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 on the potential effect of wage demands on the homecare medications services.

The Department is aware of the British Society for Rheumatology’s concerns. Through the quality assurance and governance processes of the contracts for the 12 providers of homecare medicines service in England, there is a monthly assessment against key performance indicators (KPIs). This includes the monitoring of patients’ adverse events, complaints and incidents and regular meetings with the National Homecare Medicines Committee and NHS England. Providers which do not meet the KPIs are held to account and action is taken to ensure that service levels are delivered according to the relevant quality and safety standards. NHS England has confirmed it has seen evidence of wage increases contributing to the overall cost increases for this service.