Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government has assessed the effect of vaping on second-hand smoke inhalers; and what steps his Department is considering to tackle those potential effects.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England (PHE) published its most recent evidence review on e-cigarettes and novel tobacco products on 6 February this year. PHE concluded that “to date there have been no identified health risks of passive vaping to bystanders.”
The Department will continue to work with PHE to monitor the evidence base around e-cigarettes. In the Tobacco Control Plan, published in July 2017, PHE committed to update their evidence report on e-cigarettes and other novel nicotine delivery systems annually until the end of the Parliament in 2022.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to improve public awareness of basic life-saving first aid techniques.
Answered by Steve Brine
Information on first aid techniques is available on the NHS Choices website:
https://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/category.aspx?CategoryID=72
NHS organisations may offer first aid courses for businesses, organisations or individuals.
In order to further support the National Health Service and local communities, the Government provided £2 million to make public access defibrillators more widely available and to increase the numbers of people trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The national Public Health England ‘Act FAST’ campaign aims to raise awareness of the symptoms of stroke, teach people what to look out for in themselves and others, and encourage those who notice the symptoms to call 999.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to encourage take-up of the Lyme Disease Action e-learning course amongst primary care practitioners.
Answered by Steve Brine
The e-learning course on Lyme disease co-developed by Lyme Disease Action and the Royal College of General Practitioners is one of a number of resources that exist to support primary care practitioners’ awareness. Primary care practitioners are responsible for their own programme of continuing professional development as required for revalidation. The Government does not endorse one educational opportunity over another.
Public Health England provides information on Lyme disease and tick awareness to the medical profession and holds regular medical training days.
NHS Choices publishes information on its website to raise awareness of Lyme disease to encourage timely medical consultations because early diagnosis and treatment is the best way of limiting complications from infection.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will subsidise GP's indemnity costs; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The cost of indemnity to general practitioners (GPs) is already recognised as a business expense, and reflected in the sums received by GP practices via the GP contract. In recognition of the rising costs of indemnity, NHS England put an extra £30 million in to the GP contract in March 2017 to cover indemnity-related inflation for GPs from 2016-17. A further sum of approximately £30 million will be made available for April 2018.
The change in the personal injury discount rate announced by the former Lord Chancellor (Elizabeth Truss) in February 2017 has significantly increased the cost of claims. The Department is working closely with GPs and Medical Defence Organisations to ensure that appropriate funding is available to meet additional costs to GPs, recognising the crucial role they play in the delivery of National Health Service care.
Asked by: Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to (a) publicise adolescent mental health issues on the internet and (b) support the prevention of adolescent mental health issues arising from social media.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government works with the online sector and other stakeholders to address the impact of potentially harmful content online given that online harms can have a negative effect on individual's mental health.
The Department has invested:
- £3 million in MindEd, an online training platform for professionals working with children and young people to recognise when a child needs mental health support; and
- £12 million between 2016-20 in Time to Change to challenge mental health stigma, which has reached 750,000 children and young people through social marketing campaigns and improved attitudes of over 4.1 million people in England.
Public Health England has also launched Rise Above, a website to build emotional resilience in young people to help deal with the pressures of growing up, including mental health.
The Government expect websites, including social media companies, to respond quickly to reports of harmful content/abusive behaviour on their networks.
The joint Department of Health and Department of Education Green Paper on children and young people’s mental health will consider action to minimise the risks social media poses, whilst maximising its benefits. Work has started on the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport led cross-Government internet safety strategy which will give us the opportunity to consider issues of online safety for children and young people. We are considering how this will be taken forward under the Digital Charter.