Asked by: John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay of 7 September, 7 October and 5 November 2020 regarding his constituent Ms Mavis Guest.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We replied to the hon. Member on 26 November 2020.
Asked by: John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
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 ensure adequate supplies of insulin after the transition period.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our priority is to ensure that patients continue to have access to the medicines they need, including insulin. We continue to work closely with industry, the National Health Service and others in the supply chain to deliver the shared goal of continuity of safe patient care by mitigating any potential disruption to supply into the United Kingdom of medicines at the end of the transition period.
As set out in a letter from the Department to industry of 3 August, we are implementing a multi-layered approach, that involves asking suppliers of medicines and medical products to the UK from or via the European Union to get trader ready, reroute their supply chains away from any potential disruption and stockpiling to a target level of six weeks on UK soil where this is possible. The letter is available at the following link:
Asked by: John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the correspondence of 6 July 2020 from the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay and follow up correspondence of 6 August and 28 August on the learning disabilities extra support campaign.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I replied to the hon. Member’s letter on 2 October 2020.
Asked by: John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letters of 29 April 2020, 7 May 2020 and 18 June 2020 from the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay on Ms Valerie Utting.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I replied to the hon. Member’s letter on 19 August 2020.
Asked by: John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the correspondence of 27 April, 15 May, and 18 June 2020 from the hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay regarding constituent Councillor Schrader.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
My noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Innovation (Lord Bethell), replied to the hon. Member’s letter on 17 July 2020.
Asked by: John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when operations in private hospitals will resume following the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
National Health Service patients are benefitting from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals in the United Kingdom as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak. Throughout this period, independent providers have continued to provide urgent operations for private pay or insured patients.
From the middle of May 2020, independent providers have been able to provide more routine elective work to private pay or insured patients and where this has been agreed locally with the NHS.
Asked by: John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
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 ask the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to make an assessment of the potential merits of a catch-up HPV vaccination programme for boys currently older than 12 to 13 years of age.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is due to discuss human papillomavirus vaccination at its February 2020 meeting. Usual practice is for draft minutes from JCVI meetings to be available within six weeks of the Committee meeting.
Asked by: John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the merits of the practice of the NHS paying their lawyers the same fee regardless of the outcome of a claim.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS Resolution manages clinical negligence and other claims against the National Health Service in England, and shares learning from claims to help improve safety for patients and staff. NHS Resolution has a responsibility to settle justified claims fairly and promptly and defend unjustified claims to secure NHS resources. Each case must be considered on its own merits and it is important that a proper investigation is undertaken. NHS Resolution aims to get to the right answer as quickly as possible in every case and to help resolve claims sooner, and without the need for court proceedings. To support this NHS Resolution launched a new mediation service in December 2016.
NHS Resolution is an arm’s length body of the Department and is accountable to the Department and its performance is subject to regular review through the Department’s sponsorship arrangements. The Department’s assessment is that NHS Resolution is a well-run and efficient organisation and that it has had some success, within the current legal framework, in containing the cost of NHS litigation, a view that was supported by the National Audit Office, in its report ‘Managing the costs of clinical negligence in trusts’ published in September 2017 which can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.nao.org.uk/report/managing-the-costs-of-clinical-negligence-in-trusts/
NHS Resolution regularly agrees large-scale contracts for legal services, using its position as a bulk purchaser to obtain the best expertise at value for money for the health service. The contracts include a combination of fixed and capped fees as well as competitive hourly rates for its panel firms, which are also required to support NHS Resolution’s work to learn from claims to improve safety.
Asked by: John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the criteria by which the NHS assess the merits of clinical negligence claims prior to litigation.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS Resolution manages clinical negligence and other claims against the National Health Service in England, and shares learning from claims to help improve safety for patients and staff. NHS Resolution has a responsibility to settle justified claims fairly and promptly and defend unjustified claims to secure NHS resources. Each case must be considered on its own merits and it is important that a proper investigation is undertaken. NHS Resolution aims to get to the right answer as quickly as possible in every case and to help resolve claims sooner, and without the need for court proceedings. To support this NHS Resolution launched a new mediation service in December 2016.
NHS Resolution is an arm’s length body of the Department and is accountable to the Department and its performance is subject to regular review through the Department’s sponsorship arrangements. The Department’s assessment is that NHS Resolution is a well-run and efficient organisation and that it has had some success, within the current legal framework, in containing the cost of NHS litigation, a view that was supported by the National Audit Office, in its report ‘Managing the costs of clinical negligence in trusts’ published in September 2017 which can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.nao.org.uk/report/managing-the-costs-of-clinical-negligence-in-trusts/
NHS Resolution regularly agrees large-scale contracts for legal services, using its position as a bulk purchaser to obtain the best expertise at value for money for the health service. The contracts include a combination of fixed and capped fees as well as competitive hourly rates for its panel firms, which are also required to support NHS Resolution’s work to learn from claims to improve safety.
Asked by: John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps he is taking to increase the rate of early cancer diagnosis.
Answered by Matt Hancock
We have committed within the NHS Long Term Plan to have 75% of cancers diagnosed within the first two stages. In September 2019 we announced funding of £200 million for new equipment to drive earlier diagnosis of cancer and improve survival.