Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have sickle cell disease in the UK; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of provision to improve the quality of life and life expectancy of people with that disease.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia screening programme is a linked antenatal and newborn screening programme which is offered to all pregnant women and their babies. It is also offered to fathers to be, where antenatal screening shows that the mother is a genetic carrier.
Table 1 shows the number of screen positive babies detected in England since the establishment of Public Health England (PHE) in 2013.
Table 1. Sickle cell disease (SCD) screen positive babies: England | ||||
Year | Screen Positive Babies | Total Screened | Rate per 1000 | 1 in x |
2013/14 | 319 | 668,117 | 0.48 | 2,094 |
2014/15 | 278 | 661,432 | 0.42 | 2,379 |
Total for whole period | 3,003 | 6,056,663 | 0.50 | 2,017 |
Data source: PHE Screening
Although NHS England does not routinely collect the information requested on the provision to improve quality of life and life expectancy of people with the disease, it is is working to ensure excellent services for people identified with Sickle Cell disease.
NHS England has included treatment services for haemoglobinopathies within the prescribed specialised services commissioned centrally by NHS England and set up a Clinical Reference Group of sickle cell and thalassaemia experts and patient representatives specifically to advise NHS England on commissioning services for haemoglobinopathies.
NHS England is also developing a commissioning policy for the management of iron overload in sickle cell and thalassaemia patients. It is also about to under-take a national review of haemoglobinopathy services, commencing in 2016-17.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of GPs who have left the NHS since 1 January 2016.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department has not made any estimate of the number of general practitioners (GPs) who have left the National Health Service since 1 January 2016.
The Health and Social Care Information Centre’s (HSCIC) General and Personal Medical Services: England 2005-2015, Provisional Experimental workforce statistics published on 27 April showed that as at September 2015, there were 1,288 more full-time equivalent GPs working and training in the National Health Service than in September 2010. The HSCIC will be publishing these workforce statistics bi-annually, with data as at 31 March 2016 due for publication in September.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with NHS England on reducing medical indemnity costs for GPs.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department is having ongoing discussions with NHS England to review the way in which indemnity costs in primary care are funded and will bring forward proposals for discussion in July 2016.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to increase the level of funding allocated for staffing in GP practices.
Answered by Alistair Burt
General practitioner (GP) practices are independent businesses and best placed to make the decisions about staffing numbers and skill mix to meet the needs of their patients. Funding for staffing is not allocated separately but forms part of a practice’s core funding allocation.
The GP Forward View, published by NHS England on 21 April 2016, sets a commitment to increase overall funding for general practice by £2.4 billion a year by 2020/21. This includes core funding for practices, as well as funding for a range of national programmes to support general practice. As part of this investment, £206 million will fund a programme of measures to increase the general practice workforce.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many pathologists qualified to conduct postmortems there were in (a) 2010 and (b) 2015.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The Department does not hold this information.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to HM Treasury's press release, Chancellor announces £4.5 billion of measures to bring down debt, published on 4 June 2015, what assessment he has made of the effect on productivity of delivering efficiency savings from his Department's budget.
Answered by Alistair Burt
As part of wider Government action on deficit reduction, the Department will deliver savings of £200 million in 2015/16 from a reduction in the Local Government Public Health Grant. We will be consulting on the best way of delivering the savings that need to be made, which will take account of and mitigate any adverse impact on productivity.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what efficiency savings he plans to make to meet planned reductions of £200 million in his Department's budget.
Answered by Alistair Burt
As part of wider Government action on deficit reduction, the Department will deliver savings of £200 million in 2015/16 from a reduction in the Local Government Public Health Grant. We will be consulting on the best way of delivering the savings that need to be made.