS and non-NHS organisations.
Local Health Boards are responsible for commissioning healthcare services in public sector prisons in Wales.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
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 cost to the public purse of mental health support for veterans in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Most services for most veterans are delivered without their veteran status being reported centrally. Some data is available for some veteran specific services.
The number of referrals to separately identified veteran specific services, including both care and signposting, veterans identified in general Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services and the resources allocated in England are in the following table.
| 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 |
Veteran Specific services | 3,005 | 3,632 | 5,073 | 5,374 |
Identified veteran in IAPT | 16,050 | 15,490 | 19,020 | 20,005 |
|
|
|
|
|
Allocated Resource (£ million) | 4.7 | 4.7 | 6.4 | 6.4 |
In order to improve and strengthen the offer to veterans, during 2016 NHS England carried out a comprehensive review of mental health services for veterans. Feedback from veterans and their families led to significant improvements in the commissioning of services.
In 2017 NHS England launched the Veterans Mental Health Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service (TILs) which increases access and treatment to appropriate and timely mental health services for both armed forces serving personnel approaching discharge and veterans with mental health difficulties.
NHS England also launched the Veterans Mental Health Complex Treatment Service in April 2018, which builds on the launch of TILs and provides an enhanced service for veterans who have military-attributable complex mental health problems that have not been resolved earlier in the care/support pathway.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
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 number of veterans that have received mental health support in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Most services for most veterans are delivered without their veteran status being reported centrally. Some data is available for some veteran specific services.
The number of referrals to separately identified veteran specific services, including both care and signposting, veterans identified in general Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services and the resources allocated in England are in the following table.
| 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 |
Veteran Specific services | 3,005 | 3,632 | 5,073 | 5,374 |
Identified veteran in IAPT | 16,050 | 15,490 | 19,020 | 20,005 |
|
|
|
|
|
Allocated Resource (£ million) | 4.7 | 4.7 | 6.4 | 6.4 |
In order to improve and strengthen the offer to veterans, during 2016 NHS England carried out a comprehensive review of mental health services for veterans. Feedback from veterans and their families led to significant improvements in the commissioning of services.
In 2017 NHS England launched the Veterans Mental Health Transition, Intervention and Liaison Service (TILs) which increases access and treatment to appropriate and timely mental health services for both armed forces serving personnel approaching discharge and veterans with mental health difficulties.
NHS England also launched the Veterans Mental Health Complex Treatment Service in April 2018, which builds on the launch of TILs and provides an enhanced service for veterans who have military-attributable complex mental health problems that have not been resolved earlier in the care/support pathway.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, by what methods a prisoner who is either serving a sentence or on remand in a private sector jail in (a) England and (b) Wales can complain about their health treatment.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
There are 13 private sector prisons in England and one in Wales.
Complaints about healthcare in all prisons, including private sector prisons, should first be made to the healthcare provider.
In England if a prisoner is not satisfied with the response, complaints can be made to the commissioner of healthcare services through the NHS Complaints Procedure. If a prisoner is still not satisfied they may escalate their complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman.
At HMP Parc in Wales, the process is firstly to approach the provider, and if the prisoner is not satisfied with the response, to contact the prison’s Director of Strategic Support who will commission Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to undertake an independent review of the case.