Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to increase the rate of blood donation.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) works to ensure that the right amount of blood is collected to meet patient need in England, including more complex needs for specific blood groups. It runs a number of campaigns throughout the year to raise awareness of blood donation and to encourage people to register as blood donors.
NHSBT also engages with donors who have rare blood types including working with local charities, to engage people from these communities in blood and organ donation. To meet the demand for specific blood groups, NHSBT is recruiting increasing numbers of O negative blood donors, A negative platelet donors and more donors from black-African, black-Caribbean, Asian and mixed race heritage.
For example, it recently partnered with MOBO on a campaign to encourage people from black and South Asian communities to become blood donors and has launched a toolkit to assist Members of Parliament who are seeking to increase the number of people from these communities who register as blood and organ donors in their constituencies, which is accessible at:
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to increase the number of people registered as organ donors in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
A seven year United Kingdom-wide organ donation and transplantation strategy was jointly published by the four UK health ministers and NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) in July 2013. The strategy aims to increase consent rates, encourage people to be proud to donate and to make the UK system comparable with the best of the world. 2015/16 saw the highest ever deceased donor rate in the UK with 1,364 deceased donors resulting in 3,529 transplants. A further 3,779 patients had their sight restored through a cornea transplant and there were 1,075 living donors, most donating a kidney.
NHSBT run regular awareness raising campaigns and introduced a new Organ Donation Register (ODR) system making it easier for people to record their wishes about donation. NHSBT works collaboratively with a number of partners in the private, public and third sectors to promote organ donation. People can add their name to the ODR via Government owned channels such as applying for a driving licence and paying car tax online.
On 1 December 2015, Wales introduced deemed consent (opt-out) for organ and tissue donation. We will monitor closely how these changes in legislation in Wales affect donation rates.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to emotional and psychological support for people with muscle-wasting conditions.
Answered by David Mowat
NHS England commissions specialised neurological services at a national level, including for those with muscle-wasting conditions. The neurosciences service specification sets out what specialised providers must have in place to offer evidence based safe and effective care.
As part of the service, patients should have access to a multidisciplinary team to assess, diagnose and provide support. The team will include a range of specialist staff including neuromuscular consultants, neuromuscular physiotherapists, psychologists, specialist nurses, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and other health professionals. Neuromuscular clinics should provide access to psychological and emotional support for children and adults and develop expertise with a practitioner experienced in the specific challenges for neuromuscular patients. The specification can be found at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d04-neurosci-spec-neuro.pdf
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people with muscle-wasting conditions living in Kent, Surrey or Sussex have access to a local neuromuscular care adviser.
Answered by David Mowat
Since 1 April 2013, NHS England has been responsible for commissioning specialised neurological services, which includes services for patients with neuromuscular disorders. NHS England has published a service specification for neurological care, which sets out what providers must have in place to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services. The specification can be found at:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d04-neurosci-spec-neuro.pdf
NHS England advises that, until summer 2016, a neuromuscular care advisor was in post at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the main neurosciences centre for the south east, and provided a co-ordinator service to London and the south east of England. Since the post holder left the role, the Trust has been reviewing the post and funding mechanisms.
NHS England advises that a number of meetings have taken place and a business case has been developed to take to clinical commission groups to agree funding and the service model. The Department is advised that the Sussex Collaborative of NHS organisations has confirmed that it is planning to employ a care advisor.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress his Department has made on improving the performance of ambulance services which are in special measures.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Since entering Special Measures in November 2015, the London Ambulance Service has reduced the gap from 3% behind the national average for Category A Red 1 Calls 8 minute standard, to 1.3% in August 2016, and is consistently above the national average for the remaining Category A Red 1 and 2 performance standards.
The London Ambulance Service has met its A8 performance recovery trajectory each month from April to August 2016 in spite of growth in incidents of 5.4% above the original contract plan.
South East Coast Ambulance Service entered Special Measures in September 2016 and is now receiving a comprehensive package of support, including buddying with South Central Ambulance Service and an Improvement Director has been appointed.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much each clinical commissioning group spent on mental health services in England in each year from 2013-14 to 2015-16.
Answered by Alistair Burt
In total, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have set plans for 2015/16 which reflect an increase in mental health care expenditure in excess of their increase in allocation for the year. NHS England is tracking actual expenditure against those plans and it will report to the Secretary of State at the end of the year on whether those plans have been met.
Departmental Ministers meet the Chief Executives of NHS England and Monitor regularly and discuss a wide range of issues, including funding for mental health services.
NHS England was formally established on 1 April 2013.Expenditure by NHS England on Specialist Mental Health Services for 2013/14 was £1.780 billion and £1.795 billion in 2014/15. NHS England’s planned expenditure on Specialist Mental Health Services for 2015/16 is £1.859 billion.
NHS England has published CCG level expenditure on mental health for 2013/14, which was estimated to be £8.1 billion. CCGs are currently in the process of preparing estimates of expenditure for mental health services in 2014/15. Estimates for 2015/16 are not available.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much NHS England spent on mental health services in England for each year from 2010-11 to 2015-16.
Answered by Alistair Burt
In total, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have set plans for 2015/16 which reflect an increase in mental health care expenditure in excess of their increase in allocation for the year. NHS England is tracking actual expenditure against those plans and it will report to the Secretary of State at the end of the year on whether those plans have been met.
Departmental Ministers meet the Chief Executives of NHS England and Monitor regularly and discuss a wide range of issues, including funding for mental health services.
NHS England was formally established on 1 April 2013.Expenditure by NHS England on Specialist Mental Health Services for 2013/14 was £1.780 billion and £1.795 billion in 2014/15. NHS England’s planned expenditure on Specialist Mental Health Services for 2015/16 is £1.859 billion.
NHS England has published CCG level expenditure on mental health for 2013/14, which was estimated to be £8.1 billion. CCGs are currently in the process of preparing estimates of expenditure for mental health services in 2014/15. Estimates for 2015/16 are not available.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Chief Executive of Monitor on spending on mental health services during 2015-16.
Answered by Alistair Burt
In total, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have set plans for 2015/16 which reflect an increase in mental health care expenditure in excess of their increase in allocation for the year. NHS England is tracking actual expenditure against those plans and it will report to the Secretary of State at the end of the year on whether those plans have been met.
Departmental Ministers meet the Chief Executives of NHS England and Monitor regularly and discuss a wide range of issues, including funding for mental health services.
NHS England was formally established on 1 April 2013.Expenditure by NHS England on Specialist Mental Health Services for 2013/14 was £1.780 billion and £1.795 billion in 2014/15. NHS England’s planned expenditure on Specialist Mental Health Services for 2015/16 is £1.859 billion.
NHS England has published CCG level expenditure on mental health for 2013/14, which was estimated to be £8.1 billion. CCGs are currently in the process of preparing estimates of expenditure for mental health services in 2014/15. Estimates for 2015/16 are not available.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Chief Executive of NHS England on spending on mental health services during 2015-16.
Answered by Alistair Burt
In total, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have set plans for 2015/16 which reflect an increase in mental health care expenditure in excess of their increase in allocation for the year. NHS England is tracking actual expenditure against those plans and it will report to the Secretary of State at the end of the year on whether those plans have been met.
Departmental Ministers meet the Chief Executives of NHS England and Monitor regularly and discuss a wide range of issues, including funding for mental health services.
NHS England was formally established on 1 April 2013.Expenditure by NHS England on Specialist Mental Health Services for 2013/14 was £1.780 billion and £1.795 billion in 2014/15. NHS England’s planned expenditure on Specialist Mental Health Services for 2015/16 is £1.859 billion.
NHS England has published CCG level expenditure on mental health for 2013/14, which was estimated to be £8.1 billion. CCGs are currently in the process of preparing estimates of expenditure for mental health services in 2014/15. Estimates for 2015/16 are not available.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how he plans to assess whether clinical commissioning groups in England have met the NHS England planning guidance requirement to give real terms spending increases to mental health services in 2015-16.
Answered by Alistair Burt
In total, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have set plans for 2015/16 which reflect an increase in mental health care expenditure in excess of their increase in allocation for the year. NHS England is tracking actual expenditure against those plans and it will report to the Secretary of State at the end of the year on whether those plans have been met.
Departmental Ministers meet the Chief Executives of NHS England and Monitor regularly and discuss a wide range of issues, including funding for mental health services.
NHS England was formally established on 1 April 2013.Expenditure by NHS England on Specialist Mental Health Services for 2013/14 was £1.780 billion and £1.795 billion in 2014/15. NHS England’s planned expenditure on Specialist Mental Health Services for 2015/16 is £1.859 billion.
NHS England has published CCG level expenditure on mental health for 2013/14, which was estimated to be £8.1 billion. CCGs are currently in the process of preparing estimates of expenditure for mental health services in 2014/15. Estimates for 2015/16 are not available.