Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential benefits of using blockchain for the NHS; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department is currently assessing the potential benefits of Blockchain along with a number of other innovative, emerging technologies. Blockchain has the potential to enable patients to have greater control over who can access their records through the use of encrypted data and a permanent ledger in which all transactions are recorded. It also has possible applications in contracting. Globally the use of Blockchain in health and care is in a very early stage of development and there is no firm evidence as yet of the exact benefits it might offer.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to provide fiscal support to increase the provision of emergency beds for mental health crisis patients in the Black Country.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group advises that it is delivering services to support the intentions laid out in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. This will identify mental health needs at an earlier opportunity and provide community support and treatment to reduce the use of crisis inpatient services going forward.
Commissioners across the Black Country Sustainability and Transformation Partnership area have assessed local service provision and are working collaboratively to address gaps in services and deliver improved service delivery across the region. This includes potentially jointly commissioning services.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
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 level of (a) implementation of the strategy for mental health care and (b) mental health care provision in the Black Country.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group advises that it is delivering services to support the intentions laid out in the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health. This will identify mental health needs at an earlier opportunity and provide community support and treatment to reduce the use of crisis inpatient services going forward.
Commissioners across the Black Country Sustainability and Transformation Partnership area have assessed local service provision and are working collaboratively to address gaps in services and deliver improved service delivery across the region. This includes potentially jointly commissioning services.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans there to progress the outline business case for re-provision of the mental health hospital in Walsall approved by NHS Improvement to assist in mental health care in the Black Country.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS Improvement is engaging with the Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust in respect of the development of the Full Business Case in a supporting capacity. The Trust has carried out a public engagement exercise in relation to the proposals, which ended on 22 December 2017. NHS Improvement advises that the value of the redevelopment scheme is £7.5 million. The Trust is expected to discuss the proposal further at the Executive Board in April 2018. Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group advises that it is fully supportive of the proposals and believes it will improve the quality of patient care for the local population.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance is provided on written and verbal safety netting advice for mothers with risk factors for development of neonatal sepsis.
Answered by Philip Dunne
In September, NHS England published the 2017 Cross-System Sepsis Action Plan. As part of this a number of activities are planned:
- Action on safety netting will be embedded among all healthcare professionals assessing patients with infections;
- Promote the implementation of a range of educational resources on sepsis produced by Health Education England and the Royal Colleges;
- Ensure a specific focus on sepsis education for staff groups such as community pharmacists, community nurses, health visitors and healthcare assistants in care homes; and
- NHS England and Public Health England will work with maternity networks and health visitors to ensure resources such as leaflets and on-line educational material are used by midwives and health visitors to help parents recognise serious illness in children and know what to do if they think their child is seriously ill.
To support these activities, two safety netting videos on ‘Spotting the signs of sepsis’ and ‘Caring for children with fever at home’ have been published with the Health Innovation Network.
In 2017/18 Public Health England’s activity to raise awareness of sepsis includes building sepsis messaging into the national Start4life Information Service for Parents email programme which reaches 430,000 parents of 0-5 year olds; distribution of leaflets and posters; social media and activity with a leading digital platform for parents.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to raise awareness of neonatal sepsis among mothers who have risk factors present.
Answered by Philip Dunne
In September, NHS England published the 2017 Cross-System Sepsis Action Plan. As part of this a number of activities are planned:
- Action on safety netting will be embedded among all healthcare professionals assessing patients with infections;
- Promote the implementation of a range of educational resources on sepsis produced by Health Education England and the Royal Colleges;
- Ensure a specific focus on sepsis education for staff groups such as community pharmacists, community nurses, health visitors and healthcare assistants in care homes; and
- NHS England and Public Health England will work with maternity networks and health visitors to ensure resources such as leaflets and on-line educational material are used by midwives and health visitors to help parents recognise serious illness in children and know what to do if they think their child is seriously ill.
To support these activities, two safety netting videos on ‘Spotting the signs of sepsis’ and ‘Caring for children with fever at home’ have been published with the Health Innovation Network.
In 2017/18 Public Health England’s activity to raise awareness of sepsis includes building sepsis messaging into the national Start4life Information Service for Parents email programme which reaches 430,000 parents of 0-5 year olds; distribution of leaflets and posters; social media and activity with a leading digital platform for parents.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are being taken to improve the screening for the presence of pathogens associated with neonatal sepsis such as Group B streptococcal disease.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Following the United Kingdom National Screening Committee’s (UK NSC’s) meeting in February 2017, the Government accepted the UK NSC’s recommendation that a population based screening programme for Group B streptococcal (GBS) carriage should not be offered. This is because there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the benefits to be gained from screening would outweigh the harms.
As screening for GBS is not recommended, data as requested is not collected. The Chief Scientific Advisor has recommended that the National Institute of Health Research should commission a clinical trial to compare universal screening for GBS against usual-risk based care. This is to provide better quality evidence to assess the clinical effectiveness, benefits and harms of a screening programme.
Information on GBS in pregnancy can be found on the NHS Choices which can be accessed here:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/pregnancy-infections.aspx
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what training and information is provided to healthcare professionals about when to screen mothers for the presence of pathogens associated with neonatal sepsis, such as Group B streptococcal infection.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Health Education England has produced and continues to develop sepsis educational resources for healthcare professionals. This includes a number of resources to support the learning on sepsis recognition and management across the system in both primary and secondary care.
The principal pathogen of potential concern in neonatal sepsis is Group B Streptococcus (GBS). Following the UK National Screening Committee’s meeting in February 2017, the Government accepted the Committee’s recommendation that a population based screening programme for GBS carriage should not be offered. However, the Chief Scientific Advisor recommended that the National Institute for Health Research should commission a clinical trial to compare universal screening for Group B Streptococcus against usual-risk based care. This has been approved and the trial is expected to complete around the end of 2021.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has published guidance for obstetricians, midwives and neonatologists on the prevention of early-onset (less than seven days of age) neonatal Group B streptococcal disease and for the information to be provided to women, their partners and families. It has also produced an information leaflet for parents-to-be about GBS. Information on GBS is also included in the NHS Pregnancy Book which is given free to all first time pregnant women.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are being taken to improve the accuracy of recording of cases of neonatal sepsis across England.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Neonatal units record positive neonatal blood culture tests and these are recorded as part of the Neonatal Quality Dashboard. Outliers are identified and investigated as part of the quarterly monitoring systems of NHS England specialised commissioning hubs.
The National Neonatal Audit Programme commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership includes reporting on the measuring of rates of infection on neonatal units and makes key recommendations for improvement.
In April 2017, NHS Digital also published new guidance on coding for sepsis. The new coding guidance is expected to lead to improved reporting of all cases of sepsis.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what written and verbal safety netting advice is routinely shared with mothers around antenatal screening for the presence of pathogens associated with sepsis.
Answered by Philip Dunne
In September, NHS England published the 2017 Cross-System Sepsis Action Plan. As part of this a number of activities are planned:
- Action on safety netting will be embedded among all healthcare professionals assessing patients with infections;
- Promote the implementation of a range of educational resources on sepsis produced by Health Education England and the Royal Colleges;
- Ensure a specific focus on sepsis education for staff groups such as community pharmacists, community nurses, health visitors and healthcare assistants in care homes; and
- NHS England and Public Health England will work with maternity networks and health visitors to ensure resources such as leaflets and on-line educational material are used by midwives and health visitors to help parents recognise serious illness in children and know what to do if they think their child is seriously ill.
To support these activities, two safety netting videos on ‘Spotting the signs of sepsis’ and ‘Caring for children with fever at home’ have been published with the Health Innovation Network.
In 2017/18 Public Health England’s activity to raise awareness of sepsis includes building sepsis messaging into the national Start4life Information Service for Parents email programme which reaches 430,000 parents of 0-5 year olds; distribution of leaflets and posters; social media and activity with a leading digital platform for parents.