Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to deliver ring-fenced funding of continence services under the NHS Long Term Plan; and what the timescale is for delivery of that funding.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Trusts, working with general practitioner practices, have been asked to ensure that every patient whose planned care has been disrupted by COVID-19 receives clear communication about how they will be looked after, and who to contact if their clinical circumstances change.
The focus is on accelerating the return of non-COVID-19 health services to near-normal levels, including making full use of available capacity between now and winter, whilst also preparing for winter demand pressures. This will be done alongside continued vigilance against further COVID-19 spikes locally and possibly nationally.
The National Bladder and Bowel Health Project are currently supporting a study to establish the impact of COVID-19 on continence services. There are no plans for ringfenced funding for continence services.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether continence services which have been reduced as a result of the covid-19 outbreak are planned to be reinstated.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Trusts, working with general practitioner practices, have been asked to ensure that every patient whose planned care has been disrupted by COVID-19 receives clear communication about how they will be looked after, and who to contact if their clinical circumstances change.
The focus is on accelerating the return of non-COVID-19 health services to near-normal levels, including making full use of available capacity between now and winter, whilst also preparing for winter demand pressures. This will be done alongside continued vigilance against further COVID-19 spikes locally and possibly nationally.
The National Bladder and Bowel Health Project are currently supporting a study to establish the impact of COVID-19 on continence services. There are no plans for ringfenced funding for continence services.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to incorporate the recommendations from the Excellence in Continence Care Guidelines into the work of the National Bladder and Bowel Health Project.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There are currently no plans to incorporate the recommendations from the Excellence in Continence Care Guidelines into the work of the National Bladder and Bowel Health Project (NBBP). The NBBP has a specific remit to look at clinical standards for bladder, bowel, paediatrics and stoma care pathways. It is anticipated that the NBBP will enhance the guidelines themselves as part of its remit to improve continence care across the whole public health and care system.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the National Bladder and Bowel Health Project plans to use the Excellence in Continence Care Guidelines to inform the development of clinical standards and pathways.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There are currently no plans to incorporate the recommendations from the Excellence in Continence Care Guidelines into the work of the National Bladder and Bowel Health Project (NBBP). The NBBP has a specific remit to look at clinical standards for bladder, bowel, paediatrics and stoma care pathways. It is anticipated that the NBBP will enhance the guidelines themselves as part of its remit to improve continence care across the whole public health and care system.
Asked by: Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what has been their involvement in Urology Awareness Month 2020; and what steps they are taking to raise awareness around urological health and diseases.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department recognises that The Urology Foundation has designated September 2020 as Urology Awareness Month.
To raise awareness of urological health and diseases, National Health Service trusts and commissioners are sharing patient stories and carrying out social media activity and webinars.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have established the National Bladder and Bowel Health Project to improve continence care across the whole public health and care system. It has also published ‘Excellence in Continence Care’ a practical guide for leaders and commissioners. This guidance is currently being updated and a revised version will be published in due course.
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, what steps his Department is taking to ensure good standards of urology care in the NHS.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England and NHS Improvement have established the National Bladder and Bowel Health Project to improve continence care across the whole public health and care system. It has also published ‘Excellence in Continence Care’ a practical guide for leaders and commissioners.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have published ‘Transforming elective care services Urology’ a handbook that describes what local health and care systems can do to improve urology elective care services and ensure that patients receive appropriate care.
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, what support his Department provides to people with an urology condition.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England and NHS Improvement have established the National Bladder and Bowel Health Project to improve continence care across the whole public health and care system. It has also published ‘Excellence in Continence Care’ a practical guide for leaders and commissioners.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have published ‘Transforming elective care services Urology’ a handbook that describes what local health and care systems can do to improve urology elective care services and ensure that patients receive appropriate care.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timeframe is for the proposed audit of continence services by the National Bowel and Bladder Health Project; and when the results of that audit will be published.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Bladder and Bowel Project Group will undertake an audit of clinical commissioning groups across all regions in England to assess the commissioning of continence services later this year. A more specific timeframe has not been set at this stage.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the availability of paediatric continence services for children throughout (a) England, (b) the North East and (c) Sunderland.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Continence services are commissioned locally by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). Later this year the National Bladder and Bowel Project Group will undertake an audit of CCGs across all regions in England to assess the commissioning of continence services.
Sunderland CCG is working with providers to improve the pathway in the local area, where continence services are currently provided by:
- South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (commissioned by Sunderland CCG), which provides a bladder and bowel service for both adults and children. This includes the provision of products using a locally agreed policy; and
- Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust (commissioned by Sunderland City Council), which provides the 0-19 service and support services including level 1 continence support for nocturnal enuresis, constipation and toilet training and initiating first line treatments.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the (a) names and (b) positions of the members of the Excellence in Continence Care Board; and if he will make a statement on the remit of that Board.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Chair of the Excellence in Continence Care Programme Board is Sue Doheny, Regional Chief Nurse, NHS England and NHS Improvement (South West). The board comprises representatives from the Royal College of Nursing and the NHS Supply Chain. It also contains patient advocates, relevant charitable organisations, lead nurses in the respective field and consultant urologists. We are unable to name individual board members due to data protection reasons.
The remit of the board is to oversee the development of evidence-based and patient-focussed care pathways and Commissioning Framework, provide leadership and direction, raise the profile of bladder and bowel health nationally, and provide oversight of the National Bowel and Bladder Health Project.