Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
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 progress of talks on procuring medicines between the NHS and Bio Marin.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
We have made no such assessment. Discussions about commercial agreements for medicines are rightly held between NHS England as an independent body and the manufacturer concerned. The Department plays no role in such discussions.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps he is taking to improve support and treatment for people with a gambling addiction.
Answered by Matt Hancock
We want to reduce gambling-related harm, protect the vulnerable and make sure that those experiencing problems are getting the help they need. The NHS Long Term Plan set out our commitment to invest in expanding National Health Service specialist clinics to help more people with serious gambling problems.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
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 implications for his policies of the recent Care Quality Commission rating of the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) latest inspection rating report of the Trust, published on 7 February, assesses the Trust as ‘Good’ overall. This is an improvement to the previous CQC rating.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many foreign nationals from (a) EU and (b) non-EU countries are employed by Gloucestershire’s NHS Trusts.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics and the following table shows all staff employed in Gloucestershire’s National Health Service trusts by nationality, as at 31 March 2018, headcount.
Headcount | |
All nationalities | 10,129 |
of which: | |
United Kingdom | 6,031 |
European Union (excluding UK) | 284 |
European Economic Area | 2 |
Rest of the World | 285 |
Unknown | 3,529 |
Source: NHS HCHS monthly workforce statistics, NHS Digital
There are over 3,500 unknown NHS staff records in Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust and Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with people choosing not to specify their nationality or not asked to. Nationality is self-reported and may be a reflection of cultural heritage rather than country of birth.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what target his Department has set for receiving a GP appointment; and what the average waiting time is for a GP appointment in (a) England and (b) Gloucestershire in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Steve Brine
The average waiting time for a general practitioner (GP) appointment is not collected or held centrally. In the 2017 GP patient survey 70.8% of respondents (who could remember whether or not they were able to get an appointment, and when they wanted the appointment) stated they saw or spoke to someone at a time they wanted to or sooner. NHS England is working with NHS Digital to consider ways of improving the availability and quality of GP data, including waiting times data.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many nurses were employed by NHS Trusts in Gloucestershire in the last financial year; and how many nurses (a) left and (b) retired in that time period.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, but not staff working in primary care or in general practitioner surgeries, local authorities or other providers.
As at March 2018, there are 2,433 full time equivalent (FTE) nurses and health visitors employed in National Health Service trusts in Gloucestershire, 22 FTE more than in March 2017.
The following table shows how many nurses and health visitors were employed by NHS Trusts in Gloucestershire and how many left and specified retirement as their reason for leaving within the last financial year, headcount.
| 31 March 2017 – 31 March 2018 |
Joiners | 394 |
Leavers, of which | 375 |
Leavers due to retirement reasons | 69 |
Source: NHS Digital, NHS HCHS workforce statistics.
Gloucestershire NHS Trusts include Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust and Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many foreign nationals from (a) EU and (b) non-EU countries are employed by Gloucestershire’s NHS Trusts.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics and the following table shows all staff employed in Gloucestershire’s National Health Service trusts by nationality, as at 31 March 2018, headcount.
Headcount | |
All nationalities | 10,129 |
of which: | |
United Kingdom | 6,031 |
European Union (excluding UK) | 284 |
European Economic Area | 2 |
Rest of the World | 285 |
Unknown | 3,529 |
Source: NHS HCHS monthly workforce statistics, NHS Digital
There are over 3,500 unknown NHS staff records in Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust and Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with people choosing not to specify their nationality or not asked to. Nationality is self-reported and may be a reflection of cultural heritage rather than country of birth.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many students have applied to courses starting in Autumn (a) 2017 and (b) 2018 to be a Nursing Associate in (i) Gloucester and (ii) England.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Recruitment data provided by Health Education England from the Bristol Online Survey completed in May 2017 shows 264 nursing associate applications in Gloucester. Nationally there were 8,003 Nursing Associate applications in 2017.
Of these applicants, 2,023 nursing associate trainees in total were recruited in England in 2017, of these 33 were within Gloucester.
Figures for 2018 applications and start numbers are not yet available.
Broadening routes into nursing is a priority for the Department. Following the success of the first year of nursing associate pilot programmes, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced in October 2017 plans to train 5,000 nursing associates through the apprentice route in 2018 and a further 7,500 in 2019.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many students have (a) applied to and (b) been accepted into nursing degree courses in Gloucester in each of the last five years.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Department is not responsible for collecting data on the number of applications to study nursing degree courses.
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service publishes data on the number of applications to full-time undergraduate courses. Further information is available at:
In order to meet the growing need to increase the future supply of registered nurses, additional clinical placement funding was announced by the Department in August and October 2017. This will enable around 5,000 more nursing students to enter training each year from September 2018; an historic 25% increase.
Broadening routes into nursing is a priority for the Department. That is why we have developed the new nursing associate role and the Nurse Degree Apprenticeship which will open up routes into the registered nursing profession for thousands of people from all backgrounds and allow employers to grow their own workforce.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department plans to extend the smoking ban to include NHS hospital premises.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Department supports the implementation of smokefree policies across all hospitals in England. The Government published the Tobacco Control Plan on 18 July 2017, which outlines the ambition of achieving a smoke free National Health Service estate by 2020.