Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that people with significant mental health issues are not discharged to the community.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Clinicians will decide when a person is medically fit for discharge. On 26 January 2024, new statutory guidance was published for those being discharged from mental health inpatient settings. This sets out how health and care systems can work effectively together to support the discharge process from hospital, and ensure the right support in the community. The guidance also includes best practice in relation to patient and carer involvement in discharge planning.
NHS England has asked all systems to review their community mental health services, to ensure that they have clear policies and practice in place for patients with serious mental illness, who require intensive community treatment and follow-up, but where engagement is a challenge. NHS England will provide national guidance to support reviews, which will be completed by Autumn 2024. NHS England will consider further steps as appropriate, following the completion of the reviews.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of ensuring that rehabilitation is given an equal status in healthcare as to medicine and surgery.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ensuring that patients have access to effective rehabilitation is a priority for the Government. NHS England published its intermediate care framework for rehabilitation, reablement and recovery following hospital discharge, to help ensure high quality step-down care, in September 2023. Implementation of the framework aims to improve patient experience and outcomes. It should also improve patient flow, and free up National Health Service hospital capacity for those who need it most.
A new community rehabilitation and reablement model was published alongside the framework. It focuses on how systems should use the workforce effectively, put patients and families at the centre of discussions, and ensure any transition points will be as seamless as possible. Integrated care systems, commissioners, and providers should work together with social care partners to implement the recommended actions.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that intensive care units have a full complement of rehabilitation staff.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local trusts are responsible for planning their service capacity to meet expected demand.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. Backed by over £2.4 billion, the LTWP will significantly expand education and training places, including of allied health professionals.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many times she has met with the Community Rehabilitation Alliance since her appointment.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care meets regularly with external stakeholders, and ministerial meetings are published on the GOV.UK website on a quarterly basis.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to enable second opinions in mental health settings.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The second opinion appointed doctor (SOAD) service safeguards the rights of patients subject to the Mental Health Act in specific circumstances. A SOAD is an independent doctor appointed by the Care Quality Commission, who gives a second opinion on whether certain types of medical treatment for a mental disorder should be given without the patient’s consent. SOADs are consulted in certain circumstances when a patient refuses treatment, or is too ill or otherwise incapable of giving consent. Outside of these specific circumstances, if an individual disagrees with their doctor about a mental health diagnosis or treatment, they can ask for a second opinion, although there is no legal right to one.
Good Medical Practice, from the General Medical Council (GMC), sets out the standards of care and behaviour expected of all medical doctors practising in the United Kingdom. It states that doctors must recognise a patient’s right to choose whether to accept their advice, and respect a patient’s right to seek a second opinion. The GMC is an independent regulator, and is responsible for operational maters including any assessment of its policies and guidance. Managing second opinion requests is the responsibility of local National Health Service organisations.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the geographical coverage of bereavement services; and whether she has identified (a) geographical, (b) socio-economic and (c) protected characteristic inequalities in the coverage of such services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No assessment has been made of the adequacy of geographical coverage of bereavement services, nor of the geographical, socioeconomic or protected characteristic inequalities in the coverage of such services. The Government wants people to be able to access the bereavement support they need, when they need it. We strongly encourage anyone struggling with bereavement, no matter how long after loss, to contact their general practitioner who can help provide support, signpost to specialist bereavement support charities, or make a referral to a counsellor.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to (a) commission and (b) access scientific studies on the (i) physical and (ii) psychological impact of vaping (A) non nicotine and (B) nicotine products.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The health advice is clear, if you don’t smoke, don’t vape, and children should never vape. Vaping can play a role in helping adult smokers to quit, but the Government is concerned about the worrying rise in vaping among children, with youth vaping tripling in the last three years and one in five children having now used a vape.
Using the best available evidence is central to the development of regulations and requirements regarding vapes. This includes evidence on the health harms from vaping, both nicotine and non-nicotine vapes, in the short, medium, and long term. We monitor and assess the emerging international research, as can be seen in Public Health England’s Nicotine Vaping in England reports, and work closely with the academic and scientific community to interrogate the data on the physical and psychological effects of vaping and smoking.
We are also keen to ensure that we play an active role in driving forward the knowledge around longer-term health harms. As part of this, we are actively exploring options to partner with research bodies and commission research. We will provide more detail in due course.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of harm reduction approaches for people using tobacco and vaping products to end their dependencies.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, and causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK. It also costs our country £17 billion a year, and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. Smoking is an addiction and there is no liberty in addiction. It causes harm to not only to the smoker but to the whole of society. That is why we have introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, to create the first smokefree generation and enable us to further crack down on youth vaping. In addition, we are investing an additional £70 million per year, over five years, to support local authority commissioned stop smoking services. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is available at the following link:
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3703.
Quitting smoking completely, immediately, and permanently is the best thing a smoker can do for their health, and smokers are three times as likely to succeed with stop smoking services (SSS) when compared to an unsupported quit attempt. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published recommendations on supporting people who do not want, or are not ready, to stop smoking in one go, to reduce the harm from smoking. The NICE’s guidance advises that the health benefits from reducing smoking are unclear, but if smokers reduce their smoking now, they are more likely to stop smoking in the future.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to increase health literacy for services to support people at the end of life.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service website and the NHS App are our main digital tools available to citizens, to support them in accessing services and making decisions about their health. Clinicians across the NHS also support patients’ health literacy by providing clear information, increasing patients’ knowledge, and sharing decision-making on their care.
Additionally, through the Voluntary Community Social Enterprise (VCSE) Health and Wellbeing Programme, the Department, NHS England, and the UK Health Security Agency work together with VCSE organisations to drive transformation of health and care systems, promote equality, address health inequalities, and help people, families, and communities to achieve and maintain wellbeing. The current projects include increasing health literacy through intersectional considerations at the end of life, digital inclusion, and barriers for those likely to be in the last year of life without a life-limiting diagnosis.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that best practice in palliative and end of life care is shared across the NHS.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that access to high-quality palliative and end of life care can make all the difference to individuals and their loved ones. NHS England meets regularly with regional and system leaders, providing a forum for the sharing of best practice. In addition, there is a palliative and end of life care workspace available on the FutureNHS Collaborative Platform, which includes a range of resources, case studies, and discussion fora, with access to the platform available for anyone with a NHS.net email account.
NHS England has developed a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of their local population, enabling integrated care boards (ICBs) to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities, and ensure that funding is distributed fairly, based on prevalence.
As of April 2024, NHS England is including palliative and end of life care in the list of topics for regular performance discussions between national and regional leads. These meetings will provide an additional mechanism for supporting ICBs to continue improving palliative and end of life care for their local population.
The Ambitions Framework, refreshed by the National Palliative and End of Life Care Partnership, which is made up of NHS England and 34 partner organisations with experience of, and responsibility for, end of life care, sets out the vision to improve end of life care through partnership and collaborative action between organisations at local level throughout England, by setting out six key ambitions.
Furthermore, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance and quality standards on end of life care for adults, and children and young people. These are based on best practice in developing and delivering care and, while not statutory, there is an expectation that commissioners and service providers take the guidelines into account when making decisions about how to best meet the needs of their local communities.