Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has taken steps to recover costs to the NHS resulting from the actions of Hungarian journalist Ani Horvath as part of an investigation of fraud in the European Health Insurance Cards scheme.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The Department is undertaking a major piece of work to examine and identify areas for improvement in all the administrative systems relating to European Economic Area healthcare payments (incoming and outgoing), including the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme.
If an EHIC is used fraudulently, the Department will seek to recover the full cost of treatment from the card holder.
The Department takes any allegations of fraud and abuse seriously and has been working with the NHS on an on-going basis to detect and tackle any suspected fraud and error since the introduction of the online EHIC application system in 2006.
Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when all NHS patients will be able to access their medical records online; and when the NHS will implement a secure unified email system.
Answered by George Freeman
From April 2015 patients have had online access to summary information in their general practitioner (GP) records relating to allergies, adverse reactions and medications. By the end of March 2016, general practices are required to offer online access to coded information, such as problem diagnoses, procedures and test results in GP clinical records.
The National Health Service has used a secure email service, NHSmail, for the last 12 years. This service is available for use by organisations commissioned to deliver NHS health and care or related activities.
Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether British expatriates who pay income tax in the UK will be charged for medical treatment in the UK.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Since the United Kingdom has a residence based healthcare system, a person who is not ordinarily resident in the UK, including a British national expatriate, is chargeable for any National Health Service hospital services they receive during visits to the UK, unless an exemption category applies, as set out in Regulations. Therefore, entitlement to free NHS care is not linked to the payment of UK taxes.
Being ordinarily resident in the UK means, in relation to British citizens, living here on a lawful, properly settled basis for the time being. A person can be ordinarily resident in more than one country at a time, depending on their individual circumstances.
Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much central government funding was provided for (a) adult and (b) children's hospices in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Adult hospices in England receive National Health Service funding locally for services commissioned by clinical commissioning groups. Central Government funding of £570,951 was provided as part of the Nursing Technology Fund Grant in 2015/16 to three adult hospices in England.
In addition to NHS funding for locally commissioned services, children’s hospices received £11 million in 2015/16 through the Children’s Hospice and Hospice-at-Home Grant, which is administered by NHS England.
Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment the NHS has made of the potential benefits and disadvantages of the use of Doppler scans in preventing stillbirths.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) which advises Ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries about all aspects of screening is currently looking at the evidence for a variety of tests (including doppler scans) and treatments to see if they would be able to help to reduce stillbirths. The UK NSC will evaluate the benefits and risks of each test and treatment against its internationally recognised criteria before making a recommendation on their introduction.
Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to encourage orthodontists to offer NHS appointments to children outside school hours.
Answered by Alistair Burt
NHS England contracts for orthodontic services at a local level taking account of the local oral health needs. Therefore opening hours are a matter for agreement between local commissioners and providers.
Asked by: Tania Mathias (Conservative - Twickenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of training a UK citizen as a nurse; and what assessment he has made of how this figure compares with the costs of recruiting nurses from overseas.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The Personal Social Services Research Unit at the University of Kent estimates that the average cost of training a nurse in 2013 was £78,604. This figure reflects the total cost of training and therefore includes costs funded through the public purse, including the NHS bursary, and by the student.
National Health Service organisations are best placed to decide how many staff they employ and how best to recruit those staff to meet services tailored to the needs of their patients and local communities, to deliver safe care.