Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has commissioned research to understand the potential link between the (a) reduction in health visitor numbers and (b) fall in childhood immunisations since 2015.
Answered by Maggie Throup
No specific research has been commissioned.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
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 providing additional funding to health visiting services to prevent respiratory infections in young children.
Answered by Maggie Throup
No recent assessment has been made.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the (a) properties classified as heritage assets by his Department, (b) most recent estimate of the value of those properties and (c) annual income derived from those properties.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has, since 2018, owned a number of properties adjacent to the Barts Royal London Hospital Site, which are vacant or being vacated and held for redevelopment as a life science cluster. Of these, three properties are classified as heritage assets detailed in the following table along with the most recent estimate of the value of those properties where available and any annual income derived from those properties:
Heritage status | Asset | Book Value | Income |
Listed | 34 Mount Terrace, London E1 | £620,000 | NIL |
Within a conservation area | Former Outpatients Department, Stepney Way, E1 | Part of larger plot - not individually valued | NIL |
Within a conservation area | Ambrose King Centre, Turner Street, E1 | Part of larger plot - not individually valued | £251,875 per year |
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the proportion of GP visits that are related to skin conditions.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The data requested is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full time equivalent health visitors have been employed in each of the last 10 years, by local authority and health authority area.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the vacancy rate is for dermatologists within the NHS.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the data requested.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
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 effectiveness of the guidance entitled Supporting pregnant women using maternity services during the coronavirus pandemic: actions for NHS providers in enabling parents’ full access together to their baby in neonatal units.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked closely with trusts to adopt the actions set out in the guidance and to remove barriers which prevent parental presence in neonatal units. The guidance is clear that parents of babies in neonatal critical care are partners in care and should not be considered to be visitors.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will implement the recommendations put forward by NHS Providers in April 2021 on reducing the backlogs in treatment and diagnosis for (a) heart valve disease and (b) other conditions accrued as a result of the covid-19 outbreak; and with reference to those backlogs, if he will make it his policy for innovative treatments to be rapidly adopted to help (a) reduce the length of hospital stays and (b) increase treatment capacity.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
While we have no plans to implement the specific recommendations made by NHS Providers, we are working to the same aims as we focus on restoring services. These ambitions, to increase capacity, invest in diagnostics, achieve efficiency and productivity gains, improve pathways, and use technology to improve patient care, are reflected in the National Health Service priorities and operational planning guidance for this year.
We are supporting a series of innovation initiatives to help reduce waiting list backlogs, including a pathway improvement programme, community diagnostic hubs and an elective accelerator programme. These innovations will help speed up diagnosis, increase capacity and reduce the length of hospital stays, with the latest data suggesting that 86.9% of procedures are carried out without an overnight stay. We hope to see further innovation delivered rapidly across NHS services to increase treatment capacity and improve patient experience, for those with heart valve disease and other conditions.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the potential merits of making mercaptamine hydrochloride eye drops available through the NHS.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Current clinical commissioning policy is that mercaptamine hydrochloride eye drops are not recommended to be available as a treatment option through routine commissioning for corneal cystine deposits, following the prioritisation process undertaken by NHS England and NHS Improvement in July 2020. However, NHS England and NHS Improvement have determined that there is sufficient clinical evidence to consider commissioning mercaptamine hydrochloride eye drops. This treatment will therefore be considered at the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group prioritisation meeting in May 2021, along with a number of other treatments being considered for funding.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
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 giving same sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples to access IVF treatment.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England, decisions about local fertility services are determined by clinical commissioning groups, taking account of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) fertility guidelines.
The NICE guidelines were updated in 2013 to include provision for same sex female couples, who have demonstrated their clinical infertility. The criteria in the guidelines were developed as a way of achieving equivalence between opposite-sex and same-sex couples in establishing clinical infertility and accessing National Health Service fertility treatment services. The guidelines are now due for review and the Department has started discussions with NICE about plans for such a review.