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Disabled People: Income Support
Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:
What independent information they are seeking, and with what funding, on the current needs of disabled people for income support, especially those too young, too elderly or too severely disabled to have any prospect of finding employment. [HL5326]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): From 27 October 2008, income support paid on the grounds of incapacity or disability will be replaced by the new employment and support allowance for all new claims.
Employment and support allowance is a radical move away from the existing system of support. Our underlying principle is to help a person back into work where that is possible. We have made very clear that we will not write anyone off.
We recognise, however, that for the most severely disabled people, finding employment may not be an option. We will be targeting additional help and support on the most vulnerable through the support group and guaranteeing an income for those in the greatest financial need of £102.10 per week. For some people that is almost £16 a week more than the current income support rate.
In addition, severely disabled people with care or mobility needs may be eligible for disability living allowance which makes a valuable contribution towards the extra costs of disability and can be paid regardless of whether someone is in or out of work, or also receiving employment and support allowance. Similarly, attendance allowance contributes to the extra costs of disability for people who become disabled after the age of 65.
We will be evaluating the new benefit, including the commissioning of independent reports, to ensure it meets our aims and objectives and the needs of disabled people.
Embryology
Lord Alton of Liverpool asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Darzi of Denham on 22 July (WA 246), whether the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is aware of any licensed centres for which the incidence of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome is equal to or greater than that described in 2007 in the journal Human Fertility (volume 10, issue 3, pages 183—187); and how the figures reported in that journal compare to those in Professor Balen's 2005 report. [HL5310]
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) does not collect data on the incidence of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). The HFEA keeps a record only of cancelled cycles reporting the risk of OHSS—in other words, cycles which have usually been cancelled, either before or after egg collection, because of a perceived risk as opposed to patients where there is a clinical diagnosis of OHSS. In 2007, this applied to 611 out of a total of 35,946 cycles. These figures do not enable the HFEA to track the total number of patients who are at risk of or suffer from OHSS.
These figures are available in an updated version of Professor Balen's 2005 report (updated in August 2008), which is on the HFEA website at: www.hfea.gov.uk/en/1709.html.
As the updated report has only recently been completed, the HFEA has not undertaken a comparison of the figures in Professor Balen's report and the figures reported in the journal Human Fertility (volume 10, issue 3, pages 183-187).
Health: MHRA Fees
Lord Faulkner of Worcester asked Her Majesty's Government:
What proportion of the fees of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency are raised from (a) the generic pharmaceutical industry; and (b) the branded pharmaceutical sector. [HL5401]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The information is not collected in this form and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Health: Needs Assessments
Baroness Cumberlege asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will ensure pharmaceutical needs assessments feed into the health aspects of joint strategic needs assessments; and whether they will issue future guidance to primary care trusts to ensure pharmaceutical needs assessments feed into the health aspects of joint strategic needs assessments. [HL5331]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The White Paper Pharmacy in England: Building on strengths—delivering the future highlights that primary care trust pharmaceutical needs assessments should contribute to joint strategic needs assessments, which all primary care trusts and upper tier local authorities have a duty to undertake. The support programme on pharmaceutical needs assessment being devised for primary care trusts, led by NHS employers, is expected to include guidance on linking joint strategic needs assessment and pharmaceutical needs assessment.
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Health: Organ Transplants
Lord Roberts of Llandudno asked Her Majesty's Government:
What arrangements are in place to ensure that organ transplants are available across the boundaries of the devolved Administrations; and [HL5338]
What arrangements are in place to ensure that organ donations throughout the United Kingdom enter a central United Kingdom organ bank. [HL5339]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): It is important that organ donation becomes a usual part of healthcare and that as many people as possible are encouraged to consent to donation after their death. That is why all four United Kingdom health administrations agreed the continuation of a UK-wide approach to organ donation and allocation and to support implementation of the Organ Donation Taskforce recommendations published in January 2008. A programme delivery board established to oversee delivery of the recommendations includes representatives from
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Health: Patients per Doctor
Lord Roberts of Llandudno asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many patients per doctor there are in (a) England; (b) Wales; (c) Scotland; (d) Northern Ireland; and (e) each other member state of the European Union. [HL5336]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): There are 420 patients per doctor (all hospital doctors and all general practitioners (GPs) (excluding retainers)) in England.
There are 1,606 patients per GP (excluding retainers and registrars) in England.
Figures for other parts of the United Kingdom are matters for devolved Administrations, and figures for the European Union are not collected. However, figures on the number of GPs per 10,000 population are available. The table containing these figures is shown below:
| GPs per 10,000 population | |||||||
| 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
| Source: GMS Census | |||||||
Health: Pharmacists
Baroness Cumberlege asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether community pharmacists will be allowed increased access to the NHS Summary Care Records. [HL5330]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): In order to be able to carry out their wider roles safely and effectively, we are committed to community pharmacists having appropriate access to healthcare records. In addition, pharmacists will eventually need to be able to record their interventions in these records. However, confidentiality and security will need to be assured. All of this could be facilitated by the NHS Care Record Service being developed by Connecting for Health.
We met key stakeholders, who in general shared our views, but there are concerns in the main about practical requirements to ensure that patient consent and confidentiality will be maintained and guaranteed in a community pharmacy setting.
As outlined in the White Paper, Pharmacy in England: Building on strengths—delivering the future, we will undertake further work with one of the summary care record (SCR) early adopter primary care trusts to consider the benefits, governance and practical arrangements of community pharmacists having access to the SCR. We will then use the experience gained from this to inform a stakeholder engagement programme to consider how community pharmacy access to the care record service might be achieved nationally.
Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:
When they will appoint the two new clinical leaders to champion change in hospitals and in the community in primary care as set out in the White Paper Pharmacy in England — Building on strengths, delivering the future. [HL5386]
Lord Darzi of Denham: We expect to appoint the two national clinical directors for pharmacy in the near future.
Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they plan to introduce measures to standardise systems across primary care trusts for paying community pharmacies for enhanced services. [HL5387]
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Lord Darzi of Denham: Model service specifications and a pricing toolkit have been published for local enhanced services within the community pharmacy contractual framework on the NHS Primary Care Contracting website at: www.pcc.nhs.uk/186.php.
It is for primary care trusts to commission and fund such services according to local needs. The White Paper Pharmacy in England: Building on strengths—delivering the future indicates that the Government will introduce a further category of community pharmacy services—directed enhanced services—where directions are issued requiring primary care trusts to commission certain services. The details of these services, including payment, will be subject to discussion with NHS Employers and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.
Health: Research
Lord Alton of Liverpool asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answers by Lord Triesman on 29 October 2007 (WA 144), 12 November 2007 (WA 1) and 12 December 2007 (WA 58) regarding funding of research, and by Lord Darzi of Denham on 10 January 2008 (WA 216) regarding compliance with the February 2004 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines by the Newcastle primary care trust, what progress has been made in the relevant research; and what are the primary objectives of funding by the Medical Research Council and primary care trusts with regard to healthcare provision. [HL5311]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority placed the latest inspection report of this research project on its website on 1 October 2008 at www.hfea.gov.uk/en/1368.html#17. The research project is RO152. Section 5 of the report outlines the progress of the project and the use of eggs.
The primary objective of the funding provided by the Medical Research Council (MRC) is to support the aim of the project, which is to find ways of improving the efficiency of therapeutic cloning, a technique which would allow scientists to create patient-specific stem cells and develop regenerative therapies for many debilitating conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and Parkinson's disease. The MRC requires that only surplus eggs are to be used for the research, and the donor's treatment for infertility is unaffected by her decision to share eggs.
The primary objective of primary care trusts is to engage with their local populations to improve health and well-being and commission a comprehensive and equitable range of high quality, responsive and efficient services within allocated resources.
Health: Rheumatism
Lord Steel of Aikwood asked Her Majesty's Government:
What action they are taking following the declaration of the European Parliament on 5 June calling on the Council of Ministers to establish national plans to fight rheumatic diseases. [HL5334]
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): Through the musculoskeletal services framework, the department has provided the National Health Service (NHS) and social care organisations with guidance to support improvements to musculoskeletal services, including those for rheumatic diseases.
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