Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure that the treatment of NHS patients with rheumatoid arthritis is not interrupted in the event that the UK does not agree a withdrawal deal with the EU before March 2019.
Answered by Steve Barclay
We understand that disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs and other biological treatments including Etanercept is vitally important to many people in this country. Our contingency plans include sensible mitigations for medicines that come to the United Kingdom from or via the European Union, such as precautionary stockpiling by suppliers, to ensure that the supply of essential medicines to patients is not disrupted.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many foreign nationals from (a) EU and (b) non-EU countries are employed by NHS trusts in the Kirklees area.
Answered by Steve Barclay
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, but not staff working in primary care or in general practitoner surgeries, local authorities or other providers.
The following table shows all staff employed in National Health Service trusts in the Kirklees area (Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust) by nationality, as at 31 May 2018, headcount.
| Headcount |
All nationalities | 14,019 |
of which: |
|
United Kingdom | 12,931 |
European Union (excluding UK) | 297 |
Other European Economic Area countries | 4 |
Rest of the World | 526 |
Unknown | 262 |
Source: NHS HCHS monthly workforce statistics, NHS Digital
Nationality is self-reported and may be a reflection of cultural heritage rather than country of birth.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on (a) the practices in place to allow medical professionals to identify fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in (i) newborn and (ii) young children and (b) how those cases are recorded.
Answered by Steve Brine
The information requested is not held centrally.
As part of the Maternity Transformation Programme, Public Health England is leading work to provide prevention-focused leadership to support a reduction in the proportion of women drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Midwives and health visitors also have a role in providing clear, consistent advice and early identification and support.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Colne Valley that was sent on the 23 May and again on 12 June 2018 on ambulance response times.
Answered by Steve Barclay
I replied to the hon. Member’s letters on 16 July.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's recruitment target is for the nursing degree apprenticeship entry route, and what recent steps his Department has taken to meet that target.
Answered by Steve Barclay
There is no recruitment target for the nurse degree apprenticeship. The Government has a clear aspiration that once the apprentice route is established, up to 1,000 apprentice nurses could join the National Health Service each year.
The registered nurse (degree) apprenticeship standard was approved for delivery on 9 May 2017. To date, there have been 260 starts on the registered nurse (degree) apprenticeship in the 2017 to 2018 academic year (August 2017 to April 2018) in England but this will continue to increase over the full year August 2017 to August 2018.
The Department has no immediate plans to provide additional funding for the costs of education for the nurse degree apprenticeship, which should be met from the apprentice levy.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional finding his Department plans to provide to employers to cover the educational costs of nursing degree apprenticeships.
Answered by Steve Barclay
There is no recruitment target for the nurse degree apprenticeship. The Government has a clear aspiration that once the apprentice route is established, up to 1,000 apprentice nurses could join the National Health Service each year.
The registered nurse (degree) apprenticeship standard was approved for delivery on 9 May 2017. To date, there have been 260 starts on the registered nurse (degree) apprenticeship in the 2017 to 2018 academic year (August 2017 to April 2018) in England but this will continue to increase over the full year August 2017 to August 2018.
The Department has no immediate plans to provide additional funding for the costs of education for the nurse degree apprenticeship, which should be met from the apprentice levy.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 potential merits of allocating funding for additional research into reactive hypoglycaemia.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), which has a broad portfolio of research into diabetes and related symptoms.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including reactive hypoglycaemia. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications for funding are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to review NICE guidelines on the treatment of myalgic encephalomyelitis; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Brine
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is responsible for determining whether its guidance should be updated to take into account new evidence. NICE is currently updating its clinical guideline on the diagnosis and management of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis and is consulting stakeholders on a draft scope for the guideline update.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients in (a) the UK, (b) West Yorkshire and (c) Colne Valley suffer from asthma.
Answered by Steve Brine
We do not hold the data in the format requested. However, the Department can provide a response using data from the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) covering primary care. This data covers England and we cannot answer for the entire United Kingdom.
The QOF provides the number of patients registered with asthma for England, West Yorkshire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) and NHS Greater Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), for 2016/17, shown in the following table.
QOF Asthma recorded disease prevalence, 2016-17 | Asthma Recorded Prevalence | |||
Organisation Name | Number of practices | List Size | Register of asthma patients | Prevalence (%) |
England | 7,392 | 58,029,147 | 3,444,218 | 5.94 |
West Yorkshire STP | 334 | 2,682,913 | 170,435 | 6.35 |
NHS Greater Huddersfield CCG | 37 | 246,583 | 15,923 | 6.46 |