Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether officials in his Department have had meetings with their counterparts in the Department for Work and Pensions on ensuring that patients with chronic kidney disease receiving haemodialysis treatment at home are reimbursed for the energy costs incurred from operating the dialysis treatment, as stated in the relevant NHS England Service Specification.

Officials have not had specific meetings on this issue. Provisions are in place for patients receiving haemodialysis treatment at home to be reimbursed for additional direct energy costs as a result of their treatment. NHS England meets these additional direct utility costs through the payment of the national tariff to the patient’s usual dialysis provider.

NHS England is promoting awareness of these arrangements, including communicating directly to all commissioned providers and renal clinical networks to ensure that eligible patients are alerted to the reimbursement. NHS England plans to review renal national service specifications for haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis within the next one to two years as part of the Renal Services Transformation Programme.