Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many healthcare staff working at (a) hospitals and (b) medical centres in Cornwall have reported being physically assaulted in (i) 2015, (ii) 2016, and (iii) 2017.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Data on the number of healthcare staff who have reported being physically assaulted is not collected centrally nor is data collected by calendar year.
NHS Protect’s “reported physical assaults on National Health Service staff” for 2015/16 showed 747 in total for Royal Cornwall Hospital NHS Trust, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Peninsula Community Health Interest Company. Of these physical assaults, 652 involved medical factors1 and 95 did not. Information on whether physically assaulted NHS staff were working at hospitals or medical centres managed by these organisations is not recorded separately.
Employers working alongside local police are responsible for protecting their staff. There has been no central data collection since 2016. The Department is working with NHS England and NHS Improvement on new arrangements to support NHS and primary care employers to “…take vigorous and immediate action against those who abuse or attack the people who work for and make our NHS”.
Note:
1Assaults involving medical factors are the number of physical assaults where the perpetrator did not know what they were doing, or did not know what they were doing was wrong due to medical illness, mental ill health, severe learning disability or treatment administered.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of eating disorder services for children and young people in Cornwall.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Cornwall Council are responsible for assessing the health needs of children and young people in Cornwall. The two organisations produced a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Transformation Plan in 2017 to transform the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
The THRIVE framework set out in the transformation plan has so far achieved a new alliance style contract signed between Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Kernow Health CiC (a general practitioner community interest company) and the Royal Cornwall NHS Hospital Trust to provide a new single pathway eating disorder service. This is a new service specification, agreed by partners, to meet access and waiting time standards by 2020. Recruitment has commenced to fill posts for the service, including a lead eating disorder paediatrician to coordinate physical health assessments and local in patient care and an additional 3.4 whole time equivalent staff into the service. CAMHS transformation funds committed for the part year 2016/17 amount to £176,000.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) crutches, (b) walking frames, (c) wheelchairs and (d) similar items are recycled for use by more than one patient.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Data on the reuse or recycling of such items is not held centrally. Recycling practices are decided locally between the relevant providers and commissioners, though there is a responsibility on National Health Service trusts to make the best use of all resources and items including recycling and reuse of aids where it is safe and cost effective to do so.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to simplify funding streams for general practice.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England is responsible for payments to general practices for the provision of National Health Service primary medical services. The majority of general practitioner practices operate under General Medical Service (GMS) contract arrangements. Typically, at least half of the money that a GMS practice receives is in the form of the ‘global sum’, derived through the Carr-Hill Formula.
NHS England is working with the British Medical Association to review the Carr-Hill funding formula for general practice and has begun a review of the Quality and Outcomes Framework. Implementation of any changes will need careful planning so that they do not threaten stability or cause financial uncertainty for practices.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will mandate junior doctors to work in the NHS for at least one year after completion of training.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
In March 2017, the Government consulted on the expansion of undergraduate medical education, confirming proposals to increase the number of places at English medical schools by 1,500, with students starting to take up additional places from September 2018.
The consultation also explored ways to ensure a return on the sums of money the taxpayer invests in a doctor’s training, for example by asking them to serve the National Health Service for a number of years after they graduate.
In August 2017, the Government response to the consultation confirmed that Health Education England would consider how best taxpayer investment can be maximised and to report back by spring 2018.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what processes his Department has in place to make sure that patients access the correct health services to reduce unnecessary A&E admissions.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
‘Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View’ sets out a plan to better integrate general practitioner (GP), community, mental health and hospital services and work more closely with home care and care homes so that people avoid hospital stays where possible.
NHS England is driving forward health service transformation through new care models such as the Primary Care Home, which brings together a range of health and social care professionals to provide enhanced personalised and preventative care for their local community and through the Enhanced Health in Care Homes vanguards which are working with care homes to provide joined up primary, community and secondary care, and social care to residents of care and nursing homes, via a range of in reach services.
The Better Care Fund (BCF) has incentivised local areas to work together better, pooling budgets to join up health and care services. As part of the BCF funding requirements, local areas have to produce data to show that they are reducing the number of unplanned acute admissions to hospital.
By March 2019 the whole of England will be covered by a fully Integrated Urgent Care Service which will improve patient access to services that include evening and weekend appointments with GPs and a clinical advice and treatment service accessed through the NHS 111 telephone number to ensure that patients receive timely treatment advice.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the use of blockchain technology on strengthening security for patient information and medical files.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department is currently assessing the potential benefits of Blockchain, which include offering patients more direct control over access to their medical records.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
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 accessibility of radiotherapy in rural areas as a result of NHS England's plan to modernise radiotherapy services.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England is currently engaged in a public consultation to establish 11 radiotherapy networks across England. The aim of their proposals is to encourage radiotherapy providers to work together in networks and across organisational boundaries to concentrate expertise and improve pathways for patients requiring radical radiotherapy for the less common and rarer cancers. This will help to increase access to more innovative radiotherapy treatments, increase clinical trial recruitment and optimise utilisation of radiotherapy equipment, securing greater value for money. Once established, radiotherapy networks will be required to review service provision on a regular basis, explore the differential access rates across the geography and take account of specific issues relating to rural communities. They will also be required to consider how to address any shortcomings, including; outreach out-patient oncology clinics, preferential access to clinic appointments and treatments to allow for limited public transport, reviewing opportunities for better hospital transport and the use of telephone consultations when appropriate.
The consultation period has been extended until 24 January 2018 and views can be fed into the online survey:
https://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/consultation/radiotherapy-service-specification-consultation/
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many households have signed up to the Shared Lives initiative in (a) England and (b) North Cornwall constituency.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to increase capacity in general practice in (a) North Cornwall and (b) Cornwall.
Answered by Steve Brine
The General Practice Forward View set out a package of investment in general practice, including reforms to increase capacity, such as recruitment and retention initiatives, extended access and the Time for Care programme.
By 2020, the Government has committed to 5,000 additional doctors in general practice and 5,000 other staff in general practice; and by March 2019 everyone having improved access to general practitioner services, including sufficient routine appointments at evenings and weekends to meet locally determined demand.
Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the Devon CCGs that it borders are working collaboratively with NHS England, ensuring that CCG boundaries are not a barrier to improving patient care and providing a stable and sustainable platform for primary care.
Local sharing of learning is taking place from progressive practices, such as St Austell Healthcare, where work at scale has seen the introduction of innovations such as the split of sites for on-the-day and ongoing care, access to a wider range of support staff and space for outpatient appointments.
NHS England is also continuing to support projects through the Estates and Technology Transformation Fund (ETTF) to increase physical capacity and efficiency. Schemes include the expansion of Launceston Medical Centre in North Cornwall. A third party developer is progressing to an exchange on a strip of land behind the surgery for early in the new year, after which the practice will be able to take forward plans for an extension to the surgery (part-funded by a grant from the ETTF).
There is a national NHS England scheme to recruit clinical pharmacists to general practice, so patients can get expert advice on medications. Five practices in the Truro area are among practices to benefit.