Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2023 to Question 189628 on Long Covid: Clinics, what discussions his Department has had with long covid clinics to help inform funding decisions for those clinics for 2024-25.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No such discussions have taken place. Plans for 2024/2025 will be set out in NHS England’s Operational Planning Guidance by the end of this calendar year.
No assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the services provided by long COVID clinics.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost of contracting NHS neurodevelopmental assessments to private providers; and whether he has had discussions with the NHS on the potential merits of conducting such tests via the NHS.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had on trial of Galen technology by Imperial College Healthcare, University College London, University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and University Hospitals Southampton; and whether he plans to roll out that technology.
Answered by Will Quince
The Galen Platform, which has been developed by Ibex Medical Analytics, has received funding from the AI in Health and Care Award to test whether the Galen Platform can assist clinicians in diagnosing prostate cancer faster. This funding is supporting the first real-world tests of the Galen Platform in a hospital setting to accelerate generating evidence of its effectiveness, which could lead to the technology's rapid adoption.
There are currently no plans to roll out the Galen Platform wider as the AI in Health and Care Award trial continues.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Capita's delivery of complaints services for the NHS.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Capita has not been specifically contracted to operate a complaints service for the National Health Service. Capita is under contract to NHS England until August 2025 to provide a range of support services for primary care in England. This includes operating a customer support centre for service users which would handle any complaints solely relating to the delivery of primary care support services.
As part of its primary care support service Capita will consider and respond to feedback and complaints from service users. NHS England monitors these through its contract assurance and governance mechanisms.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the contract for Capita to deliver complaints services for NHS is due to conclude.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Capita has not been specifically contracted to operate a complaints service for the National Health Service. Capita is under contract to NHS England until August 2025 to provide a range of support services for primary care in England. This includes operating a customer support centre for service users which would handle any complaints solely relating to the delivery of primary care support services.
As part of its primary care support service Capita will consider and respond to feedback and complaints from service users. NHS England monitors these through its contract assurance and governance mechanisms.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many complaints have been lodged about the delivery of NHS Pensions in the last year.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) administers the NHS Pension Scheme and operates a complaints process as well as a two-step Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) procedure. If a complainant has exhausted the IDR process and is not satisfied with the outcome, they may also be able to approach the Pensions Ombudsman.
In the 12 months to the end of August 2023, the NHSBSA received 813 complaints, 1,201 IDRs at Stage One, 295 IDRs at Stage Two and 55 cases referred from the Pensions Ombudsman. Some of the complaints the NHSBSA receive may progress to an IDR at Stage One. However, not all IDRs at Stage One originate as complaints as some complainants embark straight onto the IDR process.
These complaints need to be seen in the context of the number of members in the NHS Pension Scheme. As of 31 March 2023, there were 1,815,310 active members, 772,560 deferred members and 1,098,388 pensioner members.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the (a) causes of excess deaths in the last three years and (b) implications for his policies of those causes.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department will continue to monitor and report on levels of excess deaths. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities regularly publishes estimates of excess mortality in England. They adjust for population growth and ageing. This provides further insight on the causes of death driving the excess mortality. A combination of factors has contributed to excess deaths, including high flu prevalence, the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 and health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
On 24 January 2023, the Government announced that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy, and an interim report will be published later in the summer. The strategy will set out a strong and coherent policy agenda that sets out a shift to integrated, whole-person care. The strategy will tackle conditions that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England, including, cancers, cardiovascular disease, including stroke and diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, dementia, mental ill-health and musculoskeletal conditions.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 February to Question 139217 on Mental Health: Preventive Medicine, what progress NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence have made on the development of a policy framework to assess digital health technologies.
Answered by Will Quince
The policy framework clarifying the market pathway for Digital Health Technologies will be published in autumn 2023. Several evaluations, through the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Early Value Assessment (EVA) have now been published, including technologies delivering digitally enabled therapy. A procurement platform has been established, via the London Procurement Partnership, for EVA recommended products.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to confirm whether he plans to ringfence funding for long covid clinics after April 2024.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Long COVID-19 clinics are funded from NHS England’s Service Development Funding. Plans for 2024/2025 will be set out in NHS England’s Operational Planning Guidance for 2024/25 by the end of this calendar year.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with relevant stakeholders on (a) shortages of progesterone and (b) safeguarding future progesterone supply.
Answered by Will Quince
We are aware of an issue with Utrogestan (progesterone) 100mg capsules, which will be unavailable for short periods of time intermittently until late 2023. The Department’s medicines supply team has been working very closely with the supplier to boost capacity and increase supplies to the United Kingdom. In the meantime, we have issued a Serious Shortage Protocol which allows pharmacists to limit dispensing of this product to a maximum of two months’ supply per prescription, to help support access to available stock, and we have provided management guidance to the NHS. Furthermore, we have added this product onto the list of products that cannot be hoarded or exported from the UK.