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 is taking to increase the level of breast cancer screening in (a) Kent and (b) Medway.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England is responsible for commissioning breast screening services to meet programme standards including coverage. They are committed to improving coverage and reducing variation between all age groups and catchment areas.
The National Service specification for breast screening requires providers to have systems in place to ensure women who do not respond are provided with an opportunity not to miss screening. The efforts to increase the uptake include: reminders, second timed appointments, ensuring that women are invited every three years, and tailored information for women with learning difficulties.
Further information is available here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/service-spec-24.pdf
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, what recent assessment he has made of the sustainability of the GP network.
Answered by Steve Brine
A general practitioner (GP) network is an informal collaboration of multiple practices. The Department and NHS England does not monitor, control or regulate these arrangements.
However, as the GP Forward View said, it is becoming increasingly normal for general practices to work together at scale and form into networks or federations of practices. Larger organisational forms will enable greater opportunities for practices to increase their flexibility to shape, buy or build additional services, working from a more effective platform with other local health and care providers, including community health services, social care and voluntary organisations. There will also be greater use of technology to connect primary care with others, for the sharing of best practice and sourcing of timely advice.
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, when the Government plans to publish a response to the report Old Problems, New Solutions: Improving Acute Psychiatric Care for Adults in England, published by the Commission on Acute Psychiatric Care in February 2016.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England is leading the development of a formal joint National Health Service arm’s length body response to the report ‘Old Problems, New Solutions’, planned for publication in autumn 2017. NHS England has been working very closely with partners and members of the Commission on Adult Acute Psychiatric Care throughout the development process.
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, what estimate he has made of the number of additional kidney donors that would be required to reduce the waiting time on the transplant register from two to three years down to one year or less.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
There are currently around 5,000 patients registered on the United Kingdom kidney transplant waiting list. The number of patients waiting have come down since the launch of the UK-wide Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020 Strategy in July 2013, from 6,348 patients at end of 2012-13 compared with 5,030 in 2015-16. Our aim by 2020 is to increase organ donation and transplant rates to match the best performing countries and to maximise the number of people who can benefit from a transplant.
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, how much of the NHS Blood and Transplant budget was spent in 2015-16 on awareness campaigns to encourage more people to join the organ donor register.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
In 2015-16, NHS Blood and Transplant spent £1.2 million to deliver the behaviour change interventions in England. This included awareness campaigns to increase the number of registered organ donors and encourage conversations around donation wishes. Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales also ran campaigns that were funded on a devolved basis.
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, with reference to Taking organ transplantation to 2020: a detailed strategy, published in 2013, what plans he has to increase consent rates for deceased organ donation to 80 per cent by 2020.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is the organ donor organisation for the United Kingdom and is responsible for promoting organ donation and the matching and allocating of donated organs.
The UK Taking Organ Transplantation to 2020 Strategy (2013) aims to achieve world class consent rates of over 80% by 2020. One of the actions to achieve this was the development of national strategies to promote a shift in behaviour to increase consent. The consent rate was 57% in 2013 and is currently 62% year to date. More data can be found at:
http://www.odt.nhs.uk/pdf/ODT_SMT_Monthly_Performance_Report_201612.pdf
NHSBT has adopted a model to share and scale up successful local activity and to allow broad national messages to be adapted to meet specific local audiences and needs. Examples include NHSBT’s ‘hot house’ pilots which aims to target specific areas which cover a large population, high potential donor numbers and lower than average opt in rates on the Organ Donation Register with a fully-integrated programme of local activity.
In addition, NHSBT has invested significantly in more specialist nurses, in better retrieval arrangements and in strengthening referral procedures between intensive care and the transplant programme to help ensure that all potential donors are identified and that families are supported through this very difficult 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, what plans he has to hold a public consultation on organ donation and consent law in England.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
A seven year United Kingdom-wide organ donation and transplantation strategy was jointly published by the four UK health ministers and NHS Blood and Transplant in July 2013. The strategy aims to increase consent rates, encourage people to be proud to donate and to make the UK system comparable with the best of the world. In 2015/16, the highest ever deceased donor rate in the UK was recorded with 1,364 deceased donors resulting in 3,529 transplants.
On 1 December 2015, Wales introduced deemed consent (opt-out) for organ and tissue donation. We will monitor closely how these changes in legislation in Wales affect donation rates.
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, whether he has made a comparative assessment of the average waiting time on the organ transplant register in (a) England and (b) each of the other devolved nations.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is the organ donor organisation for the United Kingdom and is responsible for promoting organ donation and the matching and allocating of donated organs. Transplant centres for every organ do not exist in each of the devolved nations meaning patients need to travel to other areas of the UK for transplant. For this reason NHSBT does not report on waiting times in each of the devolved nations. Average waiting times are available by transplant centre in NHSBT’s Annual Report. An archive of these reports can be found at:
www.odt.nhs.uk/uk-transplant-registry/annual-activity-report/
The number of people who died while on waiting lists for organ donation is also given in the Annual Report.
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, how many people on the organ transplant register died while waiting for a donated kidney in the last financial year.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is the organ donor organisation for the United Kingdom and is responsible for promoting organ donation and the matching and allocating of donated organs. Transplant centres for every organ do not exist in each of the devolved nations meaning patients need to travel to other areas of the UK for transplant. For this reason NHSBT does not report on waiting times in each of the devolved nations. Average waiting times are available by transplant centre in NHSBT’s Annual Report. An archive of these reports can be found at:
www.odt.nhs.uk/uk-transplant-registry/annual-activity-report/
The number of people who died while on waiting lists for organ donation is also given in the Annual Report.
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, what comparative assessment he has made of the potential effect on the NHS budget of increasing the number of people receiving kidney transplants to reduce the average waiting time on the transplant register and providing long-term dialysis for the same number of people.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
We seek to ensure as many people as possible get transplants in a timely fashion.