Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to bring forward a strategy for dental health research.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Whilst there are currently no plans to develop a dental health research strategy, the NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including dental research. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
The Department, through the NIHR, funds clinical academic training for doctors and dentists through the Integrated Academic Training Programme. This includes Academic Clinical Fellowships (ACFs) at the pre-doctoral level and Clinical Lectureships (CLs) at the post-doctoral level. Over the last five years, 91 ACFs and 24 CLs were recruited in dentistry.
The Department also funds the NIHR Oral Health Research Incubator, which is a researcher-led initiative aimed at building dental research capacity at the national level.
Ongoing research at Newcastle University is investigating the roles and skill utilisation of professionals in dental practice.
In addition, investments in NIHR infrastructure support the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical, and applied research that is funded by the NIHR’s research programmes, other public funders of research, charities, and the life sciences industry. For example, through the NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre’s Oral and Dental Medicine research theme.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the (a) adequacy of support services for families of patients detained or likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act, and (b) benefits of developing a single point of contact service to remove the occasions where multiple calls to numerous agencies are required to secure the required support.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
While no specific assessment has been made of support services for families, we know that families play a vital role in supporting people with mental health needs through their treatment and recovery.
The Mental Health Bill includes measures that aim to ensure that people who care for the patient’s welfare, such as family or carers, are consulted by clinicians and kept informed throughout the patient’s care, treatment, and discharge.
Guidance on what information and support should be provided to families throughout the discharge process is set out in the Discharge from mental health inpatient settings statutory guidance and the Mental Health Act Code of Practice. Engagement with families, carers, and close friends should also be standard practice in community mental health services.
Integrated care boards and local authorities are also expected to work in partnership to support carers, in line with statutory guidance and local priorities. Many areas also have dedicated carers' support organisations that help connect families with resources and advocacy services, and signposting at the point of discharge from inpatient care.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the adequacy of advocacy voice and weight given to representations made by family members of patients over 18 years old who are detained or likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
While no such specific assessment has been made, we recognise the value of representations made by family members of adult patients who are detained or likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act. That is why the Mental Health Bill, which is in its final stages, will give patients the right to appoint a nominated person to represent their interests and greater access to advocacy when they are detained.
The reforms in the bill also recognise the critical role that families and carers can play in keeping patients safe, providing insight and knowledge of their loved one’s wishes and preferences and an understanding of what keeps them safe. The bill will strengthen the rights of families and carers through changes to the nominated person role, and will require clinicians to consult with others close to the patient as they make decisions around their care where appropriate or where the patient wishes.
Asked by: Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat - St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of recent divestments made by the life sciences industry on local economies across England, including St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire constituency.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not hold specific data on the impact of recent divestments on local economies, including in St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire, specifically.
We know this has been a challenging time for the life sciences sector, with commercial uncertainty and global competition driving recent divestment decisions. To address this, the Government has agreed a landmark trade deal with the United States which makes the United Kingdom the only country in the world to secure a zero percent tariff on pharmaceutical exports to the US, and preferential terms for medical technology exports. The Government is further securing the confidence of the pharmaceutical industry by committing to invest approximately 25% more in innovative, safe, and effective treatments, which will be the first major increase in over two decades.
We will continue to work with industry to deliver our Life Sciences Sector Plan, improve the commercial environment, and bring the benefits of a growing life sciences sector to local economies across the country.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase research funding for bladder cancer.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department invests £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Between the 2020/21 and 2024/25 financial years, the NIHR committed £6 million for new research and programmes into bladder cancer research projects. An example of this investment includes a £2.9 million award for ‘Combination chemotherapy versus Bacillus Calmette-Guérin for high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer a phase III multi-centre randomised controlled trial (COBRA)’. This study is researching whether gemcitabine and docetaxel delivered through intravesical therapy are typically recommended to patients who do not respond well to bacillus Calmette-Guerin treatment, a more common type of intravesical therapy that uses immunotherapy drugs to disrupt the processes that fuel bladder cancer growth.
The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including bladder cancer. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to the public and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the annual figures for payments made to each of NHS Resolution's panel law firms since the current legal framework came into effect in March 2022; and, in each case, what proportion of these payments were attributable to (a) medical negligence claims and (b) other claims.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Resolution (NHSR) manages clinical negligence and other claims against the National Health Service in England. The information to the question requested is not published by NHSR on its website. NHSR does publish annual statistics, however, which are available at the following link:
https://resolution.nhs.uk/resources/annual-statistics/
The second table in the document attached also shows the total spend for NHSR on NHS legal costs.
NHSR has also responded to individual enquiries under Freedom of Information for payments made to panel law firms, which can be found on its website at the following link:
https://resolution.nhs.uk/?s=FOI+Panel+firm+costs
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve (a) monitoring of the medicine supply chain and (b) verification of medicines.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The resilience of the United Kingdom’s supply chains is a key priority, and the Department and NHS England are committed to helping to build long term supply chain resilience for medicines. We are continually learning and seeking to improve the way we work to both manage and help prevent supply issues and avoid shortages. The Department, working closely with NHS England, is taking forward a range of actions to improve our ability to mitigate and manage shortages and strengthen our resilience. As part of that work, we continue to engage with industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and other colleagues across the supply chain as we progress work to co-design and deliver solutions. However, medicine shortages are a complex and global issue and everyone in the supply chain has a role to play in addressing them, as any action will require a collaborative approach.
We proactively monitor of supply and demand where there are particular concerns or threats to supply and as part of the management of live issues.
Potential disruption can also be identified early through targeted monitoring around specific events or risks. For example, growing demand and challenges in forecasting disease rates during winter, combined with broader strains on healthcare, can put extra pressure on already stressed supply chains. For the past two winters, the Department and NHS England set up a winter monitoring group to proactively monitor, analyse, and assess demand trends for a specified subset of medicines most likely to be needed. These medicines were identified by analysing historical demand data, together with known supply constraints and clinical criticality.
While manufacturers are not mandated to put verification barcodes on products, they are able to do so. This can help identify medicines accurately, automate storage and retrieval, verify expiry dates and batch numbers, and ensure the right product reaches the right patient, including automated dispensing or specific checks of the products due to be administered on hospital wards.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mechanisms exist to support waste-reduction trials with NHS trusts.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England are always looking at ways of reducing waste and increasing efficiency. NHS England has had many discussions with National Health Service trusts on the reduction, elimination, and reuse of single-use polypropylene curtains, and have published best practice with regards to safe and sustainable management of healthcare waste.
In addition, the Department has published the Design for Life Roadmap, a new strategy to transition away from all avoidable single-use medical technology (medtech) products towards a functioning circular system by 2045. This means designing, procuring, and processing medtech products in a way that maximises reuse, remanufacture, and recycling, thus preserving their value for as long as possible. The document sets out a plan of 30 actions to deliver the 2045 vision, which involve:
The Design for Life Roadmap is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/design-for-life-roadmap
As part of its work, the Design for Life programme maintains a list of products where circular alternatives are already available, and, for those with the highest potential benefits, explores means to accelerate adoption across the NHS. Ward curtains are on this product list, where a dedicated group, including procurement and clinical experts, are working to explore how the adoption of reusable versions can be supported.
With regards to trials, the Design for Life programme has commissioned several pilots within NHS trusts to explore safe transitions from single-use to reusables, where the results have been published and cascaded among the NHS community. Furthermore, NHS England has developed and deployed an Innovation Portal to help document, evaluate, test, and deploy innovations in waste management across the NHS in England.
Asked by: Jack Rankin (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of DCVax-L following its trial at King’s College Hospital.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has made no assessment of the potential merits of DCVax-L following its trial at King’s College Hospital.
Northwest Biotherapeutics has submitted a Marketing Authorisation Application to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for DCVax-L, an immunotherapy for glioblastoma. The MHRA is unable to comment on applications during the process of review, but the MHRA can confirm that this application is not affected by any historical backlogs and is assessing all applications rapidly for safety, quality, and efficacy.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether all new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS based on an assessment of clinical and cost effectiveness. NICE aims wherever possible to issue recommendations on new medicines close to the time of licensing. The NHS is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance. NICE is in discussions with the manufacturer of DCVax-L, Northwest Biotherapeutics, about a potential appraisal subject to licensing.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has had discussions with NHS trusts on the potential reuse of polypropylene ward curtains.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England are always looking at ways of reducing waste and increasing efficiency. NHS England has had many discussions with National Health Service trusts on the reduction, elimination, and reuse of single-use polypropylene curtains, and have published best practice with regards to safe and sustainable management of healthcare waste.
In addition, the Department has published the Design for Life Roadmap, a new strategy to transition away from all avoidable single-use medical technology (medtech) products towards a functioning circular system by 2045. This means designing, procuring, and processing medtech products in a way that maximises reuse, remanufacture, and recycling, thus preserving their value for as long as possible. The document sets out a plan of 30 actions to deliver the 2045 vision, which involve:
The Design for Life Roadmap is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/design-for-life-roadmap
As part of its work, the Design for Life programme maintains a list of products where circular alternatives are already available, and, for those with the highest potential benefits, explores means to accelerate adoption across the NHS. Ward curtains are on this product list, where a dedicated group, including procurement and clinical experts, are working to explore how the adoption of reusable versions can be supported.
With regards to trials, the Design for Life programme has commissioned several pilots within NHS trusts to explore safe transitions from single-use to reusables, where the results have been published and cascaded among the NHS community. Furthermore, NHS England has developed and deployed an Innovation Portal to help document, evaluate, test, and deploy innovations in waste management across the NHS in England.