Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on (a) establishing and (b) defining the priorities of the Highly Specialised Services Programme Board.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will not define the priorities of the Highly Specialised Services Programme Board. NHS England established the Highly Specialised Services Oversight Group (HSSOG), previously referred to as the Highly Specialised Services Programme Board, in April 2023 to ensure that there is a continued clear focus on highly specialised services and rare diseases.
HSSOG is the operational group responsible for discharging NHS England’s duties, powers and responsibilities in respect of the 80 highly specialised services. HSSOG’s membership is across the United Kingdom and includes representation from integrated care boards.
HSSOG takes its strategic clinical advice and clinical leadership from the Rare Diseases Advisory Group and has a role in implementing the England Rare Diseases Action Plan.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which service specifications NHS England plans to (a) develop and (b) update before commissioning is delegated to integrated care boards.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England will only delegate specialised services to integrated care boards (ICBs) following a moderation process. This may mean that ICBs take on responsibility for commissioning specific specialised services at varying points in time. In parallel, NHS England is taking forward work to update service specifications for specialised services. Some specifications will need only minor changes and these will be progressed via a light touch process, whilst others require a deeper review which will take longer to complete.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to help ensure that integrated care boards are (a) ready and (b) supported to commission neurology services identified as suitable for delegation.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To support assurance of integrated care board (ICB) readiness for taking on greater responsibility for in-scope specialised services, a pre-delegation assessment framework was developed, which set out the criteria that ICBs should meet prior to assuming responsibility for the functions, and builds on the primary care pharmaceutical, general ophthalmic and dental commissioning functions framework. ICBs, with the support of their regional team, undertook a self-assessment against the pre-delegation assessment framework for specialised commissioning. Final decisions will be taken by the NHS England board later this year.
The NHS England Neurology Transformation Programme has developed, in partnership with stakeholders, a new whole pathway neurology model to support ICBs to deliver the right service, at the right time for all neurology patients including providing care closer to home. A toolkit is being developed to support ICBs to understand and implement this new model. It will provide them with resources and information they will need to drive transformation in their neurology services, as they take on delegated responsibility for commissioning specialised neurology services from April 2024 onwards.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
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 trends in the number of pharmacy closures since 1 January 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Pharmacy openings and closures in England are published by NHS Business Services Authority. Between 31 December 2022 and 30 June 2023, the number of pharmacies reduced by 222. This reduction was mainly driven by the large multiples reducing their portfolios. To address the disproportionately high rate of closures of 100-hour pharmacies, legislation was amended in April to allow those pharmacies to reduce their hours to a minimum of 72. The Department is monitoring the market and access to pharmaceutical services remains good, with 80% of people in England living within 20 minutes walking distance of a community pharmacy and twice as many pharmacies in the more deprived areas.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps he is taking to facilitate overseas dentists practising in the UK.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We have just passed legislation that enables the General Dental Council to increase the capacity of the Overseas Registration Exam and improve their registration processes
We have also made it easier for overseas dentists to start working in the NHS. As of a few weeks ago, Saturday 1 April, no dentist will need to pay an application fee to NHS England to provide NHS services.
We want to radically reduce the time that people spend going through Performers List Validation by Experience (PLVE) and plan to set out further steps in our forthcoming dentistry plan.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his policy to support the installation of public access trauma kits alongside automated external defibrillators to enhance community first aid resilience.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department will consider the availability and access to Public Access Trauma Kits as on-going work across the health sector on the implementation of the recommendations from the Manchester Arena Inquiry.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
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 support the installation of public access trauma kits in publicly accessible locations across England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department will consider the availability and access to Public Access Trauma Kits as on-going work across the health sector on the implementation of the recommendations from the Manchester Arena Inquiry.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Manchester Arena Inquiry’s Emergency response report, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure Public Access Trauma kits are installed in publicly accessible locations.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department will consider the availability and access to Public Access Trauma Kits as on-going work across the health sector on the implementation of the recommendations from the Manchester Arena Inquiry.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans that the sections of the Health and Care Act which establish the new NHS Provider Selection Regime will come into force through further regulations.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department and NHS England are working to establish the Provider Selection Regime. We will provide an update for when the relevant sections of the Health and Care Act will be commenced, and regulations laid before Parliament, in due course. The regulations which will set out the Provider Selection Regime will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny through the affirmative process before they can come into force.
Asked by: Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to bring forward regulations under the Health and Care Act 2022 to establish a new NHS Provider Selection Regime.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department and NHS England are working to establish the Provider Selection Regime and further information on the relevant regulations will be available in due course.