Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will review the Path to Excellence proposals made by South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Partnership.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Any possible reconfiguration of acute services is a matter for the local National Health Service. It is right that these decisions are led by local clinicians, who best understand the healthcare needs of their local populations, and in consultation with local people.
‘The Path to Excellence’ is a five-year transformation of healthcare service across South Tyneside and Sunderland and has been set up to secure the future of local NHS services and to identify new and innovative ways of delivering high quality, joined up, sustainable care that will benefit the local population, both now and in the future.
A consultation to gather public views about the different ways some aspects of NHS hospital services could be arranged in South Tyneside and Sunderland was launched in July 2017 and ended in October 2017. This has focused particularly on choices around areas of hospital care which are delivered at South Tyneside District Hospital and Sunderland Royal Hospital.
No decisions will be made on reconfiguration matters until the responses to ‘The Path to Excellence’ have been thoroughly analysed. Final decisions are expected to be made by South Tyneside and Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Groups in 2018.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the responses to the Path to Excellence proposals made by South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Partnership.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Any possible reconfiguration of acute services is a matter for the local National Health Service. It is right that these decisions are led by local clinicians, who best understand the healthcare needs of their local populations, and in consultation with local people.
‘The Path to Excellence’ is a five-year transformation of healthcare service across South Tyneside and Sunderland and has been set up to secure the future of local NHS services and to identify new and innovative ways of delivering high quality, joined up, sustainable care that will benefit the local population, both now and in the future.
A consultation to gather public views about the different ways some aspects of NHS hospital services could be arranged in South Tyneside and Sunderland was launched in July 2017 and ended in October 2017. This has focused particularly on choices around areas of hospital care which are delivered at South Tyneside District Hospital and Sunderland Royal Hospital.
No decisions will be made on reconfiguration matters until the responses to ‘The Path to Excellence’ have been thoroughly analysed. Final decisions are expected to be made by South Tyneside and Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Groups in 2018.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraph 6.4 of the Autumn Budget 2017, how much of that additional NHS funding in England will be allocated to South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Budget announcement was made on 22 November 2017 containing £3.5 billion of capital investment for buildings and facilities in the National Health Service in England by 2022-23, including £2.6 billion for locally-led Sustainability and Transformation Plans.
The Government has provisionally allocated over £200 million to 12 of the highest quality schemes subject to business case approval. Neither South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust or City Hospitals Sunderland are in the 12 initial schemes, details of which can be found here:
The Department is working with NHS England and NHS Improvement on the detail around how the further funding will be allocated to local areas.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraph 6.8 of the Autumn Budget 2017, how much of the £2.6 billion funding will be allocated as part of the Sustainability and Transformation Plans to (a) South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust and (b) City Hospitals Sunderland.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Budget announcement was made on 22 November 2017 containing £3.5 billion of capital investment for buildings and facilities in the National Health Service in England by 2022-23, including £2.6 billion for locally-led Sustainability and Transformation Plans.
The Government has provisionally allocated over £200 million to 12 of the highest quality schemes subject to business case approval. Neither South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust or City Hospitals Sunderland are in the 12 initial schemes, details of which can be found here:
The Department is working with NHS England and NHS Improvement on the detail around how the further funding will be allocated to local areas.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the financial sustainability of NHS services in (a) Tyne and Wear and (b) South Tyneside.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The National Health Service leadership bodies have developed their own plan for delivering financial balance and sustainability for the NHS. We support that plan and have invested in the NHS to do so, with funding set to increase by £8 billion per year by 2020-21 compared to 2015-16. But it is for local leaders in Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) areas, working together with NHS England and NHS Improvement, to deliver against their own plans to achieve financial sustainability.
We are keenly aware that local issues exist within the national plan, but as with all public services, local NHS areas need to live within their means. NHS England and NHS Improvement will continue to work with areas to balance their financial plans.
Progress is being made. The NHS has worked hard to manage its finances in a challenging period, reporting significant improvements compared to previous years. Nationally, the overall deficit, the size of individual deficits and the number of trusts reporting a deficit, are all significantly down.
We are advised that the financial position of the Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and North Durham STP footprint (which includes both South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust and the broader Tyne and Wear region) is deteriorating versus 2016-17, although Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust are predicted to maintain a substantial, if reduced, surplus.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Path to Excellence proposals made by South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Partnership on (a) service users and (b) the local population for people in (i) Jarrow constituency and (ii) South Tyneside.
Answered by Steve Brine
The ‘Path to Excellence’ is a five-year transformation of healthcare provision across South Tyneside and Sunderland being put forward under their Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs).
The Government has not made a specific assessment on the effect of the ‘Path to Excellence’ proposals made by the Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Partnership on service users or the local population. However, in June 2017, NHS England published an STP dashboard that makes an assessment of all STP performance across England. The STP dashboard can be found here:
The Northumberland, Tyne and Wear STP is rated as category 2 - ‘advanced’ in the published STP dashboard.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will protect South Tyneside Hospital from closure or downgrading.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Decisions about the configuration of National Health Service services are made locally, following public consultation. If proposals are contested, then they may be referred to the Secretary of State for review. The Department cannot therefore comment on proposals, whether actual or hypothetical, outside of that process.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to make the Tyne and Wear Sustainability and Transformation Plan process more accountable and open to the public.
Answered by Steve Brine
It is important that the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) process is accountable and open to the public. It is for local areas to determine how best to do this.
Throughout its development, the Tyne and Wear STP has made efforts to ensure it is accountable and open to the public. For example, between October 2016 and January 2017, the NHS Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group published an STP summary document and presentation slide pack to raise awareness of the proposals, and to listen to any ideas or concerns about the detail of the draft plan.
A dashboard and assessment of STP performance will be published shortly. Local communities can use this as a mechanism for holding the local National Health Service to account.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraph 5.5 of the Spring Budget 2017, how much of the £2 billion fund for councils in England to spend on adult social care services will be allocated to South Tyneside local authority.
Answered by David Mowat
Following the Budget announcements, local authorities in England will receive an additional £2 billion for social care over the next three years. £1 billion of this will be provided in 2017-18, ensuring that councils can start to fund more care packages immediately.
In particular, South Tyneside local authority will receive £8.2 million additional funding for adult social care over three years.
Council-by-council allocations of the additional funding have been published by the Department for Communities and Local Government at:
The additional money will be provided as a grant to each council in England and there are conditions which ensure that it is all spent on adult social care.
Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much NHS funding has been allocated to (a) South Tyneside, (b) the North East and (c) the UK in each year since 1997.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Funding is not allocated by the Department on a regional basis. Overall spending limits are agreed with NHS England and other arm’s length bodies on an annual basis.
National Health Service trusts are not funded directly by the Department. They are semi-autonomous organisations who fund their activity via income derived from the provision of services to commissioners.
Income levels are agreed between local commissioners and providers based on levels of activity within local health economy which are inherently volatile from year to year.
The Department reports total spending incurred each year by bodies within the departmental group for England, in its Annual Report and Accounts. The 2015-16 Department of Health Annual Report and Accounts can be found on the Department’s website via the following link:
Total departmental spending outturns from 2007-08 to 2015-16 can be found on page 178, annex A, Core Table 1.
Spending in the rest of the United Kingdom are a matter for the devolved administrations.