Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that people eligible for NHS continuing healthcare funding have access to services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care sets out in paragraph 185 that, where an individual is eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC), the integrated care board (ICB) is responsible for care planning, commissioning services, and case management. The ICB is responsible for planning strategically, specifying outcomes, procuring services, and managing demand and provider performance in relation to CHC. The services commissioned must include ongoing case management, including review or reassessment of the individual’s needs.
NHS England holds ICBs accountable, and engages with them to ensure that they discharge their functions via timely and well-established assurance mechanisms. The national framework also sets out that those in receipt of CHC continue to be entitled to access to the full range of primary, community, secondary, and other health services.
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the NHS is prepared for the arrival of new diagnostic innovations for dementia.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service is a world leader in rolling out innovative treatments and has established a dedicated national programme team which is working in partnership with other national agencies and with local health systems to prepare for the potential roll out of new treatments for use in the earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease. These plans assume that, if these new treatments are approved by the regulators, significant additional diagnostic capacity, including amyloid positron emission tomography–computed tomography, lumbar puncture and magnetic resonance imaging, will be needed both to identify patients who are most able to benefit and to provide important safety monitoring.
The national programme team is conducting preparations across the country, working alongside clinicians and local teams to identify where further funding will be required to roll out the additional tests and services needed to introduce these new and complex treatments.
NHS England is also working with partner agencies to support and inform further research into other diagnostic modalities, including blood-based biomarker and digital tests, which will help improve identification and management of Alzheimer’s disease.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made on integrating social care and the NHS.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Health and Care Act 2022 established integrated care systems, reforming how health and adult social care work together by putting partnership at the heart of planning. The Government has published guidance for integrated care partnerships (ICPs), on the statutory requirement for each ICP to publish an Integrated Care Strategy to address the health, social care, and public health needs of their system. All ICPs have now published their integrated care strategies.
The integration of health and social care is often best achieved through collaboration across smaller geographies within integrated care systems called places. Since the Health and Care Act 2022, we have seen good progress in the development of place-based arrangements to integrate health and social care. In October 2023, we published our Shared Outcomes Toolkit designed to help place-based partnerships develop shared outcomes as a powerful means of promoting integrated working and joined up care. We also issued a call for evidence as part of our review of Section 75 of the NHS Act 2006, which permits local authorities and National Health Service bodies to pool budgets, enabling joint commissioning and the commissioning of integrated services. The findings of this review will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) stigma and (b) gender norms on trends in the number of men accessing mental health services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England’s Advancing Mental Health Equalities Strategy launched in September 2020, to assess inequalities in access, including those based on gender, and to set out guidance on how services should be taking this into account.
Fundamentally, this strategy aims to ensure that access to the timely, high-quality mental healthcare as described in the NHS Long Term Plan is equitable, by equipping systems with the tools and enablers they need to bridge the gaps between people, such as men, faring worse than others in mental health services.
Middle-aged men are identified in Suicide prevention in England: 5-year cross-sector strategy, as a priority group for action. The strategy acknowledges that stigma can be a barrier to people seeking support, and it encourages local government, the National Health Service, and voluntary sector organisations to work together to encourage the reduction of this stigma.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to support unpaid carers in rural areas.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Act (2014) requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for unpaid carers. Local authorities are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any unpaid carer who appears to have a need for support, and to meet their eligible needs on request from the carer.
Through the Accelerating Reform Fund (ARF), we are investing £42.6 million for innovative local projects focused on transforming the care sector. The purpose of the ARF is to support two or more projects in each area, with at least one of those having a particular focus on unpaid carers. More than half of the projects, and at least one in each integrated care system area, are focused on identifying, recognising, and supporting unpaid carers.
Asked by: Keir Mather (Labour - Selby and Ainsty)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of adding medications related to (a) asthma and (b) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the NHS prescription charge exemption list.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the Government’s policy remains, that there are no plans to review the list of medical conditions that entitle someone to apply for a medical exemption certificate, there are extensive arrangements currently in place in England to ensure that prescriptions are affordable for everyone, including for those with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Approximately 89% of prescription items are dispensed free of charge in the community in England, and there is a wide range of exemptions from prescription charges already in place for which those with heart disease may be eligible. Eligibility depends on the patient’s age, whether they are in qualifying full-time education, whether they are pregnant or have recently given birth, or whether they are in receipt of certain benefits or a war pension.
People on a low income can apply for help with their health costs through the NHS Low Income Scheme. The scheme provides income related help to people who are not automatically exempt from charges, but who may be entitled to full or partial help if they have a low income and savings below a defined limit.
To support those with greatest need who do not qualify for an exemption or the NHS Low Income Scheme, Prescription Prepayment Certificates (PPCs) are available. PPCs allow people to claim as many prescriptions as they need for a set cost, with three month and 12 month certificates available, which can be paid for in instalments.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS Inpatient Detox units there are by location.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are eight NHS inpatient detoxification units in England. They are listed below:
Guys and St Thomas NHS Trust (London),
Bridge House, Kent and Medway NHS Trust (Maidstone, Kent),
Dame Carol Black Unit, Midlands Foundation NHS Trust (Fareham, Hampshire),
Acer Unit, Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (Bristol),
Edward Myers Unit, Staffordshire Combined NHS Trust (Stoke),
New Beginnings, Rotherham, Doncaster, South Humber Foundation NHS Trust (Doncaster), Chapman Barker Unit, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust (Manchester),
Topaz Ward, Essex Partnership NHS Trust (Chelmsford, Essex).
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support (a) hospice and (b) other end-of-life services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the Health and Care Act 2022, the Government added palliative care services to the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission, promoting a more consistent national approach, and supporting commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care.
The majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services. However, we also recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, play in providing support to people at end of life, and their families. Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding hospices receive is dependent on many factors, including what other statutory services are available within the ICB footprint. Charitable hospices provide a range of services which go beyond that which statutory services are legally required to provide, and consequently, the funding arrangements reflect this.
To support ICBs, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications for both adults and children. NHS England has also commissioned the development of a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together relevant, all age local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of both adults and children in their local population, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities.
NHS England has also funded seven strategic clinical networks for palliative and end of life care. These networks support commissioners in the delivery of outstanding clinical and personalised care for people in the last years of life, and reduce local variation.
At a national level, NHS England has confirmed it will renew the Children and Young People’s hospice funding for 2024/25, again allocating £25 million of grant funding for children’s hospices, using the same prevalence-based allocation approach as in 2022/23 and 2023/24. The Government has provided £60 million of additional funding to help deliver the one-off payments to over 27,000 eligible staff employed on dynamically linked Agenda for Change contracts by non-NHS organisations, including some hospices.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding support her Department is providing to Integrated Care Boards on the operation of (a) hospices, (b) palliative care and (c) end-of-life services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by core National Health Service staff and services. However, we also recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, play in providing support to people at end of life, and their families. Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services.
The amount of funding hospices receive is dependent on many factors, including what other statutory services are available within the integrated care board (ICB) footprint. Charitable hospices provide a range of services which go beyond that which statutory services are legally required to provide, and consequently, the funding arrangements reflect this.
However, since 2020, NHS England has provided hospices with over £350 million to secure and increase NHS capacity, and to support hospital discharge, as part of the COVID-19 response. In addition, since 2021/22, nearly £63 million has been provided to children’s hospices as part of the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. Furthermore, additional investment in children and young people’s palliative and end of life care, including hospices, has also been made through the NHS Long Term Plan’s commitment to match-fund clinical commissioning groups, and subsequently ICBs, totalling over £23 million.
As set out in the Health and Care Act 2022, ICBs are responsible for determining the level of NHS-funded palliative and end of life care locally, including hospice care, and are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to commission an independent review of the Commission on Human Medicines’ Expert Working Group’s report on Hormone Pregnancy Tests.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We remain hugely sympathetic to the families who believe that they have suffered as a result of using Hormone Pregnancy Tests. We have no plans to set up an independent review to examine the findings of the Expert Working Group. In the interests of transparency, all evidence collected and papers considered by the Expert Working Group were published in 2018, along with full minutes of its discussions. Details of conflicts of interests, and how these were managed, were also published.