Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the mental health of prisoners.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently working across the entire criminal justice pathway to develop and improve services for offenders with mental health difficulties.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with partners to intervene at the earliest opportunity to ensure that offenders receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
Liaison and Diversion Services operate in police stations and courts to identify and assess people with vulnerabilities including mental health issues. Where that individual is subsequently sent to prison the receiving prison will have the relevant information of the individual’s mental health needs to inform the reception healthcare staff so that they can implement appropriate interventions as soon as possible after they arrive.
Health services are available across the estate where assessment identifies treatment needs.
The service specification for prison mental health services was reviewed in 2017-18. This review, led by clinicians in conjunction with stakeholders and informed by experts with experience, was published in March 2018, with all new services being commissioned against it from April 2018. The new specification includes the Royal College of Psychiatrists Quality Network for Prison Mental Health Services standards, ensuring equity of quality across the estate.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently consulting on revised Transfer and Remission guidance to ensure that new clinically developed timescales are set which ensure timely and appropriate access to mental health treatment in hospital when necessary, in a clinically safe and well managed way. The consultation ends on 19 July 2019.
The NHS Long Term Plan committed to a new service to support people leaving custody to remain engaged with community-based healthcare services. The reconnect service will support continuity of care when people return to the community.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the prison population with mental health problems.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
No estimate has been made of the proportion of the prison health population with mental health problems.
Currently a closed system is used to record clinical data in prisons. The Health and Justice Information Service system, being rolled out between 2018-20, will have the ability to share information with community healthcare services; this is integral to the collection of relevant data that is quality assured and robust.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure effective recruitment from EU and non-EU countries to meet demand for (a) NHS and (b) care workers after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Government recognises the need to be able to recruit effectively from abroad and the Immigration White Paper ‘The UK’s future skills-based immigration system’, published in December 2018, sets out the foundation for a single immigration system, where it is workers’ skills that matter, not where they come from.
This system will streamline the high-skilled visa route, by removing the Resident Labour Market Test and the Tier 2 Visa Cap. It will also include a new temporary immigration route for workers of all skill levels which will allow our social care sector to recruit care workers from abroad as we transition into the new system. The Home Office is undertaking a programme of engagement to discuss the proposed measures with colleagues across government and industry, to develop a future immigration system that works for the whole of the United Kingdom.
We also recognise the need to boost our domestic workforce as well. The NHS Long Term Plan sets out a vital strategic framework to ensure that, over the next ten years, the National Health Service will have the staff it needs so that nurses and doctors are working in a supportive culture that allows them to provide the expert compassionate care they are committed to providing.
Alongside this, the upcoming Social Care Green Paper will set out the Department’s proposals for reform of the sector to put it on a more sustainable future footing. This will include a vision for its workforce and proposals to boost recruitment and retention in the longer term.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer to Question 105278 on Lyme Disease: Vaccination, when he will publish the four systematic reviews commissioned by the Government into the evidence on Lyme Disease.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Department has commissioned four independent systematic reviews of all relevant literature on the diagnosis, treatment, transmission and prevention of Lyme disease.
The four systematic reviews have been completed and peer reviewed. The reviews were undertaken by the Evidence for Policy and Practice and Co-ordinating Centre and were published on its website on 21 December 2017. Patient advocacy groups involved in the review have been notified that these are in the public domain.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what medical evidence his Department has recently taken into account in its decision not to license nabiximols for use on the NHS.
Answered by Steve Brine
Nabiximols (Sativex) is licensed in the United Kingdom for the treatment of moderate to severe spasticity in multiple sclerosis. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) did not recommended nabiximols in its 2014 clinical guidelines as it is not a cost-effective treatment.
NICE develops authoritative, evidence-based guidance on best practice for the National Health Service. NICE operates with a high degree of independence from the Government and is responsible for the recommendations that it makes to the NHS. Its guidance is based on a thorough assessment of the available evidence and is developed through engagement with stakeholders.
However, where there is an absence of final guidance recommendations from NICE, decisions on the funding of a licensed treatment on the NHS are taken by the relevant clinician and commissioner (such as NHS England or individual clinical commissioning groups) based on the individual needs of the patient.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to work with local authorities in areas where the risk of Lyme disease is higher than average to reduce the incidence of the disease.
Answered by Steve Brine
The GOV.UK and NHS Choices websites have information for patients on the recognition of Lyme disease, tick awareness and the prevention of tick bites accessible at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/lyme-disease-guidance-data-and-analysis
and
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Lyme-disease/Pages/Introduction.aspx
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Clinical Knowledge summaries have information for clinicians available at:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/lyme-disease#!topicsummary
Public Health England (PHE) hold regular training days for general practitioners (GPs), and the charity Lyme Disease Action has public information on its website and a training module for GPs.
PHE run a tick surveillance system to identify tick distribution and areas where ticks are problems across England. PHE have been encouraging local authorities and park authorities to develop local public health material regarding tick risks and dealing with bites, and this has been taken up by some in high risk areas.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve public awareness and education on Lyme disease and its prevention.
Answered by Steve Brine
The GOV.UK and NHS Choices websites have information for patients on the recognition of Lyme disease, tick awareness and the prevention of tick bites accessible at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/lyme-disease-guidance-data-and-analysis
and
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Lyme-disease/Pages/Introduction.aspx
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Clinical Knowledge summaries have information for clinicians available at:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/lyme-disease#!topicsummary
Public Health England (PHE) hold regular training days for general practitioners (GPs), and the charity Lyme Disease Action has public information on its website and a training module for GPs.
PHE run a tick surveillance system to identify tick distribution and areas where ticks are problems across England. PHE have been encouraging local authorities and park authorities to develop local public health material regarding tick risks and dealing with bites, and this has been taken up by some in high risk areas.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to support the development of a vaccine against Lyme disease.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Government is not currently supporting the development of a Lyme disease vaccine. The Department funds health and care research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Any organisation that considers it can carry out high quality clinical, applied research can apply for funding from the NIHR.
The Department has commissioned an independent research team to undertake four systematic reviews to capture and synthesise United Kingdom and international evidence on Lyme disease in the following areas: epidemiology/routes of transmission of Lyme disease; diagnosis; treatment; and prevention. The reviews will be completed and published by the end of 2017.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ensure that patients of the specialised paediatric respiratory and paediatric cystic fibrosis services at the Royal Brompton Hospital will be fully consulted by the panel established to consider the potential effect of NHS England's congenital heart disease proposals on those services.
Answered by Philip Dunne
This is a matter for NHS England. No decision has been made to close the Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) service at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust.
NHS England has advised that they have performed impact assessments for all centres which would be impacted by its CHD service change proposals if implemented. We have been informed by NHS England that these initial assessments acknowledged that there would be an impact on paediatric respiratory and cystic fibrosis services at the Royal Brompton, if NHS England’s proposals were implemented.
NHS England has advised that a panel including respiratory clinicians and representatives from respiratory and cystic fibrosis patient and public groups has been created to assess the potential impact of its CHD service change proposals on the Royal Brompton’s paediatric respiratory services. This panel has arranged to visit the Royal Brompton in August and has requested to meet patients as a part of this.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the report to be produced by the independent consultants analysing the responses to the consultation by NHS England on the reconfiguration of congenital heart disease services will be made public at the same time it is sent to NHS England.
Answered by Philip Dunne
This is a matter for NHS England. No decisions have been made regarding NHS England’s Congenital Heart Disease service change proposals.
NHS England has advised that they intend to publish the independent report regarding the consultation responses in full, and they anticipate that the report will be published alongside the papers provided to the NHS England Board to enable it to reach its commissioning decisions.