Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
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 help ensure that domiciliary care workers who work shifts longer than six hours receive a break during their shift.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Workers are entitled to a minimum of 20 minutes’ rest break if they work at least six hours.
Workers can call the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service helpline for free, impartial and confidential advice about their rights and entitlements.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
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 potential impact of using NHS hospital facilities to treat private patients on waiting times for elective surgery in (a) Wirral West constituency and (b) England.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally. No specific assessment has been made of the impact that delivering care for private patients has on National Health Service hospitals or elective waiting times.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
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 patients who paid for private healthcare services in NHS hospitals in (a) Wirral West constituency and (b) England in 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally. No specific assessment has been made of the impact that delivering care for private patients has on National Health Service hospitals or elective waiting times.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of beds in hospital trusts in (a) Wirral West constituency and (b) England were allocated to private patients in 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally. No specific assessment has been made of the impact that delivering care for private patients has on National Health Service hospitals or elective waiting times.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
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 patients who waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital from A&E in 2022 in Wirral West constituency in the last 12 months.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific estimate has been made. Constituency level data on the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital from accident and emergency is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
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 women who (a) are pregnant and (b) have given birth in the last 12 months are aware that they can apply for maternity exemption certificates.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The NHS Business Services Authority promotes maternity exemption certificates and information is provided via NHS.UK. The certificates are also promoted through social media, online resources, media releases and through healthcare bulletins. Healthcare professionals, such as midwives and general practitioners, apply for maternity exemption certificates on behalf of the patient and ensure that individuals are aware of the entitlement.
Some patients entitled to a maternity exemption certificate may already hold an exemption for another reason, such as an eligible medical condition or through the NHS Low Income Scheme.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to backdate maternity exemption certificates by more than one month from the date of the application.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
There are no current plans.
The National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2015 states that a maternity exemption certificate (Matex) must be backdated one month before the date on which the application is received by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA), who are delegated to process applications for Matex certificates on behalf of the Secretary of State. The application process requires that a health care professional such as a midwife or a GP must authorise the application to confirm the patient’s pregnancy and expected due date. The NHS BSA must then issue the Matex on this basis.
Asked by: Margaret Greenwood (Labour - Wirral West)
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 maternity exemption certificates that were issued in 2021 in (a) England and (b) Wirral.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
In 2021, 461,226 maternity exemption certificates were issued in England and 1,736 were issued in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.