Asked by: Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the care needs of the increasing number of older prisoners held in high security facilities.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
NHS England is responsible for commissioning physical and mental health care in the high security hospitals in England.
The hospitals provide a range of services tailored towards an individual patient’s needs, which includes the care needs of older patients. Each patient has an individualised care plan which includes consideration of age and physical care needs. Occupational therapists lead on the assessment of physical disability and on addressing issues with appropriate aids and adaptations to suit the specific needs of each patient.
Asked by: Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the lack of secure NHS facilities for offenders who are suffering from mental illness.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
We recognise that there are high numbers of people in prison with mental ill health, and it is essential that they are treated in the most appropriate environment for their needs.
Whilst some prisoners may be mentally unwell, and despite sometimes complex emotional and behavioural needs, it may not be clinically appropriate for them to be transferred to a mental health inpatient bed. There may be other services more appropriate to their needs that can be delivered outside inpatient mental health facilities.
However, work is underway to improve mental health services for offenders. NHS England is focussing on an offender mental health pathway which will ensure that offenders are directed to the most appropriate intervention to their needs at the right time in the criminal justice system.
NHS England is carrying out a service review across all adult high, medium and low secure services. The service review is considering a number of issues including the future demand and capacity required against a number of criteria, levels of security, gender, service type and geographical location. A detailed understanding of difficulties in the system in relation to remissions from hospital to prison is being considered so that access, egress and throughput are all improved. This is vital to ensuring that the appropriate capacity is planned for the future.
New service specifications have been published for both low and medium secure hospitals as well as prison mental health services. The Prison Mental Health Specification embeds the Quality Standards for Prison Mental Health Services developed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists to ensure high quality care for all. Draft Guidance for Timely and Appropriate Transfers and Remissions of care to and from a mental health hospital is currently in production.
Asked by: Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to address alcoholism in North Tyneside, where the number of emergency readmissions of patients treated for alcohol problems is 54 per cent higher than the expected rate for England as a whole.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
There are a number of plans to address the harm caused by alcohol in North Tyneside, including reducing the number of emergency readmissions of patients treated in hospital for alcohol problems.
These plans include:
- a dedicated local authority alcohol strategy group to coordinate the actions needed to support improvements on a range of alcohol-related outcomes;
- supporting family members to respond to change resistant drinkers through Alcohol Concern’s national initiative the Blue Light family project;
- implementing an evidence-based system improvement tool (CLeaR) to help prevent and reduce alcohol-related harm at a local level; and
- implementing the National Health Service commissioning for quality and innovation programme to identify and support inpatients who are increasing or higher risk drinkers and incentivising the delivery of appropriate interventions, such as onward referral to treatment.
Asked by: Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following reports that £162 million has been cut from drug and alcohol treatment budgets in England since 2013–14, what plans they have made to ensure effective treatment and care is provided for people affected by alcoholism and other addictions.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government has committed £16 billion in funding to local councils over the current five year spending review period to tackle public health issues which includes alcohol and drug treatments. Any decisions on the commissioning of effective drug and alcohol prevention and treatment services are the responsibility of local authorities based on an assessment of local need, however public health grant conditions make it clear that they must have regard for the need to improve the take up of, and outcomes from, their drug and alcohol misuse treatment services.
Asked by: Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have made to ensure that effective healthcare is available in Northumberland following the closure of Rothbury Community Hospital’s in-patient ward.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
These are matters for the local National Health Service. We understand the decision was taken by NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group and the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in light of the continued extremely low use of the ward. As the suspension is a temporary measure, public consultation is not required.