Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Local Authority (Public Health, Health and Wellbeing Boards and Health Scrutiny) Regulations 2013, what discussions he has had with the Independent Reconfiguration Panel on improving the referral system from local authority health scrutiny committees.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The Department remains committed to ensuring the highest standards of public involvement in, and local democratic oversight of, the development of NHS services. We therefore maintain a regular dialogue with the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP), and other bodies to ensure that our systems and processes support effective scrutiny. The IRP publishes advice and guidance to support local decision making and scrutiny, as well as providing advice to interested parties. Further information can be found on the IRP website.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS hospital trusts have (a) reported financial deficits in their budget at the end of the 2017-18 financial year and (b) estimated such deficits for future financial years; and if he will publish that information by NHS trust.
Answered by Steve Barclay
NHS Improvement publishes quarterly reports regarding the financial position of National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts. The latest figures on current deficits can be found in the NHS Improvement Quarter 4 performance report via the following link:
https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/quarterly-performance-nhs-provider-sector-quarter-4-201718/
NHS trusts and foundation trusts will develop their own plans for future financial years which will be collated and validated by NHS Improvement.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the refinancing of PFI contracts for NHS Trusts.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The debt incurred to finance Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects is incurred predominantly by the PFI companies themselves. Officials at the Department discuss refinancing opportunities with the PFI companies as and when the relevant circumstances arise, although opportunities for re-financing PFI schemes are now comparatively limited given the nature of the financial instruments used by the PFI companies at the time.
More generally the Department has helped and advised local trust contract managers where requested in relation to PFI contractual issues and also to support trusts in making operational savings in their PFI schemes.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Departments policy is on clinical commissioning groups levying fines on NHS Trusts that fail to meet contractual targets.
Answered by Steve Brine
The NHS Standard Contract, which is used by clinical commissioning groups for all contracts with hospital providers of National Health Service healthcare services, sets out the consequences of breaches of the waiting time standards and other requirements. In many cases, this consequence is in the form of a financial sanction.
Where a provider breaches a national standard set out in the Contract, prior to April 2016 it was mandatory, under the Contract, for the commissioner to apply the relevant financial sanction. This changed from April 2016, when the application of the principal sanctions (for accident and emergency waiting times, cancer waiting times and waiting times for elective care) being suspended for those NHS trusts and foundations trusts in the national Sustainability and Transformation Fund (STF). Trusts which signed up to the conditions of the STF, including in particular the delivery of a financial control total, were exempted from sanctions. Since April 2018, the arrangement has remained similar in principle, although the STF has now been renamed the Provider Sustainability Fund (PSF) and the range of sanctions suspended has been broadened.
The great majority of trusts have signed up to the STF/PSF conditions since April 2016 and have been protected from financial sanctions as a result.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the number of GPs in Stoke-on-Trent.
Answered by Steve Brine
Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have developed a workforce strategy and plan for the area. This focuses on increasing the numbers of general practitioners (GPs), and also in diversifying the skill mix within general practice, to include clinical pharmacists, advanced nurse practitioners, nurses, physician associates, urgent care practitioners, mental health therapists and physiotherapists, to provide high quality care for patients through alternative health professionals.
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Sustainability and Transformation Partnership successfully bid to be an early wave site for GP international recruitment, which is to commence in July 2018.
A number of newly-qualified GPs have also been recruited to the area through a GP Fellowship scheme, which enables GPs to develop areas of specialist clinical interest. In 2018 there are also up to 18 £20,000 salary supplements available to GP trainees who commit to working for their three year speciality training in Stafford and Staffordshire as part of the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme.
The CCGs are also working with the BMJ to develop a marketing campaign to raise the profile of Staffordshire as a place to work and increase the recruitment rate for General Practice. The campaign will be for 12 months and is planned to start by early July 2018.
Schemes to improve GP retention are also currently being scoped in preparation to submit a bid for NHS England funding by the end of June 2018.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total value of all fines levied by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) against NHS trusts was for the financial year 2017-18; and what guidance his Department provides to (a) NHS England and (b) each CCG on how revenue raised through such fines should be used.
Answered by Steve Brine
Information is not held centrally on the level of fines levied by clinical commissioning groups against National Health Service trusts during 2017/18.
In terms of the use by commissioners of revenue withheld from providers through financial sanctions, guidance on this is set out in NHS England’s Contract Technical Guidance, at section 40.5 onwards. This guidance sets out how commissioners may use funding they retain as a result of the application of contractual sanctions, recommending that the commissioner considers whether it is possible to invest the withheld funding in a way that will help to rectify the performance problem.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many clinical commissioning groups have levied fines against NHS Trusts for breaches of payment by results contracts in each year for which information is available.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and which clinical commissioning groups operate a shared accountable officer.
Answered by Steve Brine
There are currently 33 joint Accountable Officers across 110 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England. Full details of these CCGs are listed in the attached table.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the estimated he has made of the value (a) in total and (b) by clinical commissioning group of all cancelled operations during last winter.
Answered by Steve Barclay
No estimate surrounding the value of cancelled operations during last winter has been made.