Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's policy is on the establishment of health and wellbeing hubs in former community hospitals.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Community health services play a crucial role in preventing admissions, supporting safe transfers of care and reducing pressure on general practitioners. We know that patients prefer to be treated closer to home when they can be; and doing so prevents hospital admissions. Health and wellbeing hubs provide services which focus on areas such as health promotion and offer support within a person’s local community to meet their wider health and care needs. They are one of the models that we are using to keep people well and as close to home as possible.
As population needs vary across the country and are influenced by a variety of demographic factors, transformation and service redesign is rightly being led by local areas. It is for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to decide on how to use their assets (including their estates) and structure the provision of health and care services in a way that is most appropriate for their local community. For some areas this will mean the introduction of health and wellbeing hubs, as seen in East Devon, whilst the structure may look slightly different in others. The underlying principle is that CCGs have the flexibility and independence to make that decision, and this is the approach the Department takes.
Asked by: Lord Swire (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 his Department is taking to encourage NHS England to develop specialist services for Lyme disease patients.
Answered by Steve Brine
Lyme disease is a bacterial infection and most people recover completely with prompt antibiotic treatment that reduces the risk of further symptoms developing and increases the chance of complete recovery. NHS England specialised services are not the responsible commissioner for treatment of Lyme disease: Lyme disease is diagnosed and treated in primary care or in clinical commissioning groups’ infectious diseases hospital services according to the Prescribed Services Manual.
The Department has funded four independent systematic reviews, published at the end of 2017, to further strengthen the evidence base for epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of Lyme disease. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recently published its clinical guideline on Lyme disease, which provides the latest information for clinicians in diagnosing and managing Lyme disease. The guideline aims to raise awareness of when Lyme disease should be considered and to ensure that people have prompt and consistent diagnosis and treatment.
Asked by: Lord Swire (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 his Department is taking to fund research into improving the diagnostics for Lyme disease.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The diagnostic tests used in the United Kingdom meet international best practice, and accord with the forthcoming National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on best practice for the diagnosis of Lyme disease.
The Department funds health and care research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is funding research into Lyme disease diagnostics through the NIHR Health Protection Research Units.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP fit note episodes there were for mental and behavioural disorders in the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group in the last two years.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS Digital has begun publishing anonymised fit note data available at clinical commissioning group level. The data provides information on the volumes of fit notes issued, the split between unfit and maybe fit for work, duration, linked episodes of illness, gender and condition. No individual patients or general practitioner practices can be identified and data will be published every quarter.
We are committed to supporting the fit note’s intended purpose as an enabler for conversations about health and work, focussing individuals and their employers to think about what they can do rather than what they cannot.
The number of fit note episodes for mental and behavioural disorders in Northern, Eastern Western Devon over the last two years was 2,343 in 2015-16 and 3,122 in 2016-17.
The data is published by NHS Digital at:
http://digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB30068
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many fire fighters have developed cancer in the first 10 years after retirement since 1967.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Government does not collect or hold any data on firefighters developing cancer after retirement.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effects of high-cost and low-volume sugary drinks on levels of obesity.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
No assessment has been made specifically of the link between high-cost, low-volume sugary drinks and levels of obesity. However, in July 2015 the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) published its report on Carbohydrates and Health which considers the relationship between the intake of sugars-sweetened drinks and weight gain.
Evidence from randomised controlled trials conducted in children and adolescents indicate that consumption of sugars-sweetened drinks, compared with non-calorically sweetened drinks, results in greater weight gain and increases in body mass index. This finding suggests that there is inadequate reduction in energy from other foods or drinks to compensate for energy delivered as sugars.
SACN recommended that consumption of sugars-sweetened beverages should be minimised in children and adults.
The SACN report on Carbohydrates and Health is available to view here:
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how his Department plans to fund the proposed cap on residential care costs.
Answered by David Mowat
The Government remains committed to introducing a cap on care costs and extension of means tested support from April 2020.
The Spending Review 2015 set budgets for the next four years to 2019-20. The final year includes funding to cover the costs of local authorities preparing to implement the changes the following year. Decisions about the allocation of funding for these reforms will be confirmed nearer the time.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of community hospitals are in (a) Devon and (b) East Devon.
Answered by David Mowat
The Department does not hold the total number of community hospitals centrally.
However, there are currently 28 community hospitals across Devon, with four community hospitals in the East Devon constituency.