Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2015 to Question 17025, what plans he has to increase the borrowing and investing powers of clinical commissioning groups to ensure that employment terms and conditions for GPs encourage employment in areas with (a) an elderly demographic and (b) a high workload.
Answered by Alistair Burt
There are no current plans to increase the borrowing and investing powers of clinical commissioning groups. Responsibility for ensuring all patients have access to NHS primary medical services rests with NHS England.
Those providing services under a contract with NHS England, or clinical commissioning groups acting on their behalf, are independent contractors and not employees of the NHS.
Practices may employ general practitioners to assist them in the provision of services under the contract. Where they do so, they are required to apply, as a minimum, model terms and conditions of service as agreed between NHS Employers and the General Practitioners’ Committee of the British Medical Association.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to increase the number of GPs; and what steps he is taking to ensure that employment terms and conditions for GPs encourage employment in areas with (a) an elderly demographic and (b) a high workload.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The Government has committed to increasing the primary and community care workforce by 10,000 by 2020, including an additional 5,000 doctors working in general practice. Health Education England, NHS England, the Royal College of General Practitioners (GPs) and the British Medical Association’s GP Committee are working together on a ten point GP workforce plan to boost recruitment, encourage experienced GPs to remain in the profession and support GPs to return to practice.
GP partners are independent contractors rather than National Health Service employees. However, the funding that practices receive does take account of the age profile of its patients and practice workload.
The Carr-Hill formula calculates the share of funding that each practice receives based on its weighted patient list size adjusted for several factors including age. NHS England is currently reviewing the formula and this is intended to adapt it to better reflect deprivation and other factors of the registered practice profile that impact on practice workload. Additionally, the changes to the GP contract for 2014/15 moved funding from the Quality and Outcomes Framework to core practice funding and a new Avoiding Unplanned Admissions enhanced service, which requires practices to proactively case manage vulnerable patients through developing personalised care plans, including identifying a named accountable GP and care coordinator.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many doctors trained in the UK emigrated in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2013 and (d) 2014; and what assessment he has made of the effect such emigration has had on the provision of emergency medicine.
Answered by Ben Gummer
This information is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of doctors working in hospitals are from non-UK countries.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The Health and Social Care Information Centre collects data on the number of doctors working in National Health Service hospital and community health services in England.
Nationality is a self-reported field within the electronic staff record system and of the 98,894 full time equivalent number of doctors (not including locums) who declared their nationality 25,607 (25.6%) are non-United Kingdom nationals.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
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 GP retention in the North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group area; and what steps he is taking to improve GP retention.
Answered by Alistair Burt
We are advised by NHS England that it commissioned the Essex GP Workforce Audit in autumn 2014 to define the extent of the general practitioner (GP) recruitment and retention problem in Essex, including the North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area.
In response to the audit’s findings, the Essex Primary Care Inter-Professional Centre for Workforce Development was launched in September. This has been developed by the Essex Workforce Group (comprising NHS England, local CCGs and Health Education England) to address the ongoing difficulty in recruiting, developing and retaining GPs, practice nurses and primary care staff in Essex. The centre will act as a ‘resource, networking and support hub’ and has a website allowing primary care staff to access training opportunities and mentoring opportunities through which they can develop their skills and careers.
Nationally, we understand that NHS England is working with partners, including the Royal College of GPs and Health Education England, to increase GP numbers, reduce bureaucracy and use the skills of other healthcare professionals, such as community pharmacists, to ensure high-quality, and, above all else, safe, patient care.
On 26 January, NHS England announced a £10 million investment to boost the GP workforce. The money will be used to recruit new GPs, retain those who are thinking of leaving the profession and encourage doctors to return to general practice, to better meet the needs of patients now and for the future.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to promote awareness of scleroderma to health professionals and the wider public.
Answered by George Freeman
There are between 5,000 and 8,000 rare diseases. Each one affects less than 0.1% of the United Kingdom’s population, but together affect the lives of 3 million people making considerable demands on the resources and capacity of the National Health Service and other care services.
In 2013, the Department published the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases. This is a high-level framework committed to raising awareness about all rare diseases and sets out a strategic vision for improving the lives of all those affected with rare disease. A copy of the Strategy is attached.
The Department also recently collaborated with Health Education England and others to produce two videos about rare diseases, one focusing on healthcare professionals, particularly general practitioners, as the first point of NHS contact, the other providing information for patients and parents about rare diseases. These videos can be viewed on Health Education England’s website at:
http://www.genomicseducation.hee.nhs.uk/rare-disease-and-the-potential-of-genomics/
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
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 provision of NHS dental services in Clacton constituency.
Answered by Dan Poulter
NHS England is responsible for commissioning dental services. As such, the Department has made no assessment of the adequacy of the provision of NHS dental services in Clacton constituency.
NHS England advises that it believes there are sufficient units of dental activity commissioned in the Clacton area to meet oral health needs. NHS England is not aware of any significant complaints in respect of accessing NHS dental provision in this locality.
Nationally, more than 30 million people were seen by an NHS dentist in the 24 month period ending 31 December 2014. Almost 1.6 million more people have been seen by an NHS dentist since May 2010. The Government is committed to working with NHS England to increase access to NHS dentistry.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the response time performance was of the East of England Ambulance Service in the last six months.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Ambulance response time data is published monthly and can be found on the NHS England website using the following link:
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to reduce waiting times for diagnostic tests at Clacton Hospital.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The provision of local health services is a matter for local National Health Service organisations. NHS North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) advises that Clacton Hospital provides some diagnostic testing for the local population, but the variety of tests that can be effectively provided is limited. More specialised diagnostic tests, such as magnetic resonance imaging or invasive tests such as angiography or endoscopy, have to be carried out at Colchester Hospital. They are not available at Clacton Hospital either because of a lack of physical space for the facilities within the hospital or because it is not clinically appropriate for the tests to be carried out in a community hospital. Clacton Hospital has no clinical theatre space. No emergency medical cover is available should a patient become seriously unwell following an invasive diagnostic test.
The CCG states that demand for diagnostic services is exceptionally high and it is considering how they could be provided within community settings to reduce waiting times. This might include direct access to some tests through general practitioner (GP) referral. This would enable the GP to receive a definitive test result for the patient, before referring on to secondary care where necessary. The CCG believes this would help to reduce waiting times and make access to the service easier for local people.
Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that more diagnostic tests are carried out at Clacton Hospital.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The provision of local health services is a matter for local National Health Service organisations. NHS North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) advises that Clacton Hospital provides some diagnostic testing for the local population, but the variety of tests that can be effectively provided is limited. More specialised diagnostic tests, such as magnetic resonance imaging or invasive tests such as angiography or endoscopy, have to be carried out at Colchester Hospital. They are not available at Clacton Hospital either because of a lack of physical space for the facilities within the hospital or because it is not clinically appropriate for the tests to be carried out in a community hospital. Clacton Hospital has no clinical theatre space. No emergency medical cover is available should a patient become seriously unwell following an invasive diagnostic test.
The CCG states that demand for diagnostic services is exceptionally high and it is considering how they could be provided within community settings to reduce waiting times. This might include direct access to some tests through general practitioner (GP) referral. This would enable the GP to receive a definitive test result for the patient, before referring on to secondary care where necessary. The CCG believes this would help to reduce waiting times and make access to the service easier for local people.