Asked by: Geoffrey Cox (Conservative - Torridge and West Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential effect of the Government's proposals for community pharmacies on rural communities.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Community pharmacy is a vital part of the National Health Service and can play an even greater role. In the Spending Review the Government re-affirmed the need for the NHS to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of services or public access to them. Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.
The Government’s vision is for a more efficient, modern system that will free up pharmacists to spend more time delivering clinical and public health services to the benefit of patients and the public.
We are consulting the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and others, including patient and public representatives, on our proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond. An impact assessment will be completed to inform final decisions and published in due course. This will include the impact on rural communities.
Asked by: Geoffrey Cox (Conservative - Torridge and West Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions his Department has had with representatives from the health sector on the development of services to treat arthritis and musculoskeletal disorders.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department is in regular contact with stakeholders, such as Arthritis Research UK, and hosted a roundtable with them in November. The group is in the process of producing a toolkit for commissioners to support commissioning of physical activity interventions for people with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions.
Whilst the Department has no plans to publish an arthritis action plan, NHS England and Public Health England are taking forward a number of projects.
Specifically on MSK conditions, the National Health Service National Clinical Director for MSK, Peter Kay, has been working in partnership with the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance, to develop new MSK clinical networks across England to build consensus on the way forward for models of care. In addition, in February 2015, Public Health England, in partnership with NHS England and the Department, ran a local pilot campaign to raise public awareness of the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in Nottingham City and Hardwick Clinical Commissioning Group. The aim of the campaign was to support earlier diagnosis and thereby enable treatment to begin earlier to improve the quality of life for people with the condition. The results of the campaign are currently being evaluated.
Asked by: Geoffrey Cox (Conservative - Torridge and West Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to publish a funded arthritis action plan.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department is in regular contact with stakeholders, such as Arthritis Research UK, and hosted a roundtable with them in November. The group is in the process of producing a toolkit for commissioners to support commissioning of physical activity interventions for people with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions.
Whilst the Department has no plans to publish an arthritis action plan, NHS England and Public Health England are taking forward a number of projects.
Specifically on MSK conditions, the National Health Service National Clinical Director for MSK, Peter Kay, has been working in partnership with the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance, to develop new MSK clinical networks across England to build consensus on the way forward for models of care. In addition, in February 2015, Public Health England, in partnership with NHS England and the Department, ran a local pilot campaign to raise public awareness of the signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in Nottingham City and Hardwick Clinical Commissioning Group. The aim of the campaign was to support earlier diagnosis and thereby enable treatment to begin earlier to improve the quality of life for people with the condition. The results of the campaign are currently being evaluated.
Asked by: Geoffrey Cox (Conservative - Torridge and West Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent representations he has received on regional variations on the availability of treatment for arthritis.
Answered by Jane Ellison
No representations have been made to Ministers in the Department on regional variations in the availability of treatment for arthritis.
Asked by: Geoffrey Cox (Conservative - Torridge and West Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to increase awareness of (a) arthritis and (b) other musculoskeletal conditions; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Public Health England (PHE) work in partnership with NHS England, professional bodies, the Chief Fire Officers Association, Arthritis Research UK (ARUK), Work Foundation and other private sector system leaders to increase awareness of the prevention of arthritis and musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions.
PHE’s Chief Knowledge Directorate have worked collaboratively with ARUK to develop a set of local authority briefings on osteoarthritis based on data from ARUK’s MSK Calculator[1]. A musculoskeletal domain has also been created within PHE’s National General Practice Profiles[2]. The Burden of Disease for England was published by PHE in September 2015, which provides analytics on MSK.
PHE has commissioned and developed a series of resources and tools to raise awareness amongst professionals and the public of Arthritis and MSK conditions such as; a British Medical Journal e-learning module on the benefits of physical activity for osteoarthritis and lower back pain, which has been highly valued by clinicians; a public facing falls prevention booklet.
[1]http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/policy-and-public-affairs/policy-priorities-and-projects/musculosketal-health-services/the-musculoskeletal-calculator.aspx
[2]http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/general-practice/data#mod,1,pyr,2014,pat,19,par,E38000001,are,-,sid1,2000009,ind1,-,sid2,-,ind2,-
Asked by: Geoffrey Cox (Conservative - Torridge and West Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to promote independent mental health advocacy.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Independent Mental Health Advocacy service is an essential element of the safeguards in place to protect the rights and interests of patients who have been detained or who are otherwise subject to compulsory treatment under the Mental Health Act 1983.
The revised Mental Health Act 1983 Code of Practice, which came into force in April 2015, makes clear that staff responsible for such patients also have a responsibility to ensure that they are aware of their right to request support from an Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA). In cases where the patient lacks the capacity to make such a request, the Code is clear that staff should ask an IMHA to explain to the patient what they can offer.
In March 2015 a suite of resources to support local areas in improving their IMHA services were published at:
http://www.scie.org.uk/independent-mental-health-advocacy/further-resources/index.asp
These were the result of a national project, led by the Social Care Institute of Excellence and the University of Central Lancashire, and funded by the Department.
The Department is also considering the scope for providing additional guidance through other means that can further clarify the role of mental health professionals in promoting access for qualifying patients to Independent Mental Health Advocates.
Asked by: Geoffrey Cox (Conservative - Torridge and West Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which hospitals in (a) Devon and (b) Cornwall have round the clock mental health support.
Answered by Alistair Burt
This information is not held centrally.
NHS England advises that the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust has a 24-hour psychiatric liaison service that has been in operation since the beginning of January 2016 and that 24-hour duty support from the mental health services is available to access for all Devon hospitals.
NHS England also advises secondary care mental health services are commissioned from Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust which includes 24/7 Home Treatment Team services and 24/7 in-patient services. NHS England assures me that NHS Kernow is committed to delivering the requirements of the National Crisis Care Concordat, including ensuring that people with mental health problems can get help 24 hours a day.