Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve health outcomes in the North East.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 statutory duties, Public Health England (PHE) works with local authorities to improve the health of local populations and provide services including drug and alcohol misuse as well as sexual health services.
PHE works very closely with local authorities, and are undertaking a number of projects in the North East to improve health and address health inequalities.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that people with neuromuscular conditions who require a cough assist machine have access to a machine commissioned by their clinical commissioning group.
Answered by Ben Gummer
NHS England has been working with Muscular Dystrophy UK through the Bridging the Gap project to address areas of concern raised by patients and their representatives, one of which is the provision of cough assist machines for people with neuromuscular conditions.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning and funding cough assist machines, where appropriate. A number of CGGs have now developed commissioning policies for these devices based on one developed by Walsall CCG, which has been shared nationally as an example of good practice by Muscular Dystrophy UK.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will provide additional funding to South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Clinical Commissioning Group for improvements and new facilities at Guisborough Primary Care Hospital.
Answered by Alistair Burt
We are making additional resources available to the National Health Service by backing the NHS Five Year Forward View with £10 billion a year real terms additional funding by 2020-21, compared to 2014-15, with £3.8 billion real terms growth in 2016-17.
It is for the local NHS to determine how best to use the funds available to it to improve local services. In 2016-17, the South Tees Clinical Commissioning Group will receive £413.3 million - a cash increase of 3.05%.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of clinical trial capacity at muscle centres.
Answered by George Freeman
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I provided on 13 January 2016 to Question 21102.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress is being made on establishing NHS-funded neuromuscular networks in each region.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England is responsible for commissioning specialised neurological services, including some services for patients with neuromuscular disorders. NHS England has published a service specification for neurological care that includes an exemplar service specification for neuromuscular conditions that sets out what providers must have in place to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services. The specification can be found at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/d04-neurosci-spec-neuro.pdf
National Health Service providers, working with local area teams, may establish neuromuscular networks if they consider it would benefit service provision; such decisions are a local matter.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans NHS England has to integrate standards for specialist neuromuscular care within the paediatric neurology service specification.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Children with neuromuscular conditions are included within the current service specification for paediatric neurology:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/e09-paedi-neurology.pdf
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to (a) reduce waiting times for children to receive an assessment for a mental health condition and (b) address the disparity between those waiting times across different NHS mental health trusts.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Waiting times are not currently collected centrally, however the Government accepts there is variation in waiting times and is committed to improving access and is introducing the first ever waiting time standards for mental health services.
These include an access and waiting time standard for Children and Young People with an Eating Disorder. This states that National Institute of Health and Care Excellence concordant treatment should commence within a maximum of four weeks from first contact with a designated healthcare professional for routine cases and within one week for urgent cases. Data collected in 2016 will help inform incremental percentage increases in compliance with the standard, with the aim of 95% of patients being treated within the standard’s timescale by 2020.
We have also introduced an access and waiting times standard on Early Intervention in Psychosis announced in Mental health services: achieving better access by 2020 which came into force in April 2015. Whilst focused on all ages, most individuals experiencing a first episode of psychosis are in the 16-25 age group.
The setting of a blanket access and waiting time standard for children and young people’s mental health services is not feasible due to the wide range of conditions, services and care pathways this covers. However, NHS England will be working with partner organisations to lead work on the development of further access and waiting time standards for children’s mental health as part of the transformation programme on children and young people’s mental health.
At a local level, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have worked with local partners to produce Local Transformation Plans for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing that will set out how they will improve support for children and young people in line with the vision in Future in mind. In addition, CCGs have legal duty to consider the need to reduce inequalities in access to, and outcomes from healthcare services, and we would expect commissioners to have due regard to waiting times as part of this.
The new Mental Health Services Dataset will begin from January 2016, to provide data for both adults and children on outcomes, length of treatment, the source of referral, location of appointment and demographic information.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve tests for Lyme disease to ensure early diagnosis.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Public Health England regularly review new tests for Lyme disease and participate in a Europe wide Quality Assurance programme to ensure that the most suitable tests available are used.