Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has to enable the provision of additional services in GP surgeries in Burton constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The information is not held in the format requested. However, evening and weekend face to face and virtual appointments are offered by East Staffordshire Primary Care Network, with practices providing appointments on a rota system. Weekend appointments are also available from a hub location within the East Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised that work is underway across providers, CCGs and the local authority to optimise care provision in the area. The Staffordshire Integrated Care System continues the launch of general practitioner (GP) referrals into the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) and there are plans for East Staffordshire Primary Care Network, to begin implementing the GP CPCS later in the year.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP surgeries in Burton constituency offer appointments in the evening and at weekends.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The information is not held in the format requested. However, evening and weekend face to face and virtual appointments are offered by East Staffordshire Primary Care Network, with practices providing appointments on a rota system. Weekend appointments are also available from a hub location within the East Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised that work is underway across providers, CCGs and the local authority to optimise care provision in the area. The Staffordshire Integrated Care System continues the launch of general practitioner (GP) referrals into the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS) and there are plans for East Staffordshire Primary Care Network, to begin implementing the GP CPCS later in the year.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to mental health services in community settings.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
NHS England and NHS Improvement have consulted on introducing five new waiting time standards that have been developed with pilot and early implementer sites. These include waiting time standards for access to community mental health services for adults and children and young people. The consultation closed on 1 September 2021 and NHS England and NHS Improvement expect to publish the response to the consultation on the proposals by the end of this year.
In addition, we have published our Mental Health Recovery Action Plan for 2021/22, which includes an additional £110 million to expand adult community mental health services including psychological therapies, implementing the community mental health framework, investment in crisis services, as well as additional investment in suicide prevention programmes.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help increase access to primary care services in the community.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
We have committed to delivering an extra 50 million appointments a year in general practice by increasing and diversifying the workforce. This will improve access for patients and additional support for staff to provide a wider range of care options for patients outside of hospital. We have made available an additional £270 million from November 2020 until September 2021, ringfenced for general practice, to ensure general practitioners (GPs) and their teams are able to continue to support all patients during the pandemic.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised that National Health Service sight tests are now back to, or above, pre-pandemic levels. NHS dentists have been asked to meet as many prioritised needs as possible, focussing first on urgent care and vulnerable groups, followed by overdue appointments. The Department is working with NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England to increase access to dental care, taking into account infection prevention and control and social distancing requirements.
The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 2019-24 sets out how community pharmacy will support the NHS Long Term Plan by providing more clinical services such as treating minor ailments. Since 2019 a range of services have been introduced that reduce some pressure on other parts of the NHS, in particular GPs.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to hospital specialists in community settings.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
As part of its work to expand access to diagnostic services in the community, the National Health Service is establishing community diagnostic hubs. The hubs will provide acute diagnostic services normally provided in hospitals, including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, X-rays, echocardiograms and endoscopy. The NHS is planning to open 44 hubs this year which will deliver an additional one million scans.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to NHS dental care in Burton and Uttoxeter.
Answered by Jo Churchill
In order to increase access to dental care in the Midlands, NHS England commissioned a scheme from 8 January to 31 March 2021 to provide additional sessions at weekends. This initiative saw an additional 17,250 patients treated by 91 participating practices. NHS England has evaluated the scheme and is considering recommissioning the service to further improve access in the region.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
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 the Chancellor of the Exchequer on additional funding to enable local authorities to continue to provide discretionary payments under the covid-19 self-isolation support scheme.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Discussions have taken place with HM Treasury regarding a range of issues including the Test and Trace Support Payment. The Government has provided a total of £110 million to local authorities for the scheme to date, including £35 million for discretionary payments. To enable local authorities to continue supporting individuals on low incomes to self-isolate, we are increasing the funding available to local authorities for discretionary payments to £20 million a month.
Asked by: Kate Kniveton (Conservative - Burton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that businesses (a) correctly display the QR code for the NHS Test and Trace app or (b) take contact details where use of that app is not possible.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Displaying an official National Health Service QR code poster and collecting contact details for NHS Test and Trace for certain venues is a legal requirement for designated businesses and venues in England. If a customer or visitor chooses to check in by scanning the NHS QR code, they do not also need to provide their contact details. Local authorities are enforcers of this regulation in England and have the power to issue fines starting from £1,000 for venues that are failing to comply. Fines will rise to £10,000 for repeat offenders. The police can be used as a last resort.
We have held stakeholder engagement meetings with each of the sectors in scope of the guidance to explain the policy and provide an opportunity for question. We have also published advice on how to print and display the official NHS QR code poster which is available at the following link:
https://faq.covid19.nhs.uk/article/KA-01258/en-us