Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
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 (a) improve the quality of and (b) increase access to public health care in (i) Stevenage and (ii) Hertfordshire.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
Local authorities are responsible for assessing the public health needs of their local population, developing public health strategies and commissioning services to improve the health of their populations.
Local authorities have responsibility for the commissioning of public health services such as sexual health, stop smoking, drug and alcohol services and the NHS Health Check. Public Health England supports local authorities to do this through the provision of national public health campaigns, public health intelligence, evidence-based advice and guidance on what works in practice, commissioning support packs and service assessment and quality improvement frameworks.
At a local level, Public Health England East of England supports local authorities through a series of commissioner networks that share good practice, support sector led improvement and effective service delivery.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS appointments have been missed in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Data for missed outpatient appointments in the years 2013-14 to 2017-18 is provided in the following table. This is a count of appointments, not people, as the same person may have had more than one appointment within the same time period:
Year | Total number of appointments | Did not attends (DNAs) | DNA’s as a % of total appointments |
2013-14 | 101,844,824 | 7,095,839 | 7.0% |
2014-15 | 107,188,423 | 7,442,949 | 6.9% |
2015-16 | 113,298,661 | 7,519,829 | 6.6% |
2016-17 | 118,578,912 | 7,938,009 | 6.7% |
2017-18 | 119,378,895 | 7,984,183 | 6.7% |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics – NHS Digital
Information surrounding the cost of missed hospital appointments is not collected or held centrally.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the annual cost to the public purse was of missed NHS appointments in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Data for missed outpatient appointments in the years 2013-14 to 2017-18 is provided in the following table. This is a count of appointments, not people, as the same person may have had more than one appointment within the same time period:
Year | Total number of appointments | Did not attends (DNAs) | DNA’s as a % of total appointments |
2013-14 | 101,844,824 | 7,095,839 | 7.0% |
2014-15 | 107,188,423 | 7,442,949 | 6.9% |
2015-16 | 113,298,661 | 7,519,829 | 6.6% |
2016-17 | 118,578,912 | 7,938,009 | 6.7% |
2017-18 | 119,378,895 | 7,984,183 | 6.7% |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics – NHS Digital
Information surrounding the cost of missed hospital appointments is not collected or held centrally.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 29 May to Question 256286 on NHS: Public Appointments, how many NHS posts with salaries above £142,000 are awaiting ministerial sign-off by (a) his Department and (b) HM Treasury.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
This information is not held in the format requested.
National Health Service organisations are not required to seek Departmental approval or comment on salaries of less than £150,000.
As at 6 June there are 17 NHS posts with salaries at or above £150,000 awaiting ministerial approval or comment.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS staff appointments are awaiting ministerial sign-off.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Ministers do not sign-off National Health Service staff appointments. These are managed locally.
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
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 improve (a) early diagnosis and (b) treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The United Kingdom Rare Disease Strategy, published in 2013, sets out our commitment to raising awareness about all rare diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and our strategic vision for improving the lives of all those affected. The Strategy promotes improvements to ensure that people living with a rare disease receive high-quality care.
The Government recognizes the need for awareness raising and training of health care professionals for rare diseases. This is being taken forward through the work of the UK Rare Diseases Policy Board and NHS England’s Rare Diseases Implementation plan, which commits NHS England to engaging with the Royal College of General Practitioners (GPs) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council on opportunities for GPs and health visitors to recognise and facilitate earlier diagnosis of rare diseases.
There are limited drug treatment options for IPF and two drugs, Pirfenidone and Nintedanib, are commissioned following National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Technology Appraisals. Alongside this, the Department funds research into rare diseases such as IPF through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Asked by: Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential severity of the 2017-18 influenza season.
Answered by Steve Brine
International surveillance data identifies trends in seasonal influenza across different parts of the world. While this provides useful information, it cannot be assumed that influenza activity observed in other countries predicts the influenza strains which might circulate in the United Kingdom nor the level of seasonal influenza activity.
Public Health England is responsible for monitoring data on influenza activity on a weekly basis during the winter months, and this data is carefully assessed on an ongoing basis. Current data shows low levels of flu activity.