Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the annual cost to the NHS of dispensed but unused prescription drugs.
Answered by David Mowat
Information is not held centrally on the annual cost or amount of dispensed but unused prescription drugs in the National Health Service.
The Department commissioned the York Health Economics Consortium and the School of Pharmacy at the University of London to carry out research to determine the scale, causes and costs of waste medicines in England. The report, Evaluation of the Scale, Causes and Costs of Waste Medicines, was published on 23 November 2010. This found that the gross cost of unused prescription medicines in primary and community care in the NHS in England in 2009 was £300 million a year and that up to £150 million of this was avoidable.
NHS England is currently working with the Department and the NHS Business Services Authority to consider how value can best be obtained from the use of medicines, both in terms of patient outcomes and financial implications. This work, along with the medicines optimisation programme, will help ensure best value for both taxpayers and patients.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost to the public purse is of provision of the National Diet and Nutrition Survey; and for what reasons an updated survey has not been published since 2012.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The total cost of the current contract for the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS), covering four years of fieldwork from 2013/14 to 2016/17 and including analysis and reporting, is £15.4 million.
The most recent NDNS report, covering diet, nutrient intake and nutritional status in United Kingdom adults and children, was published in May 2014. This report was based on data collected under the previous contract for NDNS covering fieldwork from 2008/09 to 2011/12.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2016 to Question 32013, what sanctions will apply to NHS maternity units which do not reduce their rates of stillbirth and neo-natal death.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The mandate to NHS England includes a goal and deliverable for measurable progress towards reducing the rate of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries that are caused during or soon after birth by 50% by 2030 with a measurable reduction by 2020.
The mandate also has a deliverable for in 2016/17 to implement agreed recommendations of the National Maternity Review in relation to safety, and support progress on delivering Sign up to Safety. On 7 March we launched ‘Spotlight on Maternity’ as part of ‘Spotlight on Safety’ and asked all trusts with maternity services to commit publically to placing a spotlight on maternity and to contributing towards achieving the Government’s national ambition.
The Department holds NHS England to account for progress against the mandate, which will include progress against the deliverable and goal above. It would be for commissioners (NHS England or clinical commissioning groups) to design contracts to incentivise providers to reduce their rates of stillbirth and neonatal death, and NHS Improvement may look at these rates as part of regulating providers.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to ensure that NHS maternity units improve their safety records.
Answered by Ben Gummer
In November 2015 the Government announced a national ambition to halve by 2030 the rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries occurring during or soon after birth.
To support the National Health Service in achieving this ambition more than 90 trusts have received additional funding as part of a £2.24 million fund to spend on equipment to improve safety, over £1 million to roll out training programmes to make sure staff have the skills and confidence they need to deliver world-leading safe care, and £500,000 to develop, a new online system that can be used consistently across the NHS to enable staff to review and learn from every stillbirth and neonatal death.
The announcement also committed to publishing an annual report to update the public, health professionals, providers and commissioners on the progress we are making towards achieving the ambition. We also welcome the publication of the NHS England Independent Review of Maternity Services. The recommendations will have an important role in shaping the system to drive ambitious improvements in quality and safety.
On 7 March we launched Sign up to Safety - ‘Spotlight on Maternity,’ a guidance document that asks all trusts with maternity services to commit publically to placing a spotlight on maternity and to contributing towards achieving the Government’s national ambition.
Asked by: Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will bring forward proposals to require all owners and managers of care homes to give a copy of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 to care workers on appointment.
Answered by Ben Gummer
There are no plans to require care homes owners and managers to give a copy of Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 to all new employees.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. It monitors, inspects and regulates services against fundamental standards of quality and safety below which care should never fall.
One of the fundamental standards covers good governance and requires that a provider seeks and acts on feedback from relevant persons, including staff, for the purpose of continually evaluating and improving such services. A further fundamental standard requires that employees receive appropriate support, training and professional development.
One of the areas the CQC inspections consider is how the service demonstrates good management and leadership. The CQC Key Lines of Enquiry state that a provider should have policies in place to investigate whistleblowing concerns and that any investigations are thorough, questioning and objective. The service should also record and learn from these investigations so such incidents are less likely to happen again.