Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of Clinical Commissioning Groups do not allow varenicline and other stop smoking treatments to be prescribed to patients in primary care; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
NHS England has advised that, because this is a locally commissioned service, they do not hold this information centrally.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
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 doctors there were in the NHS in (a) 1985, (b) 1990, (c) 1995, (d) 2000, (e) 2005, (f) 2010 and (g) 2015.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
NHS Digital data for monthly workforce statistics is not comparable to figures before 2009 due to a change in data collection methods.
NHS Digital publishes workforce statistics, and the following table shows the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) hospital and community health service (HCHS) doctors that were employed by the National Health Service in October in 2010 and 2015.
Year | HCHS Doctors (FTE) |
October 2010 | 97,103 |
October 2015 | 104,719 |
Source: NHS Digital monthly workforce statistics
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the total NHS pay bill has been in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The total Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) pay bill for the previous five years is as follows:
Year | Total HCHS pay bill (£) |
2011-12 | 43.284 billion |
2012-13 | 43.663 billion |
2013-14 | 44.140 billion |
2014-15 | 45.085 billion |
2015-16 | 46.112 billion |
Source: Department of Health’s Headline HCHS Pay bill Metrics, which are based primarily on earnings statistics published by NHS Digital, supplemented by employer pension and national insurance contributions estimates informed by unpublished and unvalidated data from the Electronic Staff Record Data Warehouse.
The HCHS pay bill data for 2016-17 is not yet available.
The HCHS workforce comprises of staff working within hospital and community health settings, and so excludes general practitioners (GPs), GP practice staff and General Dental Practitioners.
The HCHS pay bill for 2015/2016 is around £46 billion. National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts spend around 60% of their entire expenditure on pay. NHS pay systems have an inbuilt pressure because of incremental pay of around £790 million a year. The value of increments for non-medical staff employed under the national Agenda for Change pay framework ranges from £176 to £4,599; and from 1.0% to 6.7%, which is in additional to annual pay awards.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 25 May 2016 to Question 37198, how many of the leaflets entitled Why the Government believes that voting to remain in the European Union is the best decision for the UK have been returned to his Department; and what the postage cost to the Government has been of such returns.
Answered by Jane Ellison
I refer the hon. Member to the Prime Minister's response of 25 May 2016. This information is not collated centrally by the Department.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average cost of treating a patient with (a) hepatitis C, (b) cirrhosis and (c) hepatitis C and cirrhosis has been in the last 12 months for which figures are available.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the table below and is from reference costs, which are the average unit cost to National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year. Reference costs are published annually, with most recently available data being for 2014-15.
Reference costs for acute care are collected by healthcare resource group (HRG), which are standard groupings of clinically similar treatments that consume similar levels of healthcare resource. HRGs are organised by chapters and sub-chapters, representing different body systems, and HRG sub-chapters GC and PG describe hepatobiliary and pancreatic system disorders for adults and children respectively. The average costs in the following table will therefore include the costs to NHS hospitals of treating hepatitis C and cirrhosis, as well as the costs of other related disorders.
These costs do not include high cost drugs, or treatment in outpatient or other settings outside of hospital. They reflect the costs of a single episode of care under one consultant for a patient admitted to hospital. Patients admitted to hospital may have multiple episodes of care and each one of these episodes will be recorded separately.
Table: Average cost to NHS hospitals of treating hepatobiliary and pancreatic system disorders, 2014-15 (excluding high cost drugs, or treatment in outpatient or other settings outside of hospital)
| Average cost per unit of activity (£) |
Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders | 1,751 |
Paediatric, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders | 2,344 |
Source: Reference costs, Department of Health
Notes:
GC17A Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Multiple Interventions, with CC Score 9+
GC17B Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Multiple Interventions, with CC Score 4-8
GC17C Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Multiple Interventions, with CC Score 0-3
GC17D Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Single Intervention, with CC Score 9+
GC17E Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Single Intervention, with CC Score 4-8
GC17F Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Single Intervention, with CC Score 0-3
GC17G Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, without Interventions, with CC Score 8+
GC17H Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, without Interventions, with CC Score 5-7
GC17J Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, without Interventions, with CC Score 2-4
GC17K Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, without Interventions, with CC Score 0-1
PG71A Paediatric, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with CC Score 2+
PG71B Paediatric, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with CC Score 1
PG71C Paediatric, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with CC Score 0
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what help is available to people with hepatitis C infection from contaminated blood.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Under the current support arrangements, people infected with hepatitis C through the use of National Health Service blood products are offered a lump sum payment of £20,000 on registering and the option to apply for certain discretionary support: both financial and non-financial. Should they develop “Stage 2” hepatitis C, the later stage of the disease, patients are then offered an additional lump sum of £50,000 and a regular annual payment of £14,749. Those people co-infected with hepatitis C stage 2 and HIV are offered a regular annual payment of £29,498. Currently 595 people are receiving these regular annual payments. In addition, 242 people are receiving regular payments for HIV infection.
However, the Department is consulting on options for a future support scheme which aims to ensure all of those infected with hepatitis C and registered with the payment schemes would receive regular annual payments, up to £15,000. There are currently 2,424 people with “stage 1” hepatitis C currently registered with the payment schemes who would benefit additionally from this proposed change.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people who were infected with hepatitis C due to contaminated blood products supplied by the NHS have attained sustained virological response following treatment for the infection.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Information on the numbers of people with hepatitis C through NHS-supplied blood or blood products who have attained sustained virological response following treatment for the infection is not held centrally. NHS England’s commissioning policy is for the treatment of patients based on clinical need, not on the route of infection.
All patients who meet the policy criteria, including those infected through NHS-supplied blood or blood products, are eligible for the new hepatitis C treatments. This will be dependent upon the individual patient’s hepatitis C genotype and cirrhosis status.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to his Department's publication, Living Well for Longer: One year on, published in March 2015, when he plans to publish a hepatitis C Improvement Framework.
Answered by Jane Ellison
A date for publication of the hepatitis C Improvement Framework has not yet been set. Public Health England continues working with NHS England and Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) to establish a process of monitoring hepatitis C treatment access and uptake.
Following their establishment in August 2015, ODNs will need to continue to be developed as a mechanism for ensuring equitable access to expert multidisciplinary team care and treatment for hepatitis C. ODNs are working to develop their plans, based on the published service specification and with the support of local specialised commissioning teams and regional Clinical Directors of specialised commissioning. Work is also underway to establish by February 2016 a national network of ODN clinical leads to share good practice. In addition, the draft hepatitis C improvement framework includes a numbers of areas pertinent to ODN operation and will therefore support further development of their role.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many civil servants in his Department are members of trades unions; how much working hours facility time is claimed by each such civil servant; and what the cost of that facility time is to his Department.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department does not hold records of the number of staff who are members of a trade union. This is a matter for the trade unions.
The Cabinet Office publishes data relating to Civil Service facility time and the cost of its provision, on a quarterly basis. The latest data is Quarter 4, 2014 and is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trade-union-facility-time
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance and information is available to (a) NHS healthcare workers, (b) patients and (c) carers of patients who regularly suffer from urinary-tract infections.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Guidance aimed at healthcare staff, patients, carers and the public on the care and treatment of people with urinary tract infections (UTIs) is available from a number of sources. These include the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) which published a quality standard on the treatment of Urinary tract infections in adults in June 2015. This is part of a suite of materials which includes a quality standard on Urinary tract infections in infants, children and young people under 16 and information for the public. In addition to describing the NICE quality standard, The information for the public provides links to other information sources such as NHS Choices and The Bladder and Bowel Foundation. These resources are available at https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs90
Materials specifically for primary care include the Public Health England (PHE) primary care antibiotic guidance which was updated in June 2015. It provides advice on the treatment of uncomplicated UTIs and on antibiotic choice. It also has advice on treating those with recurrent UTIs. It is available via the PHE and Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) TARGET (Treat Antibiotics Responsibly, Guidance, Education, Tools) Antibiotics Toolkit website. Clinical commissioning groups are able to use this guidance to develop local versions.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/managing-common-infections-guidance-for-primary-care
PHE has also developed guidance on diagnosis of UTIs, which is being reviewed this year. This is also available via the PHE or RCGP TARGET website.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/urinary-tract-infection-diagnosis
In addition, the TARGET Antibiotics Toolkit, available on the RCGP website, includes a presentation for primary care staff, and an online course on managing urinary symptoms. These are available at:
http://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/target-antibiotics-toolkit.aspx