Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the European Medicines Agency on the approval of Osimertinib for use in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
There have been no recent discussions.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether UK-licensed pharmaceutical suppliers will be able to supply their products to the NHS in Northern Ireland from 1 January 2022, or whether they will be required to split supplies into separate Northern Ireland and Great Britain licences.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is working closely with pharmaceutical suppliers to the National Health Service in Northern Ireland to ensure their readiness for the full implementation of the Protocol from 1 January 2022.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England plans to maintain the number of NHS dental services in Sheffield.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
NHS England plans to maintain the number of dental practices in Sheffield.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason covid-19 testing capacity data is not available at a local authority or city-wide level.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Capacity is calculated at a national level in order to flex to local demand at any given time.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress he has made on cross-party talks on social care.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The manifesto set out a commitment to seek a cross-party consensus in order to bring forward the necessary proposals and legislation for long-term reform of social care. The Department will outline next steps shortly.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of workforce vacancies in the health and social care sectors.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Posts may be vacant, for a variety of reasons including maternity and career breaks. Trusts make decisions based on local needs about how they fill these posts, including looking at short-term options for cover, including bank and agency staff.
Since April 2017, NHS Improvement collect vacancy rates of National Health Service staff from individual NHS trusts and publish them as part of their ‘Quarterly performance of the NHS provider sector’ report found at the following link:
As at 31 December there were 100,521 full time equivalent vacancies in NHS trusts, this is an 8.4% vacancy rate. Of these, approximately 80% and 85% of the nursing and medical vacancies are being filled by bank and agency staff.
Skills for Care estimate that there are approximately 110,000 jobs that are vacant in adult social care, this is an 8% vacancy rate.
The NHS People Plan sets out the next step in our mission to make the NHS a world class employer and deliver the workforce which the NHS needs.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse has been of the teenage pregnancy unit in each year since its creation; and how many civil servants were employed within it in each of those years.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The Teenage Pregnancy Unit was established to drive delivery of national work to reduce under 18 conceptions by 2010. Details of staff numbers and the costs involved are no longer held. Since 2010 this work has been devolved to local authorities. Between 2010 and 2016, the latest year for which data is available, under 18 conceptions fell by 45%.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what duties are placed on clinical commissioning groups to ensure that public transport routes are available to GPs.
Answered by Steve Brine
There are no duties placed on clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to ensure that public transport routes are available to general practitioners. However, the Health and Social Care Act (2012) places specific duties on CCGs and NHS England to address health inequalities in relation to access and outcomes.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will establish a Young Cancer Patient Travel Fund to cover the costs of travel to and from hospital for cancer treatment appointments for children, young people and their families.
Answered by Steve Brine
There is work underway to review the service specifications for children and young people with cancer. This will provide an opportunity to consider how some aspects of the patient pathway may be provided more locally to reduce the travel burden for patients and their families.
Currently the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme which is part of the NHS Low Income Scheme allows for patients (and in certain circumstances their carers) to receive reimbursement of travel if they are in receipt of a qualifying benefit or on a low income. The NHS Low Income Scheme has helped 337,000 applicants to receive financial help with their National Health Service treatment.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
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 the (a) adequacy of supply and (b) demand for bleeding control packs in designated public places.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
NHS England has made no formal assessment on adequacy of supply and demand for bleeding control packs in designated public places.