Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total value is of loans paid to NHS trusts; when his Department expects those loans to be repaid; and what the length of the term is of those loans.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The position on the loans that the Department has provided to National Health Service trusts (as at 31 March 2018), together with their length of term, is as follows:
Normal Course of Business Loans | £3.00 billion | Term varies, range 4 to 28 years |
Interim Capital Loans | £0.65 billion | Term varies, range 5 to 25 years |
Interim Revenue Loans | £7.35 billion | Term is 3 years |
The figures for 2018-19 will be released with the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts, in July 2019.
In 2018-19 the Department agreed extensions to many of the interim revenue loans that were due during the financial year and will continue to take refinancing decisions on loans due in the coming year, in light of the NHS’s wider financial position.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made on the adequacy of the number of dementia care beds in North East Lincolnshire.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Data from the Care Quality Commission show that in June 2019 there are 1,549 beds in care homes for dementia in North East Lincolnshire local authority.
Commissioning social care beds is a matter for local authorities who are best placed to understand the needs of local people and communities, and how best to meet them. For this reason, the Care Act 2014 placed duties on local authorities to shape their local markets so that there is an adequate supply of provision which ensures all adult social care service users have a choice of high quality services.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made on the effectiveness of inspection methods in care homes.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England and has a key responsibility in the overall assurance of safety and quality of health and adult social care services. The CQC monitors its own effectiveness of inspection methods in care home and other health settings in a number of ways to ensure that everyone is safe from harm, abuse and neglect. In addition, the CQC is currently collaborating with the University of Manchester’s Alliance Manchester Business School on research exploring the impact of the CQC on the quality of care.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
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 effect on the provision of accident and emergency care in Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust hospitals of the reduction in services at Louth hospital.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The provision of accident and emergency care in Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust is a matter for local determination. The Trust is also experiencing increases generally due to an upward trend in both accident and emergency (A&E) attendances and admissions from the East Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group area.
The Trust has planned for more growth in attendances and admissions in 2019/20 and is working with partners across Lincolnshire to manage increases in attendances/admissions by:
- Developing an Urgent Treatment Centre at the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital to handle non-emergency cases;
- Increasing the hours worked by consultants at the A&E at the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital;
- Working with East Midlands Ambulance Service to make sure they take patients to the most appropriate hospital within their region;
- Continuing to work closely to ensure the timely discharge of patients by having social services staff from local councils, including Lincolnshire County Council, working at the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital to facilitate this; and
- Working with clinical commissioning groups and other partners on activities to reduce attendances through better access to general practitioners and improve out of hospital provision.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has made to tackle the projected 7 per cent increase in A&E admissions in 2019-20 at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Trust hospitals.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The provision of accident and emergency care in Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust is a matter for local determination. The Trust is also experiencing increases generally due to an upward trend in both accident and emergency (A&E) attendances and admissions from the East Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group area.
The Trust has planned for more growth in attendances and admissions in 2019/20 and is working with partners across Lincolnshire to manage increases in attendances/admissions by:
- Developing an Urgent Treatment Centre at the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital to handle non-emergency cases;
- Increasing the hours worked by consultants at the A&E at the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital;
- Working with East Midlands Ambulance Service to make sure they take patients to the most appropriate hospital within their region;
- Continuing to work closely to ensure the timely discharge of patients by having social services staff from local councils, including Lincolnshire County Council, working at the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital to facilitate this; and
- Working with clinical commissioning groups and other partners on activities to reduce attendances through better access to general practitioners and improve out of hospital provision.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
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 adequacy of the level of training and support provided to those employed in the care sector.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government is working alongside stakeholders in the adult social care sector to ensure there is the right number of people, with the right skills, knowledge and values to meet increasing demand, and deliver high quality, person-centred care and support.
The Department’s delivery partner, Skills for Care, monitors levels of qualifications and training and works to improve standards and increase uptake of training and qualifications for those working in adult social care. This includes distributing £12 million a year through the Workforce Development Fund to support employers fund training.
We know that there is more that we can do, and the Government will publish a Social Care Green Paper at the earliest opportunity setting out proposals for reform to ensure the social care system is sustainable for the future. It will include a vision for the workforce, and proposals to boost recruitment, retention, and workforce development in the longer term.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
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 reduce patient notification errors due to NHS bodies having different communication systems.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
We are committed to creating a technology infrastructure that allows systems to communicate securely, using open standards for data and interoperability. This will enable health and care professionals to have access to the information they need to provide care. Effective technology supported by interoperability can reduce patient safety errors.
Interoperability and openness is one of the guiding principles set out in, ‘The future of healthcare: our vision for digital, data and technology in health and care’, published on 17 October 2018.
We are also investing in the development of Local Health and Care Record Exemplars (LHCRs). These will allow local areas to ensure data is collected consistently and made available to support joined up and safer patient care. LHCRs will give health and care staff better and faster access to vital information about the person in their care as patients move between different parts of the National Health Service and social care system. The first five Exemplars cover 23.5 million people and will each receive up to £7.5 million over two years.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has undertaken to ensure that health services such as access to continuing healthcare plans are available to people with hearing impairments or profound deafness.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
It is the responsibility of local providers and commissioners of NHS services to make the reasonable adjustments required by the Equality Act 2010 to ensure that disabled people, including those with hearing impairments, are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. Additionally, under the NHS Constitution, National Health Service organisations in England are required to provide high quality comprehensive services, based on clinical need, which do not discriminate between patients on the basis of disability, including hearing impairments.
NHS Continuing Healthcare is a package of care that is arranged and funded solely by the NHS. It is provided when an individual aged 18 or over has been found to have a ‘primary health need’ as set out in the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
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 10 December 2018 to Question 199449, what assessment his Department has made of whether the number of avoidable deaths of people with learning disabilities in the care of the NHS has reduced since the Care Quality Commission began working with NHS Improvement.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department is committed to ensuring that all disabled people, including those with a learning disability, have the same opportunities to access high quality healthcare as everyone else. Where necessary, all healthcare services should make reasonable adjustments to ensure this, in line with the requirements of the Equalities Act 2010 and the NHS Information Standard. We have no plans to introduce a national healthcare strategy for disabled people.
In the new year we will consult on the introduction of mandatory learning disability and autism training for health and care staff. This will provide for greater parity of treatment by ensuring that staff understand the needs of people with learning disability or autism and have the skills to deliver the most effective care and support to them.
Learning disabilities and autism are also one of the four clinical priority areas within the National Health Service long-term plan, which will also help to address the inequalities experienced by people with a learning disability or autism.
As of 30 November 2018, 914 reviews of deaths reported to the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Programme (LeDeR) have been completed with a further 185 at the approval stage. The next annual report of the LeDeR programme is currently planned to be published before summer 2019 and will include data from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018. All local areas have access to findings from reviews taking place within them.
The Department does not assess complaints made to the National Health Service by people with a learning disability. The Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 set out what local organisations must do in respect of complaint handling in the NHS. These regulations are designed to ensure that wherever possible complaints are resolved effectively at local level with lessons learnt to improve services.
As part of the implementation of the Learning Disability Improvement Standards, a data collection is being undertaken by NHS Improvement to better understand the key themes arising for people with learning disabilities accessing NHS care. As part of the data collection, which will close on 31 December, NHS trusts are expected to measure themselves against the Learning Improvement Standards and a number of metrics allied to each Standard. NHS Improvement has shared data from this collection with the Care Quality Commission to help inform their regulatory approach and identify where their support activity is best prioritised.
We have not made a formal assessment of whether the number of avoidable deaths of people with learning disabilities in the NHS has reduced. The aim of the LeDeR programme and the Learning Disability Improvement Standards is to ensure that NHS trusts and commissioners maintain a focus on avoidable mortality so that the deaths of people with learning disabilities thought to be due to problems in care are significantly reduced. The LeDeR programme is taking place within the context of the Government’s Learning from Deaths Programme and all acute, community and mental health trusts are required to review and publish locally the number of deaths thought to be due to problems in care on a quarterly basis, evidence of what they have learned through reviews and the actions taken to prevent such deaths in future on an annual basis.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
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 10 December 2018 to Question 199449, what steps his Department is taking to assess whether NHS Trusts have adopted the guidance published by NHS Improvement, Learning Disability Improvement Standards for NHS trusts in England.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department is committed to ensuring that all disabled people, including those with a learning disability, have the same opportunities to access high quality healthcare as everyone else. Where necessary, all healthcare services should make reasonable adjustments to ensure this, in line with the requirements of the Equalities Act 2010 and the NHS Information Standard. We have no plans to introduce a national healthcare strategy for disabled people.
In the new year we will consult on the introduction of mandatory learning disability and autism training for health and care staff. This will provide for greater parity of treatment by ensuring that staff understand the needs of people with learning disability or autism and have the skills to deliver the most effective care and support to them.
Learning disabilities and autism are also one of the four clinical priority areas within the National Health Service long-term plan, which will also help to address the inequalities experienced by people with a learning disability or autism.
As of 30 November 2018, 914 reviews of deaths reported to the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Programme (LeDeR) have been completed with a further 185 at the approval stage. The next annual report of the LeDeR programme is currently planned to be published before summer 2019 and will include data from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2018. All local areas have access to findings from reviews taking place within them.
The Department does not assess complaints made to the National Health Service by people with a learning disability. The Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 set out what local organisations must do in respect of complaint handling in the NHS. These regulations are designed to ensure that wherever possible complaints are resolved effectively at local level with lessons learnt to improve services.
As part of the implementation of the Learning Disability Improvement Standards, a data collection is being undertaken by NHS Improvement to better understand the key themes arising for people with learning disabilities accessing NHS care. As part of the data collection, which will close on 31 December, NHS trusts are expected to measure themselves against the Learning Improvement Standards and a number of metrics allied to each Standard. NHS Improvement has shared data from this collection with the Care Quality Commission to help inform their regulatory approach and identify where their support activity is best prioritised.
We have not made a formal assessment of whether the number of avoidable deaths of people with learning disabilities in the NHS has reduced. The aim of the LeDeR programme and the Learning Disability Improvement Standards is to ensure that NHS trusts and commissioners maintain a focus on avoidable mortality so that the deaths of people with learning disabilities thought to be due to problems in care are significantly reduced. The LeDeR programme is taking place within the context of the Government’s Learning from Deaths Programme and all acute, community and mental health trusts are required to review and publish locally the number of deaths thought to be due to problems in care on a quarterly basis, evidence of what they have learned through reviews and the actions taken to prevent such deaths in future on an annual basis.