Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Operation Yellowhammer HMG Reasonable worst case planning assumptions paragraph 20, what four local authorities have been identified as priority concerns, which Ministers or Departments identified those local authorities; and what the decision making process was by which those four local authorities were selected.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The four local authorities were identified as areas that might be most affected by road congestion, have ports or have publicly self-identified as struggling to balance their in-year budgets. Officials from the Department have engaged directly with the Directors of Adult Social Services in the four areas. This equipment has provided assurance that good levels of contingency preparations are in place. We are unable to name the four local authorities concerned as they have not given the Department permission to do so.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Operation Yellowhammer HMG Reasonable Worst Case Planning Assumptions, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of intervention in the social care market in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government’s priority is to make sure that people continue to receive the highest standard of care. The Department is doing everything appropriate with local government and our national partners to prepare for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union on 31 October 2019. This includes working with local authorities and care providers to ensure that contingency plans are in place so that they can respond if any disruption occurs, as well as regular monitoring of the adult social care sector to ensure that the Government can respond quickly if required.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of patients that waited longer than four hours in A&E in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2018-19.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
In 2009-10 there were 20,511,908 attendances of which 353,617 patients waited longer than four hours in accident and emergency.
In 2018-19 there were 24,826,981 attendances of which 2,976,112 people waited more than four hours but in the face of rising demand, 1,692,578 more patients were seen within four hours compared to 2009-10.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of the NHS mental health nursing workforce in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Although overall trends since 2010 show a decline in numbers of mental health nurses, recent years have seen numbers begin to improve. As of June 2019, there are now 36,101 mental health nurses – 776 more than in June 2017.
The Government has carried out work to increase the nursing workforce, such as expanding the number of nurse training places and introducing nurse degree apprentices and nursing associate apprentices.
The National Health Service has also put in place national programmes focused on improving staff retention, return to practice, overseas recruitment and improving sickness absence.
The interim NHS People Plan recognises that there is a shortage of nurses, especially mental health nurses, and sets out immediate actions to reduce vacancies and secure the nursing staff we need for the future. This includes addressing pensions tax concerns and bolstering the workforce through greater international recruitment. Furthermore, the Department has made available placement funding for an additional 5,000 more nurses.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which medical products imported to the UK cannot be stockpiled due to (a) time limits on transport, (b) temperature restrictions, (c) short shelf lives and (d) any other reason.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has been working with trade bodies, product suppliers, and the health and care system in England to make detailed plans that should ensure continuation of the supply of all medicines and medical products to the whole of the United Kingdom in the event of a ‘no deal’ European Union exit. For those medicines that cannot be stockpiled because, for example, they have short shelf-lives, such as medical radioisotopes, we have asked suppliers to make alternative arrangements using airfreight. We have offered support to companies to arrange this.
In parallel, the Department is setting up an express freight service designed to transport medicines and medical products into the UK if a supplier’s own contingency measures encounter difficulties or where there is a specific medical need.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Operation Yellowhammer HMG Reasonable Worst Case Planning Assumptions paragraph 11iii, what additional funding his Department has allocated to help (a) pensioners, (b) students, (c) workers and (d) travellers in EU countries access healthcare in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government issued a press release on 23 September 2019, setting out the transitional healthcare arrangements that the Department has put in place to protect access to healthcare for UK-insured individuals if the United Kingdom leaves the European Union without a deal. These arrangements will come into operation in a ‘no deal’ scenario, in the absence of an EU-wide solution or bilateral reciprocal healthcare arrangements with individual Member States.
The ultimate cost of these arrangements will depend on which Member States accept the Government’s offer to continue the current reciprocal healthcare arrangements for a transitional period until 31 December 2020. Based on detailed analysis undertaken by the Department, the estimated maximum expenditure that the Government expects to make for these arrangements is £50 million in 2019/20 and £100 million in 2020/21.
I laid a Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1832 on 26 September 2019, which sets out the details of these transitional arrangements.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Operation Yellowhammer HMG Reasonable Worst Case Planning Assumptions paragraph 6, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the (a) geographically equitable and (b) economically equitable distributions of medicines in limited supply in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. Our plans should ensure the supply of medicines and medical products when we leave the EU on 31 October.
The Department, in consultation with the devolved administrations, has been working with trade bodies, product suppliers, and the health and care system in England to make detailed plans that should ensure continuation of the supply of medicines to the whole of the UK and its Crown Dependencies.
On 26 June, we wrote to suppliers of medicines to the UK from or via the EU or European Economic Area setting out our continuing multi-layered approach to support continuity of supply of medicines and medical products from 31 October.
Further details can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the mental health budget was in each of the last 30 years.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Department holds overall yearly National Health Service budget figures, but it is not broken down into funding for specific areas such as mental health.
The Department’s budget is not spent directly on mental health services. Since 2016/17, NHS England has collated information on mental health expenditure for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and specialised commissioned services and published this information in the Five Year Forward View Dashboard that is available following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/publication/mental-health-five-year-forward-view-dashboard/
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of meditation techniques in prisoners' (a) mental health and (b) other health care.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
In March 2017, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a guideline on mental health of adults in contact with the criminal justice system (NG66). Meditation for promoting mental health and wellbeing was considered during the development of the guideline. However, the guideline committee considered the evidence insufficient to support any specific recommendations on meditation.
NICE also published a guideline on physical health of people in prison (NG57) in November 2016, which made recommendations on the promotion of prisoners’ health and wellbeing. Meditation was not considered during the development of this guideline.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of potential links between income inequality and health inequalities.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.