Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
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 tackle (a) declining rates of childhood vaccination and (b) anti-vaccine misinformation.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is working with Public Health England (PHE), NHS England and NHS Improvement and other stakeholders to deliver a comprehensive vaccine and immunisation strategy this autumn. The strategy will set out a clear vision for maintaining and developing England’s world-leading immunisation programme over the next 10 years and beyond.
Actions planned or underway to increase the uptake of childhood vaccination include:
- Strengthening the role of local immunisation coordinators – healthcare professionals that promote vaccine uptake, particularly in under-served groups, by supporting areas with low uptake and tailoring specific local interventions to under-vaccinated communities;
- Updating NHS.uk to ensure availability of National Health Service-approved, evidence-based and trusted advice on vaccines; and
- A review of general practitioner vaccinations and immunisation standards, funding, and procurement to incentivise improved immunisation coverage.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
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 tackle (a) falling rates of childhood vaccination and (b) anti-vaccine misinformation.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
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 capacity of UK Border Force to manage high risk food and feed that does not enter through a Border Inspection Post or Designated Point of Entry in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Third country high-risk food and feed consignments transiting the European Union destined for the United Kingdom will need to enter the UK at ports with the required facilities, such as Border Inspection Posts (BIP) and Designated Points of Entry (DPE) to undertake required controls. Following detailed analysis to determine the possible number of such transits, there is sufficient existing capacity at UK ports with those facilities to undertake all relevant import controls.
The importation of high-risk feed and foods that are not pre-notified to a port with a BIP or DPE or enter a port without a BIP or DPE are illegal imports and as such are subject to Border Force control.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the estimated cost implications are of the proposed closure of congenital heart disease services at Royal Brompton Hospital, including (a) the cost of expanding provision elsewhere and (b) transferring staff and services.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Congenital heart disease services are paid for through tariff. Therefore, if NHS England proposals were to be implemented, and this resulted in changes to the flow of patients, funding for treatment would follow the patients.
NHS England is working with providers to seek assurances of their ability to accept additional patients if required to do so. This includes considering the effect of the potential changes on staff and to understand the cost implications of the changes which it is proposing.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many paediatric intensive care unit beds there are in central London; and how many of those beds are at the Royal Brompton Hospital.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The information requested is in the table below. NHS England publishes monthly data on critical care bed capacity, including the number of paediatric intensive care beds. The data reports the numbers of beds that are open, as a snapshot, at midnight on the last Thursday of the month.
Number of paediatric intensive care beds in central London and the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust open on the last Thursday of the reporting period, September 2016
Organisation | Number of Paediatric intensive care beds |
Central London of which: | 102 |
Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust | 24 |
Source: Critical care bed capacity and urgent operations cancelled, NHS England
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the NHS new congenital heart disease review, how many hospitals in England and Wales meet each of the Government's recommended standards for congenital heart disease services.
Answered by Philip Dunne
NHS England assessed the 13 hospitals that provide level 1 surgical congenital heart disease (CHD) services against 14 requirements, most of which encompassed more than one of the standards. It also assessed nine hospitals that provide level 2 specialist medical CHD centres against seven requirements. Most of these requirements encompassed more than one of the standards, therefore the tables attached show the number of hospitals that met each of the requirements at the time of NHS England’s assessment rather than each of the standards.
NHS England’s proposals for service change considered not only whether a hospital met the requirements at the time of the assessment but also whether it would be able to meet the requirements in the future. It is at those hospitals where NHS England considered that it was unlikely that the requirements would be met in the timescale required that proposals for change have been made.
Hospitals in Wales are a matter for the devolved administration in Wales.
Asked by: Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will cap the legal fees paid by the NHS in clinical negligence cases; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Ben Gummer
This Government believes that it is unacceptable for lawyers to incur costs that are far higher than the amount of any compensation awarded to the patient and want costs to be proportionate. High legal costs in clinical negligence cases divert money away from patient care in the National Health Service. This is why we have recently announced that we will be launching a formal consultation in the autumn with the goal of establishing an appropriate level of fixed costs for lower value clinical negligence claims.