Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of using emergency powers available to the Government to take control of private hospitals and health facilities for a temporary period to help tackle the backlog of patients awaiting surgery, diagnosis and treatment not related to covid-19.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We have no plans to make such an assessment. Throughout the pandemic, the National Health Service and independent sector providers have secured all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource in England. On 23 December 2021, a ministerial direction permitted NHS England to commission services from independent providers to directly or indirectly support the provision of healthcare to address COVID-19. We are working with NHS England to ensure appropriate arrangements are in place with independent healthcare providers to secure sufficient capacity.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many agency nurses were employed in NHS hospital trusts in England in each month since March 2020; and what proportion did those agency nurses represent of the total nursing work force.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
NHS England and NHS Improvement do not hold information on the number of agency nurses employed in hospital trusts. Since April 2020, agency nurses have represented an average of 3% of full-time equivalent nursing staff.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 December 2021 to Question 85192 on Hospitals: Waiting Lists, and in the context of the additional funding for the NHS on tackling hospital waiting times announced by the Prime Minister, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of additional elective surgical procedures by speciality that the NHS will have the capacity to carry out in each of the next three years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No formal assessment has been made. It is not yet known what the demand for specialties will be over the next three years. The additional funding provided to the National Health Service for elective recovery for the next three years aims to increase activity to 30% above pre-pandemic levels.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average daily cost was of employing an agency nurse in NHS hospital trusts compared to the cost of a directly employed NHS nurse as at the 31 October 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information is not held in the format requested. However, the average daily cost of an agency nurse calculated in October 2021/22 was £194.28 and £204.69 in October 2020/21. A comparative average cost of substantive staff is not available as the cost of agency staff includes all training, development and other costs, whereas average salary information for substantive National Health Service staff will not incorporate this.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average payment made to private sector hospitals was for orthopaedic procedures as at 31 October 2021 or from when the latest figures are available; and what the average cost of that procedure was at NHS trust hospitals.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Information on contracts held between National Health Service commissioners and the independent sector, including the payments made for specific procedures, are not held centrally.
The latest data available for costs for NHS treatments is from 2019/20. The median cost of all orthopaedic procedures was £3,647. However, this figure accounts for 391 different treatment types of both a varied set of medical procedures and a wide range in cost.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) diagnostic and (b) surgical procedures were carried out on NHS patients in private sector hospitals which had been referred by the NHS in each month since March 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The following table shows the total number of diagnostic tests provided by the independent sector for National Health Service patients in each month since March 2021. The data requested on surgical procedures is not held centrally.
Month | Total diagnostic tests |
March 2021 | 101,544 |
April 2021 | 92,000 |
May 2021 | 87,628 |
June 2021 | 92,636 |
July 2021 | 78,333 |
August 2021 | 76,835 |
September 2021 | 83,842 |
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of private health sector capacity being used as at 1 November 2021 to help reduce NHS waiting lists.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No specific estimate has been made as we do not have an estimate of the total capacity of the private health sector. The latest data from September shows that over 196,000 treatments and diagnostic tests were provided by independent providers for National Health Service funded patients.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer to Question 75821 on Hospitals: Waiting Lists, for what reason no formal assessment has been made of the impact of the additional funding for the NHS on hospital waiting times.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No formal assessment has been made due to the significant uncertainty on the demand from people who did not come forward to seek treatment during the pandemic, the ongoing impact of COVID-19 and the consequent effects on waiting lists and waiting times.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to answer Question 75821 tabled by the hon. Member for Halton on 16 November 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer of 29 November to Question 75821.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has he made of the impact of the additional funding for the NHS will have on hospital waiting times by (a) March 2022, (b) March 2023 and (c) March 2024.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No formal assessment has been made.