Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many days were lost through the sickness of healthcare workers in each year between 2009 and 2014.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The number of days lost through the sickness of healthcare workers between 2009 and 2014 were:
England | Full Time Equivalent Days Lost to Sickness Absence (includes non-working days) | Full Time Equivalent Days Available (includes non-working days) | Sickness Absence Rate |
2009-10 | 16,745,315 | 380,199,666 | 4.40% |
2010-11 | 15,947,054 | 383,278,845 | 4.16% |
2011-12 | 15,555,507 | 377,908,880 | 4.12% |
2012-13 | 15,947,518 | 376,187,354 | 4.24% |
2013-14 | 15,385,468 | 378,691,376 | 4.06% |
2014-15 | 16,423,722 | 386,388,483 | 4.25% |
Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre
The Government does not record the cost incurred by the National Health Service due to days lost through the sickness of healthcare workers.
Employers are responsible for reducing the days lost through sickness of their staff. The Department supports the NHS by commissioning NHS Employers to provide trusts with advice, guidance and good practice on improving NHS staff health and wellbeing which is available on an online only resource at:
NHS Employers is also working with NHS England and Public Health England on a £5 million initiative to improve NHS staff health announced in its Five Year Forward View. A copy of the ‘A healthy NHS workforce’ announcement is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to address the stigma of mental health problems amongst healthcare workers.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Government included in its Mandate to NHS England an objective for them to “make partnership a success”. This includes “championing the Time to Change campaign to raise awareness of mental health issues and reduce stigma, including in the NHS workforce”.
In taking this forward, NHS England recently announced the "A healthy NHS workforce" initiative. This aims to raise staff awareness and understanding of mental health issues, helping to ensure they have access to help, support and treatment when they need it. A copy of the announcement is attached.
“A healthy NHS workforce” includes, for example, line manager trainingand, providing NHS staff rapid access to talking therapies. Thisis currently being tested as part of the Healthy Workforce programme led by NHS England.
In addition, NHS Employers have launched the How are you feeling NHS? toolkit. This has been developed with NHS staff to help bridge a gap in understanding and enable them to: talk openly and regularly about their emotional health; assess the impact emotional wellbeing has on themselves, their colleagues and patients, and help with action planning to enable more good days than bad. The online only resource can be found at:
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which recommendations made by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) have been implemented by the Secretary of State for Health since May 2010; and in each case, on what date the recommendation was made and on what date it was implemented.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The information requested is shown in the following table.
Recommendation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation | Date of recommendation | Date of implementation |
The use of rotavirus vaccine in the routine infant immunisation programme, if vaccine prices were much less than those at which they are currently being offered, so that such an immunisation programme is cost-effective. | February 2009 | July 2013 |
The use of herpes zoster (shingles) vaccine vaccination programme for adults aged 70 years up to and including 79 years provided that a vaccine is available at a cost effective price. | March 2010 (full statement) | September 20131 |
The use of the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) prophylactic medicine Palivizumab to prevent serious RSV disease in at risk pre-term infants. | October 2010 | October 20102 |
The annual influenza vaccination programme be extended to include children aged 2 to under 17 years of age. | July 2012 | September 20133 |
Notes
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what referrals concerning pneumococcal disease the Secretary of State for Health has made to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation in the last five years; and on what dates those were made.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Secretary of State has not requested a recommendation about immunisation against pneumococcal disease from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) under the terms of the Health Protection (Vaccination) Regulations 2009 in the last five years.
Departmental officials requested advice from the JCVI in early 2014 about the use of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). At its meeting on 4 June 2014, the minutes of which are available on GOV.UK, the JCVI concluded that PCV13 should remain the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine of choice for infants in the United Kingdom at this time. We have accepted this advice.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, following completion of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) pneumococcal sub-committee's review of pneumococcal disease and the main JCVI meeting of June 2015, they will implement any recommendations made by the JCVI on the pneumococcal disease immunisation programme from winter 2015–16.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Secretary of State has not requested a recommendation about immunisation against pneumococcal disease from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) under the terms of the Health Protection (Vaccination) Regulations 2009.
We will consider carefully any advice received from the JCVI about immunisation against pneumococcal disease in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation pneumococcal sub-committee plans to complete its review of pneumococcal disease immunisation.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation concluded a review of the adult pneumococcal vaccination programme in 2012. The Committee started a new review at its meeting on 28 January, taking into account the latest information on the epidemiology, cost-effectiveness and impact of adult pneumococcal vaccination. It is anticipated that the review will take six months to complete, subject to the availability of the necessary evidence.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the indicators measuring under-75 mortality rates in (1) the NHS Outcomes Framework, and (2) the Clinical Commissioning Groups Outcomes Indicator Set, are compatible with the obligations against age discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
One of the underpinning principles of the NHS Outcomes Framework is to ensure that it encourages the promotion of equality in line with the Equality Act 2010.
The Domain 1 premature mortality indicators in the NHS Outcomes Framework and Clinical Commissioning Groups Outcomes Indicator Set are capped at age 75 because the attribution of the cause of death is more vexed for older people, who often have co-morbidities. Therefore, including those aged 75 and above could lead these indicators to become misleading.
However, to ensure all age groups are covered equally, ‘Life Expectancy at 75’ is an overarching indicator in Domain 1 of the NHS Outcomes Framework. This indicator captures ages 75 and over and all conditions.
The above information is contained in the NHS Outcomes Framework 2011-12 Equalities Impact Assessment and the NHS Outcomes Framework 2011-12, both of which have already been placed in the Library.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have any plans to increase the extent of community healthcare coverage to conditions, such as frontotemporal dementia, which to date they have considered highly socially complex, rather than medically complex, and not deemed a primary health care need.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Health and Wellbeing Boards in each upper-tier Local Authority are responsible for the development of Joint Strategic Needs Assessments to identify the current and future health and wellbeing needs of the local population and a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy that sets the strategic direction for local commissioning decisions. This may include assessment of the prevalence and impact of dementia, and appropriate actions for prevention, diagnosis and care.
The healthcare provided is inclusive of all types of dementia including frontotemporal dementia.
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the financial impact on the National Health Service of poor health caused by cold homes.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The annual cost to the National Health Service in England of cold housing is reported to be between £850 million1 and £1.36 billion2.This does not include additional spending by social services, or economic losses through absences from work. Total costs to the NHS and the country are unknown3.
The Cold Weather Plan for England 3 is a framework intended to protect the population from harm to health from cold weather, including vulnerable older people. It aims to prevent the major avoidable effects on health during periods of cold weather in England by alerting people to the negative health effects of cold weather, and enabling them to prepare and respond appropriately.
Help is available through Cold Weather Payments which provide more targeted support for vulnerable low-income groups. The Government has permanently increased Cold Weather Payments from £8.50 to £25 for the duration of this Parliament for each qualifying period of cold weather.
This winter over 2 million low income households, including over 1.4 million poorer pensioners, will receive a discount of £140 off their electricity bill through the Warm Home Discount scheme.
Winter Fuel Payments also provide assurance to older people, who may suffer the worst impacts of a progressive condition, so that they can keep warm during the winter months. In addition, around 482,000 low income and vulnerable homes have received energy efficiency measures under Energy Companies Obligation.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change have commissioned work that will allow them to model the potential cost-savings to health and social care services from energy efficiency measures and other interventions.
Notes:
1. Department of Health (2010) ‘Winter kills’, in 2009 Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer
2. The Cost of Cold: Why we need to protect the health of older people in winter
3. Public Health England (2014) The Cold Weather Plan for England. Making the case: why long-term strategic planning for cold weather is essential to health and wellbeing
Asked by: Baroness Greengross (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions have taken place internally within the Department of Health regarding the impact of cold homes on the health of older people.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The impact of cold homes on the health of older people has been discussed internally within the Department (DH) during the development of policy initiatives to prevent major avoidable effects on health during periods of cold weather. These initiatives include the The Cold Weather Plan for England, Keep Warm Keep Well leaflet and the Get Ready For Winter campaign hosted by the Met Office.
Further discussions were held at the Annual Cold Weather Plan seminar – this stakeholder event brings together colleagues from the DH, Local Government Association, NHS England, Public Health England, academia and the voluntary and community sector to discuss issues around the cold weather plan and how to best support local action. In addition, discussions were held at the Health officials working group – this is a regular meeting attended by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, DH and Public Health England. The aim of this group is to share information on cold weather, fuel poverty and health impacts with a view to ensure the fuel poverty strategy is aligned with health policy.