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 discussions he has had with GPs and medical defence organisations on providing appropriate funding to meet additional costs incurred following changes to the discount rate in February 2017.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Department is aware that the rise in the cost of indemnity as a result of the change in the personal discount rate announced by the then Lord Chancellor (Rt. hon. Elizabeth Truss MP) in February 2017 is an area of concern for general practitioners (GPs).
The Department has been assessing the potential effect of the discount rate change by working closely with GPs and Medical Defence Organisations to ensure that appropriate funding is available to meet the additional costs to GPs, recognising the crucial role they play in the delivery of National Health Service care.
On 12 October 2017, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health announced that the Department is planning, subject to examination of relevant issues, the development of a state-backed indemnity scheme for general practice in England.
The Department will continue to work with the Royal College of General Practitioners, the British Medical Association and other GP representatives to engage with the sector on this issue.
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 steps he is taking to ensure that people with spinal cord injuries are treated in specialist units.
Answered by David Mowat
NHS England commissions specialised spinal care services nationally. All patients needing specialist spinal care following either injury or disease progression should be referred to a specialist centre after initial treatment or assessment at a local hospital.
These services encompass acute care following the injury, rehabilitation and life-long follow-up of people living with spinal cord injury.
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 assessment he has made of the effect of pension freedoms policy on the cost to local authorities of residential care.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The pension freedom reforms are a fundamental change to how people can access their pension savings. The Government believes it is important to monitor these changes to understand their effects on the market and consumers. The impact of people’s pension choice can affect the extent to which they have to contribute to their social care costs.
The Department of Health, working with other Government Departments, assessed the potential effect of the policy on the cost to local authorities of residential care to be small compared to overall expenditure on residential 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, how many foundation hospitals include on their council of governors elected members from Wales.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Information on the nationality of governors elected to foundation trusts 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, how many beds in each UK spinal cord injury centre have been ring fenced for the treatment of spinal cord injured readmissions or outpatients in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England’s Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) service specification clearly sets out what providers must have in place to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services. It sets a core requirement that each specialised SCI Centre (SCIC) can demonstrate they have a minimum of 20 beds dedicated exclusively for the treatment and rehabilitation of SCI patients. Specialised SCI Services encompass all activity for SCI patients provided by the host trust of the SCIC, including any readmission or attendance for SCI-related care, wherever the treatment is located in the trust. A copy of the specification can be found at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/d13-spinal-cord-0414.pdf
NHS England is aware that a number of beds in one ward at Stoke Mandeville spinal injuries unit are being used as escalation beds by medical specialties to assist with patient flow. It is planned for these beds to re-open as specialist spinal beds from September 2014.
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 beds in each UK spinal cord injury centre are ring fenced for the exclusive treatment of spinal cord injured readmissions or outpatients.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England’s Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) service specification clearly sets out what providers must have in place to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services. It sets a core requirement that each specialised SCI Centre (SCIC) can demonstrate they have a minimum of 20 beds dedicated exclusively for the treatment and rehabilitation of SCI patients. Specialised SCI Services encompass all activity for SCI patients provided by the host trust of the SCIC, including any readmission or attendance for SCI-related care, wherever the treatment is located in the trust. A copy of the specification can be found at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/d13-spinal-cord-0414.pdf
NHS England is aware that a number of beds in one ward at Stoke Mandeville spinal injuries unit are being used as escalation beds by medical specialties to assist with patient flow. It is planned for these beds to re-open as specialist spinal beds from September 2014.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will investigate the alleged misallocation of the specialist spinal injury beds at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and the use by non-spinal cord injury patients.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England’s Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) service specification clearly sets out what providers must have in place to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services. It sets a core requirement that each specialised SCI Centre (SCIC) can demonstrate they have a minimum of 20 beds dedicated exclusively for the treatment and rehabilitation of SCI patients. Specialised SCI Services encompass all activity for SCI patients provided by the host trust of the SCIC, including any readmission or attendance for SCI-related care, wherever the treatment is located in the trust. A copy of the specification can be found at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/d13-spinal-cord-0414.pdf
NHS England is aware that a number of beds in one ward at Stoke Mandeville spinal injuries unit are being used as escalation beds by medical specialties to assist with patient flow. It is planned for these beds to re-open as specialist spinal beds from September 2014.
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 average time taken is in each health authority from a person being referred for a NHS Continuing Healthcare assessment to the eligibility decision being made.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The Department does not collect data regarding the time taken for individuals to be assessed for NHS Continuing Healthcare. The National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care sets out that the time which elapses between completion of the Checklist (or other notification of potential eligibility) being received by the relevant clinical commissioning group, and a funding decision being made should, in most cases, not exceed 28 days.
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 much was spent on wheelchairs and wheelchair vouchers by each clinical commissioning group in each of the last four years.
Answered by Norman Lamb
Information on spending on wheelchairs and wheelchair vouchers by each clinical commissioning group is not held centrally. Information on spending on wheelchairs and wheelchair vouchers by primary care trusts prior to 31 March 2013 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, what the average cost per night is of a bed in (a) an intensive therapy unit or high dependency unit, (b) a district general hospital, (c) a spinal cord injury centre and (d) a spinal cord injury centre for a ventilated spinal cord injured patient.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Information is not available in the format requested.
Such information as is available is from reference costs, which are the average unit costs to National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year to NHS patients. Unit costs for inpatient care, including spinal cord injury, requiring the use of a hospital bed for at least one night are submitted per finished consultant episode rather than per night. Only unit costs for inpatient stays beyond the expected length of stay for each treatment are submitted per bed day. Unit costs for critical care, including in an intensive therapy unit or high dependency unit, are submitted per critical care bed day. This information is shown in the following table.
National average unit costs of adult critical care, elective and non-elective care, and spinal cord injury care in England, 2012-13
| Unit cost per finished consultant episode4 | Unit cost per excess bed day5 | Unit cost per critical care bed day6 |
Adult critical care1 | - | - | 1,173 |
Inpatient care2 | 1,758 | 273 | - |
Spinal cord injury care3 | 7,649 | 354 | - |
Notes:
1National average adult critical care costs submitted in reference costs by all NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts that provided patient care in critical care units during 2012-13 give the nearest equivalent to the average cost per night of a bed in an intensive therapy unit or high dependency unit. They relate to parts of the patient’s hospital stay that require organ system support in a designated critical care bed. These are conventionally grouped into critical care areas, such as an intensive therapy unit or high dependency unit, but may include temporary, non-standard locations.
2National average elective and non-elective inpatient costs submitted in reference costs by all NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts that admitted patients during 2012-13 give the nearest equivalent to the average cost per night of a bed in a district general hospital. No attempt has been made to distinguish between district general hospitals and other types of trust, such as specialist or teaching trusts.
3National average elective and non-elective inpatient costs submitted in reference costs against treatment function code 323, spinal injuries, by the following eight trusts providing spinal cord injury centres in England give the nearest equivalent to the average cost per night of a bed in a spinal cord injury centre:
(a) Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
(b) Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
(c) Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
(d) Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
(e) South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
(f) Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust
(g) St George's Healthcare NHS Trust
(h) The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
4Reference costs for elective and non-elective inpatient episodes of care distinguish between the inlier unit cost below a statistically derived expected length of stay (known as a trim point) for a given treatment, and an excess bed day cost for each bed day over the trim point. Inlier unit costs cover the costs of active treatment and are submitted per finished consultant episode rather than per bed day.
5Excess bed day costs are used to estimate the cost of an overnight stay in a hospital bed and generally include routine ward costs such as nursing, dressings, and blood tests, although they may also include the costs of active treatment where this continues beyond the trim point, especially for specialised services.
6Adult critical care costs are submitted per critical care bed day.
Source: Reference costs, Department of Health