Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
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 implications for his policy on closing secure health care units for people with autism and learning difficulties of the proposed opening by Elysium Healthcare of five new such units in England.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We have made no such assessment.
We remain committed to reducing the number of people with learning disabilities and/or autism who are inpatients in hospital, reducing the length of time those admitted spend there, and enhancing the quality of both hospital and community settings.
Some people will continue to need access to time limited inpatient services for assessment of their needs and treatment where this is appropriate. In such circumstances, it is for National Health Service commissioners to take decisions on which providers to commission services from. Our position is that patients should receive the best possible service and outcomes irrespective of which organisation provides it.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people with (a) autism and (b) learning disabilities are being held in secure hospital units in England.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Assuring Transformation (AT) dataset provides data on the numbers of people with learning disability and/or autism receiving inpatient care commissioned by the National Health Service in England.
The following table shows patient numbers in secure units by diagnosis, with data taken from the most recent AT publication which uses December 2018 data.
Patients by diagnosis as of December 2018
| Number of patients |
Learning disability only | 655 |
Autism only | 245 |
Learning disability and autism | 210 |
None of the above | 10 |
Total | 1,120 |
Source: Learning Disability Services Monthly Statistics - Data from the Assuring Transformation Collection, December 2018 (NHS Digital)
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Government plans to ratify and implement the Council of Europe Convention against trafficking in human organs signed on 23 March 2015.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The United Kingdom formally signed the Council of Europe Convention on Organ Trafficking on 25 March 2015 and has legislation in place to ensure consent is always provided to prevent organ trafficking. The Government also supports the 2008 Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism, which encourages all countries to draw up legal and professional frameworks to govern organ donation and transplantation activities.
When the UK signed the convention, it did so on the basis that it reserved the right not to apply the jurisdiction rules laid down in paragraph 1.d and e of Article 10 of the convention. There are no current plans to ratify the convention.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
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 26 June 2018 to Question 154743 on Surgical Mesh Implants, what recent discussions his Department has had with Dr Andrew Baranowski of the British Pain Society.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department has not had any recent discussions with Dr Andrew Baranowski of the British Pain Society regarding surgical mesh.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
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 6 June to Question 146919 on Surgical Mesh Implants, which arm’s length bodies the Government is in dialogue with to assess how it can continue to build on the evidence base for surgical mesh.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Following publication of NHS Digital’s ‘Retrospective Review of Surgery for Urogynaecological Prolapse and Stress Urinary Incontinence using Tape or Mesh’, at the request of the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health (Lord O’Shaughnessy), the Chief Medical Officer sought views on what the data tells us and what further questions it raises from arm’s length bodies, professional groups/societies, academics and campaign groups.
The arm’s length bodies and professional groups/societies approached were NHS England, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Royal College of Surgeons, Royal College of General Practitioners, the British Association of Urological Surgeons and the British Society of Urogynaecology.
The Department is also in dialogue with NHS England, NICE, MHRA and NHS Digital on the matter.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
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 6 June to Question 146920, what the timeframe is for the determination of the request for the addition of a ventral mesh rectopexy HES code which has been submitted through an NHS Trust.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The request for the addition of an OPCS-4 code for ventral mesh rectopexy was submitted by a Clinical Coding Service Manager at a National Health Service trust on the basis of the absence of a code. This was not a request from the Government or a third party.
OPCS-4 is updated on a three-yearly basis. Any new or updated codes for ventral mesh rectopexy will be available for use by the NHS and system supplier implementation in the next update to OPCS-4. The next update to OPCS-4 (OPCS-4.9) is scheduled for 1 April 2020.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
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 06 June to Question 146920 on Surgical Mesh Implants, whether the request which has been submitted through an NHS Trust for the addition of a ventral mesh rectopexy HES code came from the Government or from a third party.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The request for the addition of an OPCS-4 code for ventral mesh rectopexy was submitted by a Clinical Coding Service Manager at a National Health Service trust on the basis of the absence of a code. This was not a request from the Government or a third party.
OPCS-4 is updated on a three-yearly basis. Any new or updated codes for ventral mesh rectopexy will be available for use by the NHS and system supplier implementation in the next update to OPCS-4. The next update to OPCS-4 (OPCS-4.9) is scheduled for 1 April 2020.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department takes in circumstances in which an externally-operated contact centre delivering Public Health England contracts fails to adhere to agreed key performance indicators.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England requires the supplier to answer at least 85% of calls within 10 seconds during normal business as usual activities. This figure is averaged over the calendar month.
Reporting on the call handling Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is done on a weekly and monthly basis as well as being looked at in more depth as part of the quarterly business review. The figures are taken directly from the telephony systems.
Depending on the circumstances of the failure to meet the agreed KPI, the company would be put under a performance review and officials would consider imposing any financial penalty that was stated in the contract.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how his Department measures the performance of Public Health England contracts being delivered by externally-operated contact centres against key performance indicators.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England requires the supplier to answer at least 85% of calls within 10 seconds during normal business as usual activities. This figure is averaged over the calendar month.
Reporting on the call handling Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is done on a weekly and monthly basis as well as being looked at in more depth as part of the quarterly business review. The figures are taken directly from the telephony systems.
Depending on the circumstances of the failure to meet the agreed KPI, the company would be put under a performance review and officials would consider imposing any financial penalty that was stated in the contract.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what key performance indicators his Department uses to measure the delivery of Public Health England contracts by externally-operated contact centres in respect of their call-handling times.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England requires the supplier to answer at least 85% of calls within 10 seconds during normal business as usual activities. This figure is averaged over the calendar month.
Reporting on the call handling Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is done on a weekly and monthly basis as well as being looked at in more depth as part of the quarterly business review. The figures are taken directly from the telephony systems.
Depending on the circumstances of the failure to meet the agreed KPI, the company would be put under a performance review and officials would consider imposing any financial penalty that was stated in the contract.