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.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he expects patients to be able to access their own full medical records online.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
From 1 April 2016, the NHS Mandate required all general practitioner (GP) practices to offer patients online access to their medical record which includes items such as allergies, adverse reactions, medications, test results, problems and diagnoses and immunisations. Approximately 95% of GPs are able to offer this service to patients subject to appropriate safeguards to ensure compliance with information governance legislation.
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 criteria he plans to use to allocate the funds announced in the Spring Budget 2017 for GP surgery co-location in hospital accident and emergency departments.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Department will manage the approval of funding to accident and emergency (A&E) departments based on recommendations from NHS England and NHS Improvement, according to the merit of individual bids according to the impact they will have on managing A&E pressures. This may include, for example, bids from trusts to provide additional permanent or temporary buildings and/or better use of existing space to allow general practitioners to locate next to A&Es. The allocations for successful bids will be agreed in the next five weeks.
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 assist hospital trusts to reduce or restructure costs borne as a result of private finance initiatives.
Answered by Philip Dunne
We are providing the seven worst affected trusts with Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes, access to a £1.5 billion support fund over a period of 25 years; funding started from 2013-14.
One of the first things this Government did in 2010 was to launch a review of the previous Government’s PFIs and begin an initiative to extract savings and better value for money at all the PFI contracts they had signed and are now open. In 2014 it was reported that trusts had negotiated validated savings worth over £250 million on their contracts. This savings work is ongoing, with Departmental officials helping local trusts as required.
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 implications for his future policies of the NHS Ambulance Response Programme trial undertaken by the South West Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Ambulance Response Programme is part of NHS England’s Urgent and Emergency Care Review, which will transform ambulance services from a service based on a model of transportation to one of clinical assessment and treatment. We expect NHS England will make recommendations in spring 2017.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many GP surgeries are planned to be co-located in accident and emergency units in the next three years.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The information is not held centrally. There are several different models of co-located services (Urgent Care Centres, Walk-in Centres, Minor Injuries Units, other clinics) which exist across the National Health Service in England, and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with all systems to ensure there is streaming to primary care (and other specialities) from emergency departments as standard. The specific models implemented will vary depending on local circumstances.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many GP surgeries are co-located in accident and emergency units.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The information is not held centrally. There are several different models of co-located services (Urgent Care Centres, Walk-in Centres, Minor Injuries Units, other clinics) which exist across the National Health Service in England, and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with all systems to ensure there is streaming to primary care (and other specialities) from emergency departments as standard. The specific models implemented will vary depending on local circumstances.