Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average turnaround time is for applications to the National Dental Performers List since that service has been taken over by Capita.
Answered by David Mowat
NHS England holds the contract with Capita for the administration of Primary Care Support Services, including the National Dental Performers List. NHS England has informed us that that it does not hold information on the average turnaround time for applications to join the National Dental Performers List. There is an expectation that applications should take 12 weeks to process but for some applications it can take longer. The Performers List process checks that applicants have the correct evidence to ensure that safeguards are in place for the protection of the public.
Service standards set in the Capita contract are a matter for NHS England as the contract holder. NHS England advises the contract contains a range of remedies to incentivise and address performance. These include the application of financial service credits where agreed levels of performance are not achieved and rectification processes to affect improvement in service performance where this falls below expected levels.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what service standard his Department has set Capita for the average turnaround time for applications to the National Dental Performers List; and what penalties are in place in the event that those standards are not achieved.
Answered by David Mowat
NHS England holds the contract with Capita for the administration of Primary Care Support Services, including the National Dental Performers List. NHS England has informed us that that it does not hold information on the average turnaround time for applications to join the National Dental Performers List. There is an expectation that applications should take 12 weeks to process but for some applications it can take longer. The Performers List process checks that applicants have the correct evidence to ensure that safeguards are in place for the protection of the public.
Service standards set in the Capita contract are a matter for NHS England as the contract holder. NHS England advises the contract contains a range of remedies to incentivise and address performance. These include the application of financial service credits where agreed levels of performance are not achieved and rectification processes to affect improvement in service performance where this falls below expected levels.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the current availability of palbociclib is on the NHS; and what steps are being taken to ensure that all breast cancer patients who would benefit from that drug are able to access it.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence are currently reviewing the evidence for palbociclib in combination with an aromatase inhibitor for treating hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative, locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer in adults. Their draft guidance was out to consultation until 24 February. Stakeholders were encouraged to respond to the consultation.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are being taken to ensure that NHS staff are aware of the stopping over-medication of people with a learning disability pledge; and what steps are being taken to ensure that people with autism or a learning disability are not prescribed unnecessary antipsychotic or antidepressant drugs.
Answered by David Mowat
Through the ‘Stopping Over-Medication of People with Learning Disabilities’ (STOMP) initiative, NHS England and its partners are taking a number of actions to raise awareness and influence the behaviours of professionals in relation to the prescribing of unnecessary antipsychotic or antidepressant drugs.
The Royal Colleges of Psychiatry, Nursing and General Practitioners; Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the British Psychological Society have all undertaken a range of activity in this regard, including audits and the publication of guidance and other materials to promote STOMP to their members.
The Care Quality Commission is undertaking work to equip inspection teams with the awareness, knowledge and tools to assess whether good prescribing practice takes place in services that it regulates.
A STOMP pledge for social care providers and a self-assessment tool will published by the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group during March, with sign up to the pledge expected from across the sector. Additionally, a STOMP pledge is being developed and piloted with healthcare providers, which is expected to be rolled out generally across National Health Service and independent sector providers in summer 2017.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether (a) NHS England, (b) his Department and (c) other bodies for which his Department is responsible has issued guidance to hospitals on whether they must seek consent from women who have experienced a miscarriage before tissue from the miscarriage is sent for analysis.
Answered by David Mowat
The Human Tissue Act 2004 introduced a regulatory framework for the removal, storage and use of human tissue. Fetal tissue is regarded as the mother’s tissue and is consequently subject to the same consent requirements for analysis under the Act, as would apply to all other tissue taken for diagnostic or treatment purposes. The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) publishes codes of practice that provide guidance to professionals carrying out activities lying within the HTA’s remit, including ‘Code of Practice 1, Consent1 ’. This recommends that ‘whenever possible, the consent process for the examination of stillbirths and neonatal deaths involves the mother…’.
Neither NHS England nor the Department has issued relevant guidance additional to that provided by through the HTA’s Codes of Practice.
Note:
1 Code of Practice 1, Consent, published by the Human Tissue Authority (as updated) July 2014, available at:
https://www.hta.gov.uk/guidance-professionals/codes-practice/code-practice-1-consent
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will publish (a) the names of heads of sustainability and transformation plans who have financial interests in or links to private healthcare companies or consultancies and (b) a full declaration of those interests.
Answered by David Mowat
The names of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) footprint leads are available at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/stps/view-stps/
Declarations of interest details for the STP leaders will be available on the individual websites/annual reports of the organisations by which they are substantively employed.
Those involved in the STP process have to adhere to the conflict of interest guidance for the organisation by whom they are substantively employed. For clinical commissiong groups, guidance is available at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/pc-co-comms/coi/
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the Government's policy is on whether people tasked with drawing up sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) are permitted to have business interests which mean they could profit from healthcare privatisation, or otherwise be financially affected by the measures set out in the STPs.
Answered by David Mowat
The names of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) footprint leads are available at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/stps/view-stps/
Declarations of interest details for the STP leaders will be available on the individual websites/annual reports of the organisations by which they are substantively employed.
Those involved in the STP process have to adhere to the conflict of interest guidance for the organisation by whom they are substantively employed. For clinical commissiong groups, guidance is available at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/pc-co-comms/coi/
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department made an assessment of the potential effect on public trust in medical confidentiality of the continued dissemination of the hospital data of those patients who had opted out of such dissemination.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Building public trust in how the health and care system uses personal confidential information is key to unlocking the potential benefits that this information can bring, and this trust is dependent on the public knowing how and why their information is used and what choices they have.
That is why my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State commissioned the National Data Guardian for Health and Care, Dame Fiona Caldicott, to undertake an independent review of data security, consent and opt-outs, which was published on 6 July 2016. A public consultation closed on 7 September 2016 and the Government response to the consultation will be published shortly.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when and by whom the decision was made to continue to disseminate the data of those people who opted out of the commercial dissemination of hospital episode statistics.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
No such decision has been made, with regards to personal confidential information.
NHS Digital, in accordance with section 122 of the Care Act 2014, only disseminates anonymised data where it will be for the purposes of the provision of health care or adult social care, or the promotion of health.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 30 November 2016 to Question 54228, whether he intends to respond to the finding of Breast Cancer Now that three in four UK Breast cancer oncologists are unable to prescribe bisphosphonates due to funding issues and the lack of a clear commissioning pathway.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Manual for Prescribed Specialised Services 2016/17 describes which elements of specialised services are commissioned by NHS England and which by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). For specialist cancer services, the Manual makes clear that CCGs are responsible for commissioning adjuvant drug treatments, for example, drugs affecting bone metabolism including bisphosphonates. The Manual is available at:
www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2016/06/pss-manual-may16.pdf
Decisions about the commissioning and funding of bisphosphonates for the treatment and prevention of secondary breast cancer are taken by local CCGs which are best placed to know what local need exists.