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 his Department has made of the potential merits of establishing a national gluten-free prescribing scheme for England to avoid variation in prescribing policies across different Clinical Commissioning Groups.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
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 proportion of requests by NHS professionals to the NHS Business Services Authority to provide them with an accurate and up to date pension statement have been responded to in a timely manner in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The NHS Business Services Authority can provide ‘on demand’ Pension Savings Statements (PSS) to members on request. This is not triggered by a member breaching the annual allowance, but instead by the member requesting a statement. ‘On demand’ statements should be provided by the NHS Business Services Authority by the later of three months from the date of request by the individual or by 6 October following the end of the relevant tax year. However, this is dependent on the NHS Business Services Authority receiving the relevant data from the Employing Authority such as pensionable pay.
The NHS Business Services Authority cannot exclusively identify healthcare professionals but confirm that during the period of 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 it provided NHS Pension Scheme members with 17,187 ‘on demand’ PSSs of which 13,393 were completed on time.
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 is funding research on higher rates of (a) anxiety and (b) depression in people with Parkinson’s.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including Parkinson’s disease and mental health. Applications 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. Information on individual projects funded by the NIHR can be found at the following link:
https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/programmes/
NIHR support for research into Parkinson’s was nearly £15 million since 2015. This includes studies looking specifically at Parkinson’s and mental health such as the ‘Antidepressants Trial in Parkinson’s Disease (ADepT-PD)’ and the ‘Personalised Care for People with Parkinson’s Disease: PD Care’ study. NIHR infrastructure has supported 169 studies into Parkinson’s disease since 2015.
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 safeguards are in place to ensure that patients' rights to continuity of care with their named GP will be protected in the new Primary Care Network contract, published in March 2019.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The new Primary Care Network arrangements will not prevent patients seeing their preferred professional at their practice. The core general practice contract will still include a requirement for each contractor to ensure that for each of its registered patients, there is assigned an accountable general medical practitioner (an ‘accountable GP’).
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 steps his Department has taken to ensure that there are sufficient community podiatry services to meet demand in (a) Huddersfield and (b) England.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Podiatry services in Greater Huddersfield are provided by Locala Community Partnerships as part of a wider community services contract commissioned by Greater Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Group.
Following a public consultation process undertaken in 2017, Locala has made a number of changes to the service to ensure that it is able to meet the current and predicted future demand. This will mean that those patients whose feet have been assessed as 'at risk' or people with significant podiatry need will be eligible for treatment by Locala Podiatry Services and will ensure those patients with the greatest clinical need and highest risks are seen at the right time, every time.
Locala have publicised the changes widely to service users and to local general practitioner practices. Those who are not eligible for the service are being provided with advice and guidance on foot care and signposted to alternative services including Huddersfield University Foot Clinic, independent podiatrists, and to a new nail cutting service which is being delivered by Age UK.
To address the shortfall in podiatrists nationally, NHS England has supported the development of bespoke recruitment campaigns for clinical professions where needed within any workforce shortfalls – this has recently included a focus on podiatry. Health Education England monitor closely the provision of training places and take up to support capacity provision.
Within community services, and podiatry services specifically, measures are in place to help review and improve services against targets for foot hygiene. National audit data is published through reports such as the National Diabetes Foot Care Audit which is available at the following link:
The National Diabetes Foot Care Audit enables all diabetes footcare services to measure their performance against the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence clinical guidelines and peer units, and to monitor adverse outcomes for people with diabetes who develop diabetic foot disease.
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 his Department has made of the effect on people's foot hygiene of recent changes in the level of podiatry services available.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Podiatry services in Greater Huddersfield are provided by Locala Community Partnerships as part of a wider community services contract commissioned by Greater Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Group.
Following a public consultation process undertaken in 2017, Locala has made a number of changes to the service to ensure that it is able to meet the current and predicted future demand. This will mean that those patients whose feet have been assessed as 'at risk' or people with significant podiatry need will be eligible for treatment by Locala Podiatry Services and will ensure those patients with the greatest clinical need and highest risks are seen at the right time, every time.
Locala have publicised the changes widely to service users and to local general practitioner practices. Those who are not eligible for the service are being provided with advice and guidance on foot care and signposted to alternative services including Huddersfield University Foot Clinic, independent podiatrists, and to a new nail cutting service which is being delivered by Age UK.
To address the shortfall in podiatrists nationally, NHS England has supported the development of bespoke recruitment campaigns for clinical professions where needed within any workforce shortfalls – this has recently included a focus on podiatry. Health Education England monitor closely the provision of training places and take up to support capacity provision.
Within community services, and podiatry services specifically, measures are in place to help review and improve services against targets for foot hygiene. National audit data is published through reports such as the National Diabetes Foot Care Audit which is available at the following link:
The National Diabetes Foot Care Audit enables all diabetes footcare services to measure their performance against the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence clinical guidelines and peer units, and to monitor adverse outcomes for people with diabetes who develop diabetic foot disease.