Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
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 the (a) level of and (b) reasons for the variation between Clinical Commissioning Groups in the prescription of continuous glucose monitors for young people suffering from type 1 diabetes.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Department has made no assessment. Ultimately it is for clinical commissioning groups, who are primarily responsible for commissioning diabetes services, to meet the requirements of their population. In doing so, they need to ensure that the services they provide are fit for purpose, reflect the needs of the local population, including young people, are based on the available evidence and take into account national guidelines.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has provided to Clinical Commissioning Groups on charging for letters which patients require in order to progress benefits claims.
Answered by Steve Brine
Under the terms of their contracts, as set out in National Health Service (General Medical Services (GMS) Contracts) and (Personal Medical Services (PMS) Agreements) Regulations 2015), general practitioners (GPs) must provide medical certificates to prove incapacity to work free of charge and cannot charge their registered patients for anything other than specific items as set out in the PMS Regulations. This includes some letters and medical reports, such as private sick notes or immunisations in connection with travel abroad.
GPs must provide these statements of incapacity to professionals working for the Health Assessment Advisory Service (part of the Department for Work and Pensions) when requested. If other statutory bodies are requesting this information to support a benefits claim, GPs are entitled to charge for this information, but the body requesting it must pay this charge rather than the patient.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
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 that medically unqualified staff do not make additions to patients' medical notes.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
In 2016, the Information Governance Alliance published the NHS Records Management Code of Practice which sets out what people working with, or in, National Health Service organisations in England need to do to manage records correctly.
The Code of Practice is based on current legal requirements and professional best practice. It includes advice that each NHS organisation should have an overall policy statement on how it manages all its records, including electronic records.
It is the responsibility of each NHS organisation to ensure that staff are assigned access to patient records based on their role in the organisation and that, where appropriate, they should document their actions and decisions in patients’ records.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued on which people are authorised to make notes on a patient's medical record.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
In 2016, the Information Governance Alliance published the NHS Records Management Code of Practice which sets out what people working with, or in, National Health Service organisations in England need to do to manage records correctly.
The Code of Practice is based on current legal requirements and professional best practice. It includes advice that each NHS organisation should have an overall policy statement on how it manages all its records, including electronic records.
It is the responsibility of each NHS organisation to ensure that staff are assigned access to patient records based on their role in the organisation and that, where appropriate, they should document their actions and decisions in patients’ records.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the (a) effectiveness of local authority health scrutiny committees and (b) ability of those committees to identify decisions and practices in the local health sector which have subsequently been changed.
Answered by Steve Brine
Local government plays a vital role in planning local health services and in scrutinising the local National Health Service’s plans for the delivery and the improvement of those services. Members are accountable to their electorate for their actions, and guidance and support is available to help them. The Independent Reconfiguration Panel is also available to help scrutiny committee’s oversight of the NHS.
Asked by: Sandy Martin (Labour - Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that food products which are contaminated with listeria are more easily identified and prevented from being put on sale to the public.
Answered by Steve Brine
A range of measures operate to minimise the risk of consumers eating food products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
Legislation provides measures to be taken by food manufactures producing specific food products. This includes product safety testing. Local authorities also undertake sampling to detect non-compliant products. Risk assessment and risk management capabilities, including removal of contaminated food products from the market, also operate.
The Food Standards Agency also issues advice to those most at risk from Listeriosis on foods that due to their inherent risk and the probability of contamination with Listeria should be avoided.