Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of treatment of people affected by air pollution and poor air quality.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Whilst there is already evidence of the impacts of air pollution on health, and ongoing work to quantify these impacts, the associated costs to the National Health Service and social care budget are less understood. Public Health England (PHE) has commissioned a consortium led by the UK Health Forum to carry out a project on the estimation of costs to the NHS and social care due to the health impacts of air pollution as part of PHE’s Health Economics Commissioning Framework. The aim is to enable air pollution to be assessed against other public health threats and to support the strategic priority setting process.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has held discussions with the Secretary of State for Transport on the potential link between living near a busy road and risk of dementia; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by David Mowat
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health has not had any formal discussions with the Secretary of State for Transport on the potential link between living near a busy road and risk of dementia.
In the ‘Challenge on Dementia 2020’ published in February 2015, we set out our aims to improve public awareness and understanding of the factors which can increase the risk of developing dementia; how people can reduce their risk by living more healthily; and a better understanding of environmental triggers that can exacerbate the progression of dementia.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress has been made on recruitment for a new paediatric neuromuscular consultant post at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital.
Answered by David Mowat
The information requested is not available centrally. It may be obtained from Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust. We have written to the Rt. Hon. Jacqui Smith, Chair of the Trust, informing her of the hon. Member’s enquiry. She will reply shortly and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received on NHS England's decision to stop funding second stem cell transplants for blood cancer patients; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by David Mowat
The Department has received representations from a range of individuals and organisations including the charity Anthony Nolan. Decisions related to the commissioning of National Health Service treatments in England are made by NHS England using a published process that involves an impact assessment.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
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 mental health inpatients under the age of 12 are able to receive treatment as close to their family home as possible.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
We are committed to delivering clinically-effective services as close to patients’ homes as possible, realising that local delivery of services allows local commissioners to meet the needs of their populations. However, we acknowledge that there will always be a balance between those mental health services for children and young people that can and should be delivered in schools, general practitioners’ surgeries and local units and the more complex care that should be delivered by clinicians and therapists with specific expertise and experience and is therefore necessarily concentrated in fewer centres.
NHS England is reviewing the distribution of inpatient mental health beds for children and young people to ensure that it meets the needs of the population, to improve local access, and deliver on a key objective of local integration of pathways of care.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the average travel distance for treatment for child mental health inpatients.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
We are committed to delivering clinically-effective services as close to patients’ homes as possible, realising that local delivery of services allows local commissioners to meet the needs of their populations. However, we acknowledge that there will always be a balance between those mental health services for children and young people that can and should be delivered in schools, general practitioners’ surgeries and local units and the more complex care that should be delivered by clinicians and therapists with specific expertise and experience and is therefore necessarily concentrated in fewer centres.
NHS England is reviewing the distribution of inpatient mental health beds for children and young people to ensure that it meets the needs of the population, to improve local access, and deliver on a key objective of local integration of pathways of care.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the availability of mental health inpatient treatment for (a) children and (b) adults in (i) Birmingham Northfield constituency, (ii) Birmingham and (iii) England.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Government is committed to improving access to mental health services. We are investing an additional £1.4 billion to improve children and young people’s mental health, including eating disorders. We welcome the publication of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health to transform mental health services and ensure that an additional 1 million people have access to services by 2020/21.
Every health and care system in England is producing a multi-year Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), showing how local services will evolve and become sustainable over the next five years – ultimately delivering the Five Year Forward View vision of better health, better patient care and improved NHS efficiency. Whilst national health and care bodies, chiefly NHS England and NHS Improvement, have published guidance on the STP process, the STPs themselves are being developed by local areas.
In the case of children’s mental health services, these STPs will be informed by local transformation plans (LTPs), published in 2015 and refreshed in October 2016. In Birmingham, a single LTP covered all three clinical commissioning groups in the city.
NHS England is currently reviewing the provision of specialised mental health beds for children and adults nationally. The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services review will make clear recommendations in the next few months about the future provision of services to ensure there is a more appropriate balance of beds nationally overall to support more local care.
The service review work on adult specialised mental health services the service review work will be making recommendations about the future distribution of services in spring.
All of the service reviews have involved local stakeholder engagement to ensure the needs of local populations are taken into account. Work has also been undertaken with key partners, including clinicians, in conducting the review of services and developing service specifications.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent representations he has (a) received and (b) made on eye health services at Birmingham City Hospital.
Answered by David Mowat
A search of the Department’s Ministerial correspondence database has identified one written representation received between 1 April 2016 and 11 October 2016 about eye health services at Birmingham City Hospital.
The Department has made no representations on this matter.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has for replacing or renewing the National Stroke Strategy when it expires in 2017.
Answered by David Mowat
The National Stroke Strategy remains valid and implementation of it continues. There are, therefore, no current plans to renew the national stroke strategy. Action is being taken to ensure the progress made on stroke continues. This includes;
- publication of the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Outcomes Strategy in 2013, which includes many stroke specific strategic ambitions;
- a CVD expert forum, hosted by NHS England, to coordinate delivery of the work which was initiated in the CVD Outcomes Strategy; and
- NHS England’s National Clinical Director for stroke working with the Strategic Clinical Networks, Urgent and Emergency Care Networks, clinical commissioning groups, Sustainability and Transformation Plans, voluntary agencies and individual providers to support better commissioning and provision of stroke care.
More generally, the NHS Five Year Forward View recognises that quality of care, including stroke care, can be variable and that patients’ needs are changing and new treatment options are emerging. The Five Year Forward View sets out high level objectives to address these issues.
There has been no formal evaluation of the National Stroke Strategy. However there is a continuous evaluation of the quality of stroke care via the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP). This measures most of the key indicators defined as important in the strategy and findings are available on the SSNAP website:
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mechanisms his Department has for measuring the effectiveness of the National Stroke Strategy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by David Mowat
The National Stroke Strategy remains valid and implementation of it continues. There are, therefore, no current plans to renew the national stroke strategy. Action is being taken to ensure the progress made on stroke continues. This includes;
- publication of the Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Outcomes Strategy in 2013, which includes many stroke specific strategic ambitions;
- a CVD expert forum, hosted by NHS England, to coordinate delivery of the work which was initiated in the CVD Outcomes Strategy; and
- NHS England’s National Clinical Director for stroke working with the Strategic Clinical Networks, Urgent and Emergency Care Networks, clinical commissioning groups, Sustainability and Transformation Plans, voluntary agencies and individual providers to support better commissioning and provision of stroke care.
More generally, the NHS Five Year Forward View recognises that quality of care, including stroke care, can be variable and that patients’ needs are changing and new treatment options are emerging. The Five Year Forward View sets out high level objectives to address these issues.
There has been no formal evaluation of the National Stroke Strategy. However there is a continuous evaluation of the quality of stroke care via the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP). This measures most of the key indicators defined as important in the strategy and findings are available on the SSNAP website: