Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many prosecutions have been instigated by NHS Protect in each year since 2010.
Answered by George Freeman
NHS Protect co-ordinates anti-crime work in the National Health Service in England. This not only includes investigations and prosecutions but also managing information and intelligence and, wherever possible, ensuring crime is deterred and prevented.
2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | |
Number of NHS Protect prosecutions | 105 | 41 | 18 | 7 | 16 | 9 |
Note:
NHS Protect staff are employed on NHS Agenda for Change terms and conditions and the following table shows the number of NHS Protect staff by NHS pay scales.
Number of NHS Protect staff by grade | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 |
Band 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Band 4 | 22 | 17 | 13 | 15 | 16 | 15 |
Band 5 | 23 | 34 | 28 | 30 | 30 | 30 |
Band 6 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Band 7 | 106 | 87 | 78 | 78 | 85 | 81 |
Band 8a | 30 | 32 | 34 | 34 | 35 | 30 |
Band 8b | 13 | 10 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Band 8c | 6 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 3 |
Band 8d | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Band 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Associates | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Total | 217 | 190 | 173 | 178 | 186 | 174 |
Note:
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what correspondence his Department has received about data on adjusted deaths per beds rates in care homes since January 2014.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department has not received any such correspondence since January 2014.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the mechanisms in place for patients to pursue complaints against dentists who leave the country before the General Dental Council can investigate.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The General Dental Council (GDC) is an independent statutory body. As the regulator of all registered dentists it has the power to take fitness to practise action, and investigate any complaints made against a dentist who is currently registered with the GDC. The Professional Standards Authority conducts annual reviews of the GDC’s fitness to practise process, to ensure it meets the set professional standards. The Dental Complaints Service, run by the GDC, can assist in resolving complaints raised about private dental treatment provided by all GDC registered dentists in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, if a dentist is registered with the GDC, the GDC has the power to investigate that dentist, whether they are in the UK or not. Therefore, if a dentist is registered with the GDC and was working in the UK but returned to their home country, the GDC would be able to take action. If the dentist does not hold a current registration with the GDC, the GDC cannot investigate further, but an unregistered dentist, whether they have a complaint against them or not, cannot practise in the UK, which ensures UK patient safety, and maintains professional standards.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the mechanisms in place to pursue complaints against private company owners providing dental services in the event that the dentist who carried out the procedure leaves the country.
Answered by Alistair Burt
A complaint about privately funded healthcare is a matter between the patient and the provider of the service or clinician. However, if the service was commissioned by the National Health Service for NHS patients the NHS complaints regulations will apply and the complaint can be made to either the provider or commissioner of the service but not to both. In the circumstances where a provider is not available the complaint should be made to the commissioner of the service.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what data his Department holds on adjusted mortality in care homes managed by each major provider.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department does not hold information centrally on adjusted mortality in care homes managed by each major provider.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate the annual cost to the NHS of General Medical Council appraisals.
Answered by Ben Gummer
In November 2012, the Department published an analysis of the costs and benefits of medical revalidation in England: “Medical Revalidation – Costs and Benefits”. This estimated that revalidation would result in additional costs of £97 million per year in England, over the ten-year period starting in 2013.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to increase competition in the pharmaceutical wholesale market.
Answered by George Freeman
The United Kingdom has an active and diverse licensed wholesale dealing market for medicinal products for human use which is regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. It is up to individual companies to submit such licence applications.
If there is concern with anti-competiveness, this should be referred to the Competition and Markets Authority.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the proportion of government NHS funding which primary care was allocated to in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The table below shows the total National Health Service expenditure and total primary healthcare expenditure for the last three years for which audited outturn data is available. This includes primary medical care, primary dental services, primary eyecare services, community pharmacy and drugs prescribed in the community.
The Department accounts data has been used as a consistent data source across primary care services. However, this excludes some funding streams to general medical practice, such as for out of hours services.
Year | NHS Revenue Expenditure under Clear Line of Sight Rules (£ billion) | Expenditure on Primary Healthcare (£ billion) | Primary Healthcare Expenditure as a % of NHS Revenue Expenditure |
2012-13 | 102.57 | 21.32 | 20.79 |
2013-14 | 106.50 | 21.32 | 20.02 |
2014-15 | 110.56 | 21.68 | 19.61 |
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of changes in the level of administrative demands on GPs since 2014.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Department commissions and funds independent research into general practitioners’ (GPs) working conditions. Eight national surveys have been published by the University of Manchester since 1998, recording the experience of a nationally-representative cross-section of GPs, as well as reporting on the findings from a longitudinal sample.
Since 2005, the survey has considered the amount of time GPs spend on different activities, enabling us to track the impact of changing administrative demands on primary care delivery, although this has not considered changes specifically since 2014. The results for the cross-sectional sample are shown in the table below:
Percentage of time GPs devoted to different activities, 2005-2015
Survey Year | 2005 | 2008 | 2010 | 2012 | 2015 |
% time spent on Direct Patient Care | 63.3 | 63 | 63.1 | 62.3 | 62.1 |
% time spent on Indirect Care | 18.2 | 17.5 | 18.6 | 19.3 | 19.7 |
% time spent on Administration | 11.3 | 12 | 10.7 | 10.9 | 8.4 |
% time spent on External Meetings | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | 3.9 (This was the first time this category was included and would account for the fall in the administration and other categories.) |
Other | 7.1 | 7.5 | 7.6 | 7.5 | 6.3 |
Note:
Figures are column percentages. Numbers may not sum to 100% due to rounding errors. N = 868 for the 2005 cross-sectional sample; 1,280 for the 2008 cross-sectional sample; 1,015 for the 2010 cross-sectional sample; 1,154 for the 2012 cross-sectional sample and 1,115 for 2015 cross-sectional sample. Data is published in the Eighth National GP Worklife Survey:
We are keen to reduce administrative demands on those delivering care where practicable, and the Making Time in General Practice study by NHS Alliance and the Primary Care Foundation
www.nhsalliance.org/making-time-in-general-practice/
was commissioned by NHS England in order to identify ways to tackle bureaucracy. It was published in October 2015 and NHS England are now working with the British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners and others to develop plans to support general practice, including through reducing burdens.
The Department has not made an assessment of the effect of changes in the level of administrative demands on the delivery of the other primary care services of optometry, dentistry and community pharmacy.
Asked by: Charlotte Leslie (Conservative - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the change in capacity of GPs to conduct their NHS Health Check obligations resulting from changes in funding for those obligations in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alistair Burt
There are no statutory obligations for general practitioners (GPs) to provide the NHS Health Check. The programme is one of the mandated public health functions of local authorities in England. They are responsible for making provision to offer an NHS Health Check to eligible individuals aged 40-74 years once every five years. It is for local authorities to decide on the provider for the NHS Health Check. They can commission a combination of providers including pharmacies and community trusts, as well as GP practices.
Public Health England has recently commissioned a stocktake of the NHS Health Check to understand how best to support local implementation of the programme. The results will be published later this year.
Since local authorities became responsible for providing the NHS Health Check, we have seen year on year improvement in the number of people accessing the NHS Health Check, with an additional 100,000 checks received during 2014/15. A recent national evaluation has also shown that people from deprived communities are benefiting the most.