Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many medical staff, including nurses, doctors, physios and pharmacists, spend part of their week resolving problems or delays with homecare medicines services.

The Minister of State for Health and Secondary Care (Will Quince MP) has ministerial responsibility for the Homecare Medicine Delivery Service.

The National Homecare Medicines Committee (NHMC) regional lead members and NHS England’s Commercial Medicines Unit use and reference the Royal Pharmaceutical Society standards for homecare medicines service which are embedded into all framework agreement service specifications for the providers of this service.

In 2014 the Royal Pharmaceutical Society published the Handbook for Homecare Services in England to aid implementation of these standards. This identified examples of good practice and included Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for standards contained in Appendix 10 of the Handbook. A copy of the Handbook and Appendix 10 is attached.

The NHMC holds regular meetings with all homecare providers focused on KPIs. When the KPIs from individual contracts or reports from National Health Service hospitals indicate that service levels are not to the high standard expected, the NHMC can enact an Escalation Process under which the affected provider must engage with each NHS organisation and provide a summary of the issues, mitigations and expected timescales for recovery.

Information is not held by the Department or NHS England on the time taken by medical staff on resolving problems or delays concerning home care medicines services.