To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question

Question Link

Friday 8th September 2023

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children were (a) on a waiting list for an assessment and (b) waiting for a diagnosis for (i) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and (ii) Autism spectrum disorder on 1 September 2023.

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

Data on the number of children on a waiting list for an assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessments and waiting for a diagnosis is not held centrally but may be held locally by individual National Health Service trusts. The Department is investigating options for improving data collection and reporting on waiting times for ADHD assessments and diagnoses, to help improve access to ADHD assessments in a timely way and in line with the NICE guideline on ADHD.

With respect to autism, NHS England publishes data on how many people are waiting for an autism diagnosis and for how long, which provides useful information nationally and locally to support local areas to improve their performance and to reduce assessment and diagnosis waiting times.

The statistics published on 8 June 2023 provide data up to 31 March 2023. Of the total 157,579 patients with an open referral for suspected autism (diagnosis not yet complete) in March 2023, 92,622 were aged zero to 17 years. 6,940 of this age group with an open referral received a first contact appointment within 13 weeks. Data on children and young people in this dataset is expected to be an underestimate. The next data release will be published on 14 September.

The current reported autism data comes from the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) only. Several providers of MHSDS data were affected by a cyber incident which impacted the data for August 2022 onwards. Data presented for August 2022 onwards are imputed estimates based on data from providers not impacted by the cyber incident. The trends and activity reported by these providers are, for the most part, reflective of the providers who were impacted by the cyber incident. However, caution should be used when interpreting these statistics.


Written Question
Influenza: Vaccination
Wednesday 11th January 2023

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of NHS staff have received the flu vaccination in (a) 2022 and (b) each of the last five years.

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

The following table shows the number of frontline National Health Service healthcare workers (HCWs) vaccinated with the flu vaccine, for each of the last five years.

Number of HCWs with direct patient care where vaccination data has been provided

Numbers vaccinated

Percentage vaccine uptake

1 September 2022 to 30 November 2022

1,105,078

461,803

41.8%

1 September 2021 to 28 February 2022

813,435

492,125

60.5%

1 September 2020 to 28 February 2021

1,124,370

863,792

76.8%

1 September 2019 to 28 February 2020

1,040,360

772,872

74.3%

1 September 2018 to 28 February 2019

1,051,851

739,187

70.3%

1 September 2017 to 28 February 2018

1,025,547

704,242

68.7%


Source:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-influenza-and-covid-19-vaccine-uptake-in-frontline-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2022-to-2023

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-and-covid-19-vaccine-uptake-in-frontline-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2021-to-2022

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2020-to-2021

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2019-to-2020

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2018-to-2019

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-healthcare-workers-monthly-data-2017-to-2018

Notes:

  1. All data is final end of season data apart from the 2022 to 2023 season.
  2. This data is provisional monthly data (published on 22 December 2022) and may vary slightly following further data validation checks.
  3. The 2022 to 2023 season includes independent sector health care providers. In previous seasons this data was reported as part of general practitioner data returns rather than as part of NHS Trusts in England.

Written Question
Clinical Commissioning Groups
Monday 13th September 2021

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his plans are for clinical chairs of the Clinical Commissioning Groups once those Groups are amalgamated into Integrated Care Systems.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

NHS England and NHS Improvement have published a human resources framework, co-developed with stakeholders, which sets out principles and guidance to support local organisations implement a safe and effective transition of staff from clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to integrated care boards (ICBs). Whilst staff below board level in CCGs are protected by an ‘employment commitment', this does not apply to senior ‘board level’ roles which includes those in the current CCG governing bodies. The framework recognises the need to retain clinical leadership talent wherever possible as this will be central to ICB decision making and has set out a talent approach.

A member nominated by primary medical care providers will have a mandatory seat on every ICB and when designing and developing the new arrangements, NHS England has been clear that they should involve strong clinical leadership at every level.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Vaccination
Tuesday 2nd February 2021

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to prioritise the administration of covid-19 vaccines to (a) paramedics and (b) ambulance staff in line with other health professionals.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccines the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level.

The JCVI considers frontline health and social care workers who provide care to vulnerable people a high priority for vaccination, which includes paramedics and ambulance drivers.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Vaccination
Monday 1st February 2021

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many covid-19 vaccinations per day are being undertaken by mass covid-19 vaccination centres.

Answered by Nadhim Zahawi

All vaccination services, including general practitioner and pharmacy local vaccination services, hospital hubs and vaccination centres, are delivering vaccinations in line with available supply. Across all services, over 8 million vaccinations have been delivered. We will continue to make more sites available to local communities.


Written Question
Radiotherapy: Patient Choice Schemes
Thursday 14th January 2021

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to allow cancer patients to choose where they access radiotherapy treatment.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Generally, patients can decide which National Health Service organisation they would like to receive care from as an outpatient and choose the clinical team who will be in charge of their care within an organisation at the point of referral. There are some exceptions that may limit a patient’s choice where speed of access to diagnosis and treatment is particularly important, such as cancer services, where they must be seen within the two-week maximum waiting time.

Once diagnosed with cancer, a team of health professionals work together as a multidisciplinary team (MDT) which includes surgeons, clinical and medical oncologists, pathologists and radiologists and other healthcare professionals. The role of the MDT is to ensure the co-ordination of the patients care throughout their cancer treatment. Cancer treatment plans are determined through MDT discussion.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Drugs
Tuesday 10th March 2020

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to enable physician associates to prescribe medication in tackling the spread of covid-19.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Whilst there is no legal requirement for a profession to be regulated before it can be given prescribing responsibilities, all healthcare professions that have prescribing responsibilities in the United Kingdom are regulated. This is because prescribing is a high-risk activity.

Physicians associates (PAs) are not regulated and therefore do not have prescribing responsibilities. Work to bring PAs into regulation is underway and the Department plans to consult on draft legislation later this year.

Arrangements can be made under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 when a disease is, or is imminently anticipated to be, a pandemic. These arrangements can set aside the usual prescribing arrangements and allow medicines to be supplied under a protocol approved by Ministers or a National Health Service body.


Written Question
Radiotherapy: Stevenage
Tuesday 29th October 2019

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

Whether he plans to increase access to radiotherapy in Hertfordshire by introducing a satellite radiotherapy service in Stevenage.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

A review conducted by NHS England and published in July 2019, concluded that expanded access to radiotherapy services for patients in the Hertfordshire area was desirable through the provision of a satellite service in the north part of the Mount Vernon catchment area, but recommended that the core service issues should be addressed prior to this. The review of Mount Vernon Cancer Centre is ongoing to ensure the service is able to respond to the significant advances in cancer treatment over recent decades which includes identifying a specialist cancer provider to run the centre.


Written Question
NHS: Public Appointments
Friday 5th July 2019

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer to Questions 256286 and 259982 on NHS: Public Appointments, what the longest period of time is for which NHS posts with salaries above £142,000 are awaiting ministerial sign-off by (a) his Department and (b) HM Treasury.

Answered by Stephen Hammond

HM Treasury sets the threshold at which ministerial approval is required for ministerial appointments. The threshold was raised from £142,500 per annum to £150,000 per annum in January 2018.

National Health Service posts are not ‘ministerial appointments’ and are therefore not subject to the approvals process set by HM Treasury. However, in 2015 the then Secretary of State set out his policy on taking forward senior pay in the NHS which included the requirement for NHS trusts to seek ministerial approval and NHS foundation trusts and clinical commissioning groups to seek ministerial comment for senior executive pay over the same pay threshold set by HM Treasury.

NHS organisations are not required to seek Departmental approval or comment on salaries of less than £150,000.

As at 1 July, the longest period of time for which the Department have been aware of a proposed NHS post with a salary above £150,000 dates back to 13 March 2019. The case has not yet been presented to Ministers for approval or comment as further information has been sought from the Trust to support the case. This has not yet been received and therefore the case has not yet been presented to Ministers.


Written Question
Public Health: Hertfordshire
Wednesday 3rd July 2019

Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) improve the quality of and (b) increase access to public health care in (i) Stevenage and (ii) Hertfordshire.

Answered by Seema Kennedy

Local authorities are responsible for assessing the public health needs of their local population, developing public health strategies and commissioning services to improve the health of their populations.

Local authorities have responsibility for the commissioning of public health services such as sexual health, stop smoking, drug and alcohol services and the NHS Health Check. Public Health England supports local authorities to do this through the provision of national public health campaigns, public health intelligence, evidence-based advice and guidance on what works in practice, commissioning support packs and service assessment and quality improvement frameworks.

At a local level, Public Health England East of England supports local authorities through a series of commissioner networks that share good practice, support sector led improvement and effective service delivery.