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Written Question
NHS Trusts: Finance
Monday 16th October 2017

Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)

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 capped expenditure process on funding for NHS trusts.

Answered by Philip Dunne

As set out in the Spending Review 2015, National Health Service funding will increase by £8 billion in real terms by 2020-21, compared to 2015-16. In this year alone, real terms NHS funding is £1.7 billion higher than last year and £5 billion higher than it was in 2015-16.

As with all public services, local NHS areas need to live within the budget agreed – otherwise they effectively take up resources that could be spent on general practitioners, mental health care, and cancer treatment. As part of their financial planning, NHS England and NHS Improvement have been running a process to look at how a small number of areas could do more to balance their financial plans, as many already have.

It is important that these plans are consistent with constitutional standards on waiting times and patient choice. It is right that the NHS should consider efficiency savings such as reducing delayed transfers of care, or reducing running costs – because this improves patient care overall.


Written Question
Schools: Nurses
Thursday 8th September 2016

Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to NHS workforce statistics, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the reduction in the number of school nurses since 2010.

Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford

Since April 2013, local authorities have been responsible for public health locally, including commissioning public health services for school aged children and decisions should be based around local needs.

No formal assessment has been made of recent changes to school nursing numbers by the Department or Public Health England (PHE).

PHE has professional leadership responsibility for school nursing and supports local decision making through the sharing of evidence and guidance. PHE published commissioning guidance in January 2016 and continues to work with key partners, including the Department, to develop further approaches to strengthen and support school nursing teams and local delivery.


Written Question
Maternity Services
Wednesday 17th December 2014

Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, on how many occasions maternity units at each (a) NHS trust and (b) NHS foundation trust were put on divert in the last 12 months.

Answered by Dan Poulter

This information is not collected centrally.


Written Question
Maternity Services
Wednesday 17th December 2014

Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for how many days maternity units at each (a) NHS trust and (b) NHS foundation trust were put on divert in the last 12 months.

Answered by Dan Poulter

This information is not collected centrally.


Written Question
Maternity Services
Wednesday 17th December 2014

Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, on how many days maternity units at each (a) NHS Trust and (b) NHS Foundation were put on divert in the last 12 months.

Answered by Dan Poulter

This information is not collected centrally.


Written Question
Accident and Emergency Departments
Wednesday 26th November 2014

Asked by: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to reduce the number of patients attending A&E departments.

Answered by Jane Ellison

We are providing an additional £700 million to help the National Health Service cope with winter pressures.

Further, the Prime Minister’s £50 million Challenge Fund is currently improving general practitioner access for over 3 million patients across England. This includes offering evening and weekend appointments, as well as better use of technology. By January, 7.5 million patients will be covered.