Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support her Department provides to female veterans suffering PTSD and poor mental health due to sexual (a) assault and (b) trauma.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Health is a devolved matter across the United Kingdom, and it is for the devolved administrations to determine what support is made available in their respective jurisdictions. In England, the National Health Service, together with Police and Crime Commissioners, have commissioned Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs). These centres provide a safe space and dedicated care, through the NHS, for people who have been raped, sexually assaulted or abused, and are here for everyone, including female veterans.
SARCs offer specialist practical, medical and emotional support day and night. They offer a range of services, including crisis care, medical and forensic examinations, emergency contraception and testing for sexually transmitted infections. They can also arrange access to an independent sexual violence advisor, as well as referrals to mental health support and voluntary sector sexual violence support services.
In April 2023, NHS England commissioned Op COURAGE which is the veterans’ mental health and wellbeing service providing a comprehensive mental health treatment pathway to respond to veterans’ needs. We have increased investment in this area with the highest level to date in 2023/24 with planned spend of £23.5 million. Access to Op COURAGE is via referral or by direct contact from veterans. A campaign to raise awareness of Op COURAGE launched on 9 January 2024.
The Government is providing an additional £10 million to support the Veterans’ Places, People and Pathways Programme to increase support to a significant community of vulnerable veterans throughout the United Kingdom and enable it to become self-sustaining.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 help tackle underage vaping.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is concerned about the worrying rise in vaping among children. Youth vaping has tripled in the last three years, and one in five children now use a vape. The health advice is clear: if you don’t smoke, don’t vape, and children should never vape.
The Government’s response to the recent smoking and vaping consultation sets out our plan to introduce powers to crack down on youth vaping by restricting flavours, point of sale and packaging for vaping products. We will introduce legislation as soon as possible. The consultation is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/creating-a-smokefree-generation-and-tackling-youth-vaping/outcome/creating-a-smokefree-generation-and-tackling-youth-vaping-consultation-government-response
In the consultation response, we also announced that disposable vapes will be banned, due to their appeal to young people and environmental concerns. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs will be taking forward the ban and are looking to legislate as soon as possible.
We have also developed new training resources and support available for teachers and schools, working with the Department for Education to update the curriculum to include the health risks of vaping, and publish new online content on the potential risks of vaping for young people.
Finally, we will also introduce a £100 fixed penalty notice for underage sales of tobacco and vaping products. This will enable trading standards officers to take quicker and more proportionate enforcement action against the irresponsible retailers who allow underage sales.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on the number of theatre-related fires that were reported in NHS hospitals in (a) 2020, (b) 2021, (c) 2022 and (d) 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are informed that NHS England’s national patient safety team does not hold or collect information on the number of surgical fires which occur.
Any unexpected or unintended incident which could have or did lead to harm to one or more patients can be recorded on the Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service, to support local and national learning. This would include surgical fires or burns. The data is also being made available to integrated care boards and regional teams, to facilitate their roles in safety oversight and provide improvement support.
The most serious surgical fires or burns are already subject to mandatory reporting. NHS England share all such data with the Care Quality Commission. Although recording onto LFPSE is a voluntary process, providers are encouraged to record all patient safety incidents, irrespective of the level of harm, to support local and national learning.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to reduce incidences of surgical (a) fires and (b) burns.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In January 2023, the Centre for Perioperative Care, following consultation, published revised National Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures. These national standards specifically cover all invasive procedures and include a requirement for local fire safety policies to minimise the risk of surgical fires and to contain a management plan in the event of one occurring.
Recording individual patient safety events is a voluntary process, except where reporting to NHS England fulfils duties for other statutory mandatory requirements, such as reporting notifiable incidents to the Care Quality Commission (CQC). NHS England share all data routinely with CQC. The data is also being made available to integrated care boards and regional teams, to facilitate their roles in safety oversight and provider improvement support.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking with NHS England to support Integrated Care Boards to (a) prepare for full delegation of specialised services for interstitial lung disease from April 2024 and (b) improve patient outcomes for interstitial lung disease.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving the detection and diagnosis of all respiratory conditions. Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are the primary intervention being pursued to increase diagnostic capacity quickly in the National Health Service. As of January 2024, 153 CDC sites are operational, and the programme has delivered over 5 million tests since July 2021.
Furthermore, the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. It will put the workforce on a sustainable footing for the long term. As of September 2023, there are currently over 3,400 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the specialty of respiratory medicine in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. This is over 690, or 25.5%, more than in 2019 and over 1,600, or 95.7%, more than in 2010. This includes almost 1,400 FTE consultants, which is over 260, or 23.2%, more than in 2019 and over 730, or 111.7%, more than in 2010.
On the delegation of specialised commissioning, NHS England approved plans in December to fully delegate the commissioning of 59 specialised services to integrated care boards (ICBs) in the East, Midlands and the North West regions of England from April 2024. NHS England has also approved plans to continue to jointly commission appropriate specialised services with ICBs in the South West, South East, London and the North East, and Yorkshire regions of England for a further year. This approach will help support a smooth transition of commissioning responsibility by April 2025. Moving to ICB-led commissioning will support a new focus on integration and population health management across whole pathways of care. This presents the opportunity to improve the quality of services, tackle health inequalities and deliver best value. Overall, the delivery of the Government’s plans on diagnostic centres, workforce, and the delegation of commissioning will help improve patient outcomes for respiratory diseases.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 (a) increase the capacity of interstitial lung disease services and (b) reduce the time between diagnosis and access to treatment for that disease.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving the detection and diagnosis of all respiratory conditions. Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are the primary intervention being pursued to increase diagnostic capacity quickly in the National Health Service. As of January 2024, 153 CDC sites are operational, and the programme has delivered over 5 million tests since July 2021.
Furthermore, the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. It will put the workforce on a sustainable footing for the long term. As of September 2023, there are currently over 3,400 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the specialty of respiratory medicine in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. This is over 690, or 25.5%, more than in 2019 and over 1,600, or 95.7%, more than in 2010. This includes almost 1,400 FTE consultants, which is over 260, or 23.2%, more than in 2019 and over 730, or 111.7%, more than in 2010.
On the delegation of specialised commissioning, NHS England approved plans in December to fully delegate the commissioning of 59 specialised services to integrated care boards (ICBs) in the East, Midlands and the North West regions of England from April 2024. NHS England has also approved plans to continue to jointly commission appropriate specialised services with ICBs in the South West, South East, London and the North East, and Yorkshire regions of England for a further year. This approach will help support a smooth transition of commissioning responsibility by April 2025. Moving to ICB-led commissioning will support a new focus on integration and population health management across whole pathways of care. This presents the opportunity to improve the quality of services, tackle health inequalities and deliver best value. Overall, the delivery of the Government’s plans on diagnostic centres, workforce, and the delegation of commissioning will help improve patient outcomes for respiratory diseases.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many agency staff were employed in NHS hospitals on 30 January 2024.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Agency workers are not National Health Service employees, and their services are invoiced upon their delivery. Invoices for these services will confirm the hours billed, and the cost of those hours. Due to the variability and complexity of the invoices, it is not possible to collect reliable statistical data on agency headcount.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the supply of Creon on the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department was made aware of a global supply issue with Creon 25000 gastro-resistant capsules in autumn 2023. We worked with the manufacturers to resolve that issue and stock is currently available. We are continuing to work with the manufacturers of Creon 25000 to help ensure that action is taken to resolve any further issues that may arise, as quickly as possible, to maintain continuity of supply of this important medicine for patients in the United Kingdom.
We understand how frustrating and distressing medicine supply issues can be. While we can’t always prevent supply issues from occurring, the Department has a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise and help mitigate risks to patients.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will bring forward legislation to regulate the sale of aspirin.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The sale of aspirin is already regulated under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. Regulation 221 of these regulations specifies the pack sizes that can be sold without a prescription. Regulation 236 specifies the maximum amount of tablets that can be sold, currently set as 100 tablets, before it becomes a prescription only item.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) also has best practice guidance on the sale of medicines for pain relief for retailers, recommending a maximum sale of two packs. This is entirely voluntary, although it was agreed with the British Retail Consortium, and is available at the following link:
The MHRA is currently working with the British Retail Consortium to raise awareness of the guidance, why we have it in place, and how we can improve it to meet current retailing practice.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many operating theatre related fires have been reported in (a) 2020, (b) 2021, (c) 2022 and (d) 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information is not held in the format requested. Any unexpected or unintended incident which could have or did lead to harm to one or more patients can be recorded on the Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service, to support local and national learning. This would include surgical fires and burns.
Recording onto LFPSE is a voluntary process, except where reporting to NHS England fulfils duties for other statutory mandatory requirements, such as reporting notifiable incidents to the Care Quality Commission (CQC). NHS England shares all such data with the CQC. Notifiable incidents include events resulting in serious harm or the death of a service user, and therefore the most serious surgical fires or surgical burns are subject to mandatory reporting. However, providers are encouraged to record all patient safety incidents, irrespective of the level of harm, to support local and national learning.