Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will commit to allocating additional funding to NHS eating disorder services in 2022-23.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In 2022/23, £53 million has been allocated for children and young people’s community eating disorder services. We are also planning to invest an additional £696 million in in services for adults with severe mental illnesses, including care for people with eating disorders.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made representations to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on increased investment in the clinical oncology workforce.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Discussions are ongoing between the Department and HM Treasury on the potential for further investment in the National Health Service workforce, including for clinical oncology, as part of the Spending Review process.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many radiotherapy machines currently used by the NHS are over 10 years old.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As at 31 March 2021, approximately 63 Linear Particle Accelerators (LINACs) in routine National Health Service use were aged 10 years or more. Approximately two thirds of these have a locally agreed replacement plan that is due to be implemented in 2021-22.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to record instances of covid-19 contracted in hospitals.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England and NHS Improvement collect data as part of a daily SITREP on the time between admission to hospital and first positive swab for COVID-19. Since October 2020, NHS England and NHS Improvement have published relevant data relating to COVID-19 hospital activity which includes the numbers of people diagnosed in hospital with or admitted to hospital with COVID-19. This data covers the period from 1 August 2020. Data relating to the number of patients diagnosed in the community and subsequently admitted to hospital, or admitted to hospital and diagnosed with COVID within eight days after admission is also available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-hospital-activity/
Given the incubation period of the virus and local differences in application of testing protocols, it is not possible to definitively determine the number of people who contracted the virus while in hospital in England to date.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure consistency in the way chief coroners record deaths where the cause is covid-19 acquired in a hospital.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The circumstances in which a medical practitioner must notify a death to the coroner are set out in the Notification of Death Regulations 2019. It is a judicial decision of the coroner as to whether they have a duty under section 1 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 to investigate a death referred to them.
Medical practitioners are expected to state the cause of death to the best of their knowledge and belief on the medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD). Revised guidance published by the General Register Office and the Office for National Statistics to medical practitioners completing MCCD during the period of the pandemic confirms that COVID-19 is an acceptable direct or underlying cause of death for the purposes of completing the MCCD. This guidance also confirms that COVID-19 is not a reason of itself to refer a death to a coroner under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. The guidance is available at the following link:
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Clinical radiology UK workforce census 2020 report, what assessment he has made of the (a) trends in the number of UK radiologists and (b) need to expand the clinical radiologist workforce for proposed community diagnostic hubs.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), but not staff working in social care, primary care, local authorities or private sector providers commissioned by the National Health Service.
The latest data at January 2021 shows there are over 4,800 full-time equivalent clinical radiologists employed in NHS trusts and CCGs in England - an increase of over 200 or 4.6% since January 2020.
The recent one-year spending review settlement has enabled the expansion of clinical radiology training programmes by 110 in 2021/22.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much additional funding has been allocated to establish community diagnostic hubs.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The 2020 Spending Review committed £325 million for diagnostics in 2021/22, including the development of community diagnostics hubs.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with representatives from (a) NHS England and Improvement, (b) medical royal colleges and (c) specialist societies on community diagnostic hubs.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There has been regular ongoing engagement between the Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement since the publication of ‘Diagnostics: Recovery and Renewal. Report of the Independent Review of Diagnostic Services for NHS England’ in October 2020. As part of the development of this work, NHS England and NHS Improvement have engaged extensively with a wide range of stakeholders including medical royal colleges and specialist societies.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to White Paper, Integration and innovation: working together to improve health and social care for all, what assessment he has made of the number of community diagnostic hubs that will support integrated care systems.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Professor Sir Mike Richards’ review ‘Diagnostics: Recovery and Renewal: Report of the Independent Review of Diagnostic Services for NHS England’ proposes three community diagnostic hubs per million population as part of its five-year plan.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure that NHS Trusts (a) financially support NHS staff who have to take unpaid leave to look after dependents that have to isolate as a result of covid-19 contact tracing; and (b) make retrospective payments to those key workers for time they have to take off unpaid for those purposes during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working to ensure all National Health Service employees feel supported during the pandemic and have worked with NHS Employers on publishing guidance to help employers adapt to the challenges COVID-19 has presented for their staff. For those who are having to take time away from work due to their child’s requirement to self-isolate, the guidance states that employers should be as supportive and flexible as possible.
The guidance is being regularly updated to ensure it reflects the current situation and is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsemployers.org/covid19/staff-terms-and-conditions/staff-terms-and-conditions-faqs/pay