Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many practising GPs there were in (a) Jarrow constituency and (b) South Tyneside in each of the last five years.
Answered by Steve Brine
The number of general practitioners (GP) (headcount), excluding retainers, registrars and locums, for NHS South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group is available in the following table. Figures are not available for Jarrow. Due to changes in the data source, comparisons before and after 2015 should be treated with caution.
Census Date | All GPs (excluding registrars, retainers and locums) |
September 2013 | 105 |
September 2014 | 110 |
September 2015 | 96 |
September 2016 | 97 |
September 2017 | 97 |
March 2018 | 95 |
Source: NHS Digital
Notes:
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people in (a) Jarrow constituency and (b) South Tyneside have access to an adequate number of GP surgeries; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Brine
The average waiting time for a general practitioner (GP) appointment is not collected or held centrally. In the 2018 GP patient survey 61.6% 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.
The Government has committed to improving access to general practice services by 2019. This includes ensuring there are sufficient routine appointments available at evenings and weekends to meet locally determined demand, alongside effective access to out of hours and urgent care services. The latest National Health Service planning guidance, issued by NHS England in February 2018, requires clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to provide extended access to general practice to their whole population by 1 October 2018, to ensure additional capacity is in place ahead of winter 2018.
The General Practice Forward View (GP Forward View), published in April 2016, commits to increasing investment in General Practice by £2.4 billion a year by 2020/21 from £9.7 billion in 2015/16 to over £12 billion by 2020/21 – a 14% real-terms increase. This investment will improve patient care and access, and facilitate new ways of providing primary care.
Commissioners of primary medical care services monitor practice catchment areas to ensure that all areas of the country have primary medical care cover, and through an annual review of every primary medical care contract are aware of local primary medical care capacity and how this meets demand.
Practices are funded on a weighted population basis and therefore, where populations grow gradually, practices receive additional investment to take on new patients which allows them to grow to maintain services for patients. There has been a national trend in practices becoming larger, employing more staff and operating with a more diverse workforce in order to meet rising demand.
NHS South Tyneside CCG advises it has a number of schemes in place which maximise the availability of GP appointments. This includes support to diversify the workforce, a well-developed “Think Pharmacy First” scheme in South Tyneside community pharmacies and an extended access service which has offered approximately 15,000 additional appointments over the last nine months. Electronic consultations are also currently being piloted in the area.
NHS England Cumbria and the North East advises it also has a number of schemes in place to increase capacity in general practice. This includes a pilot of a tool to analyse workforce, capacity and demand and some CCGs are offering online consultations with more practices due to offer this service later this year. 45 practices have also received funding through the national resilience programme and the CCG has acquired funding for up to 25 GPs to take part in the Local GP Retention Fund to support retention of the workforce.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time to see a GP in (a) Jarrow constituency, and (b) South Tyneside, (c) Tyne and Wear, (d) the North East and (e) England was in each year since 2010.
Answered by Steve Brine
The average waiting time for a general practitioner (GP) appointment is not collected or held centrally. In the 2018 GP patient survey 61.6% 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.
The Government has committed to improving access to general practice services by 2019. This includes ensuring there are sufficient routine appointments available at evenings and weekends to meet locally determined demand, alongside effective access to out of hours and urgent care services. The latest National Health Service planning guidance, issued by NHS England in February 2018, requires clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to provide extended access to general practice to their whole population by 1 October 2018, to ensure additional capacity is in place ahead of winter 2018.
The General Practice Forward View (GP Forward View), published in April 2016, commits to increasing investment in General Practice by £2.4 billion a year by 2020/21 from £9.7 billion in 2015/16 to over £12 billion by 2020/21 – a 14% real-terms increase. This investment will improve patient care and access, and facilitate new ways of providing primary care.
Commissioners of primary medical care services monitor practice catchment areas to ensure that all areas of the country have primary medical care cover, and through an annual review of every primary medical care contract are aware of local primary medical care capacity and how this meets demand.
Practices are funded on a weighted population basis and therefore, where populations grow gradually, practices receive additional investment to take on new patients which allows them to grow to maintain services for patients. There has been a national trend in practices becoming larger, employing more staff and operating with a more diverse workforce in order to meet rising demand.
NHS South Tyneside CCG advises it has a number of schemes in place which maximise the availability of GP appointments. This includes support to diversify the workforce, a well-developed “Think Pharmacy First” scheme in South Tyneside community pharmacies and an extended access service which has offered approximately 15,000 additional appointments over the last nine months. Electronic consultations are also currently being piloted in the area.
NHS England Cumbria and the North East advises it also has a number of schemes in place to increase capacity in general practice. This includes a pilot of a tool to analyse workforce, capacity and demand and some CCGs are offering online consultations with more practices due to offer this service later this year. 45 practices have also received funding through the national resilience programme and the CCG has acquired funding for up to 25 GPs to take part in the Local GP Retention Fund to support retention of the workforce.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Adjournment debate of 17 July 2018 on Access to Orkambi, Official Report, columns 377-386, if he will take steps to keep hon. Members updated over the summer recess in the event that any progress is made between Vertex and NHS England on making the drug Orkambi available on the NHS for people with Cystic Fibrosis.
Answered by Steve Brine
As was made clear in the Debate on 17 July 2018, Official Report, columns 377-386 Ministers are watching this issue very closely. However, it is vital that we go through the right process. It is the responsibility of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and NHS England, to work together with Vertex to secure the best outcome for patients and a price for Orkambi that is fair and responsible. NHS England and Vertex are therefore responsible for communicating any further information on progress.
It is an important principle that the National Health Service must ensure that healthcare services secure the best value for patients, and that is the approach NHS England is rightly taking. It is disappointing that Vertex has chosen to withdraw from NICE’s technology appraisal of its latest cystic fibrosis medicine, Symkevi, and NICE and NHS England wrote to Vertex on 31 August to signal their continued willingness to meet with Vertex to discuss access to its new cystic fibrosis medicines.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to make access available to drugs for children with rare diseases.
Answered by Steve Brine
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence issues guidance for the National Health Service on whether drugs and other treatments represent an effective use of NHS resources through its technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies programmes, including drugs for children with rare diseases.
Through the Early Access to Medicines Scheme, we are already making important drugs available to patients. So far around 1500 patients have benefited from the scheme, which enables drugs to be used in clinical practice in parallel with later stages of the regulatory process.
We have brought together key government, NHS and industry partners to form the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC), who will drive the update and adoption of innovation in the NHS. The AAC will also oversee the Accelerated Access Pathway, streamlining regulatory and market access decisions.
The UK Strategy for Rare Diseases includes commitments to improving the lives of all patients affected by rare diseases including in areas of identification/ prevention and diagnosis and early intervention. European Reference Networks (ERNs) are a cornerstone of this Strategy. ERNs are virtual networks between expert healthcare providers across EU member states. Their functions are to pool specialist expertise to improve the diagnosis, treatment and care of rare diseases patients across Europe and act as focal points for highly specialist training and research, for example through the facilitation of clinical trials and development of new drugs and treatments.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that there is adequate funding for NHS services in (a) Jarrow constituency and (b) South Tyneside.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The allocation of funding to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) is informed by the estimation of the relative health needs of local areas, based on a formula. The formula is based on independent academic research and includes the factors statistically associated with higher or lower need per head for NHS services.
The funding formula is based on the expected size of the population of each CCG and adjustments, or weights, per head for relative need for health care services and unavoidable costs between CCGs.
The CCG then decides how this funding is deployed across the geography and population for which it is responsible to ensure that the needs of the local population are met.
NHS England meets regularly with each CCG to review its financial position as the year progresses.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2018 to question 141319 on Breast Cancer Screening, what estimate he has made of the number of women have been affected by the NHS breast screening programme failure in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside and (c) the North East.
Answered by Steve Brine
Initial precautionary analysis identified 195,565 women, registered with general practitioners in England, who may not have been sent an invitation for a mammogram between the ages of 68 and up to their 71st birthday. This included:
- 715 women in Jarrow;
- 1,774 women in South Tyneside; and
- 10,224 women in the North East.
Following further detailed record review by Public Health England, using data provided by NHS Digital, 122,726 of these women were confirmed as not having received a screening invitation in the appropriate period. All of these women have already been written to and some of the women contacted have accepted the offer and received their screen.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
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 increase the number of GPs in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside and (c) the North East.
Answered by Steve Brine
South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) supports a number of initiatives to attract general practitioners (GPs) to the region.
The CCG is in the process of developing new career start posts, which will enable newly qualified GPs to apply for supported roles. The GPs will receive mentorship and help to focus on their clinical and personal development, with the hope that GPs will continue into permanent roles within South Tyneside.
In addition, it has been announced that Sunderland University will be opening a medical school in September 2018. The school will specialise in GP and psychiatric training, and it is envisioned that 50 students will enrol in 2019 and 100 new students in 2020. While the students will not be fully qualified GPs for a number of years, the CCG is establishing early links with the medical school, which it hopes will put the CCG in a better position to encourage students to remain within the region once their training is complete.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress has been made on the negotiations between NHS England and Vertex pharmaceuticals on making the drug Orkambi available on the NHS for people diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.
Answered by Steve Brine
In March 2018, NHS England received an outline commercial approach from Vertex. NHS England has advised that discussions are now ongoing between the two organisations about the detail of this proposal. NHS England has been clear that it is willing to take a collaborative and flexible commercial approach with the company as long as they price their products responsibly. The Department supports these negotiations and encourages a fair deal that will provide the best value and outcomes for patients and the National Health Service. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Lord O’Shaughnessy) and I have written to Vertex, the manufacturer of Orkambi, to encourage expedition of the negotiations with NHS England and to set out the need to resolve this matter urgently. A copy of the letter is attached.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timetable is for a decision to be made on the proposed changes to acute services at South Tyneside District Hospital; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Following a referral to him made earlier this month by the South Tyneside and Sunderland Council Joint Health Scrutiny Committee, under S.23 of the Local Authority (Public Health, Health and Wellbeing Boards and Health Scrutiny) Regulations 2013, of the proposed changes to services commissioned by the South Tyneside and Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Groups, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel seeking their expert, independent advice on the concerns raised. An announcement will be made in due course, on receipt of the Panel’s report.