Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
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 (a) heart monitors, (b) TENS machines and (c) mobility aids that are no longer required are returned for use by other patients.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
There is a responsibility on National Health Service trusts to make the very best use of all resources and items where they are safely and legally reusable and returnable.
The policy on the return of equipment is a matter for each individual NHS trust. The policy should be included in the trust’s Sustainable Development Management Plan (SDMP). The publication of a trust’s SDMP is a requirement under Service Condition 18 of the NHS Standard Contract. This should be available for inspection by any member of the public.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to ensure that more medical equipment is returned and reused by other patients; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The return, reuse or recycling of equipment is decided locally between the relevant commissioners and providers of equipment. There is a responsibility on National Health Service trusts to make the best use of all resources and items including recycling and reuse of equipment where it is safe and cost effective to do so.
The Department does not collect data on expenditure on reusable medical equipment and no estimate has been made of these costs.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the cost to the public purse of reusable medical equipment that was not returned in each of the last three years.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The return, reuse or recycling of equipment is decided locally between the relevant commissioners and providers of equipment. There is a responsibility on National Health Service trusts to make the best use of all resources and items including recycling and reuse of equipment where it is safe and cost effective to do so.
The Department does not collect data on expenditure on reusable medical equipment and no estimate has been made of these costs.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what role the General Medical Council plays in (a) assessing and (b) enforcing safeguarding measures put in place by NHS trusts after patients have made serious allegations of sexual assault.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The General Medical Council (GMC) is the independent regulator of medical doctors in the United Kingdom, and is not responsible for assessing or enforcing measures put in place by National Health Service trusts.
All UK registered doctors are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the GMC’s Good Medical Practice. To maintain their licence to practise, a doctor must demonstrate, through the revalidation process, that they work in line with the principles and values set out in this guidance.
If an allegation is made about a doctor that their fitness to practise is impaired, the GMC has a duty to investigate and take action to safeguard the health and well-being of the public. In the most serious cases fitness to practise proceedings can result in doctors being removed from the medical register.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the ability of the General Medical Council (GMC) to investigate concerns about the sexual misconduct of doctors working in the NHS; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of lifting the GMC's five-year rule on investigations relating to such misconduct.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
All United Kingdom registered doctors are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the General Medical Council’s (GMC) Good Medical Practice.
If an allegation of misconduct is made about a doctor who may not meet the professional standards required, the GMC has a duty to investigate and take action to safeguard the health and well-being of the public. In serious cases fitness-to-practise proceedings can result in doctors being removed from the medical register.
The GMC has confirmed that if it considers an allegation to be in the public interest, it will investigate no matter how much time has passed.
Under s.35CC(5) of the Medical Act, an allegation which is more than five years old will only be investigated where it is in the public interest to do so. Five years is considered a reasonable time frame for an allegation to be brought. After that time there may be practical issues for investigation, for example the accessibility of evidence. It would not be appropriate for the regulators to use their resources on cases where there is limited evidence when there is no public interest in investigating.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the ability of General Medical Council to investigate cases of sexual misconduct within the profession.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
All United Kingdom registered doctors are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the General Medical Council’s (GMC) ‘Good Medical Practice’. To maintain their licence to practise, a doctor must demonstrate, through the revalidation process, that they work in line with the principles and values set out in this guidance.
Serious or persistent failure to follow this guidance will put their registration at risk.
In this guidance, the GMC explain how doctors can put these principles into practice, that they must maintain the trust of patients and the public, and must never make a sexual advance towards a patient or display sexual behaviour.
If an allegation is made about a doctor who may not meet the professional standards required, the GMC has a duty to investigate and take action to safeguard the health and well-being of the public. In serious cases fitness-to-practise proceedings can result in doctors being removed from the medical register.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the ability of the General Medical Council to investigate concerns about doctors working in the NHS; and if he will make an assessment of the merits of lifting the GMC's 5-year rule on investigations.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Under s.35CC(5) of the Medical Act, an allegation which is more than five years old will only be investigated by the General Medical Council where it is in the public interest to do so.
Five years is considered a reasonable time frame for an allegation to be brought. After that time there may be practical issues for investigation, for example the accessibility of evidence. It would not be appropriate for the regulators to use their resources on cases where there is limited evidence when there is no public interest in investigating.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of trends in children's mental health; and what step he is taking to tackle mental ill health among children.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department has commissioned a new national prevalence survey of children and young people’s mental health – the first since 2004. The survey will estimate the extent of mental ill health in the 2-19 year old population. It will examine the impact of issues such as social media and cyberbullying, self-harm and eating disorders. The survey will also analyse the data by characteristics such as ethnicity and deprivation to understand their impacts further. Final publication of findings is anticipated in autumn 2018.
Children and young people’s mental health is a top priority for this Government and we are investing more than ever before across mental health.
We are making an additional £1.4 billion available until 2019/20, transforming services and giving access to 70,000 additional children and young people. Our recent Green Paper Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision aims to improve provision of services in schools, bolster links between schools and the National Health Service and pilot a four week waiting time for NHS services.
Since 2015/16, Local Transformation Plans have been put in place, covering every clinical commissioning group area in England, and these set out how local agencies will work together to improve children and young people’s mental health across the full spectrum of need.
A national programme of work is supporting local areas, including the extension and expansion of the use of evidence-based interventions, tackling stigma, improving data and information to inform greater transparency and accountability and developing a specialist and stronger workforce.
We have also committed to rolling out mental health first aid training for every secondary school by 2019 and to every primary school as part of the Green Paper.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the amount of non-ordinarily resident upfront charges collected in each of the last five years; and what amount is expected to be collected in each of the next five years.
Answered by Philip Dunne
National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts in England all already have a statutory responsibility to make and recover charges from patients who are not ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom and are chargeable for their healthcare.
Upfront charging of overseas visitors for non-urgent or immediately necessary care has been recommended best practice by the Department for several years, including in published national charging guidance.
The published impact assessment estimates a £9 million income for 2017/18 and £23 million for each subsequent year from mandating upfront charging. It is also estimated than an extra income of £9 million for 2017/18 and £21 million for each subsequent year would be identified due to increased compliance since amendments to the charging regulations were made. We expect these incomes to be identified on top of the currently identified income from visitors and migrants, which in 2016/17 amounted to £81 million.
The Department does not have estimates for each of the last five years on the number of upfront charges collected for non-ordinarily residents.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the level of unpaid NHS charges in each year since 2010, broken down by NHS Trust.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Since the financial year 2014/15, the amounts written off as bad debt in relation to direct charges made to overseas visitors and migrants are part of National Health Service trusts’ and foundation trusts’ annual accounts and are published on Gov.uk broken down by NHS trust.
According to the published annual accounts, there have been £17 million in 2014/15, £16 million in 2015/16, and £17 million in 2016/17 written off as bad debt in relation to direct charges made to overseas visitors and migrants across England. At the same time, direct charges made to overseas visitors and migrants have increased from £47 million in 2014/15, through £69 million in 2015/16, to £81 million in 2016/17.