Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the latest advice is that he has received from Public Health England on the risks of ingesting asbestos from drinking water which has been pumped through asbestos pipes.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England’s advice is in line with that of the World Health Organization Guidelines on drinking water quality that there is no convincing or consistent evidence that ingested asbestos from asbestos cement drinking water pipes provides a risk to public health.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will respond to the recommendations in the report, The current landscape of obesity services, published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Obesity in May 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Brine
We welcome the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Obesity’s report ‘The current landscape of obesity services’ which makes a valuable contribution to this debate.
We published the second chapter of our world-leading childhood obesity plan on 25 June. This builds on the real progress we have made since the publication of chapter one in 2016, particularly in reformulation of the products our children eat and drink most. As with our initial plan, these new policies were informed by the latest research and emerging evidence, including from debates in Parliament and various reports from key stakeholders.
There are no current plans to commission a cost-benefit analysis of allocating additional funding for the prevention and treatment of obesity.
‘Childhood obesity: a plan for action, chapter 2’ is available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/childhood-obesity-a-plan-for-action-chapter-2
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will commission a cost-benefit analysis of allocating additional funding for the (a) prevention and (b) treatment of obesity.
Answered by Steve Brine
We welcome the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Obesity’s report ‘The current landscape of obesity services’ which makes a valuable contribution to this debate.
We published the second chapter of our world-leading childhood obesity plan on 25 June. This builds on the real progress we have made since the publication of chapter one in 2016, particularly in reformulation of the products our children eat and drink most. As with our initial plan, these new policies were informed by the latest research and emerging evidence, including from debates in Parliament and various reports from key stakeholders.
There are no current plans to commission a cost-benefit analysis of allocating additional funding for the prevention and treatment of obesity.
‘Childhood obesity: a plan for action, chapter 2’ is available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/childhood-obesity-a-plan-for-action-chapter-2
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Chapter 2 of the Childhood Obesity plan, what the timetable is for the consultation on a 9.00pm watershed on junk food adverts.
Answered by Steve Brine
‘Childhood obesity: a plan for action, chapter 2’ announced seven consultations on: introducing a 9pm watershed on TV advertising of products high in fat salt and sugar (HFSS) and similar protection online; banning price promotions for HFSS products; banning location promotions for HFSS products; ending the sale of energy drinks to children, introducing consistent calorie labelling for the out of home sector in England; strengthening Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services; and revised plans to the Healthy Start vouchers to provide additional support to children from lower income families. All consultations will be launched before the end of 2018.
‘Childhood obesity: a plan for action, chapter 2’ is available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/childhood-obesity-a-plan-for-action-chapter-2
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Chapter 2 of the Childhood Obesity Plan, what each of the 13 consultations arising from will consider.
Answered by Steve Brine
‘Childhood obesity: a plan for action, chapter 2’ announced seven consultations on: introducing a 9pm watershed on TV advertising of products high in fat salt and sugar (HFSS) and similar protection online; banning price promotions for HFSS products; banning location promotions for HFSS products; ending the sale of energy drinks to children, introducing consistent calorie labelling for the out of home sector in England; strengthening Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services; and revised plans to the Healthy Start vouchers to provide additional support to children from lower income families. All consultations will be launched before the end of 2018.
‘Childhood obesity: a plan for action, chapter 2’ is available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/childhood-obesity-a-plan-for-action-chapter-2
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
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 of the potential merits of introducing into NHS England a scheme analogous to the Scottish National Patient Safety Programme.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We note the Scottish National Patient Safety Programme aims to improve the safety and reliability of health and social care, and reduce harm.
Like Scotland, our aim is to improve patient safety and for the National Health Service to be one of the safest healthcare systems in the world.
Following the tragic events at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, the Government has introduced a number of significant programmes to promote and encourage better regulation, greater transparency and candour, and a culture of learning in the NHS in England, drawing from other safety critical industries.
To further drive a culture of learning, the NHS trusts are required to review and investigate deaths of their patients and publish the learning and steps they are taking to improve patient safety. An independent Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) was set up in April 2016 and is now conducting major safety investigations into the most serious risks for patients, with a specific focus on system-wide learning and improvement. The HSIB’s remit was extended in April 2018 to include the investigations of early neonatal deaths, term stillbirths and cases of severe brain injury in babies as well as all cases of maternal death. Work is underway to further improve medicines safety including the accelerated rollout of electronic prescribing in hospitals, monitoring higher risk prescribing practice linked to hospital admissions, and addressing so called ‘human factors’ that contribute to errors.
In June 2018, the Government announced a further package of measures to improve patient safety including a new National Clinical Improvement Programme that will provide NHS consultants with confidential data on their clinical results and help improve patient outcomes, the introduction of a system of medical examiners and the intention to extend the Learning from Deaths programme to general practice and ambulance trusts to promote learning and enable health organisations and healthcare professionals to learn from one another.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
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 of the the potential merits of NHS England making huddles mandatory for all medical staff at the start of the day in operating theatres.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The use of the World Health Organization (WHO) safety checklist for surgical interventions is universally acknowledged to be best practice and is well supported by the relevant Royal Colleges and professional associations. Trusts are expected to track performance against elements and stages of the checklist. There are three stages: ‘sign in’, ‘time out’ and ‘sign out’.
Huddles correspond to the ‘time out’ stage of checklist completion. Failure to use this part of the checklist would be flagged through Care Quality Commission inspection or staff concerns, and would be viewed by NHS Improvement as a serious deficiency in a trust’s safety standards.
However, as with a number of procedures that are considered best practice, mandating the WHO safety checklist for all surgical interventions across the whole of the health service at all times could give rise to unintended risk on those occasions when there is a need to act immediately to save life and a delay in surgical action could be detrimental.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
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 of the effect of substance abuse by women during pregnancy on a child's health.
Answered by Steve Brine
No specific assessment has been made. However, using illegal or street drugs during pregnancy, including cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin, can have a potentially serious effect on an unborn baby and the advice is to avoid these substances.
Advice about alcohol and drugs is available to pregnant women as part of their routine antenatal care. Pregnant women who misuse alcohol or drugs will be put in contact with a midwife or doctor who has special expertise in the care of pregnant women with alcohol or drug problems. They will be able to refer them to an alcohol or drug treatment programme and other organisations that can help.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to evaluate the provision of weight management services for (a) children and young people and (b) adults in England.
Answered by Steve Brine
Clinical commissioning groups have a statutory responsibility to commission services which meet the needs of their local population including access to tier 4 obesity services.
The Department has not made an assessment of the cost effectiveness of tier 4 obesity services. It is for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to provide national clinical guidance and advice, based on best evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness, for use of interventions, technology and devices.
To help practitioners deliver the best possible care and give people the most effective treatments NICE has produced a suite of guidance on tackling obesity including “Obesity: identification, assessment and management of overweight and obesity in children, young people and adults”, which includes access to all tiers of obesity services. This guidance is available at:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg189
The Department does not hold information on the number of tier 3 obesity services commissioned by clinical commissioning groups or local authorities.
Public Health England has explored the evidence base for tier 3 weight management interventions with adults and children, which concludes that tier 3 obesity services can provide positive outcomes and support to individuals in managing severe and often complex forms of obesity. Outputs from this work are published in: “Exploring the evidence base for Tier 3 weight management interventions for adults: a systematic review” and “Exploring the evidence base for Tier 3 specialist weight management interventions for children aged 2-18 years in the UK: a rapid systematic review”. These documents are available at:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28695579
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29228233
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department has issued to GPs on referring patients to tier 3 obesity services.
Answered by Steve Brine
Clinical commissioning groups have a statutory responsibility to commission services which meet the needs of their local population including access to tier 4 obesity services.
The Department has not made an assessment of the cost effectiveness of tier 4 obesity services. It is for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to provide national clinical guidance and advice, based on best evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness, for use of interventions, technology and devices.
To help practitioners deliver the best possible care and give people the most effective treatments NICE has produced a suite of guidance on tackling obesity including “Obesity: identification, assessment and management of overweight and obesity in children, young people and adults”, which includes access to all tiers of obesity services. This guidance is available at:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg189
The Department does not hold information on the number of tier 3 obesity services commissioned by clinical commissioning groups or local authorities.
Public Health England has explored the evidence base for tier 3 weight management interventions with adults and children, which concludes that tier 3 obesity services can provide positive outcomes and support to individuals in managing severe and often complex forms of obesity. Outputs from this work are published in: “Exploring the evidence base for Tier 3 weight management interventions for adults: a systematic review” and “Exploring the evidence base for Tier 3 specialist weight management interventions for children aged 2-18 years in the UK: a rapid systematic review”. These documents are available at:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28695579
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29228233