Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) doctors and (b) nurses are employed on a full-time basis for cancer care in Cornwall.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
NHS Digital publishes hospital and community health services workforce statistics for National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups in England. However, the information held by NHS Digital does not capture sufficient level of detail to identify those working in cancer care in Cornwall.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) funding and (b) grants her Department makes available to elderly people in relation to the provision of social care.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government has given councils access to up to £3.9 billion for 2019-20. This includes a £240 million adult social care winter fund to help local authorities alleviate winter pressures on the National Health Service, getting patients home quicker and freeing up hospital beds across England. As a result of these measures, funding available for adult social care is increasing by 9% in real terms from 2015-16 to 2019-20, allowing councils to support more people including the elderly and to sustain a diverse care market.
The Disabled Facilities Grant supports older and disabled people, on low incomes, to adapt their homes to make them suitable for their needs. The amount of funding available has more than doubled from £220 million in 2015-16 to £505 million in 2019-20.
Furthermore, the most recent data shows public spending figures on adult social care amounted to £17.1 billion in 2017-18 with £5.3 billion spent on older adults.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department taking to enable the use of digital technology to increase access to healthcare for people in rural communities.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Digital technology is improving access to healthcare for rural communities:
- In April 2018, NHS Digital published a digital inclusion guide for health and social care aimed at local health and care organisations to help them to take practical steps to support digital inclusion in their communities, including those in rural areas who are more likely to be digitally excluded;
- We are working closely with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to ensure that health and care needs are taken into account in national digital infrastructure policy, are running two test beds under Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s 5G programme focused on improving access, and the 5G programme itself will address rural connectivity; and
- The NHS App is now connected in over 52% of general practitioner (GP) practices. It provides a universal offer regardless of postcode. It gives patients a single safe and secure means to interact with their GP, including access to their GP record, make GP appointments, order repeat prescriptions, access 111 online for urgent medical questions. The improved NHS website has over 40 million visits a month.
Asked by: Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Government has made of the effect of changes to the Nutrient Profile Model on the likely intake of Vitamin D and calcium by children and young adults.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Nutrient Profiling Model considers the balance of the ingredients and nutritional content of a food or drink. It does not measure the contribution of foods and drinks to the diet overall. No assessment of vitamin D or calcium intake of children has been made.
The Nutrient Profiling Model is available to view at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nutrient-profiling-model