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Written Question
Health Services: Finance
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

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 applicants for continued healthcare funding who appeal a decision to (a) NHS England and (b) the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

A public information leaflet is on the GOV.UK website in multiple languages, explaining the full process for appealing to NHS England or to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, as well as the eligibility decisions for NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC). This leaflet is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-continuing-healthcare-and-nhs-funded-nursing-care-public-information-leaflet

CHC guidance, named the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care, states that any individual being considered for CHC at the screening or referral stage should be given a copy of this leaflet, along with any relevant local information about processes and contact details. This guidance is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64b0f7cdc033c100108062f9/National-Framework-for-NHS-Continuing-Healthcare-and-NHS-funded-Nursing-Care_July-2022-revised_corrected-July-2023.pdf

NHS England has also commissioned a free Information and Advice Service for CHC from Beacon. This service provides independent and high-quality support on navigating CHC assessments and care planning, or to appeal against a decision about CHC eligibility. Further information is available at the following link:

https://beaconchc.co.uk/how-we-can-help/free-information-and-advice-on-nhs-continuing-healthcare/


Written Question
Hospitals: Dorset
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the extra allocations of money made from the discharge fund to the (a) NHS and (b) local authorities in Dorset in the 2023-24 financial year on the (i) timeliness and (ii) effectiveness of the discharge of patients from NHS hospitals.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is investing an additional £600 million for 2023/24 and £1 billion for 2024/25, through the Discharge Fund, to support the National Health Service and local authorities in ensuring timely and effective discharge from hospital. As part of their allocations for 2023/24, NHS Dorset Integrated Care Board received £5.7 million, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council received £1.9 million, and Dorset Council received £1.7 million. There will be an independent evaluation of the Discharge Fund for 2023/24 and 2024/25.

Nationally, this funding has supported more people to be discharged more quickly with more appropriate support. The number of people discharged from hospital with packages of health and social care support increased by 10% between the end of February 2023 and the end of February 2024. Thanks to this improved patient flow hospitals have been able to admit and treat more patients during this period.


Written Question
Parkinson's Disease: Warm Home Prescription
Thursday 28th March 2024

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, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of issuing warm home prescriptions to patients with Parkinson's disease.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We have made no specific assessment. The Government recognises that warm home prescription schemes can be effective in helping to protect vulnerable people and households from the health impacts of living in a cold home. These schemes are good examples of local collaboration between the National Health Service, local government, and other partners.


Written Question
Medicine: Training
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on the average distance that medical students allocated a placement under the UK Foundation Programme travel from their medical school to their allocated placement; and what the (a) shortest and (b) longest distance is for those students allocated a placement in 2024.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The information requested is not held by the Department.


Written Question
Alzheimer's Disease: Research
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase funding and support for Alzheimer's research to accelerate the development of effective treatments and improve early diagnosis techniques.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is strongly committed to supporting research into dementia and has committed to double funding for dementia research, to £160 million per year, by the end of 2024/25. This will span all areas of research, including diagnosis and treatment of dementia, and more specifically Alzheimer’s disease.

The Government has allocated up to £120 million to the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Mission, which aims to speed up the development of new treatments through innovations in biomarkers, clinical trials, and implementation.

Alongside the mission, the Department, via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), is funding a range of research to accelerate the development of effective treatments and to improve early diagnosis techniques. This includes investing almost £50 million into the NIHR’s Dementia Translational Research Collaboration Trials Network. This will expand the United Kingdom’s early phase clinical trial capabilities in dementia, speeding up the development of new treatments, and funding to the Blood Biomarker Challenge which could make the case for the use of a blood test in the National Health Service, to support diagnosis of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.


Written Question
Dental Services
Thursday 28th March 2024

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 extra (a) appointments and (b) treatments will be delivered through each element of the dentistry recovery plan.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We want to make sure that everyone needing a National Health Service dentist can access one. Our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry will make dental services faster, simpler, and fairer for patients and will fund approximately 2.5 million additional appointments, or more than 1.5 million additional courses of dental treatment.

The methodology underpinning this modelling has been shared with the Health and Social Care Select Committee and has also been placed in the libraries for both Houses. This includes information on the estimated number of treatments and appointments delivered by each of the interventions in our dentistry recovery plan.


Written Question
NHS North Central London: Databases
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the North Central London Integrated Care Board's consultation entitled Start Well which closed on 17 March 2024, whether she has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the patient flow modelling methods used within that consultation.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The North Central London Integrated Care Board advise that the patient flow modelling approach was based on the combination of geographical proximity and service user choice.

The patient flow approach was tested with the Clinical Reference Group, Finance and Analytics Group, and Start Well Programme Board. The outputs were also tested with the Strategy Leads from each organisation, and the approach reviewed and assured by the London Clinical Senate and NHS England.


Written Question
Rare Diseases: Health Services
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure equitable access to specialised care and support for patients with rare diseases across England.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

In January 2021, the Government published the UK Rare Diseases Framework, providing a national vision for how to improve the lives of those living with rare diseases. The framework lists four priorities, collaboratively developed with the rare disease community, which are: helping patients get a final diagnosis faster; increasing awareness of rare diseases among healthcare professionals; better coordination of care; and improving access to specialist care, treatment, and drugs. The principles of the UK Rare Diseases Framework commit the four nations to ensuring that any impacts on health inequalities are considered when developing action plans.

Each year since 2021 we have published an England Rare Diseases Action Plan, with health equity highlighted as a focus area. On 29 February 2024 we published the third England Rare Diseases Action Plan, which is working to address these priorities. Several actions have been committed to in this year and previous year’s action plans, that relate to equitable access to specialised care and support for patients with rare diseases.


Written Question
NHS: Databases
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of when data will be placed into the federated data platform for NHS trusts and integrated care systems.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Federated Data Platform will allow the National Health Service to make better use of data to improve outcomes for patients, including reducing waits and discharging people quicker from hospital.

45 organisations who participated in the NHS England pilot, broken down into 42 trusts, two integrated care boards, and the City Healthcare Partnership Community Interest Company, have begun to transition into the Federated Data Platform, in a sequence of waves scheduled between March and May 2024. NHS England aims for all trusts and integrated care boards who wish to use the platform to do so within the next three years.


Written Question
Haemochromatosis: Research
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Hay of Ballyore (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support research and development of treatments for patients with haemochromatosis.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Institute for Health and Care Research is currently directly funding one ongoing study on haemochromatosis, and over the last five years, has funded infrastructure to support seven others.