Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many care homes have been closed in England as a result of (a) complaints and (b) a Care Quality Commission inspection rating of poor in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The following table shows the total number of care homes that have been forcibly closed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
| Number of Enforced Closures of Locations by Latest Overall Published Rating* | Total | |||
Year of closure | Not rated | Good | Requires improvement | Inadequate | |
2014 | 42 |
|
|
| 42 |
2015 | 43 | 1 | 3 | 40 | 87 |
2016 | 34 |
| 8 | 59 | 101 |
2017 | 21 | 4 | 12 | 73 | 110 |
2018 | 7 | 5 | 15 | 64 | 91 |
2019 (to date) |
| 3 | 7 | 26 | 36 |
Grand Total | 147 | 13 | 45 | 262 | 467 |
Notes:*The last rating cannot be linked as the cause of the closure.
In addition to these figures a significant number of locations will have voluntarily closed before CQC enforcement action is completed.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the availability of medicines after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Government remains committed to leaving the European Union with a deal. However, as a responsible Government, we will continue to prepare to minimise any disruption to the supply of medicines and medical products in a potential ‘no deal’ scenario.
We are continuing to work with trade bodies and other stakeholders to carefully review the implications of the extension to the Article 50 period until 31 October at the latest before sharing further guidance with industry at the earliest opportunity. On 26 April we wrote to suppliers advising that, until further guidance is provided, all no-deal measures, including stockpiles and plans to route away from the short straits, should remain in place but on hold.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle shortages of (a) Adalat, (b) Nifedipine and (c) other common medicines.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The vast majority of medicines are not subject to supply problems and every day over 2 million prescription items are successfully dispensed in England.
Where problems do occur the Department’s Medicines Supply Team has well established procedures to deal with medicine shortages and works closely with all stakeholders to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when they do arise.
We are aware of ongoing supply issues with the Adalat range of the drug nifedipine due to manufacturing capacity constraints. We have been working closely with all suppliers of generic and other brands of nifedipine to maintain overall supply of this medicine to patients and have provided regular updates about the situation to the National Health Service.
We will continue to work closely with all manufacturers of nifedipine preparations to monitor the overall supply situation to ensure supplies continue to remain available.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to additional funding for children’s palliative care announced in the NHS Long-Term Plan, whether he plans to allocate additional funding to children’s hospices in England in 2019-20.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England committed to increase its investment in children’s palliative care over the next five years by match funding clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) who commit to increase their investment in local children’s palliative and end of life care services.
Subject to CCGs increasing investment, NHS England will match this by up to £7 million a year by 2023/24. This increase is in addition to the Children’s Hospice Grant, which provides an annual contribution of £11 million. NHS England is currently establishing financial reporting systems to monitor the baseline investment of CCGs in children’s palliative and end of life care services. This will enable match funding payments made to CCGs where the investments are increased above the investment baseline in the previous year. As baselining will be ongoing through 2019/20, and therefore match funding will not be available in this year, NHS England will be increasing the children’s hospice grant to £12 million for this period.
With regards to financial sustainability of hospices, these are primarily charity-funded but receive some statutory funding from CCGS for providing local services. The amount of funding varies between CCGs, but on average adult hospices receive approximately 30% of their overall funding from National Health Service sources. CCGs are responsible for determining the level of NHS-funded hospice care locally and they are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the financial sustainability of charitable hospices.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England committed to increase its investment in children’s palliative care over the next five years by match funding clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) who commit to increase their investment in local children’s palliative and end of life care services.
Subject to CCGs increasing investment, NHS England will match this by up to £7 million a year by 2023/24. This increase is in addition to the Children’s Hospice Grant, which provides an annual contribution of £11 million. NHS England is currently establishing financial reporting systems to monitor the baseline investment of CCGs in children’s palliative and end of life care services. This will enable match funding payments made to CCGs where the investments are increased above the investment baseline in the previous year. As baselining will be ongoing through 2019/20, and therefore match funding will not be available in this year, NHS England will be increasing the children’s hospice grant to £12 million for this period.
With regards to financial sustainability of hospices, these are primarily charity-funded but receive some statutory funding from CCGS for providing local services. The amount of funding varies between CCGs, but on average adult hospices receive approximately 30% of their overall funding from National Health Service sources. CCGs are responsible for determining the level of NHS-funded hospice care locally and they are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) treatments and (b) support is provided by the NHS to (i) adults and (ii) children with Meares-Irlen Syndrome.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In England, free National Health Service funded sight tests are available to eligible groups, including those under 19 and in full time education, with the purpose of detecting signs of injury, disease or abnormality and giving an individual a written prescription for glasses or referring them to a doctor for further examination. Funding is also available under the NHS voucher scheme for the provision of spectacles with a prescription power to correct a defect of sight identified during the NHS sight test. This could include a coloured tint if considered clinically necessary.
Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local population. This could include services over and above the NHS sight test, such as those to meet the needs of people with visual perceptual disorders.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish its consultation on the regulation of orphan drugs after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government is committed to the safe and effective regulation of medicines in the United Kingdom; ensuring patients and the public have fast access to new, innovative medicines, including medicines for rare diseases.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) launched in October 2018 a consultation on the regulation of medicines in the event of a ‘no deal’ exit, which included the proposed UK approach to the regulation of orphan medicines post-exit, including on incentives to encourage such medicines onto the UK market. Following this consultation, the MHRA, on 3 January 2019, published guidance on the UK proposed arrangements for the regulation of orphan medicines, in the event of a ‘no deal’ exit. This can be accessed at the following link:
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the availability of treatments for patients with rare diseases since the introduction of the Orphan Medical Product Regulation 2000.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Government is committed to improving the lives of all those affected by a rare disease. Implementation plans by NHS England and the Department were published jointly in January 2018 and describe the actions and framework in place to deliver this commitment to improve the lives of those affected by rare disease, as defined in the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases.
Through its technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies programmes, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) plays an important role in ensuring that patients, including patients with rare diseases, are able to benefit from effective new treatments. NICE has recommended a number of drugs for rare diseases through these programmes that are now routinely funded by the National Health Service for eligible patients.
Asked by: James Frith (Labour - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many claims for continuing care payments remain outstanding since the deadline for applications was set.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
In March 2012, deadlines were introduced for requests for an assessment for NHS Continuing Healthcare ‘previously unassessed periods of care’ between 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2012 in England. Approximately 63,000 requests for an assessment were received, with approximately 25,000 resulting in a full assessment.
As at 30 November 2018, the number of payments for periods of care within the 2004-2012 period that remain outstanding is 624. This number relates to cases which have been assessed as eligible (either initially or on appeal) and for which payments remain outstanding.
Data on NHS Continuing Healthcare previously unassessed periods of care from April 2012 is not held.