Asked by: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of NHS clinical staff work part-time.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The proportion of National Health Service clinical staff who work part-time is in the attached table. The figures are taken from the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s monthly workforce statistics and cover staff working in NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups.
The number of NHS clinical staff who work part-time and are additionally registered as agency staff is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his Answer of 27 November to Question 215754, what main concerns have been raised by stakeholders in renal services at the recent meeting with the head of the Specialised Services Task Force in NHS England; and what steps he is taking in response to such concerns.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Concerns raised by stakeholders in the meeting hosted by the head of the Specialised Services Task Force in NHS England included: the status of service specifications and clinical policies, mandatory hospital data collection requirements, clinical commissioning group (CCG) understanding of renal dialysis and a potential fragmentation of the renal transplant pathway.
NHS England has recently established a Task & Finish group through the NHS Commissioning Assembly. This group comprises representatives from CCGs and NHS England, and will oversee the development and delivery of proposals for commissioning of specialised services in 2015-16 and beyond.
Within this Task & Finish group, a sub-group will be responsible for planning and managing the transition process for services that are being transferred from national to CCG commissioning (including renal dialysis) from 1 April 2015.
On 27 November 2014, the Department issued a public consultation on the arrangements for the transfer of commissioning responsibility from NHS England to CCGs for renal dialysis and morbid obesity surgery services.
The consultation seeks views on what type of support CCGs will need from NHS England to be able to commission renal dialysis and morbid obesity surgery services effectively and whether, if all this support can be put in place, the timing of the transfer is right.
The results of the consultation will be used to inform the decisions on when and how to transfer the commissioning responsibility for renal dialysis and morbid obesity surgery services to CCGs, and the work of the NHS England Task & Finish group. The consultation will close on 9 January 2015.
NHS England is committed to issuing commissioning guidance for the safe transfer of renal dialysis services from national NHS England responsibility to local CCG responsibility.
Asked by: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2014 to Question 215754, what consideration the new Task and Finish group will give to the commissioning of kidney services; and when he expects the advisory group to report on what support clinical commissiong groups will require to take on commissioning of dialysis.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England has recently established a Task and Finish group through the NHS Commissioning Assembly. This group comprises representatives from clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and NHS England, and will oversee the development and delivery of proposals for commissioning of specialised services in 2015-16 and beyond.
Within this Task and Finish group, a sub-group will be responsible for planning and managing the transition process for services that are being transferred from national to CCG commissioning (including renal dialysis) from 1 April 2015.
On 27 November 2014, the Department has issued a public consultation on the arrangements for the transfer of commissioning responsibility from NHS England to CCGs for renal dialysis and morbid obesity surgery services.
The consultation seeks views on what type of support CCGs will need from NHS England to be able to commission renal dialysis and morbid obesity surgery services effectively and whether, if all this support can be put in place, the timing of the transfer is right.
The results of the consultation will be used to inform the decisions on when and how to transfer the commissioning responsibility for renal dialysis and morbid obesity surgery services to CCGs, and the work of the NHS England Task and Finish group. The consultation will close on 9 January 2015.
NHS England is committed to issuing commissioning guidance for the safe transfer of renal dialysis services from national NHS England responsibility to local CCG responsibility.
Asked by: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what quality and outcome measures NHS England plans to use to ensure maintenance of clinical quality and quality of service in the proposed transition from specialised to clinical commissioning groups commissioning for dialysis.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England has advised that they are in dialogue with key stakeholders about both the opportunities and challenges of transferring responsibility for renal services. The head of the Specialised Services Task Force in NHS England recently met stakeholders from renal service representative groups and heard their concerns directly.
The Department intends to launch a public consultation by the end of 2014 on the recommendations put forward by the independent clinically-led advisory group (Prescribed Specialised Services Advisory Group) to transfer commissioning responsibility for renal services from NHS England to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).
This public consultation will specifically be asking key stakeholders involved in the provision of renal dialysis what NHS England would need to do to ensure a safe transfer of commissioning responsibilities to CCGs. This consultation will also be asking stakeholders specifically whether the current proposed timescales for the transfer of services are feasible.
A new Task & Finish group is being established by NHS England through the NHS Commissioning Assembly. This group will look specifically at what support CCGs would require to be able to safely and effectively commission services devolved to them.
NHS England is committed to issuing commissioning guidance for the safe transfer of services from national NHS England responsibility to local CCG responsibility.
Asked by: Lord Evans of Rainow (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment NHS England has made of the level of need for specialist renal services to deal with the complications and emergencies associated with dialysis; and how such services will be commissioned from April 2015.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England has advised that they are in dialogue with key stakeholders about both the opportunities and challenges of transferring responsibility for renal services. The head of the Specialised Services Task Force in NHS England recently met stakeholders from renal service representative groups and heard their concerns directly.
The Department intends to launch a public consultation by the end of 2014 on the recommendations put forward by the independent clinically-led advisory group (Prescribed Specialised Services Advisory Group) to transfer commissioning responsibility for renal services from NHS England to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).
This public consultation will specifically be asking key stakeholders involved in the provision of renal dialysis what NHS England would need to do to ensure a safe transfer of commissioning responsibilities to CCGs. This consultation will also be asking stakeholders specifically whether the current proposed timescales for the transfer of services are feasible.
A new Task & Finish group is being established by NHS England through the NHS Commissioning Assembly. This group will look specifically at what support CCGs would require to be able to safely and effectively commission services devolved to them.
NHS England is committed to issuing commissioning guidance for the safe transfer of services from national NHS England responsibility to local CCG responsibility.