Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the Public Health England budget has been spent on bowel cancer screening awareness campaigns in each year since 2010.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England (PHE) has not funded any bowel cancer screening awareness campaigns.
PHE’s Be Clear on Cancer campaigns aim to raise the public’s awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer, and are an important step in helping to diagnose cancers earlier. In 2017, PHE collaborated with Cancer Research UK (CRUK) to deliver a jointly-branded, Be Clear on Cancer/CRUK pilot screening campaign in the North West of England to promote the uptake of bowel screening. The campaign was funded by CRUK.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
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 increase capacity in general practice in (a) Kent, (b) Medway and (c) Gillingham and Rainham constituency.
Answered by Steve Brine
In response to the Ten Point Plan ‘Building the Workforce ‒ the New Deal for General Practice’, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in Kent and Medway are responding to current workforce challenges through a system of learning hubs, termed Community Education Provider Networks (CEPNs). These are the community equivalent of hospital postgraduate medical centres and are responsible for providing an overview of the primary care workforce and its development and education.
CEPNs have prioritised a number of key areas to improve the retention of general practitioners (GPs) while at the same time maximising recruitment of new GPs. These initiatives include Hub/Place Based Education Training and Support to develop the current and future workforce allowing senior GPs to refresh their working patterns and develop educational and mentorship skills, which may prolong careers by providing varied and stimulating career opportunities. GPs are also being encouraged to develop a specialism through the GP Specialisms with those taking part in East Kent reporting greater professional satisfaction through increased variety and stimulation in their role.
NHS Medway Clinical Commissioning Group is working with local GPs through the Medway Practices Alliance to ensure the nationally mandated core requirements are in place for 100% of the Medway population by October 2018.
In Medway, including Rainham and Gillingham, this will result in an additional 150 hours of consultation capacity per week. In line with the Medway Model – the Medway interpretation of the Kent and Medway Local Care agenda – improved access will be offered across the area, operating from healthy living centres.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding was allocated from the public purse to coeliac research in 2016-17.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network provides the infrastructure that allows high-quality clinical research funded by charities, research funders and life-sciences industry to be delivered throughout the National Health Service. In 2016-17 Local Clinical Research Network expenditure related to coeliac disease was £315,503. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) supports research in response to high quality proposals from the research community but made no new awards directly relevant to coeliac disease in 2016/17.
It is not possible to provide a figure for planned funding. The NIHR and UKRI welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including coeliac disease; it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding the Government plans to allocate to coeliac research in the 2018-19 financial year.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network provides the infrastructure that allows high-quality clinical research funded by charities, research funders and life-sciences industry to be delivered throughout the National Health Service. In 2016-17 Local Clinical Research Network expenditure related to coeliac disease was £315,503. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) supports research in response to high quality proposals from the research community but made no new awards directly relevant to coeliac disease in 2016/17.
It is not possible to provide a figure for planned funding. The NIHR and UKRI welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including coeliac disease; it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many young people under the age of 18 were referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in the South East of England in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Data setting out estimated number of referrals to child and adolescent mental health services in the south east of England for 2016 (May to December), 2017 and 2018 (January and February) is included in the following table.
2016 (May-December) | 2017 (January-December) | 2018 (January – February) |
4,415 | 15,315 | 4,570 |
It should be noted that this is a count of referrals and not of people; it is possible that one person could have multiple referrals in a year. It is also worth highlighting that where the number of referrals was less than five in any one month, they have not been included and that other values have been rounded to the nearest five to minimise disclosure risks associated with small numbers. As such, the totals provided are the sum of these monthly figures and so annual totals will differ from the true totals.
Data is unavailable prior to May 2016. Data on children and young people was only collected as part of the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS) from January 2016 and the relevant measures were developed in May 2016.
The number of providers which have submitted data has improved over time, and as such, figures presented here must be interpreted with these coverage changes in mind. Due to coverage issues, the number of referrals presented is likely to be an undercount and may partly explain why the number of referrals appeared to have increased so rapidly across 2016-18. It is also worth noting the total for 2016 only covers six months, and the total for 2018 only covers two months, whereas the total for 2017 covers the full 12 months. MHSDS is an experimental dataset and we expect coverage to improve over time.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding has been allocated from the public purse for youth mental health services in (a) Kent and (b) Medway in 2018-19.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Details of clinical commissioning group spend on children and young people’s mental health services are published on the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health Dashboard. This is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/taskforce/imp/mh-dashboard/
As a local system, Kent and Medway is committed to ensuring that children, young people and their families and carers, can access the most appropriate support to meet their needs. This includes ensuring that children and young people receive appropriate treatment in the right place at the right time.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to reduce waiting times for access to mental health services in (a) the South East, (b) Kent and (c) Medway.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
There are national waiting time standards for early intervention in psychosis and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies. By 2020, local areas will also be expected to ensure that 95% of children and young people with eating disorders are seen within four weeks, with a one week target for urgent cases.
At a national level, we are exceeding our waiting time standards on early intervention in psychosis and improving access to psychological therapies. We are also on track to meet our eating disorder waiting time target by 2020.
2018/19 Planning Guidance establishes clear expectations for what all commissioners and providers, including those in Kent and Medway, need to deliver. This is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/refreshing-nhs-plans-for-2018-19/
Details of clinical commissioning group performance against key waiting time standards are available in NHS England’s Five Year Forward View for Mental Health dashboard. This is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/taskforce/imp/mh-dashboard/
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people there are with registered disabilities in each clinical commissioning group area in Kent.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Information on the number of people with registered disabilities in each clinical commissioning group area in Kent is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS child and adolescent psychiatrists have been employed in Kent in the last two years for which data is available.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The data is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the Public Health England budget was spent on awareness campaigns to encourage more women to take up their invitation to a breast cancer screening in (a) 2015-2016 and (b) 2016-2017.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Be Clear on Cancer Breast Cancer campaign, which targets women over 70, does not directly encourage uptake of screening but instead aims to increase awareness of both the age-related risk of developing breast cancer and the symptoms that women need to be aware of.
The campaign has run three times at a national level (from February to March 2014; from July to September 2015; and is currently live, running from February to March 2018).
The public facing leaflet for the Be Clear on Cancer campaign contains information on the screening programme and informs women over 70 that they are able to self-refer for screening.
Public Health England has not run a specific campaign to encourage more women to take up their invitation to a breast cancer screening.