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Written Question
Health Services: Finance
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support applicants for continued healthcare funding who appeal a decision to (a) NHS England and (b) the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

A public information leaflet is on the GOV.UK website in multiple languages, explaining the full process for appealing to NHS England or to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, as well as the eligibility decisions for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC). This leaflet is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-continuing-healthcare-and-nhs-funded-nursing-care-public-information-leaflet

CHC guidance, named the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care, states that any individual being considered for CHC at the screening or referral stage should be given a copy of this leaflet, along with any relevant local information about processes and contact details. This guidance is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64b0f7cdc033c100108062f9/National-Framework-for-NHS-Continuing-Healthcare-and-NHS-funded-Nursing-Care_July-2022-revised_corrected-July-2023.pdf

NHS England has also commissioned a free Information and Advice Service for CHC from Beacon. This service provides independent and high-quality support on navigating CHC assessments and care planning, or to appeal against a decision about CHC eligibility. Further information is available at the following link:

https://beaconchc.co.uk/how-we-can-help/free-information-and-advice-on-nhs-continuing-healthcare/


Written Question
NHS Walk-in Centres
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to establish walk-in clinics in each Integrated Care Board; and what estimate she has made of the cost of doing so.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The commissioning of establishing local services in the National Health Service is a matter for integrated care boards. The Government has no plans at this time to roll out hubs nationally.

Based upon current schemes which are either operational or under development in England, and assuming a facility floorplan of 3,000 square metres, the construction of a single walk-in hub service would cost £21.4 million in 2024/25 prices. Ongoing running costs for each building could be approximately £2 million to £2.3 million dependent on whether it was operational seven days a week and included wider primary care services such as dentistry.


Written Question
Sodium Valproate and Surgical Mesh Implants: Compensation
Wednesday 20th March 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Hughes Report: Options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, published by the Patient Safety Commissioner on 7 February 2024, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implication for her policies of the provision of financial redress for people harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The Government commissioned the Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC) to produce a report on redress for those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. We are grateful to the PSC and her team for completing this report and our sympathies remain with those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The Government is now carefully considering the PSC’s recommendations and will respond substantively in due course.


Written Question
Menopause: Health Services
Thursday 8th February 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help improve access to NHS menopause services.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The menopause is a priority area within the Women’s Health Strategy. The NHS England National Menopause Care Improvement Programme is working to improve clinical menopause care in England and reduce disparities in access to treatment. NHS England is working with integrated care systems in the Midlands, piloting new guidance to support teams in primary care better to recognise and treat menopause symptoms.

We are investing £25 million in women’s health hubs, so that women can get better access to care for essential services such as menstrual problems, contraception and the menopause.

We have also reduced the cost of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prescriptions through a bespoke HRT Prescription Prepayment Certificate. More than 500,000 HRT Prescription Prepayment Certificates have now been purchased since the launch on 1 April 2023, meaning women who pay for prescriptions, pay less than £20 for all of their HRT prescriptions for a year. The average saving is estimated to be around £30 a year with total savings of approximately £13 million.


Written Question
Menopause: Health Services
Thursday 8th February 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of NHS menopause services available in Devon.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

No specific assessment has been made. The menopause is a priority area within the Women’s Health Strategy. The NHS England National Menopause Care Improvement Programme is working to improve clinical menopause care in England, and to reduce disparities in access to treatment. This programme has already delivered training packages for healthcare professionals, and a self-care fact sheet for women. NHS England is also working with integrated care systems in the Midlands, piloting new guidance to support teams in primary care to better recognise and treat menopause symptoms. We are investing £25 million in women’s health hubs nationally, so that women can get better access to care for essential services such as menstrual problems, contraception and the menopause.

The two priority areas for the pilot women’s health hubs in Devon are services for a menopause pathway and improving access to long-acting reversible contraception, including for non-contraceptive reasons such as the menopause.


Written Question
Social Services: Finance
Friday 12th January 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the costs of social care are funded by the adult social care precept charged by local authorities.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The total value of the precept each year includes all the annual increases set by councils since 2016/17, and the Government does not publish this total. We cannot therefore calculate the proportion of adult social care spend each year funded from the precept. However, the Government publishes the amount raised by the increase in the adult social care precept each year. In 2023/24, councils could increase the precept by up to 2%, raising an estimated maximum of £561 million.

The evidence review for Adult Social Care Reform, published in December 2021, estimated that up to 70% of total adult social care spend is from public sources.

The impact of the social care precept varies across the country, depending upon the decisions that local authorities make about how much precept to levy and how much it needs to spend on adult social care.


Written Question
Care Workers: Conditions of Employment and Pay
Friday 5th January 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of setting national pay and conditions terms for social care workers.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has no current plans to make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of setting national pay and conditions terms for social care workers. Most care workers are employed by private sector providers who set their pay and terms and conditions, independent of central government.

In the ‘Next steps to put People at the Heart of Care’ we announced our intention to launch a new Care Workforce Pathway for Adult Social Care, which will support development and provide a career structure to the workforce.


Written Question
General Practitioners
Wednesday 20th December 2023

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of ensuring that patients are always able to see the same GP for each visit.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government recognises the importance of the relationship between patients and their general practitioner (GP). However, in some cases patients may prefer to see another professional from the wider general practice workforce instead of a specific GP.

While the Government has not made an estimate of the cost of ensuring that patients are able to see the same GP for each visit, all patients must be assigned a named GP. Practices must endeavour to comply with all reasonable requests for a patient to see a particular GP or other healthcare professional for an appointment.


Written Question
NHS: Managers
Tuesday 19th December 2023

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of establishing a college of clinical leadership to train NHS managers in leadership skills.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

There has been no such estimate made. The NHS Leadership Academy, which is part of NHS England, provides a wide range of tools, programmes and expertise to help National Health Service organisations develop their leaders and embed best practice.

The Messenger review, Leadership for a collaborative and inclusive future, was published in June 2022. It focussed on ways to strengthen leadership and management across health and adult social care. The review set out seven recommendations which were accepted by the government. The recommendations are aimed at fostering and replicating the best examples of leadership through improved training, career development and talent management.

NHS England is leading on implementation of all seven recommendations and is working in partnership with Skills for Care where they apply to the social care workforce.


Written Question
Tomography
Tuesday 19th December 2023

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to double (a) MRI and (b) CT scanning capacity; and if she will make an estimate of the (i) revenue and (ii) capital cost of doing so over each of the next five years.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

£2.3 billion was awarded at SR21 to transform diagnostic services over three years. Most of this will help deliver our ambition to increase the number of Community Diagnostic Centres up to 160 by March 2025, expanding and protecting elective planned diagnostic services. Funding will also provide additional diagnostic equipment to increase imaging capacity in acute settings, as well as increasing capacity for endoscopy and mammography screening, and improving digital diagnostics.