Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the typical monthly salary of an ambulance crew member working in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following last year’s pay award, average basic pay per person for professionally qualified ambulance staff has increased to around £34,300 from around £33,000. On average, ambulance staff have additional earnings worth around 37% of basic pay, covering unsocial hours, geographical supplements and overtime. Following the 2022/23 pay award this will take total earnings to around £47,000 per year.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, for the now-closed hospital at Broadmoor; and where the former patients are now held.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Broadmoor Hospital is owned by West London NHS Trust. In December 2019, the Broadmoor Hospital moved from the predominantly Victorian buildings, which were no longer compatible with modern clinical standards, into a state-of-the-art facility. This provides purpose built accommodation to ensure a safe, therapeutic environment for the care, treatment and rehabilitation of patients who need high-secure psychiatric care. All the former patients have been moved this new facility on the same site.
The Department encourages the National Health Service to sell land when it is not in use and the NHS locally deem it no longer needed for clinical purposes. Broadmoor Hospital was declared surplus in April 2012 and is recorded in the NHS Surplus Land annual collection. The surplus land area is 16.86 hectares containing listed buildings and is expected to be disposed of in April 2022.
The Trust is looking to dispose the former hospital in a sensitive way that accounts for the complex planning and environmental aspects of the site, in line with official NHS guidance.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are their plans for the future of Charing Cross Hospital in west London.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Any possible significant change to services is a matter for the local National Health Service. It is right that these decisions are led by local clinicians, who best understand the healthcare needs of their local populations, and in consultation with local people
The North West London (NWL) Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) was published on 10 November 2016. A core component of the NWL STP is a programme called Shaping a Healthier Future (SaHF). The SaHF proposals underwent full public consultation in 2012. This included proposals for changes to accident and emergency (A&E) services at Charing Cross Hospital which is run by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (ICHT).
ICHT will not make any changes to the A&E department at Charing Cross Hospital during the current Comprehensive Spending Review period, which lasts until 2021.
The Trust invested £8 million in Charing Cross last year, to refurbish urgent and emergency care wards, theatres, outpatient clinics and lifts and to create a patient service centre and the main new facility for North West London Pathology.
Works commenced in January 2018 on the Charing Cross site which will expand the space available for mental health and ambulatory patients.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they propose any additional financial support to general practitioner practices in rural areas.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Carr-Hill resource allocation formula is used to calculate the global sum, which is the basic payment made to all GP practices. This is based on the practice population and is weighted for factors that influence relative needs and costs.
These factors include rurality, which is measured by the average distance patients have to travel to a practice and the population density of the area from which a practice draws its patients.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether there exists a standard contract for general practitioners working within the National Health Service; and if so, whether they will place a copy of that contract in the Library of the House.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
NHS England has responsibility for commissioning National Health Service primary medical services.
NHS England has an NHS England Standard General Medical Services contract, which covers around half the GP practices. A copy of the contract is available at:
www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/commissioning/gp-contract/
NHS England also intend to provide a standard Personal Medical Services contract.
Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the present arrangements for the protection of patients' private medical information by general practitioners.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
General practitioner (GP) practices are individually responsible for ensuring that they comply with legal and ethical requirements and central guidance in relation to data protection and patient confidentiality. A majority of GP practices in England provide assurance that they do so by completing annual assessments of their compliance against information governance requirements through the National Health Service Information Governance Toolkit, and the results of these assessments are publicly available.Asked by: Lord Trefgarne (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the rules relating to the release of patients' private medical information to insurance companies by general practitioners.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
General practitioners (GPs) must ensure that patients have provided explicit consent before disclosing information to insurance companies. Additionally, under the provisions of the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988, patients have the right to view medical reports prepared for insurance companies and, where a patient has exercised this right, a GP cannot disclose the report to the insurance company until the patient has had the opportunity to review it or if the patient withdraws their consent.