Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the current capacity in NHS England for patients with (a) respiratory failure and (b) multiple organ failure.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Highly specialised beds will only be needed by a minority of affected patients. As the Chief Medical Officer has said, hospitals are carefully considering how best to flex services to respond to extra demand. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working closely with providers across the country to support this.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to increase the capacity of NHS England for patients with (a) respiratory failure and (b) multiple organ failure in the event of an increase in these cases as a result of covid–19.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Highly specialised beds will only be needed by a minority of affected patients. As the Chief Medical Officer has said, hospitals are carefully considering how best to flex services to respond to extra demand. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working closely with providers across the country to support this.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the number of ventilators in use in the NHS in England.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Ventilator machines are usually linked to patients in Intensive Care Units/Critical Care/High Dependency Units, although some patients may have them at home or use Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machines to assist with their breathing.
Information on Critical Care Bed Capacity is published by NHS England and can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/critical-care-capacity/
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ensure parity of financial compensation for people affected by the infected blood scandal in each nation of the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government established the England Infected Blood Support Scheme in 2017 to provide dedicated ex-gratia financial and non-financial support to people infected by HIV and/or hepatitis C through treatment with National Health Service-supplied blood or blood products, and their affected families. This scheme is currently administered by NHS Business Services Authority.
We are working with our partners in the devolved nations and other relevant Government departments to improve parity of support across the United Kingdom.
We will consider any recommendations when the Infected Blood Inquiry reports, including those on compensation.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research his Department has undertaken of the effect of air pollution on health in the UK.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department invests over £1 billion a year in health research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR supports a broad spectrum of research on the health effects of air pollution through the Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in the Health Impact of Environmental Hazards at King’s College London and the HPRU in Environmental Change and Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The NIHR also funds relevant research through its Public Health Research Programme, including an investigation on the impact of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone on children’s respiratory health.
The Department identifies priorities for research into air pollution using recommendations from the Committee on Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) and Public Health England (PHE). It also commissions PHE and COMEAP to review and conduct such research.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of trends in the number of people moved from home care into residential care since 2015.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department does not hold data on the number of clients moving between long term care settings therefore no assessment has been made.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will place in the Library each estimate that has been provided to Government since January 2019 on the potential reduction in medicine flows from the EU to the UK in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a Withdrawal Agreement if the Government (a) takes and (b) does not take steps to mitigate those reductions.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for leaving the European Union. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the uninterrupted supply of medicines and medical products once we have left the EU.
The Government has published its reasonable worst-case planning assumptions for a no-deal EU exit scenario as of 2 August 2019. These assumptions are available at the following link:
My Department, as part of our EU exit preparations, is implementing a multi-layered approach to mitigate potential disruption to supply on the Channel short straits routes, which consists of stockpiling where possible, securing freight capacity, changing or clarifying regulatory requirements, procuring additional warehousing, working closely with industry to improve trader readiness and putting in place the National Supply Disruption Response to manage potential shortages. Further details can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
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 that the UK regains its measles free status.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In January 2019 Public Health England, Public Health Wales, The Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland and Health Protection Scotland published the United Kingdom Measles and Rubella elimination strategy at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-and-rubella-elimination-uk-strategy
NHS England and NHS Improvement, the Department and Public Health England are implementing the actions of the strategy, working with key national and local stakeholders, for example, local screening and immunisation teams. Recent examples of actions include a new catch-up vaccination programme for 10 and 11 year olds through general practitioner practices, communications campaigns targeting festival goers and students, and local initiatives led by local teams to address inequalities in vaccine uptake.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
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 support research on the link between Parkinson’s and (a) anxiety and (b) depression; and if he will review NICE guidelines for people with Parkinson's who have anxiety and depression.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including Parkinson’s disease and mental health. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. Information on individual projects funded by the NIHR can be found at the following link:
https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/programmes/
NIHR support for research into Parkinson’s was nearly £15 million since 2015. This includes studies looking specifically at Parkinson’s and mental health such as the ‘Antidepressants Trial in Parkinson’s Disease (ADepT-PD)’ and the ‘Personalised Care for People with Parkinson’s Disease: PD Care’ study. NIHR infrastructure has supported 169 studies into Parkinson’s Disease since 2015.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the removal of student bursaries on differences in trends of the number of (a) students, (b) mature students and (c) part-time students on nursing courses in England.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In August 2017, the Government changed the funding system for pre-registration nurse training in England. New nursing, midwifery and allied health profession students studying in England moved from National Health Service bursaries to the standard student support system. The intention of the reforms is to boost participation, secure the future supply of home-grown nurses to the NHS, and enable universities to create additional nurse training places.
The standard student support system means that a typical student nurse has 25% more money to live on while they are studying than under the bursary system (albeit in the form of a student loan rather than a grant).
The interim People Plan published on 3 June 2019 sets out some of the steps needed to ensure the NHS in England have the staff they need to deliver high quality care, including growing our nursing workforce by 40,000 in the next five years.
The most recent data available from UCAS covers the B7 group of courses (nursing and midwifery courses aggregated together) rather than nursing. It is the latest position on the number of acceptances to nursing and midwifery courses as of 30 August 2019. Data for 2019 and the equivalent time point in previous years is shown in the following table.
Acceptances to nursing and midwifery courses two weeks after the start of clearing. All applicants to English providers.
Academic year | |||||
Nursing and midwifery | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 |
Acceptances 2 weeks after A-level results day | 20,300 | 21,490 | 20,180 | 19,350 | 20,190 |
Source: UCAS clearing analysis.
Nursing specific data, up to and including the 2018 end of cycle is shown in the following table. This data will be updated in December 2018.
The number of students over the last five years who accepted a place to study nursing at university is shown in the following table.
The Department does not hold data on part-time student trends.
Acceptances to nursing courses at English providers over the last five years | |||||
Academic year | |||||
Nursing course acceptances | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 |
All acceptances | 19,025 | 19,305 | 20,415 | 19,515 | 19,035 |
Acceptances from those aged 20+ | 13,030 | 13,230 | 14,065 | 12,845 | 12,430 |
Source: UCAS end of cycle data, 2018
Note:
- The 2016/17 academic year was the final year students starting a degree in nursing were eligible for the bursary.
- Students aged 21+ are classified as mature students for university funding purposes. The closest category in the UCAS end of cycle data was for those aged 20+.
- Nursing courses include adult, children’s, dual, learning disability, and mental health nursing.