Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that best practice in palliative and end of life care is shared across the NHS.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that access to high-quality palliative and end of life care can make all the difference to individuals and their loved ones. NHS England meets regularly with regional and system leaders, providing a forum for the sharing of best practice. In addition, there is a palliative and end of life care workspace available on the FutureNHS Collaborative Platform, which includes a range of resources, case studies, and discussion fora, with access to the platform available for anyone with a NHS.net email account.
NHS England has developed a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of their local population, enabling integrated care boards (ICBs) to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities, and ensure that funding is distributed fairly, based on prevalence.
As of April 2024, NHS England is including palliative and end of life care in the list of topics for regular performance discussions between national and regional leads. These meetings will provide an additional mechanism for supporting ICBs to continue improving palliative and end of life care for their local population.
The Ambitions Framework, refreshed by the National Palliative and End of Life Care Partnership, which is made up of NHS England and 34 partner organisations with experience of, and responsibility for, end of life care, sets out the vision to improve end of life care through partnership and collaborative action between organisations at local level throughout England, by setting out six key ambitions.
Furthermore, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance and quality standards on end of life care for adults, and children and young people. These are based on best practice in developing and delivering care and, while not statutory, there is an expectation that commissioners and service providers take the guidelines into account when making decisions about how to best meet the needs of their local communities.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress she has made on increasing the number of medical student places; and whether she expects to meet the commitment to double the number of medical school places by 2031.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the availability of treatment for glioma on the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England plans to provide dendric cell therapy for glioma.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of the impact of rural pharmacy closures on access to primary care.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the statutory duty of every local authority in England to undertake pharmaceutical needs assessments for their areas including those that are rural in nature, every three years, to ensure provision continues to meet their population’s needs. Integrated care boards have regard to those assessments when commissioning services and where a pharmacy closure impacts on the access to services, a new contractor can apply to open a pharmacy in the area.
Patients who struggle to access pharmacy premises can access pharmacy services remotely through any of the over 400 online pharmacies that are contractually required to deliver medicines free of charge. Alternatively, in some rural areas, doctors are permitted to dispense medication to patients.
The Pharmacy Access scheme provides additional funding to pharmacies in the areas where there are fewer pharmacies.
Asked by: Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to direct NHS England to withdraw Annex B of its guidance Delivering same-sex accommodation, published in September 2019.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is updating their Delivering Same-Sex Accommodation guidance, and a revised version will be published in due course. It is imperative that National Health Service trusts respect the privacy and dignity of patients. The Government has been clear that patients should not have to share sleeping accommodation with others of the opposite sex, and should have access to segregated bathroom and toilet facilities.
As previously announced, proposals to protect the privacy, dignity, and safety of patients will be brought forward soon as part of the review of the NHS Constitution and its handbook. Any measures consulted on will be in line with the Equality Act 2010, respecting the rights of all patients in hospital settings.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department (a) has taken and (b) plans to take steps to (a) monitor the incidence of depression among stroke survivors and (b) improve interventions to enhance (i) aftercare and (ii) quality of life for those people.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Depression affects approximately one third of people with stroke, and stroke services in the National Health Service are very aware of the impact this can have on the quality of life and level of independence of people who experienced a stroke, and the importance of understanding through measurement which people are affected, to support appropriate management.
The National Clinical Guideline for Stroke 2023 recommends that people with stroke should be routinely screened for anxiety and depression using standardised tools, the results of which should be used alongside other sources of information to inform clinical formulation of treatment and support needs.
The latest published Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) data, from October to December 2023, showed that 92.4% of stroke patients were screened for mood disturbances, including depression, in hospital. 75% of stroke patients who were followed up at six months post stroke also had a mood screen, with 53% of patients receiving the psychological support needed.
NHS England is driving implementation of the National Service Model for an Integrated Community Stroke Service (ICSS) with a number of specific projects aimed at improving delivery of psychological rehabilitation. The ICSS model is vital to support psychological recovery, return to work, and improved quality of life. From July 2024, the SSNAP will record the amount of psychological rehabilitation provided to patients, and measure changes in quality of life over time.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department has spent on contracts with NEC Software Solutions for centralising existing clinical registries.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The current contract with NEC Software Solutions for centralising the Medical Device Outcome Registry, National Joint Registry, and National Vascular Registry is £969,544. Further information is available at the GOV.UK contracts finder, at the following link:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/bb2b90d1-c52c-4388-9159-7e8b8dce3c32
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to research by Christine Camacho and Luke Munford at the University of Manchester showing that deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide are higher in northern and coastal local authorities, what steps they are taking to address that regional inequality.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper sets out the Government’s ambition to improve living standards and wellbeing across the UK, invest in communities, and improve public services. It sets mutually reinforcing levelling up missions to focus Government action, including a health mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030, and increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.
The Government has published a 10-year drug strategy and is investing an extra £532 million between 2022/23 to 2024/25 to improve drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services. This funding is being used by local authorities to create places for an additional 54,500 people in drug and alcohol treatment services and bolster the workforce, seeking to prevent nearly 1,000 deaths. This funding is being targeted to areas of highest need first.
The Department is increasingly focusing on supporting local areas, including better meeting the needs of vulnerable groups. Current work includes: providing targeted support to local areas; enhancing data tools to better inform local needs assessments; supporting workforce development; implementation of the commissioning quality standard; and sharing good practice. Implementation support will adapt over the course of the 10-year strategy in response to need, to ensure we reach the drug strategy goals.
We also published our new Suicide Prevention Strategy for England in September 2023, setting out the actions we will take to save lives and reduce suicides within the next few years, and have set out our intention in the strategy to write guidance for local areas to support them in aligning their own strategies with the national strategy. We have also established a £10 million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund to run from 2023 to March 2025, and on 4 March 2024 we announced the 79 organisations across the country that have been allocated funding. We have also launched a new nationwide, near real-time suspected suicide surveillance system, that will improve the early detection of, and timely action to, address changes in suicide rates or trends.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to research by Christine Camacho and Luke Munford at the University of Manchester, what steps they are taking to reduce regional inequalities in what those researchers refer to as "Deaths of Despair".
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper sets out the Government’s ambition to improve living standards and wellbeing across the UK, invest in communities, and improve public services. It sets mutually reinforcing levelling up missions to focus Government action, including a health mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030, and increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.
The Government has published a 10-year drug strategy and is investing an extra £532 million between 2022/23 to 2024/25 to improve drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services. This funding is being used by local authorities to create places for an additional 54,500 people in drug and alcohol treatment services and bolster the workforce, seeking to prevent nearly 1,000 deaths. This funding is being targeted to areas of highest need first.
The Department is increasingly focusing on supporting local areas, including better meeting the needs of vulnerable groups. Current work includes: providing targeted support to local areas; enhancing data tools to better inform local needs assessments; supporting workforce development; implementation of the commissioning quality standard; and sharing good practice. Implementation support will adapt over the course of the 10-year strategy in response to need, to ensure we reach the drug strategy goals.
We also published our new Suicide Prevention Strategy for England in September 2023, setting out the actions we will take to save lives and reduce suicides within the next few years, and have set out our intention in the strategy to write guidance for local areas to support them in aligning their own strategies with the national strategy. We have also established a £10 million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund to run from 2023 to March 2025, and on 4 March 2024 we announced the 79 organisations across the country that have been allocated funding. We have also launched a new nationwide, near real-time suspected suicide surveillance system, that will improve the early detection of, and timely action to, address changes in suicide rates or trends.