Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 ensure that patients with a high body mass index are able to access joint replacement surgery in line with NICE guidelines.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has made no specific assessment of this criterion alone.
As with all surgery, body mass index would be considered as part of a holistic, personalised, perioperative evaluation of the risks versus the clinical need for joint replacement surgery of an individual patient. However, body mass index should not be considered in isolation and in and of itself should not act as a barrier to surgery.
For example, blanket body mass index thresholds for surgery should not be in place or used as a means of determining eligibility for surgery.
As part of the NHS Elective Reform Plan there is a commitment to expand access to the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme for patients waiting for hip and knee surgery.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the use of body mass index criteria as a means to accessing treatment such as joint replacement surgery.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has made no specific assessment of this criterion alone.
As with all surgery, body mass index would be considered as part of a holistic, personalised, perioperative evaluation of the risks versus the clinical need for joint replacement surgery of an individual patient. However, body mass index should not be considered in isolation and in and of itself should not act as a barrier to surgery.
For example, blanket body mass index thresholds for surgery should not be in place or used as a means of determining eligibility for surgery.
As part of the NHS Elective Reform Plan there is a commitment to expand access to the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme for patients waiting for hip and knee surgery.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 ensure new Neighbourhood Health Services support people living with (a) arthritis and (b) other musculoskeletal conditions.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving health and work outcomes of people with arthritis and musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions will help deliver the Government’s missions to build a National Health Service fit for the future and kickstart economic growth.
The 10-Year Health plan sets out our vision for a neighbourhood health service. Neighbourhood teams will bring together professionals, including nurses, doctors, social care staff, pharmacists and health visitors, to provide comprehensive care that fits around people’s lives. Neighbourhood health approaches can help ensure that people with MSK conditions receive more personalised and coordinated support, reducing unnecessary hospital visits and enabling earlier, community-based interventions. We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations, and involve NHS, local authority and voluntary sector services.
People with MSK conditions will also soon be able to bypass their general practitioners (GPs) and directly access community services, including physiotherapy, pain management and orthopaedics, in the NHS App. The landmark change will deliver faster treatment for the flare up of existing conditions including arthritis, backpain and joint pain, while enabling GPs to focus on more complex cases, reducing pressure on hospitals and freeing up general practices.
We have launched the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme, which will support systems across the country by driving innovation and integration at a local level, to accelerate improvements in outcomes, satisfaction and experience for people by ensuring that care is more joined up, accessible and responsive to community needs.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the upcoming NHS Workforce plan will ensure recruitment and retention of the rheumatology workforce.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure that the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it. To support this, the Department and NHS England will be engaging with key stakeholders to ensure that the particular needs of different patient groups and relevant health professionals are reflected in this work.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to include people with arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions in the development of employment support programmes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Good work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. Backed by £240 million of investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched last November and will drive forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity and work toward the long-term ambition of an 80% employment rate.
Disabled people and people with health conditions are a diverse group, so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. The Government is committed to supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, including arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions, with their employment journey. We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work, including those that join up employment and health systems.
Measures include support from work coaches and disability employment advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as joining up health and employment support around the individual through employment advisors in NHS Talking Therapies, individual placement and support in primary care, and WorkWell.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 enable adults with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism living in in-patient units to live independently.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
We are taking action to support timely discharges of people with a learning disability and autistic people from mental health inpatient services, and to support them in leading ordinary lives in their communities. In January 2024, we published guidance which sets out key principles for how National Health Service bodies and local authorities should work together to support people to be discharged from mental health inpatient services.
To improve community support, in 2023/24 we invested an additional £121 million as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, including funding for children and young people’s keyworkers. The Building the Right Support Action Plan, published in July 2022, sets out cross-Government actions to strengthen community support and reduce reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
As set out in NHS England statutory guidance published on 9 May 2023, we expect integrated care boards to assign an executive lead role for learning disability and autism to a suitable board member. The named lead will support the board in planning to meet the needs of its local population of autistic people and people with a learning disability.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to provide housing for adults with (a) learning disabilities and (b) autism who are currently living in in-patient units so that they can live independently.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
On 26 January 2024, we published statutory guidance on discharge from mental health inpatient settings. This guidance sets out key principles for how National Health Service bodies and local authorities across adult and children’s services should work together to support people in being discharged from mental health inpatient services, including mental health inpatient services for people with a learning disability and for autistic people. This guidance states that strong links should be made with relevant community services prior to, and during, the person’s stay in hospital, and that this should include links in relation to meeting the person’s housing needs.
We continue to support the delivery of new supported housing by providing capital subsidies to providers, through the Care and Support Specialised Housing Fund and the Affordable Homes Programme in England.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is represented on the Building the Right Support Delivery Board. This cross-Government, cross-system board is responsible for driving progress on reducing the number of people with a learning disability and autistic people in mental health inpatient services.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate she has made of the number and proportion of NHS buildings that contain asbestos.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Individual National Health Service organisations are legally responsible for maintaining their estates. NHS England continues to work with trusts to ensure their estates are a safe environment for patients and staff. Where asbestos may pose a safety risk, such as when disturbed during building works, experts are brought in to safely dispose of it.
The Government allocated £4.2 billion capital this financial year for the National Health Service to support local priorities, including where appropriate removing asbestos from buildings.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
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 remove asbestos from NHS buildings.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Individual National Health Service organisations are legally responsible for maintaining their estates. NHS England continues to work with trusts to ensure their estates are a safe environment for patients and staff. Where asbestos may pose a safety risk, such as when disturbed during building works, experts are brought in to safely dispose of it.
The Government allocated £4.2 billion capital this financial year for the National Health Service to support local priorities, including where appropriate removing asbestos from buildings.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of removing free prescriptions on the health of (a) all benefit claimants and (b) benefit claimants with long-term health conditions.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
The Government’s policy remains that, where a benefit entitles a claimant to free prescriptions, the claimant must be in receipt of that benefit. For example, Universal Credit claimants must be in receipt of a positive award of Universal Credit and their earnings in their last assessment period must meet the income thresholds to entitle them to free prescriptions.
Not everyone who is subject to the new claim closure measure will lose access to free prescriptions. As always, if entitlement to other benefits is reliant solely on a Universal Credit claim to establish eligibility, that eligibility will cease if the claim is closed. Claimants who have more severe health conditions and vulnerabilities are excluded from conditionality, sanctions and claim closure.
There is a variety of exemption criteria beyond receiving Universal Credit which would qualify an individual for free prescriptions. As such, no assessment has been made of removing free prescriptions for all benefit claimants or benefits claimants with long-term health conditions. Around 89% of prescriptions are dispensed free of charge. Eligibility depends on the patient’s age, whether people are pregnant or have recently had a baby, whether they are in qualifying full-time education, get a war pension or have a qualifying medical condition.
People on a low income who do not qualify for an exemption from prescription charges can seek help under the NHS Low Income Scheme, which provides help with health costs on an income-related basis. For those who do not qualify for exemption, prescription prepayment certificates (PPCs) allow people to claim as many prescriptions as they need for a set cost. A three-monthly PPC or an annual PPC will save people money if they need four or more items in three months or 13 or more items in 12 months.