Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to provide guidance to the new integrated care system bodies on how to take due consideration of feedback from health providers, including community pharmacy.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Bill intends to build on the work of existing non-statutory integrated care systems (ICSs) by establishing integrated care boards (ICBs) and requiring the creation of integrated care partnerships (ICPs) in each local system area.
The ICP engagement document, published in September 2021, reiterated the importance of health providers contributing to ICBs and ICPs. We would expect ICPs to have input from clinical and professional experts, including primary, community and secondary care to ensure a strong understanding of local needs and opportunities to innovate health improvements. NHS England will produce guidance for ICBs. Its design framework states that primary care, including community pharmacy, should be represented and involved in decision-making at all levels.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to provide guidance to the new integrated care system bodies on how to take due consideration of feedback from health providers, including community pharmacy.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Bill intends to build on the work of existing non-statutory integrated care systems (ICSs) by establishing integrated care boards (ICBs) and requiring the creation of integrated care partnerships (ICPs) in each local system area.
The ICP engagement document, published in September 2021, reiterated the importance of health providers contributing to ICBs and ICPs. We would expect ICPs to have input from clinical and professional experts, including primary, community and secondary care to ensure a strong understanding of local needs and opportunities to innovate health improvements. NHS England will produce guidance for ICBs. Its design framework states that primary care, including community pharmacy, should be represented and involved in decision-making at all levels.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on assessing the potential merits of introducing a pharmacy first scheme in England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) sets out the vision for community pharmacy to provide treatment for minor illnesses, support for self care and health advice.
Many community pharmacies deliver the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service which enables general practitioners and NHS 111 to refer patients to a pharmacist for advice on and treatment of minor illnesses. We are exploring additional provision through community pharmacies under the CPCF and in the long term.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish the Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We plan to publish the Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy later this year.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his oral contribution of 8 February, Official Report, column 805, on the NHS’s delivery plan for tackling the covid-19 backlog of elective care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of prioritising specialities with longer waiting lists; and what plans his Department has to tackle the backlog of elective care for gynaecology.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ outlines how the National Health Service will reduce waiting times across all elective services including gynaecology and menstrual health. While the plan does not prioritise specialties, it commits to eradicate all waiting times of longer than a year for elective care by March 2025, except in the case of patient choice. We plan that by July 2022, no one will wait longer than two years, we aim to eliminate waiting times of over 18 months by April 2023 and over 65 weeks by March 2024. The plan also recognises that a small number of highly specialised areas may need tailored plans to tackle the backlog.
The plan commits to investing in the physical separation of routine care to protect planned services from emergency care pressures where possible. At least 100 community diagnostic centres will be available by March 2025, supplying additional tests including many for gynaecological pathways. We are increasing capacity for gynaecological surgery to tackle waiting lists through the surgical hub and High Volume Low Complexity programme. Some gynaecological services, such as menstrual health services, are predominantly provided by general practitioners (GPs) which remained open. We have invested £520 million to improve access and expand GP capacity during the pandemic. This is in addition to £1.5 billion announced in 2020 to create an additional 50 million GP appointments by 2024 by increasing and diversifying the workforce.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his oral contribution of 8 February, Official Report, column 805, on the NHS’s delivery plan for tackling the covid-19 backlog of elective care, what plans his Department has to ensure that the NHS's delivery plan tackles the backlog of elective care for menstrual health conditions.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ outlines how the National Health Service will reduce waiting times across all elective services including gynaecology and menstrual health. While the plan does not prioritise specialties, it commits to eradicate all waiting times of longer than a year for elective care by March 2025, except in the case of patient choice. We plan that by July 2022, no one will wait longer than two years, we aim to eliminate waiting times of over 18 months by April 2023 and over 65 weeks by March 2024. The plan also recognises that a small number of highly specialised areas may need tailored plans to tackle the backlog.
The plan commits to investing in the physical separation of routine care to protect planned services from emergency care pressures where possible. At least 100 community diagnostic centres will be available by March 2025, supplying additional tests including many for gynaecological pathways. We are increasing capacity for gynaecological surgery to tackle waiting lists through the surgical hub and High Volume Low Complexity programme. Some gynaecological services, such as menstrual health services, are predominantly provided by general practitioners (GPs) which remained open. We have invested £520 million to improve access and expand GP capacity during the pandemic. This is in addition to £1.5 billion announced in 2020 to create an additional 50 million GP appointments by 2024 by increasing and diversifying the workforce.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether prioritisation is given to victims who go through the police referral route to Sexual Assault Referral Centres in England over self-referral routes.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
NHS England and NHS Improvement have commission Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) in partnership with regional police and crime commissioners. However, police referrals are not prioritised over self-referrals or any other referral route. SARCs provide accessible support to all who suffer from rape, sexual assault and abuse, including health care and onward referral to other health and social care services. Both police and self-referrals are offered the same access.
NHS England has increased the investment into sexual assault and abuse services and continues to review patient pathways and provide new services to meet the needs of the victims and survivors who access them.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's consultation on Home use of both pills for early medical abortion up to 10 weeks gestation, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential effect of making telemedicine for early medical abortion permanent on (a) waiting times and (b) the ability for women to receive care at an earlier stage.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Government’s public consultation on whether to make permanent the temporary measure allowing for home use of both pills for early medical abortion up to 10 weeks gestation for all eligible women asked questions on accessibility and the impact on the provision of abortion services. We are considering all evidence submitted and will publish our response in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the findings of his Department’s review of IVF equality.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department undertook an informal policy review on the variation in access to National Health Service fertility services, which was completed in 2021. We are unable to provide the information requested as this was an internal review to inform the development and formulation of Government policy. We intend to set out our initial ambitions in the Women’s Health Strategy, due to be published in spring 2022.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of children admitted to accident and emergency for attempting suicide were looked after children, in each year from 2018 to 2021.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The data requested is not available. Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), which records attendances in accident and emergency departments, does not record whether a person is a looked after child. In addition, HES data provides a count of attendances and not a count of individual people.