Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether there are GPs in the Greater Manchester area who are licensed to dispense diamorphine on prescription.
Answered by Steve Brine
There are no such dispensing practices in Greater Manchester.
In general, dispensing doctors, as well as community pharmacies, can dispense prescriptions for diamorphine, including those in the Greater Manchester area. Only those on the pharmaceutical list can do so under National Health Service pharmaceutical services. However, under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 1997, if the diamorphine is for addiction the prescribing general practitioner and the dispensing doctor must hold a special licence issued by the Home Secretary.
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the number of heroin addicts in the Greater Manchester area.
Answered by Steve Brine
Updated estimates of opiate and crack cocaine use in England, including estimates for each local authority, will be published on 27 September 2017.
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has received representations on the proposal to end surgical provision for congenital heart conditions in Greater Manchester and to refer patients to Liverpool or Leeds.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Department has received representations on this subject, such as recent correspondence, however this is a matter for NHS England. No decision has been made to end surgical provision for Congenital Heart Disease conditions at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
NHS England opened a further public consultation on 9 February 2017 to provide the public with information about these proposals, and the potential impact they may have, if implemented, on the delivery of services, and to seek views about their plans. This consultation closed on 17 July 2017.
NHS England and Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust staff recently met with patients and their representatives to provide further information. At the meeting, patients were able to express their views, and their feedback will help to inform the next steps.
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to make concessions available to reduce hospital car-parking charges for unwaged student nurses.
Answered by Philip Dunne
National Health Service trusts make decisions locally about the provision of car parking to patients, visitors and staff. Providing car parking results in NHS trusts incurring costs for equipment, signage, lighting, insurance, security, administration and maintenance. This money could otherwise be used to provide clinical care to patients. Therefore, decisions about charging staff for parking need to be carefully considered by NHS trusts in this context.
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time is for (a) new patients presenting with symptoms of mental ill health to access talking therapies and (b) referrals to psychiatrists to receive an appointment.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Average waiting times from referral date to first treatment appointment date are available in the monthly Improving Access to Psychological Therapies publications. These are based on referrals entering treatment in the month, rather than patients, since it is possible for a single person to have more than one referral at any particular time.
The latest monthly publication of November 2016 data is available from:
http://www.content.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB23389
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many families of newborn babies did not receive a mandated health visitor antenatal visit in the last year; and how many families did not receive a (a) new baby review, (b) 6 to 8 week assessment, (c) one-year assessment and (e) two to two-and-a-half year review.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
We are not able to report the number of families of newborn babies nationally that did not receive a mandated health visitor antenatal visit in the last year. Although Public Health England (PHE) holds data on the number of mothers who received an antenatal visit at or after 28 weeks this cannot be linked to the quarterly birth data available. As a result the number of families who did not receive an antenatal visit cannot be calculated.
Data are as follows:
| Number of families nationally |
Which did not receive a baby review in the last year (2015/16) | 15,609 |
Which did not receive a six to eight week assessment in the last year | 119,412 |
Which did not receive a one-year assessment in the last year | 119,107 |
Which did not receive a two to two-and-a-half year review in the last year | 160,656 |
The most recent data (above) covers the period 1 October 2015 to 30 September 2016 inclusive. The source of this data is the Health Visitor Service Delivery Metrics, which have been collected from local authorities on a voluntary basis and validated by PHE.
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what procedures are in place for NHS hospital complaints to be processed in a timely fashion; and what recourse patients and their relatives have in the event of delays in the processing of such complaints.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 provide the legislative framework within which complaints to the National Health Service must be handled. When a complaint is acknowledged, the organisation receiving the complaint must offer to discuss with the complainant the period within which the response is likely to be sent. There is a further requirement in the regulations for local arrangements to ensure that complaints are dealt with efficiently. Where a complainant believes their complaint has not been handled in a timely manner, they may complain to the commissioner of the service.
If a complainant is unhappy with an outcome at a local level, they can refer the matter to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) who is independent of the NHS and Government. However, the PHSO normally requires a complaint to have been subject to ‘local resolution’ although she has powers to intervene prior to this if deemed necessary. Whilst the PHSO wishes to encourage the local resolution of complaints, if a complaint is unduly or unreasonably delayed at a local level a complainant can contact the PHSO and ask them to intervene.
Asked by: Jonathan Reynolds (Labour (Co-op) - Stalybridge and Hyde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients discharged from assessment and treatment units were re-admitted to hospital settings in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The data on patients discharged from assessment and treatment units and re-admitted to a hospital setting or an assessment and treatment unit in each of the last five years is not available.
Health and Social Care Information Centre has been collecting data through the Learning Disability Assuring Transformation data collection since February 2015. Between March 2015 and February 2016, 1,835 patients were admitted to inpatient settings, of these, 250 patients were re-admitted within a year, including 75 patients who were re-admitted in the last 30 days.¹ Data on discharge has also been collected since February 2015 but readmission and discharge data are not linked and therefore may not relate to the same person.
Note:
¹ To note for those readmitted, Health and Social Care Information Centre can only consider the data they have from February 2015 onwards. Therefore if a patient was discharged in January 2015 and then readmitted in March 2015 they would not be counted as a readmission. The readmission figures may currently be under counting; however this will improve over time as the data set grows.