Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospitals have a GP co-located on site to provide triage services for patients.
Answered by Steve Barclay
NHS Improvement report that in December 2017 (2017-18 Quarter 3), 134 out of 136 (98.5%) trusts with a Type 1 accident and emergency department have primary care streaming in place. This is an improvement from the November 2017 (Quarter 2) position of 91% (125/136) and the July 2017 (Quarter 1) position of 30% (41/136).
There are two trusts still to implement primary care streaming (Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust). NHS Improvement are working with these trusts on implementation.
Birmingham Women and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are exempt based on local requirements.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) doctors, (b) nurses) and (c) other clinical staff worked at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon in (i) May 2010 and (ii) the most recent date for which data is available.
Answered by Steve Barclay
Data is not available in the format requested. NHS Digital publishes workforce statistics, and is only available to the level of individual trusts and clinical commissioning groups.
Nationally, the latest workforce statistics show an increase in professionally qualified clinical staff of almost 42,700 since May 2010, including over 14,900 more doctors and almost 14,200 more nurses on our wards since May 2010.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of people presenting at A&E who do not require hospital treatment.
Answered by Steve Barclay
NHS Digital and NHS England’s joint ‘Hospital Accident and Emergency Activity 2016-17’ publication shows accident and emergency (A&E) activity in the 2016-17 financial year.
The publication shows the number of attendances categorised by ‘first A&E treatment’, including those which were subsequently categorised as not needing hospital treatment. These are categorised as “none (consider guidance/advice option)”.The data for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 financial years is available in the table below:
Year | Number of A&E attendances not requiring hospital treatment | Percentage of all A&E attendances |
2015-16 | 2,164,828 | 10.6% |
2016-17 | 2,117,049 | 10.1% |
Source: Hospital Accident and Emergency Activity 2016-17
The ‘Hospital Accident and Emergency Activity 2016-17’ publication is available via the link below:
http://digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB30112
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had with coffee companies on reformulating products to reduce their sugar content.
Answered by Steve Brine
Since March 2017, Public Health England (PHE) has instigated a specific programme of engagement with all of the food industry (retailers and manufacturers) and this has included businesses that provide the food purchased and consumed out of home (such as coffee and sandwich shops). This engagement has focussed on encouraging industry to reformulate products to reduce their sugar content, as part of the wider sugar reduction programme set out in ‘Childhood obesity: a plan for action'. The issues discussed at these meetings have included the expectation that businesses will undertake work to meet the 20% reduction in sugar by 2020, and has covered businesses’ achievements to date and discussion of any technical challenges faced in terms of making current and future changes.
Further discussions will continue to take place over the coming months to ensure that these businesses play their role in helping to reduce sugar consumption. A list of PHE’s industry and other stakeholder engagement on this agenda was published in March and can be viewed here:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/sugar-reduction-and-wider-reformulation-stakeholder-engagement
Further updates on engagement will also be published at regular intervals.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether a decision has been made on what sensitivity threshold the faecal immunochemical test will be set at when it is introduced into the bowel cancer screening programme; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Brine
No final decision has been taken yet on the sensitivity threshold for the faecal immunochemical test on its introduction to the bowel cancer screening programme from April 2018.
NHS England is working with partners in Public Health England and the Department to inform this decision and is working through its regional teams to assess capacity in relation to a number of thresholds. The Department is confirming the process for decision making, which is likely to conclude this autumn.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve the matching of newly qualified clinicians to vacancies across the NHS.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Responsibility for staffing levels rests with individual National Health Service trusts and their boards who are best placed to decide how many staff they need to provide a given service, taking into account skill mix, efficiency and the needs of their local population.
This Government has undertaken much work to increase the number of trained doctors and nurses to ensure that the NHS can continue to deliver safe, compassionate and effective care well into the future. Over recent months the NHS has seen record numbers of doctors and nurses.
Clinician posts are located to meet patient and service demands and, to comply with employment law, competition for such posts is through fair and open competition. Both the Department and Health Education England have been working to ensure pre-qualification training places are distributed fairly across the country to meet future demand for trained clinical staff.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the availability of bowel cancer screening for people under the age of 30.
Answered by Steve Brine
No assessment has been made regarding availability of bowel cancer screening for people under the age of 30. Bowel screening is offered to men and women aged 60-74 years old with an average risk of developing the condition. High risk screening falls outside the United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC) remit; which is to offer whole population screening to asymptomatic people.
Individuals with symptoms or those considered to be high risk should speak to their general practitioner.
The UK NSC has an open process by which stakeholders and/or members of the public may submit a proposal to the Committee, providing robust peer reviewed evidence to support a change to an existing programme. This would include a modification such as a change to the screening age. Submissions relating to existing programmes are accepted throughout the year. More information about the UK NSC’s process is available on its website.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to install defibrillators in all departmental and public buildings.
Answered by Steve Brine
We recognise that better provision of defibrillators, and increasing the number of people trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, could help save more lives of those who have a cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting. Therefore, we encourage organisations to consider purchasing a defibrillator as part of their first-aid equipment, particularly where there are high concentrations of people.
In order to further support the National Health Service and local communities, the Government has provided £2 million to make public access defibrillators more widely available and to increase the numbers of people trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.