Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timetable is for NHS England to respond to its service review on specialist spinal cord injury services; and what the timetable is for further steps to be taken in relation to that review.
Answered by Steve Brine
In September 2017 the Specialised Commissioning Oversight Group at NHS England approved the recommended Case for Change for Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) services. Recommendations include improvements in efficiency and standardisation within the current eight SCI centres, and an increase in SCI service provision. No timeline has yet been determined by NHS England for implementation.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether (a) his Department and (b) NHS England plans to undertake a review of the outcomes of decision support tool assessments to ensure that eligibility decisions made are lawful and in line with the provisions of the Care Act 2014 and the Coughlan and Grogan court judgments.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility decisions are taken following the completion of the NHS Continuing Healthcare Decision Support Tool by a multidisciplinary team, in accordance with the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care.
NHS England has assurance mechanisms in place to understand clinical commissioning group compliance with the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care. NHS Continuing Healthcare has been part of NHS England’s mainstream assurance processes since 2016/17 and is included in the Clinical Commissioning Group Improvement and Assessment Framework.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the timetable for the beds being used by non-spinal cord injured patients in the (a) National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville and (b) Yorkshire Regional Spinal Injuries Centre, Pinderfields to be returned to use by spinal cord injured patients.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England commissions specialised spinal care from eight centres in England for patients who have suffered a spinal cord injury, totalling 374 beds. The service is managed locally and delivered by spinal cord injury specialists, both within the spinal cord injury centres and as outreach to acute hospitals and following discharge for transition and reintegration into the community.
NHS England’s national team has advised that it is not aware of any intelligence to suggest that a spinal cord injury patient has been denied a specialist bed during the winter period due to its use by a non-spinal cord injury patient.
Information concerning the number and proportion of spinal cord injured patients who are treated in a specialist spinal cord injury centre for their initial rehabilitation relative to those who receive that rehabilitation in a different clinical or other setting is not held centrally.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number and proportion of spinal cord injured patients who are treated in a specialist spinal cord injury centre for their initial rehabilitation relative to those who receive that rehabilitation in a different clinical or other setting (a) nationally, (b) by country and (c) by region.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England commissions specialised spinal care from eight centres in England for patients who have suffered a spinal cord injury, totalling 374 beds. The service is managed locally and delivered by spinal cord injury specialists, both within the spinal cord injury centres and as outreach to acute hospitals and following discharge for transition and reintegration into the community.
NHS England’s national team has advised that it is not aware of any intelligence to suggest that a spinal cord injury patient has been denied a specialist bed during the winter period due to its use by a non-spinal cord injury patient.
Information concerning the number and proportion of spinal cord injured patients who are treated in a specialist spinal cord injury centre for their initial rehabilitation relative to those who receive that rehabilitation in a different clinical or other setting is not held centrally.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to ensure the planned efficiency savings of £855 million from the NHS Continuing Healthcare budget will be achieved without restricting access to care.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
NHS England’s NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) Strategic Improvement Programme (SIP) aims to provide fair access to NHS CHC in a way which ensures better outcomes, better experience, and better use of resources.
The SIP will not change the threshold for eligibility for NHS CHC, which is based on a multidisciplinary assessment of needs as set out in the National Framework for NHS CHC and NHS-funded Nursing Care, together with secondary legislation to give statutory effect to the eligibility criteria and the decision-making processes.
There should be no quota or cap on access to CHC funding and the programme does not aim to reduce spending on NHS CHC, but to reduce the rate of growth of expenditure. The projection is for spending on NHS CHC to increase by over 20% by 2020/21, or an average of approximately 3.9% per year. NHS England understands that there is variation on how individual clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are commissioning these services, and SIP will be developing a range of commissioning tools to support CCGs in this role to deliver more efficient services.
Actions such as these and the Department’s recent review of the National Framework will ensure that we can deliver efficiency savings in our administration of CHC without restricting access to care.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
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 ensure that beds in spinal cord injury centres are prioritised for the use of people with spinal cord injuries who require specialist care in future winters.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England commissions specialised spinal care from eight centres in England for patients who have suffered a spinal cord injury, totalling 374 beds. The service is managed locally and delivered by spinal cord injury specialists, both within the spinal cord injury centres and as outreach to acute hospitals and following discharge for transition and reintegration into the community.
NHS England’s national team has advised that it is not aware of any intelligence to suggest that a spinal cord injury patient has been denied a specialist bed during the winter period due to its use by a non-spinal cord injury patient.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that the new National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS Funded Nursing Care will require Care Commissioning Groups to continue to fund packages of care for people during the appeals process.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department is currently working to update the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and National Health Service-funded nursing care. This has included a structured engagement process with partners in NHS England and local government, as well as interested stakeholders, charities and service users on our proposed changes to the National Framework.
This update is intended to provide greater clarity for clinical commissioning groups and local authorities on a number of elements of the CHC process. The updated National Framework will be published shortly.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussion she has had with the Continuing Healthcare Alliance on care package funding arrangements for people with NHS continuing health care funding who had their eligibility for that funding withdrawn are enter the local resolution process.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department is currently working to update the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and National Health Service-funded nursing care. This has included a structured engagement process with partners in NHS England and local government, as well as interested stakeholders, service users and charities on proposed changes to the National Framework. The CHC Alliance were included in this engagement process and raised this particular issue.
The update to the National Framework is intended to provide greater clarity for clinical commissioning groups and local authorities on a number of elements of the CHC process. The updated National Framework will be published shortly.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the process is for payment of general practitioners dealing with NHS prescriptions.
Answered by Steve Brine
Where general practitioners (GPs) write a prescription which is dispensed in the practice, or provide a drug or medicine which is immediately necessary, the practice is reimbursed under provisions set out in the Statement of Financial Entitlements (SFE).
Once dispensed, prescriptions are sent to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) with a claim for payment. The SFE requires NHS England to make a payment, at the beginning of the month following the claim, equal to 80% of the estimated amount due to the GP practice. Once the claim has been verified by the NHS BSA, they will advise NHS England who then pay the balance of the amount due.
Payments to GPs for dispensing drugs include the basic price of the drug, an appropriate dispensing fee and an allowance to cover the VAT payable on the purchase of any drugs or medicines which are personally administered.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many staff appointed after 24 June 2016 in his Department hold a post that includes work on the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Exiting the European Union is a cross-Government operation. The Department for Exiting the European Union is working closely with all Departments to prepare for negotiations by understanding the risks and opportunities of leaving the EU and coordinating planning.
A central team within the Global and Public Health Directorate of this Department coordinates the provision of advice to Ministers on EU Exit and exit-related issues. All affected policy teams within the Department are involved with this work and they are assessing the implications of the United Kingdom leaving the EU on their policy area.
Given the interactions between EU exit work and the Department’s other priorities, it would not be possible to give an accurate figure.
The resources available are kept under constant review and the Department is equipping itself with the resources it needs to get the best deal for the UK.