Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether NHS England makes provision to facilitate the transport of returned medical equipment from patients to hospitals.
Answered by Philip Dunne
There is a responsibility on the National Health Service to make the very best use of all resources, including items of medical equipment, which are safe and legally reusable and returnable. Policy on the return of medical equipment is a matter for each individual organisation and should be included in their Sustainable Development Management Plan. NHS England has no generic policy in place for dealing with such matters or for the facilitation of transport to return medical equipment from patients to hospitals.
Typically around 60% of medical equipment issued is recovered and reused. However, not all medical equipment is recovered and not all recovered is suitable for reuse. Information about the costs of medical equipment is not collected centrally as many areas have local arrangements for pooled budgets with the local authority under Section 75 of the National Health Service Act 2006 for an integrated community equipment service. No estimate has been made of the cost to NHS trusts of unreturned crutches since January 2016.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether (a) NHS England and (b) any individual NHS trust has a system in place for receiving used medical equipment from patients.
Answered by Philip Dunne
There is a responsibility on the National Health Service to make the very best use of all resources, including items of medical equipment, which are safe and legally reusable and returnable. Policy on the return of medical equipment is a matter for each individual organisation and should be included in their Sustainable Development Management Plan. NHS England has no generic policy in place for dealing with such matters or for the facilitation of transport to return medical equipment from patients to hospitals.
Typically around 60% of medical equipment issued is recovered and reused. However, not all medical equipment is recovered and not all recovered is suitable for reuse. Information about the costs of medical equipment is not collected centrally as many areas have local arrangements for pooled budgets with the local authority under Section 75 of the National Health Service Act 2006 for an integrated community equipment service. No estimate has been made of the cost to NHS trusts of unreturned crutches since January 2016.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, who has responsibility for (a) auditing returned medical equipment and (b) assessing whether such equipment can be reused by NHS trusts.
Answered by Philip Dunne
There is a responsibility on the National Health Service to make the very best use of all resources, including items of medical equipment, which are safe and legally reusable and returnable. Policy on the return of medical equipment is a matter for each individual organisation and should be included in their Sustainable Development Management Plan. NHS England has no generic policy in place for dealing with such matters or for the facilitation of transport to return medical equipment from patients to hospitals.
Typically around 60% of medical equipment issued is recovered and reused. However, not all medical equipment is recovered and not all recovered is suitable for reuse. Information about the costs of medical equipment is not collected centrally as many areas have local arrangements for pooled budgets with the local authority under Section 75 of the National Health Service Act 2006 for an integrated community equipment service. No estimate has been made of the cost to NHS trusts of unreturned crutches since January 2016.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate the cost to NHS trusts of unreturned crutches since January 2016.
Answered by Philip Dunne
There is a responsibility on the National Health Service to make the very best use of all resources, including items of medical equipment, which are safe and legally reusable and returnable. Policy on the return of medical equipment is a matter for each individual organisation and should be included in their Sustainable Development Management Plan. NHS England has no generic policy in place for dealing with such matters or for the facilitation of transport to return medical equipment from patients to hospitals.
Typically around 60% of medical equipment issued is recovered and reused. However, not all medical equipment is recovered and not all recovered is suitable for reuse. Information about the costs of medical equipment is not collected centrally as many areas have local arrangements for pooled budgets with the local authority under Section 75 of the National Health Service Act 2006 for an integrated community equipment service. No estimate has been made of the cost to NHS trusts of unreturned crutches since January 2016.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many pieces of medical equipment were (a) unreturned by patients and (b) discarded by the NHS in England in each year since 2014; and if he will estimate the cost of such equipment to the NHS in each such year.
Answered by Philip Dunne
There is a responsibility on the National Health Service to make the very best use of all resources, including items of medical equipment, which are safe and legally reusable and returnable. Policy on the return of medical equipment is a matter for each individual organisation and should be included in their Sustainable Development Management Plan. NHS England has no generic policy in place for dealing with such matters or for the facilitation of transport to return medical equipment from patients to hospitals.
Typically around 60% of medical equipment issued is recovered and reused. However, not all medical equipment is recovered and not all recovered is suitable for reuse. Information about the costs of medical equipment is not collected centrally as many areas have local arrangements for pooled budgets with the local authority under Section 75 of the National Health Service Act 2006 for an integrated community equipment service. No estimate has been made of the cost to NHS trusts of unreturned crutches since January 2016.
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 his Department has made of the cost to the NHS of treating foreign visitors to the UK; and what information his Department holds on the (a) nationality of and (b) health services accessed by those patients in each year since 2010.
Answered by Philip Dunne
National Health Service trusts do not report patient care by nationality.
An independent report by Prederi, entitled “Quantitative assessment of visitor and migrant use of the NHS in England” was commissioned by the Department to understand better the impact of treating visitors and migrants and was published on 22 October 2013. The report estimated the gross value of NHS-funded healthcare provided to non-European Economic Area visitors and temporary migrants was approximately £2 billion per year.
Trusts provide data within their annual accounts showing information on the cash recovered in-year relating to invoices raised in current and previous years. Since 2013-14, the Department has been collecting data on the amount invoiced by NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts, together with amounts recovered and written off by those organisations.
NHS trusts will take appropriate steps to recover any debts incurred by patients, including reporting the debt to the Department. Immigration Rules enable the Home Office to refuse a person with an outstanding NHS debt of £500 or more entry to, or further leave to remain in, the UK until the debt is paid. The Department shares information for this purpose with the Home Office and provides trusts with guidance on how and when to do so safely and appropriately.