Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when integrated care boards (ICB) in the West Midlands can expect to be informed of the details of the Children’s Hospice Grant for children’s palliative care, including (1) the amounts to each ICB, and (2) the distribution method to be used.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England currently supports palliative and end of life care for children and young people through the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. Last year, NHS England confirmed that it will be renewing the funding for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million of funding for children’s hospices using the same prevalence-based allocation approach as in 2022/23 and 2023/24. This prevalence-based approach ensures funding matches local need. Funding will be distributed via integrated care boards (ICBs) in line with National Health Service devolution.
All ICBs in England, including those in the West Midlands, were notified of the amount of funding that each ICB will receive during week commencing 19 February 2024. Additionally, all ICBs in England, including those in the West Midlands, will be notified of the distribution method to be used very shortly.
The Department and NHS England hope to be able to provide the greater clarity that the sector is seeking on this important funding stream to children’s hospices in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report published by the Health Services Journal on 5 February that NHS England regional teams were pressurising hospitals to focus energies on treating patients with less serious conditions to improve performance against the four-hour waiting time target.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such assessment has been made. NHS England wrote to systems and trusts on 25 January 2024 reiterating the need to improve accident and emergency performance for all patients requiring emergency care and emphasised some of the known best practice in emergency department processes to ensure delays to patient care are minimised.
Access to National Health Service care and treatment will always be based on clinical priority.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the safety and health of patients most at risk of any pressure from NHS England regional teams to focus energies on treating patients with less serious conditions to improve performance against the four-hour waiting time target.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No such assessment has been made. NHS England wrote to systems and trusts on 25 January 2024 reiterating the need to improve accident and emergency performance for all patients requiring emergency care and emphasised some of the known best practice in emergency department processes to ensure delays to patient care are minimised.
Access to National Health Service care and treatment will always be based on clinical priority.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 19 February (HL2438), why NHS England has disregarded requests from independent advisors to the Advisory Group for Data for the version control on the Terms of Reference to be updated to reflect the full circulation of the document and the timing of that circulation.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has confirmed that it has updated the version control for the draft document, to reflect drafts as issued together with reviewer comments, including the date issued. NHS England, through the Privacy, Transparency and Trust team in the Delivery Directorate, has received feedback on the drafts, and will publish a final version in due course, following approval by or on behalf of the NHS England Board.
NHS England has confirmed that the Chair of the interim Advisory Group for Data has already been sent an updated interim version issued on 5 February 2024 and will share the next version with the group, in line with the commitment made to the group as outlined in the minutes of the meeting on 11 January 2024, before it progresses to the next stage of ratification.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 19 February (HL2438), whether they plan to respond positively to the request by NHS England’s Advisory Group for Data to see the next draft of the Terms of Reference before it progresses to the next stage of ratification.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has confirmed that it has updated the version control for the draft document, to reflect drafts as issued together with reviewer comments, including the date issued. NHS England, through the Privacy, Transparency and Trust team in the Delivery Directorate, has received feedback on the drafts, and will publish a final version in due course, following approval by or on behalf of the NHS England Board.
NHS England has confirmed that the Chair of the interim Advisory Group for Data has already been sent an updated interim version issued on 5 February 2024 and will share the next version with the group, in line with the commitment made to the group as outlined in the minutes of the meeting on 11 January 2024, before it progresses to the next stage of ratification.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of referral-to-treatment cases which will be taken off the main elective waiting list as a result of new guidance from NHS England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the changes made to the national Referral to Treatment (RTT) reporting guidance on 2 February 2024, internal data from NHS England indicates that the impact on the overall RTT waiting list will be a decrease of approximately 37,000 pathways across National Health Service acute providers. These pathways are within the community paediatric specialty, which is the only specialty that is explicitly identified as being a community pathway in the NHS dataset.
Patient rights to treatment within 18 weeks for consultant led services will not change under this proposal and long waits will still be visible within the published statistics; they will simply appear in the community data and not RTT.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government why consultant-led community services activity is no longer to be recorded on the main elective waiting list.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Most community activity is non-consultant led and therefore reported outside of the Referral to Treatment (RTT) dataset. There were inconsistencies in the previous reporting of consultant-led community services, so to improve consistency and accuracy of reporting across community services, the referral-to-treatment guidance has been updated to clarify the reporting expectations for consultant-led community data.
This change allows for consolidated reporting of consultant-led and non-consultant-led community services data within published community datasets. The aim is to encourage more consistent and accurate reporting across elective pathways, enabling better insights into community services and activity across the country. Patient rights to treatment within 18 weeks for consultant led services will not change under this proposal and long waits will still be visible within the published statistics; they will simply appear in the community data and not RTT.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government for each year in England since 2008, how many (1) GP surgeries (including branch practices) were open, (2) GP surgeries (including branch practices) were newly opened, and (3) GP practices were operating.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data prior to 2013 is not available. The following table shows the number of open practices and newly opened practices, including branches, each September from 2013 to September 2023, the most recent period for which data is available:
Year | Open practices | Newly opened practices |
2013 | 9,577 | 51 |
2014 |
| 63 |
2015 | 9,646 | 154 |
2016 | 9,540 | 99 |
2017 | 9,460 | 118 |
2018 | 9,463 | 203 |
2019 | 9,326 | 168 |
2020 | 9,168 | 97 |
2021 | 9,097 | 72 |
2022 | 9,015 | 99 |
2023 | 9,025 | 129 |
Source: data provided is from the Epraccur GP Practice data file, which is produced by NHS Organisation Data Service.
Note: The data includes main and branch practices, while COVID-19 service branches have been excluded.
It is not possible for us to distinguish between open and operating practices. Newly opened practices are defined as having opened within the 12 months up to the date referenced. Additionally, new branch practice openings include pre-existing practices that reopened as a branch of another practice.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 5 February (HL1920), how many staff and whole time equivalents were attached to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) before its recent internal restructuring; and how many staff and whole time equivalents now work on OHID responsibilities in teams across the Department.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest available data, as of the end of December 2023, shows that there were 777 full time equivalent employees in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). As part of an internal restructure within the Department on 1 February 2024, all OHID staff were integrated into the groups of three Directors General, under the clinical and professional leadership of the Deputy Chief Medical Officer.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the meeting of the Advisory Group on Data (AGD) on 11 January, what discussions they have had with NHS England regarding AGD’s request to see the next draft of its draft Terms of Reference before it is moved on to the next stage of ratification.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has had no discussions with NHS England regarding the July 2023 meeting of the Data, Digital and Technology Committee, or regarding the Advisory Group for Data’s (AGD) request that the version control on its draft terms of reference be updated to reflect the full circulation of the document, as well as the timing of the circulation.
The role of the advisory group is set out within the statutory guidance issued by the Department, in NHS England’s protection of patient data. We understand that the terms of reference for the AGD are currently in draft, with version control reflecting formal drafts as issued. NHS England, through the Privacy, Transparency and Trust team in the Delivery Directorate, has received feedback on the drafts, which will be published in due course following approval by, or on behalf of, the NHS England board.