Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 maximise NHS capacity and help increase the NHS’s resilience during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The National Health Service is ensuring that all medically fit patients are discharged to increase bed capacity, using non-acute beds in local systems and the independent sector, and expanding the use of ‘virtual wards’ to care for patients safely at home. Nightingale hubs are also under construction to deliver up to an additional 4,000 beds, should they be needed.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made on developing surgical hubs across England.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Following successful pilots in London, the National Health Service is launching surgical hubs across the country. There are currently 44 stand-alone hubs operating in England.
We are providing a further £1.5 billion for elective recovery and reconfiguration, which includes funding for developing surgical hubs. This is in addition to £500 million provided in September 2021. Surgical hubs will be developed in existing hospital settings and plan to provide 29 types of operations.
The Getting It Right First Time programme, in collaboration with NHS England and NHS Improvement, is providing guidance to systems and regions on how to use hubs effectively, to standardise pathways and adopt best surgical practice.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 increase the supply of lateral flow and PCR covid-19 tests.
Answered by Maggie Throup
In December 2021, we delivered approximately 280 million lateral flow device (LFD) tests and we have since procured new stocks and increased delivery capacity. We expect to deliver 90 million LFD tests a week across the United Kingdom, including East Yorkshire and County Durham, including seven million a day through GOV.UK. In England, this includes approximately 12 million tests a week through pharmacies.
For polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, we increased capacity before Christmas and developed a network which processed over four million tests by 10 January 2022. We expect that there is currently sufficient capacity to process PCR tests.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the role of national clinical audits in improving patient care.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will prioritise cardiovascular care in the Government’s forthcoming delivery plan on tackling the elective surgery backlog.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The elective recovery plan, due to be published before the end of this year, will set out the Government’s long-term ambitions for recovery. Prioritisation of services will continue on the basis of clinical need, followed by the length of waiting time.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of social outcomes contracts in supporting people with long-term health conditions.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Whilst no formal assessment has been made, NHS England and Improvement has been promoting the idea of outcomes-based commissioning of clinical services for some years, while acknowledging the difficulty of defining and measuring achievement of outcomes in a healthcare context. The National Tariff Payment System for secondary and tertiary care services has been encouraging commissioners and providers to incentivise achievement of long-term outcomes and management of long-term conditions by moving away from a purely episodic approach to a blended payment approach for services.
The Long Term Plan also commits to expanding personal health budgets up to 200 000 people by 2023/2024 giving people greater choice and control over how care is planned and delivered. Personal health budgets enable individual commissioning of care to meet identified health needs based on the individuals own identified health and wellbeing outcomes.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the 14-day right to return and refund contained within the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 applies to privately-purchased covid-19 tests.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021 does not disapply any existing consumer protection rights.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to ensure carers have access to breaks from their caring responsibilities.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Act 2014 introduced rights for carers, which means they now have legal rights to an assessment of, and support for, their needs where eligible.
We are working with local authorities, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure, the safe resumption of day services and other forms of respite care. We have also provided funding through the £1.4 billion Infection Control Fund which has been used to support the reopening of day and respite services and worked with Social Care Institute of Excellence to publish guidance on safe re-opening.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the recommendation of the Royal College of Surgeons of England’s report of 28 May 2021 entitled New Deal for Surgery, if the Government will maintain its £1 billion annual financial support for the Elective Recovery Fund in England for at least a further five years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The next Spending Review will set out the Government’s plans for health and social care spending in future years.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 more people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease can access dietetic support.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) quality standard on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) sets out that those with IBD, and their family members and carers if appropriate, should have access to multi-disciplinary teams, including dietitians. Clinicians are advised to take NICE quality standards into account when planning patient care. The quality standard is available at the following link:
The number of allied health professionals working in a dietetics care setting in National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups has increased by 5.3% between February 2020 and February 2021.