Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the 111 NHS telephone service on attendance at hospital accident and emergency departments.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS 111 providers across England conduct patient follow up surveys on the NHS 111 service. The results for the year ending September 2014 showed that 30% of patients said they would have used accident and emergency services if they had not contacted NHS 111. This compares with a national rate of 8% of NHS 111 calls answered that directed patients to accident and emergency services.
These results indicate that in a high proportion of cases NHS 111 has been effective in offering patients a service choice which, if followed, would direct more cases to non-emergency services than if NHS 111 was not available.
There is a very active programme of work involving NHS England, working with local commissioners and NHS 111 providers, to improve referrals to alternative services. This programme is starting to see more patients who call NHS 111 directed to services for a lower acuity.
Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of NHS staff will receive a one per cent or higher pay award through non-consolidated increases or incremental pay awards this year.
Answered by Dan Poulter
All National Health Service staff who meet local performance standards will receive 1% or more pay through non-consolidated increases or incremental pay this year.
Just over 50% of staff are eligible for incremental pay progression subject to satisfactory performance, which averages a 3% rise.
The just under 50% of NHS staff who are at the top of their pay bands and therefore not eligible for incremental progression received an additional non-consolidated payment this year equal to 1% of basic pay.
Asked by: Peter Luff (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of NHS staff are eligible for incremental pay awards; and how many of those will receive at least (a) one per cent and (b) three per cent pay increases this year.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The Government is committed to reforming progression pay in the National Health Service to ensure that the system is fair, consistent and sustainable.
Over 50% (around 620,000 headcount) of hospital and community health services staff are eligible for incremental pay increases; subject to meeting local performance standards.
All of these eligible staff will receive at least a 1% increase.
Two thirds of those staff are eligible for at least 3%, which is the average incremental increase. This is around 410,000 staff (headcount).