Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for urgent mental health service provision.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Clinical Review of Access Standards committed to testing new standards during 2020/21 for urgent mental health crisis care, including access to a liaison psychiatry team in accident and emergency departments within an hour of referral.
The NHS Long Term Plan set out measures to achieve 24 hours a day, seven days a week crisis care services, including a new national single point of access via NHS 111, and increased investment in alternative crisis services.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
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 elderly people who do not have access to new technologies to sign up online can access testing facilities.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Tests can be booked by calling 119 in England and Wales or 0300 303 2713 in Scotland and Northern Ireland from any telephone.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timeframe is for (a) cancer and (b) other life-saving treatments to be resumed.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The suspension of non-urgent elective operations did not apply to emergency admissions, urgent cancer treatment and other clinically urgent care.
The Government has been clear from the start of the pandemic that hospitals providing cancer care, including radiotherapy, should keep doing so where it is safe for the individual patient. This is in line with guidance from professional bodies such as the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.
Cancer Alliances across England are working hard to make sure there is enough capacity for cancer treatments. They are also urged to make full use of the negotiated deal with the independent sector to make sure essential cancer treatments and diagnostics can go ahead.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding the Government is making available to North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust to tackle the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Chancellor has been clear that the National Health Service will get whatever funding it needs to respond to COVID-19. Through the Emergency Response Fund, HM Treasury stands ready to provide necessary funding to support our crucial frontline NHS and public services.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to use University Hospital of Hartlepool as a resource to tackle the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked all hospitals and National Health Service facilities across the country take action to support and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. These actions include but are not exhaustive of:
Maximising inpatient and critical care capacity; preparing for, and responding to, large numbers of inpatients requiring respiratory support; supporting their staff, and maximising staff availability; support the wider population measures newly announced by Government; stress-test their operational readiness and removing routine burdens. A copy of the communication to hospitals and NHS facilities can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
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 cohesion between NHS Trust areas to ensure that patients who move to different NHS Trust areas do not lose access to services they previously received in other areas.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England has advised that in all cases, the originating clinical commissioning group (CCG) should liaise at the earliest opportunity with the receiving CCG to ensure continuity of healthcare and to agree appropriate transfers of funding. Where a patient moves during the course of treatment, every effort should be made to ensure continuity of care.
Guidance issued to CCGs sets out the framework for determining responsibility for payments to providers and responsibility for commissioning an individual's care within the National Health Service. The guidance can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/who-pays.pdf
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for people seeking treatment for eating disorders.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England has introduced a new waiting time standard for children and young people’s (up to 19) treatment of eating disorders, setting an expectation that by 2020, 95% of those referred will start treatment within one week if the case is urgent and four weeks if the case is non-urgent.
Data published in the Children and Young People’s Eating Disorder waiting times data set is available at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cyped-waiting-times/
The data showed that:
- 71.0% of patients started urgent treatment within one week in Q2 2017-18; and
- 82.4% of patients started routine treatment within four weeks in Q2 2017-18.
There are 70 newly established community eating disorders services being developed and recruitment to get the teams up to full capacity is well under way. This means at least 3,350 children and young people a year will receive swift, effective eating disorder treatment in the community — for many this will mean they will be treated earlier and no longer need to go into hospital. Further information is available at:
A pathway for adults with eating disorders, together with detailed implementation guidance for providers, will be developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health in partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence over 2017/18. The pathway will be fully informed by the available evidence and the views of experts.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons foetal alcohol spectrum disorder is not recognised as a mental health condition for the purposes of treatment.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder is a term used to describe a range of disorders and disabilities associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. It is not generally regarded as a single condition, but as an umbrella term that covers several alcohol-related medical conditions.
Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder can include physical or intellectual disabilities, as well as problems with behaviour and learning. Treatment services for people with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder will be different for each individual depending on the symptoms. It is for individual clinicians to make decisions on appropriate treatments, together with the patient or their families or carers, taking into account any relevant guidance.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of deaths from illegal drug use.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England (PHE) led an inquiry last year into the recent rises in drug-related deaths in England. The report concluded that the reasons behind the increase in drug-related deaths are multiple and complex.
Since then PHE has issued advice on providing naloxone (the antidote to heroin overdose), published updated clinical guidelines for drug treatment and worked with a network of treatment providers to establish good practice guidance on managing drug-related death risk factors and improving partnership between treatment providers and other healthcare services.
PHE has also established a new Public Health Outcomes Framework indicator on drug-related deaths to enable local areas benchmark their performance against others.
PHE continues to work with local authorities, providing advice and guidance to support their work in reducing drug-related deaths. This includes improving drug-related death review processes and increasing the number of people with drug problems who are in drug treatment.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will discuss with NHS England undertaking an urgent review into the commissioning of post-stem cell transplant services.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England is responsible for commissioning and funding the transplant related care which takes place 30 days before transplant and continues until 100 days post-transplant. After 100 days post-transplant, commissioning responsibility for the routine follow-up of patients switches from NHS England to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), as outlined in the Manual. The Manual describes which elements of specialised services are commissioned by NHS England and which are commissioned by CCGs:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/prescribed-specialised-services-manual-2.pdf
In the event that transplant patients experience serious complications post-transplant, elements of their care would likely continue to be planned, organised and funded by NHS England specialised commissioning. For example, if a patient requires Extracorporeal Photophersis which is a treatment for acute and chronic graft versus host disease following transplantation, NHS England commissions this care post-transplant.
There are no current plans to review the responsibilities of services commissioned by NHS England and CCGs for blood and marrow transplants (BMT). NHS England will be assessing BMT in more detail over the next 18 months and will take the opportunity to further support improved pathway planning and commissioning of services that it and CCGs fund.
NHS England’s work in supporting the roll out of the Recovery Package for cancer patients, including those who received BMT, helps ensure patients have more personal care and support from the point they are diagnosed and once treatment ends. For patients this means working with their care team to develop a comprehensive plan outlining not only their physical needs, but also additional support, such as help at home or financial advice. By 2020 NHS England wants all cancer patients to have access to the Recovery Package.