Asked by: Robert Flello (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the proposed salary and permitted allowances are for the chairs of each sustainability and transformation plan body.
Answered by David Mowat
Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) footprints are not statutory bodies, but collective discussion forums which aim to bring together health and care leaders to support the delivery of improved health and care based on the needs of local populations. They do not replace existing local bodies, or change local accountabilities. Each footprint has been asked to determine governance arrangements for agreeing and implementing their STP. Individuals who are leading the development of STPs within each footprint, which include National Health Service provider Chief Executives, clinical commissioning group accountable officers and local authority senior leaders, are responsible for convening and chairing system-wide meetings, facilitating the open and honest conversations that will be necessary to secure sign up to a shared vision and plan. In the overwhelming majority of cases this is a voluntary, non-statutory role and they are not being paid over and above the remuneration they receive for their existing role. Their salary details will be available in the individual annual reports of the organisations by whom they are substantively employed.
Asked by: Robert Flello (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mechanisms his Department has in place to ensure that areas of deprivation receiving higher levels of health funding per head of population do not subsidise less deprived areas as a result of sustainability and transformation plan footprints covering a wide geographic area.
Answered by David Mowat
Sustainability and Transformation Plans are designed to set out a local roadmap for closing the health, care and quality and financial gaps faced by the National Health Service over the coming years. The health gap includes inequalities in health and healthcare, and we expect plans to set out how these will be addressed by NHS bodies working with local government. In addition, NHS England’s method for allocating funding to clinical commissioning groups corrects for inequalities by allocating greater funding to areas that have historically been underfunded.
Asked by: Robert Flello (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons hon. Members have not been allowed formally to engage in the discussions of those bodies forming sustainability and transformation plans.
Answered by David Mowat
We expect all local leaders to be regularly talking to members of the public and stakeholders, including hon. Members. It is vital that people are able to shape the future of their local services. No changes to the services people currently receive will be made without local engagement and, where required, consultation. There are longstanding assurance processes in place to make sure this happens. NHS England, with other national health and care bodies, released guidance to the local areas developing Sustainability and Transformation Plans entitled ‘Engaging local people’ in September 2016 which can be found on their website.
Asked by: Robert Flello (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients were subject to do not resuscitate orders in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Ben Gummer
This information is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Robert Flello (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department provides to district nurses on discussing do not resuscitate orders with patients and next of kin.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The Department has not itself issued guidance on this subject, but has commended to National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts guidance for healthcare professionals prepared jointly by the British Medical Association, the Resuscitation Council (UK) and the Royal College of Nursing entitled Decisions relating to cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The latest version of the guidance was published in October 2014 and took account of the Court of Appeal’s judgment, handed down in June 2014, in the case of R (on the application of Tracey) v (1) Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (2) Secretary of State for Health. The Court of Appeal concluded that there was duty to consult a patient, or those close to the patient, about a Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation decision unless that consultation is likely to cause physical or psychological harm to the patient.
Asked by: Robert Flello (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department provides to hospitals on discussing do not resuscitate orders with patients and next of kin.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The Department has not itself issued guidance on this subject, but has commended to National Health Service trusts and NHS foundation trusts guidance for healthcare professionals prepared jointly by the British Medical Association, the Resuscitation Council (UK) and the Royal College of Nursing entitled Decisions relating to cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The latest version of the guidance was published in October 2014 and took account of the Court of Appeal’s judgment, handed down in June 2014, in the case of R (on the application of Tracey) v (1) Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (2) Secretary of State for Health. The Court of Appeal concluded that there was duty to consult a patient, or those close to the patient, about a Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation decision unless that consultation is likely to cause physical or psychological harm to the patient.
Asked by: Robert Flello (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Care Quality Commission report, British Pregnancy Advisory Service, BPAS-Richmond, Quality Report, published in November 2015, what steps his Department is taking to improve safety in abortion clinics.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The termination of pregnancies is a regulated activity. All providers of regulated activities must be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and must meet all of the relevant Regulations under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, including meeting the fundamental standards of quality and safety, which includes independent sector termination of pregnancy providers and managers. The CQC is responsible for monitoring and, where appropriate, inspecting providers in relation to their ongoing compliance with meeting those requirements. Independent sector providers are also required to comply with the Department’s Required Standard Operating Procedures which the CQC inspect against.
The CQC has made a public commitment to undertake inspection of all independent providers of termination of pregnancy services using their new inspection approach and will continue to respond to risk as appropriate and take regulatory action as required.
On the issue of whether the Department plans to issue guidance to abortion clinics on consultation on disposal arrangements following termination, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 11 April 2016 to Question 32357.
We have no plans to issue guidance to abortion clinics on the administration of drugs. The administration of drugs is managed through the CQC’s fundamental standards and through inspection visits.