Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when the Government plans to publish the new carers strategy.
Answered by David Mowat
The Department expects to publish the new national strategy for carers in the spring. No publication date has yet been set.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients have had to wait longer than (a) two weeks, (b) five weeks, (c) 10 weeks and (d) 15 weeks between being assessed for hip replacement surgery and that surgery taking place.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Information is collected representing the time from decision to admit to treatment for knee and hip replacement surgery. The latest available data is for 2015-16 and is shown in the following table.
A count of finished admission episodes (FAEs) 1 with an eligible time waited from decision to admit to treatment for main2 or secondary3 procedure for hip and knee replacements (and revisions) with waiting times (in days) of two and five weeks (14 - 35 days), between five and 10 weeks (36 - 70 days), between 10 and 15 weeks (71 - 105 days) and longer than 15 weeks (106 days and over) in England for 2015-16
Time Waited (Days) | Hip operations (FAEs) | Knee operations (FAEs) |
2-5 weeks (14-35 days) | 8,826 | 9,341 |
5-10 weeks (36-70 days) | 17,893 | 19,672 |
10-15 weeks (71-105 days) | 16,220 | 18,992 |
15 weeks and over (106 days and over) | 20,941 | 27,169 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital, Activity in English National Health Service Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector
Notes
The total number of eligible admissions includes waiting list, booked admissions and planned (elective) admissions. A waiting list admission is one in which a patient has been admitted electively into hospital from a waiting list, having been given no date of admission at the time a decision to admit was made. Booked admissions are those in which the patient was admitted electively having been given a date at the time it was decided to admit. Planned admissions are usually part of a planned sequence of clinical care determined mainly on clinical criteria, which, for example, could require a series of events, perhaps taking place every three months, six months or annually. A FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.
The first recorded procedure or intervention in each episode, usually the most resource intensive procedure or intervention performed during the episode. It is appropriate to use main procedure when looking at admission details, (eg time waited), but a more complete count of episodes with a particular procedure is obtained by looking at the main and the secondary procedures.
As well as the main procedure, there are up to 23 (11 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and three prior to 2002-03) secondary procedure fields in HES that show secondary procedures performed on the patient during the episode of care.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients have waited longer than (a) two weeks, (b) five weeks, (c) 10 weeks and (d) 15 weeks between an assessment for knee replacement surgery and for that surgery taking place.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Information is collected representing the time from decision to admit to treatment for knee and hip replacement surgery. The latest available data is for 2015-16 and is shown in the following table.
A count of finished admission episodes (FAEs) 1 with an eligible time waited from decision to admit to treatment for main2 or secondary3 procedure for hip and knee replacements (and revisions) with waiting times (in days) of two and five weeks (14 - 35 days), between five and 10 weeks (36 - 70 days), between 10 and 15 weeks (71 - 105 days) and longer than 15 weeks (106 days and over) in England for 2015-16
Time Waited (Days) | Hip operations (FAEs) | Knee operations (FAEs) |
2-5 weeks (14-35 days) | 8,826 | 9,341 |
5-10 weeks (36-70 days) | 17,893 | 19,672 |
10-15 weeks (71-105 days) | 16,220 | 18,992 |
15 weeks and over (106 days and over) | 20,941 | 27,169 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital, Activity in English National Health Service Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector
Notes
The total number of eligible admissions includes waiting list, booked admissions and planned (elective) admissions. A waiting list admission is one in which a patient has been admitted electively into hospital from a waiting list, having been given no date of admission at the time a decision to admit was made. Booked admissions are those in which the patient was admitted electively having been given a date at the time it was decided to admit. Planned admissions are usually part of a planned sequence of clinical care determined mainly on clinical criteria, which, for example, could require a series of events, perhaps taking place every three months, six months or annually. A FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.
The first recorded procedure or intervention in each episode, usually the most resource intensive procedure or intervention performed during the episode. It is appropriate to use main procedure when looking at admission details, (eg time waited), but a more complete count of episodes with a particular procedure is obtained by looking at the main and the secondary procedures.
As well as the main procedure, there are up to 23 (11 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and three prior to 2002-03) secondary procedure fields in HES that show secondary procedures performed on the patient during the episode of care.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to reduce waiting times for orthopaedic operations in the last 12 months; and whether waiting times for such operations have reduced in the last 12 months.
Answered by Philip Dunne
NHS England publishes monthly data on referral to treatment waiting times to report performance against the right that patients have to start consultant-led treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks from referral for non-urgent conditions. These data show that average median waiting times for patients on a waiting list to start trauma and orthopaedic treatment in admitted patient or outpatient settings were 7.4 weeks at the end of December 2015 and 8.1 weeks at the end of December 2016.
Maintaining waiting time performance is a key objective in the Government’s Mandate to NHS England for 2016-17. Both NHS England and NHS Improvement are providing support and challenge to National Health Service commissioners and providers to reduce waiting times for hospital treatment.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much of the NHS budget was spent on commissioning private providers in each of the last five years.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The requested information is supplied in the following table:
| 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 |
| £ million | £ million | £ million | £ million | £ million |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total commissioner spend on independent sector | 5,320 | 5,669 | 6,467 | 8,067 | 8,722 |
Total National Health Service revenue expenditure | 100,266 | 102,570 | 106,495 | 110,554 | 114,730 |
Spend on independent sector as a percentage of total NHS revenue spend | 5.3% | 5.5% | 6.1% | 7.3% | 7.6% |
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of leaving the European Atomic Energy Community on projects that require the co-operation of American nuclear energy companies.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Withdrawal from the Euratom Treaty will not diminish the UK's nuclear ambitions for its new build nuclear programme, and the Government remains committed to delivering a world leading nuclear programme in close collaboration with international counterparts, including the USA.
Non EU countries that have a relationship with Euratom do so mainly through international nuclear cooperation agreements (NCA) with the Euratom Community. These provide frameworks for cooperation in the civil nuclear sector, but are not an absolute requirement for trade in civil nuclear material or goods with every country, and in many cases trade continues without being covered by an NCA.
We will maintain continuity of cooperation and develop new arrangements as necessary.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make provisions to allow military personnel who have served in Northern Ireland as part of Operation Helvetic to receive operational service medals, where merited.
Answered by Mike Penning
There are currently in excess of 4,000 UK Service personnel deployed on operations throughout the world. Each of these operations is kept under constant review and when appropriate, a recommendation for medallic recognition is made to the Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals for their consideration.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what plans he has to negotiate visa-free travel for British citizens in the EU as a part of negotiations for the UK to exit the EU.
Answered by Robin Walker
The UK’s post-exit immigration framework is yet to be determined.
At every step of these negotiations we will work to ensure the best possible outcome for the British people.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of leaving the European Atomic Energy Community on the construction of Hinkley Point C.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Maintaining the UK’s ability to trade in nuclear materials and equipment will be a key objective in negotiations to allow the uninterrupted progress of the UK’s nuclear programme, which includes the construction of Hinkley Point C. Those negotiations have not yet started, but officials and Ministers are in regular contact with industry stakeholders and will continue to work closely with them as the negotiations progress.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve access to bus services for people who are visually impaired.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations 2000 (PSVAR) have achieved a step-change in the accessibility of local bus services, including for visually impaired people who benefit from the priority seating, colour-contrasting step edges and hand-holds that it requires. Around 94% of buses in England now comply with the requirements of the PSVAR.
The Bus Services Bill, which is currently before Parliament, includes powers to introduce an Accessible Information Requirement, for local buses throughout Great Britain to provide audible and visible next stop announcements.
I am also preparing to launch a consultation on the Accessibility Action Plan (AAP) which is a cross modal plan to build on our social inclusion agenda by reducing barriers to disabled people accessing transport services.