Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of the cost-effectiveness of (a) maintaining the services provided by Mildmay Mission Hospital and (b) providing those services in NHS acute wards.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The national tariff is a set of prices and rules used by providers of National Health Service care and commissioners to deliver the most efficient, cost effective care to patients.
The tariff for Mildmay Mission Hospital tariff is 50% higher than the acute provider tariff.
Admissions to Mildmay Mission Hospital are based on agreed clinical criteria and on the ability of the service to meet a patient’s needs, and are not based on cost.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of the cost to the public purse of a bed at (a) Mildmay Mission Hospital and (b) an acute ward at an NHS hospital for one night.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The national tariff is a set of prices and rules used by providers of National Health Service care and commissioners to deliver the most efficient, cost effective care to patients.
The tariff for Mildmay Mission Hospital tariff is 50% higher than the acute provider tariff.
Admissions to Mildmay Mission Hospital are based on agreed clinical criteria and on the ability of the service to meet a patient’s needs, and are not based on cost.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure equity of access to mental health treatment.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We are making good progress on putting mental health services on an equal footing as those for physical health.
The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published in 2016, made a set of recommendations for the National Health Service to achieve the ambition of parity of esteem between mental and physical health for children, young people, adults and older people. We continue to work with the NHS to deliver on these recommendations with the majority expected to be met by 2020/21.
Investment in mental health services continues to rise. Total mental health spend in 2018/19 was £12.5 billion, up from £9.15 billion in 2015/16. The mental health investment standard requires clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to increase the amount spent on mental health by at least as much as their overall budget. In 2018/19, all CCGs achieved this level of investment.
The NHS Long Term Plan committed at least a further £2.3 billion a year to mental health services by 2023/24. This ring-fenced investment will continue the transformation and expansion of services for people with mental health conditions, building on our current targets. For the first time, children and young people’s mental health services will grow as a proportion of all mental health services, which will themselves also be growing faster than the NHS overall.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to improve the provision of mental health services for children aged five to 16.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Protecting our children’s mental health is a priority for this Government, and a core part of the NHS Long Term Plan.
We made available £1.4 billion to improve specialist children and young people’s mental health services between 2015-21. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, mental health across all ages will receive a growing share of the National Health Service budget, worth at least a further £2.3 billion a year in real terms by 2023/24. Moreover, funding for children and young people’s mental health services will, for the first time, grow as a proportion of all mental health funding, which will itself also be growing faster than funding for the NHS overall.
In December 2018, we announced 25 Trailblazer sites which will run the first wave of 59 Mental Health Support Teams, which will be fully operational by the end of 2019. On 12 July, we announced that a further 124 Mental Health Support Teams are to be set up across 57 sites.
We remain committed to rolling out our new approach to at least a fifth to a quarter of the country by the end of 2022/23 subject to learning from the first wave.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which health sector trade associations has his Department entered into non disclosure agreements with in relation to preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal since July 2016.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has signed 52 non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in relation to European Union exit. These have been signed with a mixture of trade associations, companies (both pharmaceutical and other) and third sector organisations. The Department routinely signs non-disclosure agreements in order to protect sensitive information, often for commercial reasons or where its disclosure could impact the Department’s relationship with suppliers.
The use of NDAs has been particularly relevant for the Department’s EU exit preparations, which have involved dealing with significant amounts of commercially sensitive data from industry stakeholders. This data has informed key policy decisions and helped the Department assess the robustness of our contingency plans.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which (a) pharmaceutical companies and (b) companies in related fields has his Department entered into non disclosure agreements with in relation to preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal since July 2016.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has signed 52 non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in relation to European Union exit. These have been signed with a mixture of trade associations, companies (both pharmaceutical and other) and third sector organisations. The Department routinely signs non-disclosure agreements in order to protect sensitive information, often for commercial reasons or where its disclosure could impact the Department’s relationship with suppliers.
The use of NDAs has been particularly relevant for the Department’s EU exit preparations, which have involved dealing with significant amounts of commercially sensitive data from industry stakeholders. This data has informed key policy decisions and helped the Department assess the robustness of our contingency plans.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure equity of access to NHS fertility treatment.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The level of provision of local health services available to patients, including fertility treatment, is, and has been since the 1990s, a matter for local healthcare commissioners. Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have a statutory responsibility to commission healthcare services including fertility services that meet the needs of their whole population.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s guidance for commissioners is a new tool to help them implement the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Fertility Guidelines.
On 17 June 2019, the then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Mental Health, Inequalities and Suicide Prevention (Jackie Doyle-Price MP) wrote to the Chief Executives of all CCGs in England to promote the guidance and benchmark price, and strongly encourage them to implement fully the NICE Fertility Guidelines.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to publish the social care Green Paper within the current Parliamentary Session.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Social Care Green Paper remains a priority for this Government and we will be publishing a Green Paper setting out proposals for reform at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money has been spent from the public purse on preparations for the Green Paper on social care.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We are unable to provide the information requested as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department has signed with pharmaceutical companies advising the Government on preparations for the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Since July 2016, the Department has signed 16 non-disclosure agreements with private companies and 10 with trade associations relating to our medical supply no-deal Brexit contingency planning.
By signing non-disclosure agreements, the Department can talk to the industry in confidence prior to making public statements and issuing advice. This means that when we go out to the whole industry, we can be confident that any requests of them are clear, appropriate and deliverable. For example, we consulted with the pharmaceutical industry prior to issuing advice about stockpiling medicines.