Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the annual cost to the NHS of treating pressure ulcers in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We do not hold the information in the format requested.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to provide funding for research into (a) new treatments and (b) preventative strategies for pressure ulcers.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including pressure ulcers. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. Information on individual projects funded by the NIHR can be found at the following link:
https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/programmes/
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the status is of the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme will resume in September when all children will return to school. As before, all children in Key Stage 1 in state-funded primary schools will receive a free piece of fruit or vegetable every school day.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the evidential basis is for banning the sale and production of menthol cigarettes in the UK.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 (TRPR), introduced a ban on flavoured cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco. The only exception was for menthol cigarettes where a four-year extension was allowed for the ban to come into force. This expired on 20 May 2020.
The published impact assessment of the TRPR, along with backed up by the international evidence base, states that menthol cigarettes act as a gateway into smoking, have particular appeal amongst young people, and that there is a misconception that they are healthier to smoke.
The introduction of the ban will save lives. Stopping smoking now will bring immediate benefits to health, including for those with an existing smoking-related disease.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a list of covid-19 symptom tracker online apps that have been approved by his Department; and what guidance his Department has published on downloading Government approved apps.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The National Health Service has an existing approach to assessing apps for their clinical efficacy, data security and cyber security using the Digital Assessment Questionnaire which is available at the following link:
Apps can also be assessed against the NHS Digital Health Technology Standard that was introduced in February 2020. This is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsx.nhs.uk/media/documents/NHS_Digital_Health_Technology_Standard_draft.pdf
To date, three COVID-19 symptom tracker apps have been assessed using these approaches. More information is available about how we assess apps and other digital health technologies at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/blog/transformation-blog/2020/how-we-are-assessing-covid-19-apps
NHSX, together with jHub, are working with the providers of third party COVID-19 symptom tracking apps and will publish details of those that meet our standards on the NHSX website in due course.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people with a respiratory disease diagnosis live in (a) St Helens, (b) Liverpool City Region and (c) the North West.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Data on the total number of people with a respiratory disease diagnosis are not available. The Quality Outcomes Framework collects data on the number of patients recorded on general practice registers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) or asthma.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the covid-19 outbreak, what plans he has to postpone the reorganisation of (a) clinical commissioning groups and (b) the NHS.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
It is for NHS England to approve the mergers of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). There are a number of CCGs merging on 1 April 2020, and plans to do so are well advanced. NHS England have, so far, not indicated an intention to pause these mergers.
The Government also remains committed to considering legislative changes to support the NHS implement the Long Term Plan and will bring forward proposals in due course.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many acute beds there are in each NHS hospital trust in the North West.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This information is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect on the financial viability of career progression for ambulance service staff of the changes to unsocial hours payments as part of the 2018 NHS Pay Deal.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service trade unions agreed as part of the three-year deal that new ambulance staff would be paid unsocial hours in the same way as everyone else under the Agenda for Change contract. This is so ambulance staff have the same arrangements as, for example, nurses and midwives.
We do not anticipate an impact on retention. Existing ambulance staff were given the choice to remain on their historic unsocial hours arrangements if they did not want to move to the new arrangements in place for all other staff. The latest data available does not show any reduction in unsocial hours pay for ambulance staff.
Under Section 2 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service, a percentage enhancement is paid on top of hours worked in unsocial hours periods, such as nights and weekends. These are the arrangements that apply to new ambulance staff and those that choose to switch to them, and mean the more unsocial hours that are worked, the higher the pay.
In 2016 a new job profile for paramedics was agreed with ambulance trade unions, allowing them to develop in to a higher pay band. Newly qualified paramedics can progress in to the higher band after two years if they meet the learning outcomes. Paramedics can be ‘fast-tracked’ if they can meet all the competencies in less than two years.
Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the effect on retention rates of ambulance service staff of the changes to unsocial hours payments as part of the 2018 NHS Pay Deal.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service trade unions agreed as part of the three-year deal that new ambulance staff would be paid unsocial hours in the same way as everyone else under the Agenda for Change contract. This is so ambulance staff have the same arrangements as, for example, nurses and midwives.
We do not anticipate an impact on retention. Existing ambulance staff were given the choice to remain on their historic unsocial hours arrangements if they did not want to move to the new arrangements in place for all other staff. The latest data available does not show any reduction in unsocial hours pay for ambulance staff.
Under Section 2 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service, a percentage enhancement is paid on top of hours worked in unsocial hours periods, such as nights and weekends. These are the arrangements that apply to new ambulance staff and those that choose to switch to them, and mean the more unsocial hours that are worked, the higher the pay.
In 2016 a new job profile for paramedics was agreed with ambulance trade unions, allowing them to develop in to a higher pay band. Newly qualified paramedics can progress in to the higher band after two years if they meet the learning outcomes. Paramedics can be ‘fast-tracked’ if they can meet all the competencies in less than two years.