Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to issue guidance to health professionals on the Serious Shortage Protocol.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
A Serious Shortage Protocol is an additional tool to manage serious medication shortages and may be used in the exceptional and rare situation when other measures have been exhausted or are likely to be ineffective.
At present we are currently working on the governance process for developing Serious Shortage Protocols, should one be required, through engagement, including with professional bodies and patient groups. Following this we will issue guidance to health professionals in due course.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the organisation who represent National Health Service community pharmacy contractors in England, have developed a briefing note to support community pharmacies, who will need to consider training and changes to their standard operating-procedures to take account of the potential new processes.
Any Serious Shortage Protocol would be developed by senior, specialist doctors and pharmacists, with input from national experts, Royal Colleges and specialist societies. If a Serious Shortage Protocol is to be authorised then there will also be engagement with the relevant patient groups, who can assist in informing patients. Pharmacists still have to use their professional judgment as to whether supplying against the protocol rather than the prescription is appropriate and provide the patient with relevant information. If they determine supply is not appropriate, then the patient should be referred back to their prescriber.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
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 provide information to patients on changes to the provision of medicines as a result of the serious shortage protocol; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
A Serious Shortage Protocol is an additional tool to manage serious medication shortages and may be used in the exceptional and rare situation when other measures have been exhausted or are likely to be ineffective.
At present we are currently working on the governance process for developing Serious Shortage Protocols, should one be required, through engagement, including with professional bodies and patient groups. Following this we will issue guidance to health professionals in due course.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the organisation who represent National Health Service community pharmacy contractors in England, have developed a briefing note to support community pharmacies, who will need to consider training and changes to their standard operating-procedures to take account of the potential new processes.
Any Serious Shortage Protocol would be developed by senior, specialist doctors and pharmacists, with input from national experts, Royal Colleges and specialist societies. If a Serious Shortage Protocol is to be authorised then there will also be engagement with the relevant patient groups, who can assist in informing patients. Pharmacists still have to use their professional judgment as to whether supplying against the protocol rather than the prescription is appropriate and provide the patient with relevant information. If they determine supply is not appropriate, then the patient should be referred back to their prescriber.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions the Government has had with (a) patient groups and (b) professional bodies on the development of the serious shortage protocol.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
A Serious Shortage Protocol is an additional tool to manage serious medication shortages and may be used in the exceptional and rare situation when other measures have been exhausted or are likely to be ineffective.
At present we are currently working on the governance process for developing Serious Shortage Protocols, should one be required, through engagement, including with professional bodies and patient groups. Following this we will issue guidance to health professionals in due course.
The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the organisation who represent National Health Service community pharmacy contractors in England, have developed a briefing note to support community pharmacies, who will need to consider training and changes to their standard operating-procedures to take account of the potential new processes.
Any Serious Shortage Protocol would be developed by senior, specialist doctors and pharmacists, with input from national experts, Royal Colleges and specialist societies. If a Serious Shortage Protocol is to be authorised then there will also be engagement with the relevant patient groups, who can assist in informing patients. Pharmacists still have to use their professional judgment as to whether supplying against the protocol rather than the prescription is appropriate and provide the patient with relevant information. If they determine supply is not appropriate, then the patient should be referred back to their prescriber.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve support for people with neurodevelopmental conditions.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government is committed to supporting people with neurodevelopmental conditions to live well. We are currently reviewing the adult autism strategy and working with the Department of Education will be extending the scope of the strategy to include children. The refreshed strategy will be published by the end of the year. We are also working closely with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and their attention deficit hypersensitivity disorder (ADHD) Implementation Working Group to look at how the current NICE guidance and quality standard on ADHD are being implemented. This work includes looking to identify best practice and examples of innovation, which have improved outcomes for people with ADHD, so that these can be widely disseminated to commissioners to improve local practice. We are considering what actions can be taken to support those with other neurodevelopmental conditions.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
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 correlation between reductions to public health funding and increases in rates of syphilis and gonorrhoea.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
We estimate that increases in rates of syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia are due to a number of factors. These include increases in both the number of people attending sexual health services and the number of tests for sexually transmitted infections. Public Health England has advised that other factors include, better detection of infection and behavioural changes such as an increase in partner numbers and condomless sex, as well as, for some men who have sex with men, ‘chemsex’ and group sex facilitated by geosocial networking applications.
Local authorities will receive £3.1 billion in 2019/20, ring-fenced exclusively for use on public health, including sexual health. We are investing over £16 billion in local authority public health services over the five years of the 2015 Spending Review until 2020/21. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including the need for sexual health services taking account of their statutory duties.
Local authorities are required by regulations to provide comprehensive open access sexual health services, including provision for sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment and contraception.
The latest statistics show that more people are now accessing sexual health services. Attendances have increased by 7% between 2017 and 2018 (from 3,337,677 to 3,561,548). This continues the trend of increases in attendances seen over the past five years. To help manage the overall increase in demand, local authorities are increasingly commissioning online services to manage lower risk and asymptomatic patients. These services have the potential to reach groups not currently engaged with clinic services.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Green Paper on Prevention will include and assessment of the level of funding required to implement the contents of that Green Paper.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
We are considering a number of policy options for the Prevention Green Paper and will be mindful of the level of funding that may be required for their implementation.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Prevention Green Paper will include (a) commitments on additional resources to tackle HIV and (b) targets to improve sexual health.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
We are considering a range of policy options for the Green Paper and will be mindful of HIV and sexual health.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
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 total payments made by NHS England to private providers in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Total spending by NHS Commissioners on private health providers in each of the last five years for which figures are available is shown in the following table.
NHS Commissioners' spend on non National Health Service bodies by organisation type | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
| £ million | £ million | £ million | £ million | £ million |
Independent sector providers | 6,467 | 8,067 | 8,818 | 9,007 | 8,765 |
Note: 1. The numbers above have been collected separately from audited accounts data and may include estimates.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2019 to Question 266123 on NHS: Legal Costs, how his Department differentiates between individual projects or cases; and what steps his Department takes to (a) ensure that public funds paid to those legal services providers is in respect of work actually done or carried out by those providers and (b) record the areas of law and jurisdictions of courts and tribunals in which the work is done.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department uses two main routes to engaging legal support.
- The Department’s Anti-Fraud Unit (AFU) engages external law firms through the Civil Litigation and Arbitration in Medicines and Pharmaceuticals Framework, as well as the Government Legal Department (GLD). The AFU utilises a case management system in order to differentiate between individual cases and checks are conducted against invoices and supporting documents submitted by each law firm, including GLD, to ensure these are reflective of their instructions.
- Other business areas within the Department consult with the GLD on the resources available and should they not have the capacity then they will a conduct a competition for other Legal service providers using the Crown Commercial Services framework contract. GLD will ensure that deliverables are agreed and undertaken to the agreed quality before payments are made.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2019 to Question 263752 on NHS: Legal Costs, how much was money was spent by (a) NHS England, (b) NHS trusts, (c) Health Education England and (d) NHS Improvement on the services of (a) Bevan Brittan, (b) Mills & Reeve, (c) DAC Beechcroft, (d) Hempsons, (e) Capsticks and (f) Hill Dickinson in relation to employment disputes in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The arm’s length bodies concerned do not collect information in the format requested. The transactions charged by the organisations involved do not specifically itemise legal costs as ‘employment disputes’.