Asked by: Nick de Bois (Conservative - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the level of waste of unused drugs in the NHS; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
Information is not held centrally on the annual cost or amount of unused or unnecessary medicines in the National Health Service.
The Department commissioned the York Health Economics Consortium and the School of Pharmacy at the University of London to carry out research to determine the scale, causes and costs of waste medicines in England. The report, Evaluation of the Scale, Causes and Costs of Waste Medicines, was published in November 2010 and is available at:
http://eprints.pharmacy.ac.uk/2605/1/Evaluation_of_NHS_Medicines_Waste__web_publication_version.pdf
This found that the gross cost of unused prescription medicines in primary and community care in the NHS in England in 2009 was estimated to be £300 million a year and that up to £150 million of this was avoidable.
A number of initiatives, led by NHS England, are currently underway to optimise the use of medicines in the NHS and better empower patients.
Asked by: Nick de Bois (Conservative - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what purposes is Action on Smoking and Health permitted to spend the grant it has been given under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) receives a Grant from the Department annually for work to contribute to the achievement of the national ambitions in the Tobacco Control Plan Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A Tobacco Control Plan for England 2011.
The Department holds regular meetings with ASH to monitor delivery according to the terms of the grant awarded under Section 64 of the Health and Social Care Act.
A copy of the award letter for 2014-15 is attached.
Asked by: Nick de Bois (Conservative - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to monitor the use by Action on Smoking and Health of its funding under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) receives a Grant from the Department annually for work to contribute to the achievement of the national ambitions in the Tobacco Control Plan Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A Tobacco Control Plan for England 2011.
The Department holds regular meetings with ASH to monitor delivery according to the terms of the grant awarded under Section 64 of the Health and Social Care Act.
A copy of the award letter for 2014-15 is attached.
Asked by: Nick de Bois (Conservative - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will publish the (a) business plan and (b) grant agreement to provide funding for the organisation Action on Smoking and Health under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) receives a Grant from the Department annually for work to contribute to the achievement of the national ambitions in the Tobacco Control Plan Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A Tobacco Control Plan for England 2011.
The Department holds regular meetings with ASH to monitor delivery according to the terms of the grant awarded under Section 64 of the Health and Social Care Act.
A copy of the award letter for 2014-15 is attached.
Asked by: Nick de Bois (Conservative - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the performance of the London Ambulance Service in the year to 1 November 2014 in relation to Category A response time targets in (a) London and (b) Enfield; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The NHS Trust Development Authority advise that London Ambulance Service has seen increases in demand, including in Enfield, and that this has put pressure on services. To address this, the Trust is already taking forward a number of measures.
We are giving a record £700 million package of support for the National Health Service in winter, including £15 million to the London Ambulance Service.
Official ambulance data are routinely published at:
http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/ .
Asked by: Nick de Bois (Conservative - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the performance of the London Ambulance Service between 1 September and 30 November 2014 in relation to Category A response time targets in (a) London and (b) Enfield.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The NHS Trust Development Authority advise that London Ambulance Service has seen increases in demand, including in Enfield, and that this has put pressure on services. To address this, the Trust is already taking forward a number of measures.
We are giving a record £700 million package of support for the National Health Service in winter, including £15 million to the London Ambulance Service.
Official ambulance data are routinely published at:
http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/ .
Asked by: Nick de Bois (Conservative - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of trends in frontline London Ambulance Service staff turnover figures in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
This is a matter for London Ambulance Service (LAS) NHS Trust. The NHS Trust Development Authority (NTDA) advises that LAS has seen increases in demand and that this has had some impact on staff retention. However, to address this issue of recruitment and retention the Trust is already taking forward a number of measures.
Asked by: Nick de Bois (Conservative - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of London Ambulance Service front-line staff in (a) London and (b) Enfield; and how many front-line staff there were in (i) each of the last five years and (ii) 2014 to date.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The information is not available in the format requested. London ambulance service (LAS) does not operate on a borough by borough geographical basis and patients in Enfield are clinically assessed and attended by the ambulance crew that can reach them most quickly.
Numbers of frontline staff* in post in the Edmonton Complex (which includes Chase Farm, Ponders End, Edmonton, Tottenham and Bounds Green ambulance stations) in the most recent years for which figures are available are shown in the following table. Numbers of frontline staff in post across London in each of the most recent five years are also shown in the following table.
Edmonton (WTE) | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 |
IN POST | n/a | n/a | 138 | 145 | 190 |
BUDGET | n/a | n/a | 132 | 152 | 189 |
|
| ||||
Total LAS (WTE) | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 |
IN POST | 2,956 | 2,893 | 2,753 | 2,652 | 2,647 |
BUDGET | 3,030 | 2,972 | 2,872 | 3,012 | 3,056 |
*’frontline staff’ includes all paramedic and non-paramedic grades that work on frontline crews.
WTE= whole time equivalent
Asked by: Nick de Bois (Conservative - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of 16 to 59 year olds in England are not exempt from the prescription charge.
Answered by George Freeman
This information is not collected centrally. However, we estimate 90% of prescription items are dispensed without charge.
Asked by: Nick de Bois (Conservative - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average cost to the NHS of (a) a 12 minute GP consultation and (b) a walk-in accident and emergency visit without treatment was in the last period for which figures are available.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The estimated average unit cost of a general practitioner (GP) consultation (which can include treatment) lasting 11.7 minutes1 is £37; and an attendance at a type 4 Accident and Emergency department (National Health Service walk-in centres) requiring no admission to hospital, no investigation and no significant treatment has a unit cost of £33.
Sources:
Unit Costs of Health and Social Care 2013, Personal Social Services Research Unit University of Kent
2013-14 reference costs2, Department of Health
Notes:
1. Includes direct care staff costs but excludes qualification costs.
2. Reference costs are the average unit cost to National Health Service (NHS) trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year to NHS patients.