Asked by: David Crausby (Labour - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what evidence his Department has received from the Food Standards Agency on the effect on public health of the mandatory display of hygiene scores at food outlets in Wales.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) considers that the mandatory display of food hygiene ratings in England would be beneficial and is using the evidence from Wales and Northern Ireland to build a strong case. The FSA is exploring how a statutory scheme could be delivered in England, including display of ratings on online food ordering platforms, as part of their work to deliver a new model of regulation for food businesses – the Regulating Our Future programme, which is expected to have changes to the regulatory system in place by 2020.
The Regulating Our Future programme is redesigning how food businesses are regulated for food safety, and as hygiene ratings are currently based on local authority inspections of food businesses it is important that the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS) is part of those considerations. Embedding FHRS into the future model of food regulation will ensure we have a robust and credible scheme that continues to deliver benefits for consumers
As a result of further regulation under the statutory scheme in Northern Ireland, it is anticipated that next year businesses which offer on-line ordering of food will need to publish their ratings online so that they can be seen before an order is placed. Wales is also considering introducing further regulations to require the promotion of food hygiene ratings on food businesses’ websites.
The FSA remains committed to the successful and trusted FHRS. The FSA will continue to ensure the FHRS is sustainable and work towards the introduction of a statutory scheme that would require mandatory display of ratings in England as is the case in Wales and Northern Ireland. The Government will consider the case carefully once it is available.
Asked by: David Crausby (Labour - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what changes have been made to NHS IT systems and cyber security since the cyber attack in May 2017.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The National Health Service has robust measures in place to protect against cyberattacks, and since May we have taken further action to strengthen resilience and guard against future attack, including new, unannounced cyber security inspections by the Care Quality Commission, £21 million in funding to improve resilience in trauma centres, and enhanced guidance for trusts.
Work is underway to determine the fastest and most cost effective way to move the NHS off unsupported operating systems, and we are working with the NHS to ensure unsupported systems are urgently upgraded, removed or isolated. The Department has also signed a Customer Support Agreement with Microsoft that will issue regular patches and updates for all existing Windows devices operating with Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and SQL 2005.
Asked by: David Crausby (Labour - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the number of breaches of guidance of mixed-sex sleeping arrangements that occurred at the Royal Bolton Hospital in each of the last four years.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The number of breaches of guidance of mixed-sex sleeping arrangements (MSA) that occurred at the Royal Bolton Hospital in each of the last four years is presented in the table below.
October 2013-September 2014 | Number of breaches | October 2014-September 2015 | Number of breaches | October 2015-September 2016 | Number of breaches | October 2016-September 2017 | Number of breaches |
October-2013 | 0 | October-2014 | 2 | October-2015 | 3 | October-2016 | 12 |
November-2013 | 0 | November-2014 | 0 | November-2015 | 1 | November-2016 | 18 |
December-2013 | 0 | December-2014 | 1 | December-2015 | 0 | December-2016 | 7 |
January-2014 | 0 | January-2015 | 2 | January-2016 | 8 | January-2017 | 18 |
February-2014 | 2 | February-2015 | 0 | February-2016 | 5 | February-2017 | 15 |
March-2014 | 2 | March-2015 | 2 | March-2016 | 8 | March-2017 | 22 |
April-2014 | 0 | April-2015 | 4 | April-2016 | 3 | April-2017 | 21 |
May-2014 | 1 | May-2015 | 0 | May-2016 | 6 | May-2017 | 10 |
June-2014 | 2 | June-2015 | 0 | June-2016 | 3 | June-2017 | 11 |
July-2014 | 1 | July-2015 | 0 | July-2016 | 4 | July-2017 | 10 |
August-2014 | 0 | August-2015 | 2 | August-2016 | 9 | August-2017 | 6 |
September-2014 | 0 | September-2015 | 1 | September-2016 | 15 | September-2017 | 18 |
Total | 8 | Total | 14 | Total | 65 | Total | 168 |
According to the report from the Public Board meeting of the NHS Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCGs), the reason for the increase between 2016-2017 is mainly issues with patient flow which caused the inability to step down patients, together with a restriction on side rooms as a result of infection prevention and control issues. The full report can be found at:
http://www.boltonccg.nhs.uk/media/3143/performancereportmerged.pdf
Themes causing breaches and lessons learnt are discussed at the CCGs’ Quality and Performance Group. Factors such as the ability to step down are being addressed.
From April 2011 MSA data reporting became mandatory for all National Health Service providers, including foundation trusts, and flat-rate fines for MSA breaches have been built into organisations’ contracts.
Asked by: David Crausby (Labour - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of provision of dentistry services by the NHS.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England has a legal duty to commission National Health Service dental services to meet the needs of the local population and to help patients who cannot find a local dentist.
Nationally, access to primary care dental services continues to increase. In the 24 month period ending 30 June 2017 22.2 million adults were seen by a dentist and in the 12 month period ending 30 June 2017 6.8 million children were seen by a dentist.
The January to March 2017 general practitioner patient survey results were published in July. These showed that 59% of adults questioned had tried to get an NHS dental appointment in the past two years and of those trying to get an appointment, 95% were successful.
Access has improved greatly over recent years but we know inequalities remain.
New ways of providing NHS dental services are being tested which aim to further improve oral health and increase access to NHS dental services, by preventing as well as treating disease. Alongside this, is NHS England’s recently launched Starting Well programme, which will run in 13 high needs areas to improve access to dental services for children known to be at greater risk of dental disease and who are not currently being seen by a dentist.
Asked by: David Crausby (Labour - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has emergency plans in place to assist NHS hospitals in the event of a severe influenza outbreak this year.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Winter can often bring additional challenges for the National Health Service but this year planning started early and the NHS is more prepared for winter than ever before. The NHS is committed to ensuring all patients continue to receive high quality, safe and efficient care as demand over winter increases. This Government has invested an extra £6 billion into the NHS over the last two years, plus £100 million ahead of winter to ease pressures on accident and emergency departments, ensure system resilience and manage demand.
An additional £2 billion of funding has been allocated to local authorities over the next three years, including £1 billion for 2017/18 to implement best practice in discharging patients safely and quickly to reduce delayed transfers of care.
This year all children between 2-8 years will be offered the nasal spray vaccine to help protect them and their families against influenza.
Influenza vaccination remains the best protection against flu, and should be offered to everyone over the age of 65 years, those who are at particular risk to flu, and pregnant women, at the earliest opportunity. Influenza vaccination should also be offered to all frontline healthcare workers through their occupational health teams.
Asked by: David Crausby (Labour - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that the NHS has an adequate supply of flu vaccines in autumn 2017.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England (PHE) provides flu vaccines centrally for the children’s flu programme in which eligible children are offered either the nasal spray Fluenz Tetra or an inactivated flu vaccine for those children for whom Fluenz Tetra is unsuitable. Centrally purchased flu vaccines are carefully monitored by PHE to ensure there is equitable distribution across England and sufficient in-date vaccines for patients who present throughout the season.
General practitioners and other providers are directly responsible for the flu supplies used to deliver the national flu programme to the other eligible groups. For more information on who is eligible visit:
www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/who-should-have-flu-vaccine.aspx
PHE maintains some oversight to help facilitate a constant supply of vaccine, liaising with vaccine manufacturers to ascertain whether there are any manufacturing problems that might affect either the number of doses available or the dates of delivery.
Asked by: David Crausby (Labour - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many breaches of guidance on mixed-sex sleeping arrangements occurred in each of the last six years.
Answered by Philip Dunne
All patients deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. The Government has made it clear that providers of National Health Service-funded care are expected to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation, except where this is in the overall best interest of the patient, or reflects their personal choice.
In December 2010, the national reporting of breaches in relation to sleeping accommodation commenced and data are collected monthly from all NHS providers and organisations that provide NHS-funded care (including independent and voluntary sector organisations). From April 2011 the collection became mandatory.
The numbers of breaches for the last six years are:
Year | Breaches |
2011 | 34,589 |
2012 | 4,407 |
2013 | 2,971 |
2014 | 2,585 |
2015 | 4,259 |
2016 | 7,154 |
To July 2017 | 5,595 |
Asked by: David Crausby (Labour - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of patients who went to accident and emergency after being unable to make an appointment with their GP in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The proportion of patients who have attended accident and emergency departments because they have been unable to get a timely appointment with their general practitioner (GP) is not held centrally.
Of patients who responded to the latest GP Patient Survey published in July 2017, 18.9% said they were either not able to get an appointment or that the appointment they were offered was not convenient. Of these patients, 4.7% went to accident and emergency instead.
The Government is committed to improving access to GP services. By 2020, everyone will be able to access routine GP appointments at evenings and weekends. 17 million patients have already benefitted from extended access to GP appointments at evenings and weekends through the GP Access Fund.
Asked by: David Crausby (Labour - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what additional provision of mental health services his Department plans to provide to assist those affected by the Manchester Arena attack.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Following the terrorist attacks in Manchester significant mental health provision was mobilised to support survivors, their families, and First Responders. The Government is working with Manchester to ensure that everyone who needs psychosocial support or psychological help will get it.
Statutory National Health Service mental health services are currently working alongside the third sector to provide survivors with mental health support and treatment. We will continue to liaise on the need for further support.
The Government has provided further funding to third sector organisations to bolster mental health provision and the Department continues to work with colleagues across government via the Victims of Terrorist Unit to support recovery efforts and to understand the mental health needs of those affected.
Asked by: David Crausby (Labour - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time is from referral to the commencement of a talking therapy course in (a) the North West and (b) Bolton.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
For people living with depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions, talking to a mental health profession can be a real lifeline and help them to manage their conditions. Our work to give more people access to these psychological therapies has now benefitted more than four million people.
The latest data for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies for the month of March 2017 shows the waiting time from referral to the commencement of a talking therapy course is 20.6 days in the North West and 38 days in Bolton.