Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether there are guidelines for the inclusion of the delivery of eye services within sustainability and transformation plans.
Answered by David Mowat
The Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) are intended to be strategic proposals for how areas will deliver the Five Year Forward View, and the financial, health and wellbeing, and care and quality challenges in their locality. They are therefore high level, and do not address the delivery of every service.
STP footprints are not new, statutory organisations, but a new way of working. They do not change the existing accountabilities of National Health Service trusts, commissioners or local authorities. As such, existing commissioning arrangements remain in place for ophthalmology. It is expected that, where possible, individual clinical commissioning groups will commission services in a way that will ensure they are aligned to the goals of their wider STP.
The commissioning guidance for ophthalmic services can be accessed on the NHS England website:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-d/d06/
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the opportunities for improvements in ophthalmology departments as a result of sustainability and transformation plans.
Answered by David Mowat
The Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) are intended to be strategic proposals for how areas will deliver the Five Year Forward View, and the financial, health and wellbeing, and care and quality challenges in their locality. They are therefore high level, and do not address the delivery of every service.
STP footprints are not new, statutory organisations, but a new way of working. They do not change the existing accountabilities of National Health Service trusts, commissioners or local authorities. As such, existing commissioning arrangements remain in place for ophthalmology. It is expected that, where possible, individual clinical commissioning groups will commission services in a way that will ensure they are aligned to the goals of their wider STP.
The commissioning guidance for ophthalmic services can be accessed on the NHS England website:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-d/d06/
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the role of NHS England is in reducing care inconsistencies across eye health services; and how effective NHS England has been in that role.
Answered by David Mowat
This is a matter for each of the local clinical commissioning groups.
Eye health services that are regulated activities in accordance with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 are required to register with the Care Quality Commission and comply with the Fundamental Standards of Care.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mechanisms NHS commissioners use to measure experiences of and outcome for eye patients.
Answered by David Mowat
This is the responsibility of each local clinical commissioning group (CCG) and we do not collect this information.
However, the Public Health Outcomes Framework includes an indicator on preventable sight loss which tracks three of the commonest causes of preventable sight loss, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. The open availability of this data provides a resource for commissioners and local health and wellbeing boards to identify what is needed in their areas and for comparisons to be made with other areas.
The CCG Outcomes Indicator Set also provides clear, comparative information for CCGs, health and wellbeing boards, local authorities, patients and the public about the quality of health services commissioned by CCGs and the associated health outcomes. The indicators are useful for CCGs and health and wellbeing boards in identifying local priorities for quality improvement and to demonstrate progress that local health systems are making on outcomes.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his Department's most recent estimate is of the number of people in England and Wales living with sight loss; and how that data is collected.
Answered by David Mowat
The information requested for England is shown in the table below. Data in respect of Wales would be a matter for its administration.
Number of people registered as blind or partially sighted as at 31 March 2014
(Data for England only)
Number of people registered as at 31 March1 | Blind | Partially | Total |
2014 | 143,385 | 147,715 | 291,100 |
Source: NHS Digital
Notes:
1. Data are rounded to the nearest five.
The data is derived from the triennial SSDA 902 return submitted by local authorities with adult social services responsibilities. The next data collection will take place in 2017.
Local authorities maintain registers of blind or partially sighted people who have received a Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI) following an examination by a consultant ophthalmologist. Holders of a CVI choose whether or not to be included in their local authority’s register of blind or partially sighted people. The numbers registered are therefore likely to be an underestimate of the total number of people living with sight loss.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of devising a national strategy for eye health.
Answered by David Mowat
There are no plans to develop a national strategy for eye health. NHS England and the Department contribute to and support the current voluntary sector led England Vision Strategy. Given the size of England, and the diversity of the health needs of different communities, we believe commissioning needs to be owned and managed locally.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning hospital eye services and are also able to commission eye care services in the community which go beyond the standard National Health Service sight test where they judge them to be needed in their areas. CCGs are required, for all services they commission including ophthalmic services, to carry out an assessment of the health needs of their local population using the standard joint strategic needs assessment approach. Improving the commissioning of services is one way that we expect to see improvements for patients and the Clinical Council for Eye Health Commissioning is working with CCGs to develop commissioning guidelines in this area.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to promote patient choice with respect to eye treatment.
Answered by David Mowat
Eye (ophthalmic) treatment is largely delivered in secondary care with some services also offered in the community. Patient choice applies to ophthalmic treatment services as it does to any other NHS service commissioned by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). Unless specified exclusions apply this means for secondary care that upon referral patients must be offered a choice of any clinically appropriate health service provider, with whom the NHS has a contract for the service required.
NHS England are currently working with CCGs, general practitioners, patients and the public to improve patient choice in respect of all secondary care services, including ophthalmic services, by 2020. The aim is to increase awareness, uptake and operation of patient choice across the NHS, leading to improvements in patient outcomes and experience.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the financial cost of incidences of human error within the NHS; and what steps his Department has taken to reduce the likelihood of such errors.
Answered by Philip Dunne
According to a report prepared for the Department and published by Frontier Economics in October 2014, unsafe care can cost the National Health Service between £1 billion and £2.5 billion a year.
In order to improve the safety of patients, we have established various initiatives including:
- The Sign up to Safety Campaign officially launched in June 2014. More than 390 organisations have signed up thus far, and we are aware of more than 670 projects to reduce avoidable harm. Organisations that sign up must outline what they will do to strengthen patient safety, including a response to five key pledges and a safety improvement plan that demonstrates how they intend to save lives/reduce harm over the next three years. The campaign aims to help member organisations listen to patients, carers and staff, learn from what they say when things go wrong and take action to improve patient’s safety, helping to ensure patients get harm free care every time, everywhere;
- The Patient Safety Collaboratives, a programme to improve the safety of patients and ensure that continual patient safety learning sits at the heart of healthcare in England; and
- The NHS Safety Thermometer, a measurement tool for a programme of work to support patient safety improvement.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what resources his Department has allocated to support for older people with mental health issues in (a) England and (b) East Sussex in 2016-17.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Funding for mental health is allocated to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which are best placed to identify the priorities and needs of their local communities. Spending on mental health is expected to increase to £11.7 billion for 2014/15 and CCGs are committed to increasing their spending on mental health each year at least in line with the growth of their overall funding allocation.
NHS England has asked local National Health Service areas to develop and implement sustainability and transformation plans this year to demonstrate how local services will be built around the needs of local people. This includes measures to improve primary care and developing better models of out of hospital care.
We established the Better Care Fund which is enabling local authorities to access around £3.5 billion a year to improve services and achieve better integration of health and social care commissioning. The Better Care Fund is one of the most ambitious programmes across the NHS and local government to date. It creates a local single pooled budget to incentivise the NHS and local government to work more closely together around people, placing their wellbeing as the focus of health and care services, and shifting resources into social care and community services for the benefit of the people, communities and health and care systems.
The independent Mental Health Taskforce published earlier this year made a recommendation for NHS England to that people being supported in specialist older-age acute physical health services have access to liaison mental health teams – including expertise in the psychiatry of older adults. We have accepted these recommendations.
We set out plans for transforming primary care in 2014 which includes supporting people with the most complex needs by general practitioners developing a proactive and personalised programme of care and support tailored to their needs and views. This is being led by the Proactive Care Programme which is designed to bring about a step change in the quality of care for frail older people (including those with mental health problems) and other patients with complex needs. It enables CCGs to shift funding into primary care services and community health services to address issues such as avoidable admissions to hospitals and gaps in service provision.
In February 2015, the Prime Minister launched his new Challenge on Dementia 2020 to make sure that dementia care, support, awareness and research are transformed by 2020. The Challenge Implementation Plan, published in March 2016, set out the actions partners across health and care will take to ensure commitments in the 2020 Challenge are delivered. These include:
- every person diagnosed with dementia having meaningful care following their diagnosis, which supports them and those around them;
- information made available locally on post-diagnosis services and how these can be accessed;
- access to relevant advice and support to help and advice on what happens after a diagnosis and the support available through the journey; and
- carers of people with dementia being made aware of and offered the opportunity for respite, education, training, emotional and psychological support so that they feel able to cope with their caring responsibilities and to have a life alongside caring.
Alongside the Implementation Plan the Department has published, together with key dementia stakeholders, a “Joint Declaration on Post-Diagnostic Dementia Care and Support”. This sets out the key principles of good quality post-diagnostic care for people with dementia.
The Department has prioritised prevention and through the Care Act 2014 it has required local authorities to have measures in place to identify people in their area who would benefit from universal services to help reduce, delay or prevent needs for care and support. This includes needs that may arise from social isolation.
Local authorities must consider if an adult is socially isolated or lonely when assessing them for adult social care. The Eligibility Regulations require local authorities to take into account whether a person wants to develop and maintain family or other personal relationships when assessing their eligibility for social care.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 9 May 2016 to Question 36175, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the length of time from the onset of symptoms to the diagnosis of endometriosis.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department has asked the National Institute of Health for Health and Care Excellence to develop a guideline on the diagnosis and management of endometriosis. This will include: symptoms and signs of endometriosis; and use of diagnostic tests including imaging, biomarkers and surgical diagnosis. The guideline is due to be published in September 2017.