Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the funding allocations for the Renal Clinical Networks for 2024-25 and 2025-26.
Answered by Will Quince
National specialised commissioning funding for clinical networks is recurrent and, as with all other financial allocations, is reviewed on an annual basis and at a regional level.
NHS England does not publish the funding allocations for specialised commissioning services such as the Renal Clinical Network. It does however intend to ring-fence the overall level of funding available for clinical networks to enable the continued support and development of key specialised services post-full delegation to integrated care boards.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what training clinicians receive on the needs of families where a parent has mental health difficulties; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is the responsibility of individual employers to ensure that their staff are trained and competent to carry out the role for which they are employed, and for making decisions about the ongoing professional training and development requirements of their staff.
In addition, regulated healthcare professionals will need to meet the standards of education and training set by their profession’s regulator, all of which include communicating with patients who come to seek their help, including those where a carer may have mental health issues.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 monitor the maintenance of contact between parents admitted to psychiatric in-patient mental health services and their dependent children; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The community mental health framework sets out the vision for transformation of community mental health services as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. The framework sets the expectation that mental health services should ensure ‘joined-up, ongoing, personalised care and support, and access to the right care at the right time for service users and for their families and carers’.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on inpatient mental health asks systems to ensure that special consideration is given to supporting any dependants under 18 years old and that there is good provision of support for carers, including access to group psychoeducation and support for their wellbeing and wider needs. This may be offered through local carers’ support services, and, where needed, through arranging a carer’s assessment. This is also included in the NHS England guidance ‘Acute inpatient mental health care for adults and older adults’.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 embed support for patients who are parents and their children into adult mental health services; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The community mental health framework sets out the vision for transformation of community mental health services as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. The framework sets the expectation that mental health services should ensure ‘joined-up, ongoing, personalised care and support, and access to the right care at the right time for service users and for their families and carers’.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on inpatient mental health asks systems to ensure that special consideration is given to supporting any dependants under 18 years old and that there is good provision of support for carers, including access to group psychoeducation and support for their wellbeing and wider needs. This may be offered through local carers’ support services, and, where needed, through arranging a carer’s assessment. This is also included in the NHS England guidance ‘Acute inpatient mental health care for adults and older adults’.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 4 July 2023 to Question 191286 on Memory Clinics: Waiting Lists, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of including memory assessments for dementia in NHS England’s monthly diagnosis waiting times data; and if he will make this his policy.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England’s monthly diagnosis waiting times data cover a selection of imaging scans, physiological measurements and endoscopy exams. Possible changes to the list of tests are being considered and will be offered for consultation in due course.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will hold discussions with the Chief Operation Officer of Royal Mail about the impact on patients of Royal Mail delivery delays in (a) Brighton Pavilion constituency and (b) other areas experiencing delays in delivery of letters that include details of NHS appointments; what steps he is taking to ensure that patients receive timely information about their appointments; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
No discussions are currently planned with the Chief Operating Officer of Royal Mail about the impact on patients of Royal Mail delivery delays, including within the Brighton Pavilion constituency.
NHS England sends communications and invitations to patients using a ‘digital first’ approach for environmental reasons and to efficiently reduce costs. If an individual has provided a mobile phone number and email address via their general practice, NHS England will, in the first instance, send most invitations for appointments via SMS and email.
Letters are typically sent to patients when NHS England does not have alternative contact details on record, such as a phone number or email address. This ensures all patients receive notification of an appointment, including elderly and other vulnerable patients where a digital first approach may not be possible or appropriate. Letters may also be sent occasionally as reminders.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Primary Care Dementia Data, May 2023, Official Statistics; for what reasons new dementia diagnoses are not included in those statistics alongside total dementia diagnoses; if he will publish data showing new dementia diagnoses for each of the past five years; and if he will make it his policy to include data on new dementia diagnoses in future Official Statistics releases on dementia.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data regarding patients who are newly diagnosed with dementia was introduced to the Core GP Contract GP Extraction Service (GPES) data collection for the 2023/24 financial year. This collection is the data source for the Primary Care Dementia Data Official Statistics publication. Data is being collected for each month, starting from April 2023. NHS England are currently assessing the data quality of this information to ensure it meets basic data quality standards and is caveated where appropriate. Once data quality has been assured to be appropriate for publication, NHS England will release this data in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
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 improve the dementia diagnosis rate in coastal communities; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In December 2022, the recovery of the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7% was included in the National Health Service priorities and operational planning guidance 2023/24. This reinforces the importance of dementia as a key priority for NHS England and provides a clear direction for integrated care boards to support delivery of timely diagnoses within systems.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has been commissioned by NHS England to develop a resource to support investigation of the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates. The aim of this work is to provide context for variation and enable targeted investigation and provision of support at a local level to enhance diagnosis rates. The tool has been released and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have been waiting for a memory assessment in England for more than (a) 12 months and (b) 18 months as of 27 June 2023.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data requested is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the capacity is for the (a) number and (b) proportion of children in England that can be registered for NHS dentistry; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
State funded healthcare provided by the National Health Service in England, including dentistry, is available free of charge to all children who are ordinarily resident in England and under the age of 18 years old or under 19 years old and in full-time education.
Unlike general practitioners' patients, dental patients are not registered to a particular practice. A dental practice can accept a patient for a course of treatment if they have capacity to deliver that treatment. There are no geographical restrictions on which dental practice a patient may attend, allowing patients the choice of where they receive treatment.
Where a person is unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through a local NHS dental practice for their child, they are advised to contact NHS 111 for assistance.