Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact of rising (a) costs, (b) energy costs and (c) staffing costs on hospices.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Palliative and end of life care, including hospice care, is commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs) in response to the needs of their local population. Any assessment would therefore be made at a local level.
At a national level, NHS England has released £1.5 billion additional funding to ICBs to provide support for inflation, with ICBs deciding how best to distribute this funding within their systems.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the forthcoming Mental Health Bill will include a statutory duty to provide early intervention strategies to detect and address mental health issues for children and young people within all primary and secondary schools; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The draft Mental Health Bill, published in June 2022, is intended to modernise the Mental Health Act and work better for people with serious mental illness. The draft Bill has completed its pre-legislative scrutiny and the Joint Committee published its report on 19 January 2023 on the Draft Mental Health Bill. The Department will consider the Committee’s recommendations carefully and we will introduce the Bill when parliamentary time allows.
Separate to the provisions in the draft Bill, there are currently 287 mental health support teams in place in around 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression and other common mental health issue. These
teams now cover 26% of pupils, a year earlier than originally planned and this will increase to 399 teams, covering around 35% of pupils by April 2023 with over 500 planned to be deployed by 2024.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS funding was spent on general ophthalmic services in 2021-22; and what proportion of that funding was on (a) NHS sight tests and (b) NHS optical vouchers, including for repairs and replacements.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The following table shows the cost to the National Health Service in England in 2021/22 of providing General Ophthalmic Services.
General Ophthalmic Services | Cost | Proportion |
NHS Sight Tests | £307 million | 56.6% |
NHS Optical Vouchers incl. Repairs & Replacements | £222 million | 41% |
Other GOS contract costs | £13 million | 2.4% |
Note:
Draft accounts for this period, the numbers are not finalised until published on the NHS England website.
The following table shows the cost for secondary care organisations submitted via the National Cost Collection for outpatients within Treatment Function Code ‘Paediatric Ophthalmology’, for the financial years 2019/20 and 2020/21, the latest available data.
Year | Cost |
2019/20 | £43.7 million |
2020/21 | £50.5 million |
The published data is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/costing-in-the-nhs/national-cost-collection/
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS funding was provided to outpatient paediatric ophthalmology services in 2021-22.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The following table shows the cost to the National Health Service in England in 2021/22 of providing General Ophthalmic Services.
General Ophthalmic Services | Cost | Proportion |
NHS Sight Tests | £307 million | 56.6% |
NHS Optical Vouchers incl. Repairs & Replacements | £222 million | 41% |
Other GOS contract costs | £13 million | 2.4% |
Note:
Draft accounts for this period, the numbers are not finalised until published on the NHS England website.
The following table shows the cost for secondary care organisations submitted via the National Cost Collection for outpatients within Treatment Function Code ‘Paediatric Ophthalmology’, for the financial years 2019/20 and 2020/21, the latest available data.
Year | Cost |
2019/20 | £43.7 million |
2020/21 | £50.5 million |
The published data is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/costing-in-the-nhs/national-cost-collection/
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many outpatient (a) paediatric ophthalmology, (b) optometry and (c) orthoptic appointments for children under 19 years of age were (i) missed as the patient did not attend or (ii) cancelled in 2021-22.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
In 2021/22, there were 67,588 outpatient paediatric ophthalmology appointments, 3,967 optometry appointments and 54,615 orthoptic appointments for children under 19 years of age that were missed as the patient did not attend.
In 2021/22, there were 49,720 outpatient paediatric ophthalmology appointments, 3,286 optometry appointments and 48,122 orthoptic appointments for children under 19 years of age that were cancelled.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what was the average waiting time for an outpatient paediatric ophthalmology appointment in 2021-22.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The average waiting time for an outpatient paediatric ophthalmology appointment in 2021/22 was 88 days from the point of referral to the first outpatient appointment attended.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether literature provided to (a) parents and (b) special schools engaged in the NHS England special schools eye care service stated that it was a (i) proof of concept and (ii) pilot programme.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The independent evaluation of the NHS England special schools eye care service is currently being finalised. The findings will inform decisions on the scope, funding and delivery of any future sight testing model and will be subject to further engagement.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his planned timetable is for the publication of the independent evaluation of the NHS England special schools eye care service.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The independent evaluation of the NHS England special schools eye care service is currently being finalised. The findings will inform decisions on the scope, funding and delivery of any future sight testing model and will be subject to further engagement.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he has made an assessment on the effectiveness of NHS tariff payments for (a) oxygen concentrators and (b) home dialysis machines.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
No specific assessment has been made. NHS England has recently made provision within the tariff paid to trusts for additional energy costs of some services, such as home haemodialysis, to be reimbursed to patients via the local hospital trust. NHS England has increased tariff prices by 4.1% this year to reflect costs and support trusts in increasing local repayment tariffs for patients.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken recent steps to involve people affected by dementia in the development of the knowledge and skills framework for social care.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Through Skills for Care, the Government provides resources and practical toolkits for social care providers to attract, train and retain staff. This includes the Workforce Development Fund, which enables employers to apply for financial support towards the development of staff and can include training for staff to care for those with dementia.