Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to introduce routine screening in pregnancy for Vasa Praevia.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The United Kingdom National Screening Committee in 2017 considered an evidence review of screening for Vasa Praevia (VP). The review did not find sufficient evidence to support a change in the overall recommendation for VP screening. The 2017 review can be seen at the following link:
https://legacyscreening.phe.org.uk/vasapraevia
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - 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 support local authorities in managing the increase in mental ill health.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Public Health England (PHE) provides a variety of resources to support local authorities in managing the increase in mental ill health.
PHE also provides local government with data on mental health to local authority level via our National Mental Health Intelligence Service. This can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mental-health-data-and-analysis-a-guide-for-health-professionals
A dedicated profiling tool on our PHE fingertips platform is available at the following link:
http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile-group/mental-health/
PHE published a suite of evidence for local areas and local government in August 2017 at the following link:
This includes work on Commissioning Cost Effective Interventions at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-health-services-cost-effective-commissioning
These resources give local authorities the evidence they need to take action for mental health promotion and prevention.
PHE provides support to local areas through its Prevention Concordat for Better Mental Health and through the work of the nine PHE local centres who support local authorities in their local areas. To date, over 70 national organisations and 70 local authorities have signed up to the Prevention Concordat programme. The target is to achieve full sign up of all local areas by the end of 2020/21. This work helps support local government in their strategic planning and delivery of mental health work as part of their overall work on improving the health and wellbeing of their local population.
On 7 October 2019, PHE also launched a new national resource for the public to help them look after their own mental health and support others, Every Mind Matters. This can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/
We are supporting the recruitment of mental health social workers in local authorities and the NHS through the Think Ahead initiative. In addition, the New Roles in mental health social work group, led by Health Education England and Skills for Care, is working to develop the future social work and social care workforce with local authorities.
NHS England has developed community mental health services framework which aims to deliver greater integration with other services that impact on mental health and wellbeing outcomes - including primary care, general practitioners, social care, education, housing and third sector services. This can be viewed at the following link:
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 number of cases of Vasa Praevia in expectant mothers in the last year for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
A count of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) with a primary diagnosis or all diagnoses of labour and delivery complicated by vasa praevia, for 2018/19 - activity in English National Health Service hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector can be found in the following table.
. | FCEs |
Primary diagnosis | 109 |
All Diagnoses | 194 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), NHS Digital
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - 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 steps the Government has taken to reduce NHS waiting times.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
NHS England’s Operational and Planning Guidance for 2019/20 sets out deliverables against key performance areas, including referral-to-treatment and urgent care, and the Government expects the National Health Service to deliver these actions set– in full – as key steps towards fully recovering performance against access standards.
In addition to this, under the NHS Long Term Plan, an extra £33.9 billion a year is being provided to improve and transform urgent and emergency care services, expand the amount of planned surgery year on year, cut long waits and reduce the waiting list.
The additional funding will support the NHS in achieving performance standards. More than that, it will also drive the reforms that deliver a better and more sustainable NHS with improved care for patients.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - 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 steps he is taking to ensure the adequacy of the number of nurses in the NHS.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
On 4 September as part of the Spending Review, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rt. hon. Sajid Javid MP) announced a £210 million package of support for the National Health Service workforce. Funding includes personal development budgets to support nurses’ learning and development needs over the next three years, and a funding boost to wider education and training budgets to support delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan.
The latest Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) data as of 30 August, shows there were 20,190 students accepted onto nursing and midwifery courses, an increase of 4.3% compared to the same point in August 2018. We expect more students will be accepted onto courses before the UCAS clearing period closes on 23 October 2019.
NHS Improvement is currently delivering a rapid clinical placement expansion programme working with trust directors of nursing, the higher education sector and healthcare sector to provide targeted support and resource to increase placement capacity for the September 2019 intake.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - 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 consistency in the granting of NHS Continuing Healthcare throughout Clinical Commissioning Groups.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
There will always be some variation across clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility (NHS CHC), due to a wide variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, the age dispersion within the local population and variations between geographical areas in terms of their level of health need.
In 2017 NHS England launched an NHS CHC Strategic Improvement Programme and is helping CCGs to improve their application of the NHS CHC National Framework. The Programme aims are to provide fair access to CHC in a way which ensures better outcomes, better experience, and better use of resources.
As part of this programme NHS England is working with NHS CCGs to address variation in performance and NHS CHC eligibility rates. To better understand the nature of variation in eligibility, NHS England has developed a clustering methodology, which groups together NHS CCGs with similar demographics. Additionally, the national CHC e-learning offer has been extended and enhanced, and a national competency framework developed to support CHC staff to deliver the National Framework consistently.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - 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 he is taking to ensure that (a) self-employed and (b) other carers that work with (i) elderly and (ii) vulnerable people are DBS checked.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The requirements for Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for carers working with elderly and vulnerable people differ for those employed by a registered care provider, and those that are self-employed.
- DBS checks are not mandatory for self-employed carers, whether the individual requiring care is eligible for a personal health budget or is self-funding. It is for local authorities to inform individuals who choose to use a self-employed carer that while a DBS check is not mandatory, they may still want to obtain one as part of their overall risk management plan.
- All health and social care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are responsible for checking the suitability of their staff. The CQC expects providers to undertake checks at the appropriate level for staff and volunteers who are eligible for them. They should consider the eligibility of everyone employed including contracted staff, temporary staff, bank staff, practitioners working under practising privileges, volunteers, students and learners and contractors. The CQC expects providers of the services it regulates to undertake the appropriate level of DBS check required for the care staff it employs. In all settings, the eligibility for checks and the level of that check depends on the roles and responsibilities of the job. The CQC has the power to take enforcement action if providers decide not to take up DBS checks on eligible staff, or if the provider cannot provide sufficient evidence of seeking appropriate assurances that a check has been undertaken.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made in compensating victims of historical abuse at Aston Hall, Derbyshire.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
NHS Resolution is managing compensation claims related to Aston Hall on behalf of the Secretary of State. As the management of these claims is ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - 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 he has made of the adequacy of legislation regulating body modification following the prosecution of Brendan McCarthy.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government is committed to supporting people to make informed and safe choices about any body modification procedure they are considering and to make sure that the person they choose is appropriately qualified, registered and insured. The Government is currently exploring options to further support this commitment.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has any plans to reintroduce blood glucose test strips on prescription for Type 2 diabetics.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
Blood glucose test strips are available on prescription for people with type 2 diabetes. However, it is for clinical commissioning groups to make decisions on the commissioning of health services that best meet the needs of their local population, taking into account local priorities and needs.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidance on the management of type 2 Diabetes in adults. This guideline states:
“1.6.13 Do not routinely offer self-monitoring of blood glucose levels for adults with type 2 diabetes unless:
More information is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng28/chapter/1-Recommendations#blood-glucose-management-2