Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what representations he has received on Warrington and Halton NHS Trust offering operations as private procedures which used to be free on the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
As of 21 June 2019, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State has received no direct representations on Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust offering operations as private procedures which used to be free on the National Health Service. There has been one representation to the Department from an individual about the matter.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
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 estimate of the additional costs incurred by the NHS as a result of the postponement of operations that are not commissioned by Care Commissioning Groups until a certain threshold is reached.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
No such estimate has been made. Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for working with their local communities to understand the needs of the populations they serve and make decisions about how best to commission services to meet those needs, in partnership with other local commissioners and organisations.
CCGs are also required to carefully consider the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines when making commissioning decisions.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance has been issued to clinical commissioning groups on restricting access to operations until a person's medical condition worsens; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
It is for the local clinical commissioning group (CCG) to decide what services they commission for the people they are responsible for – this will mean making clinical judgements about the effectiveness and value of treatments, and the best allocation of resources. CCGs do this based on the healthcare needs of their local populations and clinical evidence, to ensure they are providing the best possible, sustainable care for their patients.
Treatment decisions should always be made by doctors based on a patient’s individual clinical needs and informed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines.
NICE clinical guidelines make many recommendations spanning all stages of care from diagnosis to treatment of a condition. They represent best practice and are based on available evidence and developed through consultation. Health professionals and organisations are expected to take the guidance fully into account when deciding treatments.
A fundamental principle of the National Health Service is that, for people who are ‘ordinarily resident’ in the United Kingdom, treatment is free at the point of need, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. Patient payments, other than those limited forms permitted by Regulations (such as prescription charges, payments for some clinical activity undertaken by dentists, and visitor and migrant charges) are contrary to NHS policy.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance has been issued to NHS Trusts on charging for operations which were previously offered free on the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
It is for the local clinical commissioning group (CCG) to decide what services they commission for the people they are responsible for – this will mean making clinical judgements about the effectiveness and value of treatments, and the best allocation of resources. CCGs do this based on the healthcare needs of their local populations and clinical evidence, to ensure they are providing the best possible, sustainable care for their patients.
Treatment decisions should always be made by doctors based on a patient’s individual clinical needs and informed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines.
NICE clinical guidelines make many recommendations spanning all stages of care from diagnosis to treatment of a condition. They represent best practice and are based on available evidence and developed through consultation. Health professionals and organisations are expected to take the guidance fully into account when deciding treatments.
A fundamental principle of the National Health Service is that, for people who are ‘ordinarily resident’ in the United Kingdom, treatment is free at the point of need, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. Patient payments, other than those limited forms permitted by Regulations (such as prescription charges, payments for some clinical activity undertaken by dentists, and visitor and migrant charges) are contrary to NHS policy.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time for a non-emergency GP appointment was in Warrington at the last date for which figures are available.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The time between booking an appointment with a general practice and having the appointment in days for Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is presented in the following table for January 2019, the latest data available. A 12 month average from February 2018-January 2019 has also been added.
Time between booking an appointment with a general practice and having the appointment (days) | Percentage of appointments Warrington CCG | |
January 2019 | Average over the 12 months February 18 – January 19 | |
Same Day | 45.1% | 46.1% |
1 Day | 8.0% | 7.8% |
2 to 7 Days | 18.1% | 17.1% |
8 to 14 Days | 13.0% | 12.9% |
15 to 21 Days | 6.6% | 7.3% |
22 to 28 Days | 3.9% | 4.2% |
More than 28 Days | 5.1% | 4.7% |
Total | 100.0% | 100.0% |
The time between booking an appointment with a general practice and having the appointment in days for Warrington CCG is presented above for the last published month January 2019 and as a 12 month average from February 2018 - January 2019.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
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 21 January 2019 to Question 209287 on NHS: Members' Constituency Work, when the NHS started to require hon. Members to have signed authority before replying to such Members on issues raised by constituents.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
As set out in the answer of 21 January 2019 to Question 209287, there has been no change in policy with regards to obtaining consent of a patient for the purposes of an inquiry or investigation.
Paragraph 24 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018 sets out the circumstances in which special categories of personal data, which would include health data, can be disclosed to Members of Parliament without the controller - here, the National Health Service body - having to obtain explicit consent from the data subject. This is discussed in the House of Commons Briefing Paper, Number 1,936 of 31 October 2018 ‘Data protection: constituency casework’ at the following link:
http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01936/SN01936.pdf
However, it remains the responsibility of the National Health Service body to satisfy itself that there is a legal basis under the General Data Protection Regulation/Data Protection Act for processing patient information (i.e. disclosing and sharing it for the purposes of the investigation).
In the earlier answers to Questions 209287 and 208761, we said that a National Health Service body ‘must’ obtain the consent of the patient before disclosing patient information held by it in order to progress an inquiry from a Member of Parliament. There are circumstances in which a National Health Service body may provide patient information to a Member of Parliament without the Member evidencing the consent of the patient, so long as that information is provided in accordance with the requirements set out in paragraph 24 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018. We are arranging for the record to be corrected.