Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to bring forward legislative proposals to amend the Mental Health Act to ensure that a patient cannot be assessed for detention by a doctor who has an outstanding complaint against them in relation to their care of that patient.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are currently no plans to include this provision in the Mental Health Act. The Pre-Legislative Scrutiny Committee has reported on the Draft Mental Health Bill and Government is considering their recommendations and will publish a response in due course. The Government will bring forward legislation when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will amend the Mental Health Act to ensure a patient cannot be assessed for detention under the Mental Health Act by a doctor with an outstanding complaint against them in relation to their care of that patient.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are currently no plans to include this provision in the Mental Health Act. The Pre-Legislative Scrutiny Committee has reported on the Draft Mental Health Bill and Government is considering their recommendations and will publish a response in due course. The Government will bring forward legislation when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of increasing independent sector provision for elective recovery on health inequalities.
Answered by Will Quince
When commissioning services, we expect NHS England and integrated care boards to uphold their duties to consider and deliver equalities under the Equality Act 2010, and to reduce inequalities under the National Health Service Act 2006 and Health and Care Act 2022.
No specific assessment has been made of independent sector provision and health inequalities.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to include plans to increase the number of rheumatology (a) consultants and (b) clinical nurse specialists in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
Answered by Will Quince
To support the workforce as a whole we have commissioned NHS England to develop a long term workforce plan, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years for the whole of the National Health Service workforce. It will not provide detailed workforce assessments for individual services or staff groups.
As of January 2023, there are 694 consultants working in the rheumatology specialism in NHS trusts and commissioning bodies in England. This is an increase of 19 since last year.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much and what proportion of his Department's budget is spent on community musculoskeletal services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not available in in the format requested.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timeframe is for the Patient Safety Commissioner for Valproate producing the lifetime costings of caring for a disabled child affected by sodium valproate.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Our sympathies remain with all those affected by the side effects of sodium valproate.
The Department has asked the Patient Safety Commissioner, Dr Henrietta Hughes, to undertake work on redress for people harmed by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The work is intended to focus on the views of those affected, improving the understanding of how many people have been affected and how, the case for redress and what form it could take. The work is expected to take around four months and the Patient Safety Commissioner will publish a report setting out the findings from this work. Once finalised, Ministers will consider the report’s findings before deciding how to proceed on this matter.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS dental fees will increase in April 2024.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We have frozen dental patient charges since 2020 whilst other similar charges such as for National Health Service prescriptions have increased. This is despite rising inflation and increases in costs of delivering NHS care. The uplift of NHS dental charges by 8.5% from 24 April 2023 will raise important revenue for pressurised NHS budgets and NHS dental services following COVID-19 restrictions and we consider it to be a proportionate rise as it remains below the Consumer Prices Index which rose by 17.9% since December 2020 and represents a £2 increase for a Band One course of treatment.
The qualifying criteria for the range of exemptions to NHS dental charges and support through the low-income scheme remain unchanged. Just under half of NHS dental patients were treated free of charge in the 2021/22 financial year.
We are expecting to increase NHS dental charges further from April 2024, with decisions on the level to be determined nearer the time.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of increases in NHS dental charges in April 2023 on patients on low incomes who are not eligible for free dentistry.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We have frozen dental patient charges since 2020 whilst other similar charges such as for National Health Service prescriptions have increased. This is despite rising inflation and increases in costs of delivering NHS care. The uplift of NHS dental charges by 8.5% from 24 April 2023 will raise important revenue for pressurised NHS budgets and NHS dental services following COVID-19 restrictions and we consider it to be a proportionate rise as it remains below the Consumer Prices Index which rose by 17.9% since December 2020 and represents a £2 increase for a Band One course of treatment.
The qualifying criteria for the range of exemptions to NHS dental charges and support through the low-income scheme remain unchanged. Just under half of NHS dental patients were treated free of charge in the 2021/22 financial year.
We are expecting to increase NHS dental charges further from April 2024, with decisions on the level to be determined nearer the time.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letters of 1 February and 8 March 2023 from the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood on the draft Mental Health Bill, with reference ZA49048.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We will provide a response shortly.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on discussions with the Patient Safety Commissioner on the costings for compensation for people who have been harmed by Valproate.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Our sympathies remain with all those affected by the side effects of sodium valproate. Patient safety is a priority, and we are taking a range of action to improve the future safety of medicines and medical devices, setting high standards for industry to market and manufacture products, with the aim of reducing harm in the future.
The Department has asked the Patient Safety Commissioner, Dr Henrietta Hughes, to undertake work on redress for people harmed by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh.
The Patient Safety Commissioner will publish a report setting out the findings from this work. Once finalised, Ministers will consider the report’s findings before deciding how to proceed on this matter.