Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish details of any contracts made with private healthcare providers for the provision of NHS funded acute care.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS England will ensure that details of the contracts it has entered into under the 2020 Directions are published online on the GOV.UK website, in accordance with regulation 4(1) of The National Health Service (Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition) (No. 2) Regulations 2013.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the capability, and (2) the capacity, of the private acute healthcare sector to assist in the reduction of waiting times for elective surgery.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the independent sector on a national basis to increase capacity and resource within the National Health Service, adding around 8,000 beds and 20,000 clinical staff.
On 29 April 2020, NHS England and NHS Improvement wrote to the NHS setting out the second phase of the NHS response to COVID-19. The NHS has been asked to make full use of all contracted independent sector hospital and diagnostic capacity in restarting routine elective treatment, prioritising long waiters first. A copy of the letter from NHS England and NHS Improvement to the NHS is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment was made of the options for developing contact tracing applications.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We engaged with a number of companies and methodologies.
Pivotal quickly proved their suitability, and given the extreme urgency, we made a direct award as permitted under Regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
Pivotal were recommended to us as a company who were on an existing framework, and who had experience of working with Government. Over two days, we looked across a network of suppliers who had existing contracts with the Government and had done work with the National Cyber Security Centre or other security agencies, and so could be relied on to provide highly secure and privacy-focused products.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what procurement process was followed in order to procure and develop the contact tracing application.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We engaged with a number of companies and methodologies.
Pivotal quickly proved their suitability, and given the extreme urgency, we made a direct award as permitted under Regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
Pivotal were recommended to us as a company who were on an existing framework, and who had experience of working with Government. Over two days, we looked across a network of suppliers who had existing contracts with the Government and had done work with the National Cyber Security Centre or other security agencies, and so could be relied on to provide highly secure and privacy-focused products.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to publish a national dementia strategy for beyond 2020; and if so, when.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
We expect to publish a new dementia strategy for England for the period 2020 to 2025 early next year.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards meeting the aims of the Prime Minister’s challenge on dementia.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
We have committed to implement fully the Government’s Challenge on Dementia 2020 strategy to make this country the best place in the world to live with dementia.
Our recent review of progress tells us we are largely on track to meet our commitments to improve the lives of those living with dementia, their families and carers. The Dementia 2020 Challenge: 2018 Review Phase 1 report is attached.
Examples of progress we have made so far with our delivery partners include more than two thirds of people with dementia receiving a diagnosis, over 2.8 million people becoming Dementia Friends and 365 areas in England committing to being Dementia Friendly Communities. In the £250 million Dementia Discovery Fund we have the largest venture fund in the world aimed at discovering and developing novel pre-clinical therapies for dementia.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support work to assist highly vulnerable people with dementia living in rural areas; and what assessment they have made of such work, including that of the Rural Dementia Friendly Task and Finish Group.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Improving the skills and dementia awareness of homecare staff can have a big impact on supporting people with dementia in rural areas; over 100,000 social care workers have received some form of dementia awareness training and this is continuing as part of the national implementation of the Care Certificate. By 2020, we expect social care providers to provide appropriate training on dementia to all other relevant staff.
The Department works closely with Alzheimer’s Society including through their Rural Dementia Friendly Task and Finish Group, and in establishing Dementia Friendly communities. The challenges of supporting people living in rural areas are raised frequently. The issues are kept under review by the sector partners of the Dementia Programme Board.
Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will intervene and ask the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to work with the pharmaceutical company, Roche, to reassess its provisional decision not to recommend the advanced breast cancer drug Kadcyla for routine use on the NHS.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that provides guidance on the prevention and treatment of ill health and the promotion of good health and social care. NICE operates with great transparency and makes exhaustive efforts to involve stakeholders, including manufacturers, in its appraisal work.
NICE is currently appraising trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) for the treatment of HER2-positive unresectable locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer after treatment with trastuzumab and a taxane. NICE’s final guidance to the National Health Service on whether the drug should continue to be routinely available on the NHS is expected in March 2017.
It would not be appropriate for Ministers or officials to intervene in this independent process.