Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans the NHS has to ensure that doctors are made more aware of the symptoms of Williams syndrome and that appropriate medical care and support is offered to people with that disorder.
Answered by David Mowat
Individuals with Williams syndrome will need to be managed by a multidisciplinary team of specialists who can help support their medical, educational and social care needs.
The National Health Service allocates funding to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) based on the needs of their population. Spending on specific conditions is down to local clinical priorities set by the CCGs themselves.
Higher Educational Institutions are responsible for ensuring the programmes they provide allow healthcare students to meet the outcomes set out by the regulators upon graduation.
The medical Royal Colleges have responsibility for developing postgraduate training curricula for doctors for approval by the General Medical Council (GMC).
Health Education England works with regulatory bodies such as the GMC, and the organisations that design curricula such as the medical Royal Colleges, to seek to ensure training meets the needs of patients.
Continuing Professional Development is the responsibility of individual practitioners and their employers.
The Government is working to improve the lives of all those affected by rare diseases through the implementation of the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases published in November 2013. The Strategy includes specific recommendations related to raising awareness of rare diseases and genomics across the healthcare professions. The Government is committed to implementing the Strategy by 2020.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what funding and support the NHS makes available to Williams syndrome patients and their families.
Answered by David Mowat
Individuals with Williams syndrome will need to be managed by a multidisciplinary team of specialists who can help support their medical, educational and social care needs.
The National Health Service allocates funding to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) based on the needs of their population. Spending on specific conditions is down to local clinical priorities set by the CCGs themselves.
Higher Educational Institutions are responsible for ensuring the programmes they provide allow healthcare students to meet the outcomes set out by the regulators upon graduation.
The medical Royal Colleges have responsibility for developing postgraduate training curricula for doctors for approval by the General Medical Council (GMC).
Health Education England works with regulatory bodies such as the GMC, and the organisations that design curricula such as the medical Royal Colleges, to seek to ensure training meets the needs of patients.
Continuing Professional Development is the responsibility of individual practitioners and their employers.
The Government is working to improve the lives of all those affected by rare diseases through the implementation of the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases published in November 2013. The Strategy includes specific recommendations related to raising awareness of rare diseases and genomics across the healthcare professions. The Government is committed to implementing the Strategy by 2020.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will place in the Library the number of A&E admissions for respiratory conditions in each month of financial year (a) 2015-16, (b) 2014-15, (c) 2013-14, (d) 2012-13 and (e) 2011-12.
Answered by David Mowat
The following table shows the number of attendances at accident and emergency (A&E) departments with a primary diagnosis of respiratory conditions in each month for the years between 2011-12 and 2015-16.
Count of the number of A&E attendances with a primary diagnosis of respiratory conditions, for each of the years between 2011-12 and 2015-16. |
| 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 |
April | 37,546 | 43,051 | 46,535 | 47,303 | 48,869 |
May | 33,758 | 43,899 | 42,281 | 46,452 | 45,873 |
June | 31,019 | 41,083 | 36,435 | 40,211 | 40,971 |
July | 31,026 | 45,978 | 35,884 | 37,353 | 40,622 |
August | 28,476 | 32,444 | 29,760 | 32,824 | 37,342 |
September | 33,524 | 40,523 | 41,191 | 40,228 | 49,217 |
October | 42,256 | 48,595 | 47,695 | 47,952 | 59,696 |
November | 47,571 | 53,660 | 52,254 | 58,368 | 66,932 |
December | 58,664 | 70,923 | 67,131 | 87,073 | 74,350 |
January | 49,206 | 55,213 | 51,542 | 60,793 | 71,509 |
February | 49,494 | 49,492 | 47,364 | 49,888 | 65,763 |
March | 48,286 | 54,158 | 50,249 | 54,256 | 74,935 |
Total | 490,826 | 579,019 | 548,321 | 602,701 | 676,079 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital
Notes:
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to provide funding to ensure that patient treatment is not affected during the assessment period for Selective Internal Radiation Therapy in the Commissioning through Evaluation process.
Answered by David Mowat
Commissioning through Evaluation is an innovative programme, established by NHS England, to gather new evidence on treatments that are currently not routinely funded by the National Health Service but nonetheless show significant potential promise for the future.
Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT) has not been routinely funded by the NHS in England due to the currently limited evidence base on the clinical and cost effectiveness of the procedure. If new evidence becomes available and NHS England determines that SIRT should be made routinely available in the NHS in the future, it would formally assess any implementation requirements (including training, mandatory standards for commissioned centres etc.) at that point as part of the associated Commissioning Plan.
SIRT is available via Individual Funding Requests.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what criteria NHS England uses to reach a decision on whether a procedure is included in the Commissioning through Evaluation process.
Answered by David Mowat
Commissioning through Evaluation is an innovative programme, established by NHS England, to gather new evidence on treatments that are currently not routinely funded by the National Health Service but nonetheless show significant potential promise for the future.
Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT) has not been routinely funded by the NHS in England due to the currently limited evidence base on the clinical and cost effectiveness of the procedure. If new evidence becomes available and NHS England determines that SIRT should be made routinely available in the NHS in the future, it would formally assess any implementation requirements (including training, mandatory standards for commissioned centres etc.) at that point as part of the associated Commissioning Plan.
SIRT is available via Individual Funding Requests.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate the (a) set-up and (b) training costs of the Selective Internal Radiation Therapy procedure.
Answered by David Mowat
Commissioning through Evaluation is an innovative programme, established by NHS England, to gather new evidence on treatments that are currently not routinely funded by the National Health Service but nonetheless show significant potential promise for the future.
Selective Internal Radiation Therapy (SIRT) has not been routinely funded by the NHS in England due to the currently limited evidence base on the clinical and cost effectiveness of the procedure. If new evidence becomes available and NHS England determines that SIRT should be made routinely available in the NHS in the future, it would formally assess any implementation requirements (including training, mandatory standards for commissioned centres etc.) at that point as part of the associated Commissioning Plan.
SIRT is available via Individual Funding Requests.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what analysis the Department has undertaken to assess the reasons for the time taken between a patient being cleared to be discharged from hospital and that discharge taking place.
Answered by Philip Dunne
A delayed transfer of care from acute or non-acute care occurs when a patient is ready to depart from such care and is still occupying a bed. A patient is ready for transfer when both a clinical decision and a multi-disciplinary team decision has been made that the patient is ready for transfer, and the patient is safe to discharge or transfer.
NHS England publishes data at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/delayed-transfers-of-care/
on the number of patients delayed on the last Thursday of each month and the total delayed days during the month for all patients delayed throughout the month. These data show the agency responsible for the delay (National Health Service, local authority, or both), and the reason for the delay.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of patients who used accident and emergency services in England were not registered with a GP or primary care provider; and how many of those patients were non-UK nationals in each year from 2010 to 2015.
Answered by David Mowat
The attached document shows the following information:
- Total count of Unplanned A&E Attendances in each year
- A count of attendances where the patient GP Practice has been recorded as V81997 - No registered GP Practice, broken down by the Commissioning Region of residence of the patient for each year.
This data does not represent the number of patients, as an individual may have more than one attendance at accident and emergency in any given period.
Please be aware of the following when interpreting the data:
The Commissioning Region of residence is derived from the patient’s postcode of home address. A default value can be used to identify records where the patient is not normally resident in the United Kingdom. Where the postcode recorded is invalid or left blank the Commissioning Region will be recorded as Unknown.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has plans for routine screening for vitamin B12 deficiency in pregnancy.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has not reviewed the evidence for screening pregnant women for vitamin B12 deficiency. Following a review of the UK NSC in 2014/15 the UK NSC is now carrying out a call for new screening proposals. Information on how to submit a screening proposal to the UK NSC is available on their website:
Information on vitamin B12 deficiency is available on the NHS Choices website and can be accessed using the following link:
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Anaemia-vitamin-B12-and-folate-deficiency/Pages/Symptoms.aspx
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve education for health professionals on screening, diagnosis and effective individual treatment for Vitamin B12 deficiency; and whether his Department has plans to include serum B12 in full blood count screening.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The diagnosis and treatment for B12 deficiencies is well established and reported in the British Committee for Standards in Haematology (BCSH) guidance document, ‘Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of Cobalamin and Folate disorders’. The guidance was last updated in May 2014 and can be found at the following link:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjh.12959/epdf
The BCSH provides up to date advice to both clinical and laboratory haematologists on the diagnosis and treatment of haematological disease by the production of evidence-based guidelines. The Committee operates independently of Department and NHS England and produces evidence based guidelines for both clinical and laboratory haematologists on the diagnosis and treatment of haematological disease, drawing on the advice of expert consultants and clinical scientists practicing in the United Kingdom. It would be for the BCSH, not the Department, to consider whether any adjustments to current best practice, were needed.
A full blood count is not intended as a diagnosis tool for specific health conditions. The test assesses a number of different components in the blood, including red blood cell count, haemoglobin levels and platelet levels and is designed to help a clinician assess the overall health of the patient as part of the overall clinical picture. However, the test often gives important clues to specific conditions and this can help doctors to reach a diagnosis, alongside any other tests or investigations the doctor thinks necessary. For example, it can detect anaemia, which is symptom of B12 deficiency.