Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many meetings the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health has had with James Palmer, Clinical Director for Specialised Commissioning at NHS England since 1 April 2014.
Answered by Jane Ellison
I have had no meetings with James Palmer, Clinical Director for Specialised Commissioning at NHS England since 1 April 2014.
There is regular contact between Departmental officials and Clinical Directors at NHS England, including the Clinical Director for Specialised Commissioning.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many meetings he has had with Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England since 1 April 2014.
Answered by Dan Poulter
My Rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, meets with Mr Stevens on a weekly basis with additional meetings arranged as and when required, which often include other members of the Ministerial team.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the signature authorising Individual Funding Requests made to NHS England for Gamma Knife treatment by University College Hospital London, Queen Square, is that of a senior clinician employed by University College Hospital London.
Answered by Jane Ellison
We are advised by NHS England that the clinician who authorises Individual Funding Requests for Gamma Knife treatment to be undertaken at the Queens Square Radiology Centre Ltd (QSRC) is a surgeon at the National Hospital for Neurosurgery and Neurology (NHNN), part of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH).
Gamma Knife treatment is not undertaken by UCLH but by the private company QSRC, which is based at NHNN but has no formal relationship with UCLH.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 5 September 2014, Official Report, column 391W, on radiotherapy, when hospitals with contractual arrangements with NHS England are instructed by NHS England to treat patients presenting as clinically urgent at the hospital's own financial risk while NHS England decides whether to fund the patient, what guidelines are in place for those hospitals which have followed that instruction on receiving reimbursement for such expenditure if NHS England subsequently refuses to fund the treatment.
Answered by Jane Ellison
University College London Hospital (UCLH) located in Queen’s Square does not provide gamma knife services. However, an independent provider called Queen’s Square Radiotherapy Centre Limited based at a site in Queen’s Square owned by ULCH does. Individual funding requests are, therefore, submitted by Queen’s Square Radiotherapy Centre Limited.
NHS England became responsible for commissioning radiotherapy services on 1 April 2013 and has no record of University Hospital College London notifying commissioners that it was a provider of this service.
Where contractual arrangements exist between NHS England and the hospital providing treatment, all patients will be treated in accordance with the prescribed clinical pathways and in line with those contractual agreements. It is only where providers treat outside the required contractual agreements that they do so at their own financial risk. However, as NHS England commissions gamma knife services, and we understand there is no waiting list, it is highly unlikely that the clinically urgent situation described in the question would arise.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 5 September 2014, Official Report, column 391W, on radiotherapy, whether University Hospital College London included the provision of Gamma Knife Services at its Queen Square site in its notification log to commissioners for the financial year 2012-13.
Answered by Jane Ellison
University College London Hospital (UCLH) located in Queen’s Square does not provide gamma knife services. However, an independent provider called Queen’s Square Radiotherapy Centre Limited based at a site in Queen’s Square owned by ULCH does. Individual funding requests are, therefore, submitted by Queen’s Square Radiotherapy Centre Limited.
NHS England became responsible for commissioning radiotherapy services on 1 April 2013 and has no record of University Hospital College London notifying commissioners that it was a provider of this service.
Where contractual arrangements exist between NHS England and the hospital providing treatment, all patients will be treated in accordance with the prescribed clinical pathways and in line with those contractual agreements. It is only where providers treat outside the required contractual agreements that they do so at their own financial risk. However, as NHS England commissions gamma knife services, and we understand there is no waiting list, it is highly unlikely that the clinically urgent situation described in the question would arise.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 5 September 2014, Official Report, column 391W, on radiotherapy, whether individual funding requests to NHS England to provide Gamma Knife treatment at University College Hospital London's Queen Square site are made directly by University College Hospital London.
Answered by Jane Ellison
University College London Hospital (UCLH) located in Queen’s Square does not provide gamma knife services. However, an independent provider called Queen’s Square Radiotherapy Centre Limited based at a site in Queen’s Square owned by ULCH does. Individual funding requests are, therefore, submitted by Queen’s Square Radiotherapy Centre Limited.
NHS England became responsible for commissioning radiotherapy services on 1 April 2013 and has no record of University Hospital College London notifying commissioners that it was a provider of this service.
Where contractual arrangements exist between NHS England and the hospital providing treatment, all patients will be treated in accordance with the prescribed clinical pathways and in line with those contractual agreements. It is only where providers treat outside the required contractual agreements that they do so at their own financial risk. However, as NHS England commissions gamma knife services, and we understand there is no waiting list, it is highly unlikely that the clinically urgent situation described in the question would arise.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what data her Department holds on the number of areas in the US in which it has been confirmed that water supplies have been contaminated by hydraulic fracturing.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
Defra does not hold this data.
In England we have robust regulations in place to prevent contamination of water supplies. The Environment Agency will ensure that no hydraulic fracturing will be permitted where groundwater and drinking water supplies could be affected.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he authorised the recent increase in the Cancer Drug Fund annual budget; and whether (a) the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group and the Direct Commissioned Service Committee and (b) the Patient and Public Voice Assurance Group were consulted before that decision was taken.
Answered by George Freeman
My Rt hon Friend, the Secretary of State for Health, agreed that the size of the Cancer Drugs Fund would be increased to £280 million in both 2014-15 and 2015-16.
We are advised by NHS England that the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group, the Direct Commissioned Service Committee and the Patient and Public Voice Assurance Group were not specifically consulted before this decision was taken.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in what age group have been funded for proton beam therapy in each of the last five years; and in what location each person was so treated.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The information is provided in the following table:
Year | Children | Adults | Total | Location |
2009-10 | 8 | 12 | 20 | France, USA and Switzerland |
2010-11 | 30 | 20 | 50 | USA (38 patients) and Switzerland (12) |
2011-12 | 66 | 13 | 79 | USA (majority of patients) and Switzerland |
2012-13 | 83 | 16 | 99 | USA (majority of patients) and Switzerland |
2013-14 | 103* | 21* | 124* | All USA |
*Figure includes treatments given and treatments due to be given following approval.
It is not possible to provide a more detailed analysis of age group by location of treatment because it might be possible to identify individual patients from the data.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 21 July 2014, Official Report, column 1007W, on radiotherapy, in what respects University College Hospital London has failed to meet NHS England's service specifications for gamma knife services.
Answered by Jane Ellison
University College Hospitals London (UCHL) did not apply to be a contracted provider of gamma knife services for NHS England. For this reason it has not been formally assessed against the service specification. The gamma knife referred to is owned and operated by Queen’s Square Radiotherapy Centre (QSRC) Ltd, a private company wholly owned by Medical Equipment Solutions Limited, in premises owned by UCLH under a commercial agreement with UCLH.
As the National Health Service was going through a major transition in 2013-14 it was decided at that time that there should be no new market entrants for stereotactic radiotherapy services. Therefore only existing commissioned providers were asked to identify the services that they considered themselves to be providing, and UCLH did not express an interest in respect to gamma knife treatment. QSRC Ltd is not an existing NHS England commissioned provider and therefore was not assessed against the service specification.
All patients need to be treated in accordance with the prescribed clinical pathways and in line with contractual agreements with providers. If providers treat outside the required contractual agreements then they do so at their own financial risk, and this is why NHS England instructs hospitals to this effect where no contractual arrangement is in place.