Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the current commissioning structure for women’s health services in England.
Answered by Lord Bethell
There are currently no plans to review the current commissioning structure for women’s health services. However, the Government is committed to supporting the National Health Service and local authorities to deliver joined-up care for women across the full range of health and care services.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to create women’s health hubs to prevent women and girls requiring multiple medical appointments to address different gynaecological and reproductive health needs.
Answered by Lord Bethell
There are currently no plans to create women’s health hubs. The Government is committed to supporting the National Health Service and local authorities to deliver joined-up care for women across the full range of health and care services.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the uptake of telemedicine as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; and what assessment they have made of the impact of any such uptake on women’s health services.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Online consultations are available in almost 6,000 practices, covering 90% of the population, an increase from about 40% of general practitioner (GP) practices in December 2019. About half a million online consultations between patients, GPs and general practice staff now happen every week, around 12 million in the last six months. Face-to-face appointments are available and routine screening services for cervical and breast cancer have re-started. Women are encouraged to attend screening appointments when invited to do so and to contact their GP if they have any unusual symptoms or concerns.
Three national evaluations are underway to evaluate the impact of online and video consultations, including assessment of the impact on people’s health.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much NHS England spent on the purchase of wheelchairs in England in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Information on the cost of operating wheelchair services in England is not available centrally. Such information as is available is from reference costs, which are the average unit costs to National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services to patients. The total cost of operating wheelchair services reported in 2014-15 reference costs was £143.4 million.
NHS England advises that as clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning wheelchair services, it does not collect data on how much is spent on the purchase of wheelchairs. NHS England is however supporting improvement in wheelchair services and has just established a new national data collection. This will enable tracking at local and national levels of issues such as the number of wheelchair users, the costs of services and the length of time people have to wait.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the cost of operating wheelchair services in England in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Information on the cost of operating wheelchair services in England is not available centrally. Such information as is available is from reference costs, which are the average unit costs to National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services to patients. The total cost of operating wheelchair services reported in 2014-15 reference costs was £143.4 million.
NHS England advises that as clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning wheelchair services, it does not collect data on how much is spent on the purchase of wheelchairs. NHS England is however supporting improvement in wheelchair services and has just established a new national data collection. This will enable tracking at local and national levels of issues such as the number of wheelchair users, the costs of services and the length of time people have to wait.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many of the responses received on the NHS mandate consultation asked for an improvement in wheelchair services.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
At least 170 responses were received that called for improvements to National Health Service wheelchair services. It should be noted that due to limitations in the analysis of large volumes of unstructured e-mail data received during the consultation it is possible that this is an under-estimate.