Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of NHS GP walk-in centre closures on (a) demand on (i) hospital accident and emergency departments, (ii) ambulance services and (iii) nearby GP practices and (b) access to healthcare for tourists, temporary students, office workers, rough sleepers and other patients with enhanced needs for walk-in treatment in town centres; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department does not hold a recent definitive figure for the number of walk-in-centres (WiCs) nationally. WiCs were developed locally and over time the nomenclature for them and the services they offer have overlapped with other services such as Minor Injury Units and Urgent Care Centres.
Due to this difficulty in specifically identifying WiCs, it is not possible to identify the number of closures. Because WICs are managed locally, information on them, as well on demand for and access to services across local health services, is not held centrally.
As WiCs were developed locally, their effectiveness and cost effectiveness is a local issue. However, a limited study was undertaken by Monitor, the organisation formerly responsible for ensuring healthcare provision in NHS England, and now part of NHS Improvement. This covered the period 2010-13 and consulted patients, walk-in centre providers, general practitioners, commissioners and other stakeholders in the sector.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) effectiveness and (b) value for money of NHS GP walk-in centres; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department does not hold a recent definitive figure for the number of walk-in-centres (WiCs) nationally. WiCs were developed locally and over time the nomenclature for them and the services they offer have overlapped with other services such as Minor Injury Units and Urgent Care Centres.
Due to this difficulty in specifically identifying WiCs, it is not possible to identify the number of closures. Because WICs are managed locally, information on them, as well on demand for and access to services across local health services, is not held centrally.
As WiCs were developed locally, their effectiveness and cost effectiveness is a local issue. However, a limited study was undertaken by Monitor, the organisation formerly responsible for ensuring healthcare provision in NHS England, and now part of NHS Improvement. This covered the period 2010-13 and consulted patients, walk-in centre providers, general practitioners, commissioners and other stakeholders in the sector.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2017 to Question 60683, on neuromuscular disorders: South East, how many neuromuscular care advisors will cover Kent, Surrey and Sussex; which clinical commissioning groups in Kent, Surrey and Sussex will contribute to funding neuromuscular care advisor roles; what the remit will be of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust in this process; and when it is planned for relevant clinical commissioning groups to finalise job descriptions and begin recruitment.
Answered by David Mowat
NHS England is responsible for commissioning specialised neurological services, including some services for patients with neuromuscular disorders. NHS England has published a service specification for neurological care that includes an exemplar service specification for neuromuscular conditions that sets out what providers must have in place to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services. The service specification for neurological care can be found at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d04-neurosci-spec-neuro.pdf
The responsibility for delivering the service rests with National Health Service provider organisations, and each trust will develop an appropriate role to ensure that the care pathway is delivered. The role may vary depending on the provider organisation, but an NHS England service specialist will be working with trusts to ensure that they meet the requirements of the overall service specification.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people with muscle-wasting conditions living in Kent, Surrey and Sussex have access to a neuromuscular care advisor close to their home.
Answered by David Mowat
NHS England has published a service specification for neurological care, which sets out what providers must have in place to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services. NHS England advises that, until summer 2016, a neuromuscular care advisor was in post at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the main neurosciences centre for the south east, and provided a co-ordinator service to London and the south east of England.
Following a review by the Trust, funding for the post has now been agreed and the remit and job description are currently being finalised. A post to cover Surrey and Sussex, linked to Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, is being discussed by the relevant clinical commissioning groups.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure greater cohesion and integration between clinical commissioning groups to better enable the transfer of patients to their local hospital to receive treatment or an MRI test and so prevent unnecessary travel costs for the NHS; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by David Mowat
Determining the location of services is a matter for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), based on their clinical expertise and the providers in their local health economy.
National Health Service organisations, including providers and CCGs, are in the process of coming together to develop Sustainability and Transformation Plans across 44 footprints. They are considering how best to provide healthcare to people in the right setting. In doing this, they will wish to consider patient travel times.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
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 (a) access to overnight accommodation and (b) facilities in maternity and neonatal care units for parents of premature or sick babies; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Concerns about the availability of overnight accommodation were highlighted in a report by Bliss ‘Families kept apart: barriers to parents’ involvement in their baby’s hospital care’ (published September 2016). Along with NHS England, we are considering the recommendations of the report and continue to work closely with Bliss and others to improve neonatal services so that all premature and sick babies receive the best possible care.
This Government is committed to improving maternity and neonatal care. In November 2015 the Secretary of State announced a a national ambition to halve the number of neonatal deaths, stillbirths, maternal deaths and brain injuries occurring during or soon after birth by 2030. Investment has been made in training for staff, new safety equipment and facilities in hospitals for new families, including a £2.24 million capital fund to enable trusts to buy monitoring or training equipment to improve safety in their maternity services.
On 17 October my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State launched the Safer Maternity Care action plan which sets out the next steps to achieve the ambition. The action plan sets out a number of new initiatives including an increase in funding for maternity safety training to support maternity services to drive improvements in safety and a new £250,000 Maternity Safety Innovation Fund to support development and implementation of improvements in maternity safety.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the new Care Quality Commission inspection regime on hospital performance; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. The CQC monitors, inspects and regulates services against fundamental standards of quality and safety below which care should never fall.
The CQC’s new inspection regime provides a comprehensive assessment of hospitals performance. During an inspection, the CQC asks five questions of every service and provider; are they safe, effective, caring, well led and responsive to people’s needs. Following an inspection the CQC rates a provider on a four point scale running from outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate. In addition to an aggregate rating at a provider level, the CQC produces ratings for individual services and locations. This gives patients and the public a fair, balanced and easy to understand assessment of performance of a provider.
Where a provider is rated as inadequate the Chief Inspector of Hospitals can recommend that the trust be placed into special measures. This means that trusts receive a tailored package of support to enable them to improve.
As of 8 December there are 15 trusts in special measures. Eleven trusts have made sufficient progress to exit special measures, the most recent being the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust on 4 December.
On 15 October 2015, the CQC published its State of Care Report 2014-15 and reported:
* 83%1 of all providers agree that the new inspections helped them to monitor the quality of care they provide;
* 73%1 of all providers said that a CQC inspection had helped to identify areas of improvement and 72% said that the inspection reports were useful; and
* 68%1 of all providers said that they thought that outcomes for people who use services were improved as result of CQC inspection activity.
1 The information provided in the State of Care report is for all registered providers not just Hospitals.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to implement the family test; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department of Health has liaised with the Department for Work and Pensions as the lead Department for the Family Test to embed it and encourage routine use of the Test. This has included training officials on applying the Test, disseminating relevant evidence, learning materials and best practice.
The Family Test was announced by the Prime Minister in August 2014 and introduced in October 2014 through the publication of guidance for officials - Family Test Guidance.
The objective of the Test is to introduce a family perspective to the policy making process, specifically to make the potential impacts on family functioning and relationships explicit.
The Department of Health is working to raise awareness of the Family Test amongst its policy staff, so that the impact of policy on the family is considered as a matter of course. We have highlighted the Family Test through the Policy Kit, an online resource for Department of Health policy officials. The Family Test is also highlighted in policy induction training, which is available to staff who are new to policy roles in Department of Health.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department issues to hospital trusts on the account they should take of the availability of transport links when making decisions on reconfiguring services across two sites; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The Government is clear the reconfiguration of front line health services is a matter for the local NHS.
NHS England has issued guidance on Planning and Delivering Service Change for Patients. As part of this guidance, NHS England specifies that: ‘Based on evidence and national clinical reference groups’ advice, commissioners need to determine the appropriate range of providers and interplay of key access requirements such as travel time.’
All commissioners proposing reconfiguration must include an analysis of travelling times and distances in their Pre-Consultation Business Case. As part of the Best Practice Check guidelines issued by NHS England, commissioners are asked: ‘Has the travel impact of proposed change been modelled for all key populations including analysis of available transport options, public transport schedules and availability/ affordability of car parking?’ and asked to provide evidence of this through a travel impact assessment.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which Hospital Trusts have moved out of special measures since the Care Quality Commission inspection regime was introduced; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The following 10 Trusts have exited Special Measures since it started in July 2013:
- Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
- East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
- George Eliot Hospital Trust
- Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust
- The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kings’ Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust
- Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
- Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Every patient rightly expects the best possible quality of care and services. We are pleased that following the hard work by staff at these trusts and significant improvement, the Care Quality Commission recommended that these trusts exit Special Measures.