Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, in each of the past five years, of the economic costs of the effects of post-operative cancer treatments.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working jointly with NHS England and Cancer Alliances to ensure every person receives personalised care and support from cancer diagnosis onwards, including post-treatment. As outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan for cancer, where appropriate, every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information and support. After treatment, the person will move to a follow-up pathway that suits their needs, and ensures they can get rapid access to clinical support, where they are worried that their cancer may have recurred.
Post-operative cancer treatments encompass a wide variety of care, depending on the type and stage of cancer, the treatment the patient has had, and the patient’s needs. Follow-up care often includes regular check-ups, blood tests, scans, and procedures. It may also involve further treatments to deal with late and long-term side effects, including chemotherapy or radiotherapy to reduce the risk of cancer coming back. These highly individualised treatments have varying economic costs.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the impact since March of the under-utilisation of capacity in hospitals operated by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network under their partnership agreement with the NHS on (1) postponed (a) diagnoses, and (b) treatment, and (2) costs to taxpayers.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The National Health Service is working in partnership with private hospitals in the United Kingdom to combat the outbreak of COVID-19. The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the Independent Healthcare Providers Network and with independent sector providers themselves to secure all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource across England.
The addition of around 6,500 additional beds has increased NHS capacity and ensured that facilities are available for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 whilst ensuring continuity of service for non-COVID-19 patients requiring elective activity, including cancer and other urgent treatment.
It is not possible to make an assessment of the impact since March of any underutilisation of independent sector capacity on postponed diagnoses or treatment.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 7 October (HL8398), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, what estimate they have made of spare capacity between 1 April and 1 September in hospitals operated by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network under their partnership agreement with the NHS.
Answered by Lord Bethell
A national agreement is in place between NHS England and NHS Improvement in collaboration with the Independent Healthcare Providers Network and independent sector providers to ensure National Health Service patients benefit from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the independent sector to secure all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource across England.
To maximise total elective activity, NHS England and NHS Improvement worked with independent providers to identify best of use of capacity, based on local need. From the end of March to June 2020 both equipment and staffing from independent sector providers were deployed by NHS trusts in order to ensure delivery of services for NHS patients. Since June, the use of independent sector sites has been focused on assisting the NHS to restore services and increase elective capacity.
As part of preparing for winter, the Government has provided an additional £3 billion to the NHS. This includes additional funding to the NHS to allow them to continue to use additional hospital capacity from the independent sector, and to maintain the Nightingale hospitals, in their current state, until the end of March 2021.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 7 October (HL8399), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, what procedures they put in place to ensure the maximum use of capacity between 1 April and 1 September in hospitals operated by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network under their partnership agreement with the NHS.
Answered by Lord Bethell
A national agreement is in place between NHS England and NHS Improvement in collaboration with the Independent Healthcare Providers Network and independent sector providers to ensure National Health Service patients benefit from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the independent sector to secure all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource across England.
To maximise total elective activity, NHS England and NHS Improvement worked with independent providers to identify best of use of capacity, based on local need. From the end of March to June 2020 both equipment and staffing from independent sector providers were deployed by NHS trusts in order to ensure delivery of services for NHS patients. Since June, the use of independent sector sites has been focused on assisting the NHS to restore services and increase elective capacity.
As part of preparing for winter, the Government has provided an additional £3 billion to the NHS. This includes additional funding to the NHS to allow them to continue to use additional hospital capacity from the independent sector, and to maintain the Nightingale hospitals, in their current state, until the end of March 2021.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what procedures they put in place to ensure the maximum use of capacity between 1 April and 1 September in hospitals operated by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network under their partnership agreement with the NHS.
Answered by Lord Bethell
A national agreement is in place between NHS England and NHS Improvement in collaboration with the Independent Healthcare Providers Network and Independent Sector providers to ensure National Health Service patients benefit from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the independent sector to secure all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource across England.
The addition of around 6,500 additional beds has increased NHS capacity and ensured that facilities are available for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 whilst ensuring continuity of service for non-COVID patients requiring elective activity, including cancer and other urgent treatment. Latest collected information shows that over 215,000 patient contacts had taken place under the contract.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of spare capacity between 1 April and 1 September in hospitals operated by the Independent Healthcare Providers Network under their partnership agreement with the NHS.
Answered by Lord Bethell
A national agreement is in place between NHS England and NHS Improvement in collaboration with the Independent Healthcare Providers Network and Independent Sector providers to ensure National Health Service patients benefit from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the independent sector to secure all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource across England.
The addition of around 6,500 additional beds has increased NHS capacity and ensured that facilities are available for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 whilst ensuring continuity of service for non-COVID patients requiring elective activity, including cancer and other urgent treatment. Latest collected information shows that over 215,000 patient contacts had taken place under the contract.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to remind NHS trusts of their responsibilities to whistle-blowers.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Speaking up is vital for ensuring patient safety and improving the quality of services and should be a routine part of business in the National Health Service. The NHS should support and welcome all staff to raise concerns wherever they spot them.
The Government has proactively encouraged NHS staff to raise concerns over recent years and provided support by establishing an independent National Guardian to help drive positive cultural change across the NHS so that speaking up becomes business as usual.
On 23 April the Care Quality Commission and the National Guardian issued a joint statement to providers of health and social care reminding them of the importance of speaking up. This followed a letter that the National Guardian sent to NHS trust chairs in March, which also highlighted the importance of staff having the freedom to speak up and the need to support Local Freedom to Speak Up Guardians at this time.
We will continue to encourage and support the rights of staff to raise concerns.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how the NHS Long Term Plan intends to improve the quality of life for survivors of cancer.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Following cancer treatment, patients will move to a Personalised Stratified Follow-Up pathway that suits their needs and ensures they can get rapid access to clinical support if they are worried that their cancer may have recurred. This stratified follow-up approach is expected to be established in all trusts for breast cancer in 2019, for prostate and colorectal cancers in 2020 and for other cancers where clinically appropriate by 2023.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 22 November (HL11744), what assessment they have made of whether local authorities are complying with guidelines to ensure that home care workers are paid the national living wage for travelling between appointments.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Department has made no assessment itself. However, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs deals with complaints about underpayment of the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage. It has worked with other agencies and departments to raise awareness of the rules and has undertaken targeted enforcement to ensure that workers are paid what they are legally owed.
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that (1) home care workers receive the National Living Wage, and (2) travel time between clients for such workers is treated as working time for the purpose of the National Living Wage.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The 2015 Spending Review settlement factored in the need for local authorities to increase fees paid to providers to cover the additional costs of paying the National Living Wage to their workers. The Government has continued to monitor and listen to the social care sector, and provided an additional £2 billion of new money to social care in March 2017 to manage a number of pressures including the National Living Wage.
In the guidance to the Care Act 2014 we have set out local government’s responsibility to facilitate local markets that offer a range of high quality services, underpinned by an effective workforce. Local authorities should assure themselves and have evidence that service providers remunerate staff with a view to retain an effective workforce. Remuneration must comply with national minimum wage and national living wage legislation and this includes remuneration for any time spent travelling between appointments.