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 respond to the letter from the right hon. Member for North Norfolk of 26 July 2018 in relation to Dr Chris Day.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department has received both letters regarding Dr Chris Day from the Rt. hon. Member for North Norfolk and the hon. Member for Ellesmore Port and Neston dated 26 July 2018 and 17 December 2018. Officials are carefully considering their contents and preparing responses and my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State will be responding to the hon. Members’ letters shortly.
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 his Department has made of the (a) number and (b) cost of refrigerators bought for the preservation of medicines as part of contingency planning in the event the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
As part of the Department’s ‘no deal’ European Union exit contingency planning a tender process to procure additional warehouse space for stockpiled medicines, including ambient, refrigerated and controlled drug storage, was undertaken in October 2018. Contract agreements for storage, including refrigerated storage for around 5,000 pallets of medicines, have recently been signed. The refrigerated storage will cost circa £1 million.
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 publish the consent framework for the Genomic Medicine Service.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
NHS England and Genomics England are producing materials which will help patients to understand what a genomic test is, what it means for them and their family, how their data will be used and how they can participate in research. These materials are being produced and tested with clinicians, patient representatives and the Royal Colleges to ensure they are appropriate and will be made available in early 2019.
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, with reference to the Winter Daily Situation Report published by NHS England on 13 December 2018, what distance the 25 patients who were diverted to another A&E department between 3 December and 9 December 2018 had to travel (a) from their local hospital and (b) from their homes.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
This information is not collected centrally.
NHS England’s Winter Daily Situation Reports are published at the following link:
The data record the number of diverts in place and not the number of patients. The plans for diverts are pre-agreed locally between ambulance service and neighbouring trusts and are designed to ensure patients can be seen faster.
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, with reference to the Winter Daily Situation Report published by NHS England on 13 December 2018, what assessment has been made of the health outcomes of the 25 patients that were diverted to another A&E department between 3 December and 9 December 2018.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
This information is not collected centrally.
NHS England’s Winter Daily Situation Reports are published at the following link:
The data record the number of diverts in place and not the number of patients. The plans for diverts are pre-agreed locally between ambulance service and neighbouring trusts and are designed to ensure patients can be seen faster.
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 10 December 2018 to Question 197605, whether the long-term plan for the NHS will address regional variations in access to specialist support for adults with eating disorders.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Mental health will be a core part of the National Health Service long-term plan, including building on the improvements in providing access to good mental health services. The NHS long-term plan is currently in development and will be published shortly by NHS England.
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 Written Statement of 11 December 2018 on Clinical Waste, Official Report, HCWS1168, if he will publish the NHS trusts that continue to receive services from Healthcare Environmental Services.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
As of 13 December, no National Health Service trusts with remaining contacts in place with Healthcare Environment Services are reporting that they are continuing to receive their scheduled clinical waste collections from Healthcare Environmental Services. Contingency arrangements are in place for each of the affected trusts. An optional extension in the Mitie contract has been exercised, which will allow all affected trusts to access a replacement clinical waste collection service, should they choose to do so.
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 Written Statement of 11 December 2018 on Clinical Waste, Official Report HCWS1168, what assessment he has made of the reasons why clinical waste from NHS trusts was not collected and properly disposed of by Healthcare Environmental Services.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Environment Agency is currently investigating the reasons as to why the clinical waste was over the permitted levels on a number of sites owned by Healthcare Environment Services, and they have launched criminal investigations into permit breaches by Healthcare Environmental Services.
As of 13 December, all the trusts still holding contracts with Healthcare Environment Services have reported that Healthcare Environment Services have failed to meet scheduled waste collections. NHS Improvement sought assurance from Healthcare Environment Services that it has not ceased trading and will continue to provide services. Such assurance has not been forthcoming and contingency arrangements have therefore been put in place for each of the affected trusts.
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 steps NHS England is taking to (a) raise public awareness of the symptoms of eating disorders and (b) encourage people that may have an eating disorder to seek help from a GP.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
This Government recognises the importance of raising awareness and reducing stigma so that more people feel able to talk about their mental health, including eating disorders, and seek treatment. In January 2017, the Prime Minister committed to having mental health first aid training available to secondary schools, aiming to have trained at least one teacher in every secondary school by 2020 and to all primary schools by 2022.
This Government has also provided grant funding to the Time to Change national mental health anti-stigma campaign since 2012. Time to Change works with people with experience of mental health problems, including eating disorders, to challenge stigma and to improve social attitudes towards mental health. Time to Change’s website provides information and guidance about eating disorders and provides signposts and links to organisations that can help. This information is available at the following link:
https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/about-mental-health/types-problems/eating-disorders
The Government has also committed to equip one million people to be better informed to look after their own mental health, so Public Health England is currently leading the development of a £15 million national mental health campaign called ‘Every Mind Matters’.
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, if he will make it his policy to ensure that all doctors have access to a dedicated place to rest (a) during and (b) at the end of their work shift.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
It is a matter for employers to ensure that rest facilities are provided for all staff during breaks in their work shifts. Staff would normally leave their place of work at the end of their shift.
There are particular provisions in the terms and conditions of doctors in training and consultants covering working at night.
The doctors in training contract states: “Where a doctor is required to work overnight on a resident on-call working pattern, the doctor shall be provided with overnight accommodation for the resident on-call duty period. The consultant contract requires agreement with their employer on those occasions when they would be resident for night duties which, subject to the agreement, may include access to a dedicated place to rest.”
Generally, employers do not require doctors to be resident on call, as all time resident on call is classified as working hours following the Jaeger judgement. It is a matter for employers to consider what rest facilities they wish to provide when a doctor has been called into the hospital and wishes to rest before going home.