Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department are taking to reduce ambulance waiting times in (a) the West Midlands and (b) Birmingham, Erdington constituency.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services sets out the range of measures being taken to achieve our ambition of reducing average Category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes across 2024/25, including in the West Midlands and Birmingham. Information on the delivery plan is available at the following link:
Ambulance trusts received £200 million of additional funding in 2023/24, to increase deployed hours and reduce response times. We will maintain this additional capacity this year, alongside the 5,000 additional permanent hospital beds delivered last year to improve patient flow through hospitals, and reduce ambulance capacity lost to ambulance patient handover delays.
Since we published our plan, there have been significant improvements in ambulance response times, including in the West Midlands. In 2023/24, average Category 2 ambulance response times in the West Midlands were over twelve minutes faster compared to the previous year, a reduction of 25%.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2024 to Question 23378 on Ambulance Services: Databases, which directive issued under section 254 of the Health and Social Care 2012 Act NHS England is using to process de-identified data for use in the ambulance data services dashboard in the federated data platform product.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Federated Data Platform will bring together information on services, waiting times, equipment, and medicines, allowing the National Health Service to use data to improve outcomes for patients. The directions used to process de-identified data for use in the ambulance data services dashboard in the Federated Data Platform, is NHS England’s De-Identified Data Analytics and Publication Directions 2023, which is available at the following link:
These are directions given by my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to establish arrangements for the governance of the ongoing processing of de-identified data, and to act as a framework for the future analysis, linkage, and de-identification of data for analysis by NHS England. The Ambulance Data Services Dashboard in the Federated Data Platform also aligns to the Ambulance Data Set Directions 2022, which is available at the following link:
These are directions originally given by NHS England to NHS Digital, to establish and operate a system for the collection and analysis of nationally consistent operational and clinical data from all ambulance services in England.
The legal bases for these specific directions are s261(5)(d) and s13Z3 (e) and (f), of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Further information on the legal grounds for data processing in relation to the Ambulance Data Services Dashboard can be found in the privacy notice. This is available at the following link:
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 steps her Department is taking to help reduce waiting times in ambulance and emergency departments in Yorkshire.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services sets out the range of measures being taken to reduce ambulance and emergency department waiting times, including in Yorkshire.
Backed by £1 billion of dedicated funding, we delivered 5,000 additional core hospital beds in 2023/24 and will maintain this capacity expansion in 2024/25. Ambulance trusts received £200 million of additional funding in 2023/24 to increase deployed hours and reduce response times, which will also be maintained this year.
Since we published our plan there have been significant improvements in emergency care performance, including in Yorkshire. In 2023/24, average Category 2 ambulance response times in Yorkshire were over nine minutes faster compared to the previous year, a reduction of 23%, and performance against the four-hour standard for accident and emergency care improved in each integrated care board area in Yorkshire.
The NHS Planning Guidance, published in March, commits to further improvements in emergency care performance in 2024/25, with more information available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/operational-planning-and-contracting/
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her planned timescale is for ambulance service data to be active on the Federated Data Platform for use by participating hospital trusts.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Federated Data Platform will securely bring together information from hospital health records, waiting lists, and theatre and staff rosters, to better manage patient care. There is no planned timescale for ambulance service data to be used by trusts participating in local instances of the NHS Federated Data Platform, although this may be possible in the future.
The ambulance data will be used by NHS England to monitor ambulance activity, including response and handover times, to support improvement of patient safety and operational delivery. Trusts may have access to some ambulance service data through the dashboard, made available to authorised users via the national instance of the NHS Federated Data Platform. More information on this dashboard is available at the following link:
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of allowing paramedics to certify Med3 Fit Notes.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2023 we consulted on further extending certification to other healthcare professions, including paramedics. The Government continues to monitor fit note data following the 2022 legislative changes through analysis of internal quantitative data and commissioned external qualitative research but will not be further extending the professions which can certify fit notes at this time.
As part of our wider programme of fit note reform, we will consider how we can best draw on a wide range of professionals to support people to start, stay and succeed in work.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and The Weald)
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 reduce ambulance response times.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services sets out the range of measures being taken to achieve our ambition of reducing average Category 2 ambulance response times to 30 minutes, across 2024/25. Further information on the delivery plan is available at the following link:
Ambulance trusts received £200 million of additional funding in 2023/24 to increase deployed hours and reduce response times. We will maintain the improved ambulance service capacity from this additional funding in 2024/25, alongside the additional 5,000 permanent hospital beds delivered last year to improve patient flow through accident and emergency, and reduce ambulance capacity lost due to handover delays.
There have been significant improvements in performance across the country, with average Category 2 ambulance response times in 2023/24 over 13 minutes faster compared to the previous year, a reduction of over 27%.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will hold discussions with the Department of Health in Northern Ireland on ambulance response times in that region.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Departmental officials have regular discussions with Northern Ireland and other Devolved Governments on a range of issues, including urgent and emergency care services. There are, however, no specific discussions currently planned on ambulance response times in Northen Ireland.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England has issued a data privacy notice for ambulance services data to be part of the NHS Federated Data Platform product.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has published an Ambulance Data Service dashboard, Federated Data Platform product privacy notice, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the long-term impact of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 on the provision of (a) healthcare, (b) transport and (c) other public services.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Strikes Act ensures there is a balance between the ability to strike and ensuring the public can continue to access essential services during strike action. Impact assessments have been published for the Act, as well as subsequent regulations, including for passenger rail, ambulance services, fire and rescue services and border security.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with healthcare professionals on minimum service levels during strikes in the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the consultations on introducing minimum service levels in both ambulance and hospital services, the Department hosted workshops to which a wide range of representative groups were invited. This included employer and provider organisations, and unions representing healthcare professionals.