Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on how many Army medical forms for (a) full time and (b) reservist recruitments were submitted to GPs in the last 12 months; and what the average length of time was between those forms being (i) submitted and (ii) returned completed in (A) Manchester, (B) the North West and (C) England.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Neither the Department nor NHS England hold central information with regards to the number of Army medical forms submitted to general practices in England in the last 12 months.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to ensure the NHS Federated Data Platform will follow data protection obligations.
Answered by Will Quince
Data processes and systems within the Federated Data Platform (FDP) will need to comply with the Technology Code of Practice, Government Digital Service standards, the Department’s guide to good practice for digital and data-driven health technologies, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the United Kingdom’s General Data Protection Regulation, Information Commissioner’s Office guidance and associated regulations, standards and guidance.
To ensure that the FDP complies, the data sharing approach will consist of: a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for the procurement of the FDP solution; overarching DPIA to articulate the data security and protection principles and lawful bases for deployment; purpose-specific DPIAs, which will be drafted for each use case and will go through the formal approval routes within NHS England prior to roll-out; and a legal mechanism for the sharing and processing of data, to be agreed in consultation with NHS England Information Governance and legal counsel.
The above activities will be concurrent and aligned with the procurement process to ensure data protection by design and default principles are embedded, and there is co-production of the final data sharing approach. This will ensure that the lawful basis for the data sharing is identified, and Common Law Duty of Confidentiality is adhered to for all of the use cases.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's 2023-24 priorities and operational planning guidance published on 27 January 2023, what steps his Department is taking to issue guidance to GPs on best practices for the treatment of conditions which moved to a system of self referral.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The range of options for people to self-refer will streamline access to more services for patients and reduce the need for a general practitioner (GP) appointment where this is not clinically necessary. Integrated care boards will work with local people, GPs, and other stakeholders to ensure they have the relevant information to support self-referral.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to protect immunocompromised people from covid-19.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Individuals who may be at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19 due to a weakened immune system and despite vaccination, remain a priority for the Government. As such they continue to be offered enhanced protections such as treatments, booster vaccines, free lateral flow tests and public health advice.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
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 potential merits of extending eligibility for the Spring 2023 covid-19 booster programme to people living with immunocompromised people.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The primary aim of the COVID-19 vaccination programme is to reduce the risk of severe disease across the population. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice has prioritised the most vulnerable of the clinical risk groups for vaccination in this precautionary Spring 2023 COVID-19 booster programme.
The programme targets those over the age of 75 years and those who are immunosuppressed.
Household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals were eligible in the autumn/winter 2022-2023 booster programme and are likely to benefit as protection against severe COVID-19 disease does persist for a number of months, as shown in analyses of real-world data, previously considered by the JCVI. This data is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccine-weekly-surveillance-reports
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's 2023-24 priorities and operational planning guidance published on 27 January 2023, what estimate his Department made of the potential change in the number of people using NHS audiology services as a result of the introduction of self-referral.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No estimate has been made of the potential change in the number of people using National Health Service audiology services due to the introduction of self-referral. The introduction of self-referral for age-related hearing loss aims to streamline access for patients eligible for NHS audiology services where a general practitioner appointment is not clinically necessary.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's 2023-24 priorities and operational planning guidance, whether the introduction of self-referral to NHS audiology services is in addition to the system of GP referral.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England published its 2023/24 priorities and operational planning guidance to implement the aims of the NHS Long Term Plan. The Plan seeks to expand direct access and self-referral where general practitioner (GP) involvement is not clinically necessary, including audiology services. This is in addition to the system of GP referral.
Expanding direct access and self-referrals empowers patients to take control of their healthcare, streamlines access to services and reduces unnecessary burden on GP appointments.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, following the letter from Councillor Joanne Green dated 16 January 2023, if he will consider meeting with Manchester City Council Health Scrutiny Committee.
Answered by Will Quince
We have received the Councillor’s correspondence of 16 January 2023 and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Royal College of Nursing on nurses industrial action.
Answered by Will Quince
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, and I, met representatives from the Royal College of Nursing several times towards the end of 2022.
Most recently, the Secretary of State wrote to representatives of health unions early in January to invite them to meet to discuss the evidence that the Government will be submitting to the Pay Review Bodies for the 2023-24 pay round. RCN representatives were present at meetings on 9 January and 12 January.
The Government is focused on the 2023-24 pay review process but recognises that despite over one million National Health Service workers receiving a pay rise of at least £1,400 this financial year, global economic headwinds are putting household budgets under pressure, and we are happy to listen to concerns from health unions about this.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to reply to correspondence from the Hon. member for Manchester, Gorton dated 10 November 2022, reference AK55590.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
I replied to the hon. Member on 22 December 2022.