Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford on 5 June (HL Deb, col 87), what statistics the Department of Health and Social care keep on the number of individuals who have been charged under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 for assaults against those employed by the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Department does not keep statistics on the number of individuals who have been charged under the Assaults in Emergency (Offences) Act 2018 for assaults against those employed by the National Health Service.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to review sunbed regulations.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Sunbeds Regulation Act 2010 was implemented to prohibit under-18s from using sunbeds based on the recommendations by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment.
The Department, with expert advisers, is considering whether the current legislation and associated guidance, produced by the Department, the Health and Safety Executive and Public Health England to support the enforcement of the regulations by local authorities and the safe use of sunbeds, are effective for protecting sunbed users.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to include skin cancers in the Be Clear on Cancer campaign resources.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Advice for adults and children on sunscreen and sun safety in the United Kingdom and abroad, to reduce the risk of developing skin cancer is available online at the NHS website. Advice includes: spend time in the shade when the sun is strongest, between 11am and 3pm; make sure you never burn; cover up with suitable clothing and sunglasses; take extra care with children; and use at least factor 15 sunscreen.
Public Health England (PHE) is refreshing its guidance to actual and prospective users of sunbeds on how to minimise exposure to ultraviolet radiation, which can cause skin cancer. PHE’s online guidance will be updated in spring 2019.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to raise awareness of the risks of skin cancer and methods of prevention
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Advice for adults and children on sunscreen and sun safety in the United Kingdom and abroad, to reduce the risk of developing skin cancer is available online at the NHS website. Advice includes: spend time in the shade when the sun is strongest, between 11am and 3pm; make sure you never burn; cover up with suitable clothing and sunglasses; take extra care with children; and use at least factor 15 sunscreen.
Public Health England (PHE) is refreshing its guidance to actual and prospective users of sunbeds on how to minimise exposure to ultraviolet radiation, which can cause skin cancer. PHE’s online guidance will be updated in spring 2019.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve GPs' diagnostic skills for skin conditions.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Royal College of General Practitioners’ curriculum includes a module on the care of people with skin problems. This sets out the knowledge and skills a general practitioner should have in the diagnosis and management of skin conditions relevant to their role as generalist, community-based doctors, including the diagnostic investigations, such as blood and immunological testing to needed to support a diagnosis.
Once fully qualified, clinicians are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). NICE has published a clinical guideline on the diagnosis and treatment of number of common skin conditions, such as psoriasis and eczema. The guidance is routinely reviewed to ensure it reflects the latest available, including around diagnostic approaches.
The British Association of Dermatologists also continues to produce a range toolkits and guidance for health professionals.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Health Education England on increasing the number of training places for dermatology students.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The number of medical specialty training places that are available each year in England is set by Health Education England (HEE) and is based on their assessment of service gaps and predicted workforce needs.
There are programmes of work underway as part of the development of a workforce implementation plan, which the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has commissioned Baroness Dido Harding, Chair of NHS Improvement, working closely with Sir David Behan, Chair of Health Education England, to oversee. These programmes will consider detailed proposals to grow the workforce, including consideration of additional staff in speciality fields, build a supportive working culture in the NHS and ensure first rate leadership for National Health Service staff. Baroness Harding will present initial recommendations to the Department in spring 2019.
The Department has not held specific discussions with HEE on increasing the number of training places for dermatology students. There has been a 100% fill rate in dermatology training in England for the past six years.
Dermatologist education and training and recruitment in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland is a matter for the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there is a legal limit on the ratio of nurses to patients on wards in NHS hospitals in England; and if so, what are those limits.
Answered by Baroness Manzoor
The National Health Service does not have a legal ratio of nurses to patients.
Appropriate staffing levels are the responsibility of commissioners and trusts. The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 include a requirement for the deployment of sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced persons at all times.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether GPs in England were advised by NHS England to order trivalent anti-flu vaccines in preference to quadrivalent vaccines which provide broader protection against flu.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
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. They make a clinical decision on the choice of vaccine for their patients based on the evidence and guidance available at the time of ordering.
The Department, NHS England, and Public Health England published the 2017/18 annual flu letter. This letter is sent to all GPs, and includes full details of the forthcoming flu programme including available flu vaccines. The annual flu letter provided details on the availability of both the quadrivalent vaccine and trivalent vaccine for the 2017/18 season. GPs and pharmacists had the option of ordering either the quadrivalent vaccine or the trivalent vaccine. A copy of the letter is attached.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much additional funding, in real terms, they have committed to the NHS for the year 2017–18; and what are the comparable figures for each of the previous 20 years.
Answered by Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen
The Government has committed an additional 2.1% funding in real terms to the National Health Service for the year 2017-18. This is the extra money being given through the NHS England Mandate to front-line services. The following table sets out the comparable figures back to 2013-14, when NHS England was created.
Year | NHS England Mandate (cash) £ billion | Real terms increase % (2017-18 prices) |
2017-18 | 109.9 | 2.1 |
2016-17 | 106.0 | 3.2 |
2015-16 | 100.5 | 2.6 |
2014-15 | 97.3 | 1.3 |
2013-14 | 94.7 |
Prior to 2013-14, NHS funding was measured only through the Department’s departmental expenditure limit. A series of tables showing the Department’s total departmental expenditure limit from 1997-98 to 2013-14 is attached, due to the size of the data. During this period, the Government method of accounting changed from cash to a resource budgeting basis. The figures in different stages of the accounting change are not comparable.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 10 January (HL Deb, col 182), how many of the 10,000 extra nurses on wards are qualified, registered nurses.
Answered by Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen
NHS Digital publishes workforce statistics for substantive staff employed by the National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups. Nurses on our wards are coded on the Electronic Staff Record as Acute, Elderly and General Nurses and are a subset of all nurses and health visitors. As at September, NHS Digital data shows there were 14,185 full time equivalent more nurses on our wards than in May 2010. All of these nurses are professionally qualified clinical nurses. As such, none are agency nurses.
Figures are provided as full time equivalent as this is the most accurate measure of service capacity.