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Written Question
Blood: Donors
Wednesday 27th 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 increasing the number of plasma donation points.

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

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) are responsible for plasma collection in England. There are currently three plasma specific donation centres in Birmingham, Reading, and Twickenham. NHSBT will increase the number of plasma collection points over the coming years, and are currently assessing the optimum locations for this new capacity.


Written Question
Smoking
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions officials in her Department have had with the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities on the findings in it's Vaping in England review, published on 29 September 2022, that non-tobacco flavours may play a positive role in helping people switch from smoking to vaping.

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

Due to the nicotine content and the unknown long-term harms, vaping carries risks to health and lifelong addiction for children. Vaping is, therefore, only recommended for adult smokers who wish to quit smoking. Young people and people who have never smoked, should not vape.

Our youth vaping call for evidence, published in 2023, demonstrated that the flavours are one of the main reasons that vapes appeal to children. However, as set out in the 2022 Nicotine vaping in England review, we also recognize that there is some evidence that non-tobacco flavours can play a positive role in smoking cessation. This is why it is critical we strike the balance between restricting flavours in vapes to reduce their appeal to young people, whilst also ensuring that vapes remain available for adult smokers as a viable smoking cessation tool.

In the upcoming Tobacco and Vapes Bill, we will introduce powers to restrict vape flavours. Subject to Parliamentary approval, the Department will then undertake further analysis and consultation before introducing any specific flavour restrictions. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) is an internal part of the Department, and OHID officials are leading on our smokefree generation and youth vaping work.


Written Question
Pharmacy: Licensing
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Darren Henry (Conservative - Broxtowe)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to reduce the time taken to grant licences to pharmacies applying to open new premises.

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

Pharmacies that want to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical service must submit an application to the integrated care board (ICB). ICBs determine applications having regard to Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments (PNAs), undertaken by local authorities. Applications can also be made to provide benefits that were not foreseen in the PNA. If the applicant or another contractor wishes to appeal the decision of the ICB, then they can appeal the decision. Appeals are dealt with by NHS Resolution on behalf of my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Together with Community Pharmacy England, the representative body of all pharmacy contractors in England, we keep the market entry system and underpinning processes under review, and streamline and expedite the processes where possible. For example, in May 2023, we removed the requirement for an applicant to provide fitness information if they already operate another pharmacy in the area, and the ICB already holds their up-to-date fitness information, and shortened the work history that needs to be provided to the last seven years. Applicants can also speed up the process by ensuring they provide all the right information with their application in a timely manner.


Written Question
Pharmacy: Training
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many training places for pharmacists in England there were in each year since 2010.

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

The number of training places for pharmacists in England is uncapped and determined each year by health education providers. The following table shows the number of starters on the Foundation Pharmacist Training Scheme, which is the final year of training and must be completed by all pharmacists before they can sit their registration exam, for each year since 2010/2011:

Training Year

Starters on Pharmacist Foundation Training Scheme

2010/2011

2367

2011/2012

2518

2012/2013

2600

2013/2014

2619

2014/2015

2767

2015/2016

2768

2016/2017

2785

2017/2018

2845

2018/2019

2854

2019/2020

2566

2020/2021

2583

2021/2022

2392

2022/2023

2598

2023/2024

2626

Source: General Pharmaceutical Council

Note: Data may include trainees studying in England, but upon successful completion, they may register in other areas of the United Kingdom.

As set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, the ambition is to expand training places for pharmacists by 29% to approximately 4,300 by 2028/29, and to almost 5,000 by 2031/32.


Written Question
Kidneys: Transplant Surgery
Wednesday 27th March 2024

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 help reduce waiting times for children in need of kidney transplants.

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

We are working with NHS Blood and Transplant to help reduce waiting times for children in need of kidney transplants. This includes implementing initiatives to improve the use of living donor kidney transplantation in paediatric centres, engaging with transplant centres to review patients who are too unwell to receive a transplant, and reducing long waiters, which are patients who wait more than 104 days for a transplant.

Nation-wide campaigns have been developed to increase paediatric registrations on the organ donor register, for example Ralph’s campaign, and the school’s education programme has been refreshed for younger children. A paediatric perfusion programme is also being developed to increase the use of kidneys from donors after circulatory death for paediatric patients.


Written Question
Parkinson's Disease: Health Services
Wednesday 27th 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, what steps she is taking to help ensure patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease receive an appointment with a specialist within six weeks.

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

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidance, Parkinson’s disease: Diagnosis and management in primary and secondary care, updated in 2017, sets out best practice for clinicians in the identification and treatment of Parkinson’s disease in line with the latest available evidence. The guidance states that if Parkinson’s disease is suspected, people should be referred quickly and without treatment to a specialist with expertise in the differential diagnosis of this condition.

We expect integrated care boards (ICBs) and National Health Service trusts to have due regard to relevant NICE guidelines. It is the responsibility of ICBs to make available the appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, in line with these NICE guidelines.

More generally, cutting waiting lists is one of the Prime Minister’s top priorities. We are making good progress on tackling the longest waits, to ensure patients get the care they need when they need it. Ambitions to eliminate long waits were set out in the elective recovery plan, with the overall aim of eliminating waits of over a year for elective care, by March 2025.

To facilitate this across elective services, we are increasing activity, with plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. This includes expanding capacity through the creation of a new network of community diagnostic centres, and maximising all available independent sector capacity.


Written Question
Department of Health and Social Care: Darlington
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much her Department spent in Darlington constituency in each financial year between 2019-20 and 2022-23.

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

Information on spending in the Darlington constituency is not available in the format requested. However, the following table shows the spend of the organisations that are the closest approximation to the Darlington constituency, each year from 2019/20 to 2022/23:

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

NHS Darlington Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

£177,000,000

0

0

0

NHS Tees Valley CCG

0

£1,293,000,000

£1,502,000,000

£341,000,000

NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB)

0

0

0

£5,171,000,000


The number and commissioning responsibilities of the CCGs, now ICBs, have changed during the period requested, and expenditure levels set out in the table are not directly comparable year-on-year. On 1 July 2022, the NHS North East and North Cumbria ICB replaced and took on responsibility for eight CCGs, including Tees Valley, which is reflected in the higher level of spend in 2022/23.


Written Question
Oral Cancer: Diagnosis
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of people diagnosed with mouth cancer in the last twelve months.

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

The information requested is not available for the last twelve months. The most recent data available from 2021 shows 9,018 people were diagnosed with mouth cancer in England. Further information is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/cancer-registration-statistics/england-2021---summary-counts-only


Written Question
Radiology: Greater London
Wednesday 27th 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, how many 24-hr interventional radiology services are available in the North Central London area; and at what locations are those services.

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

Twenty-four-hour interventional radiology services are available on site in two hospitals in the North Central London area, namely the Royal Free Hospital and University College London Hospital. There are agreed referral pathways in place between providers across North Central London to access these services.


Written Question
Pharmacy: Finance
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on community pharmacies, in particular in relation to funding reductions, of technical problems preventing such pharmacies from submitting accurate data for Pharmacy First consultations in February.

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

Some pharmacy contractors have experienced a discrepancy between the data that they have entered, and the data received by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). This has affected February claims for Urgent Medicines Supply. This was caused by the new formatting of data received by the NHSBSA resulting from changes made by some IT system suppliers when implementing Pharmacy First.

The NHSBSA has been working closely with IT system suppliers to resolve the issues and identify the affected contractors. They have extended the deadline for claiming February activity. Contractors will be paid for all Pharmacy First consultations undertaken.

The contractual relationship for the provision of IT to support the new services is between pharmacy contractors and IT system suppliers. Any concerns should be raised by the contractor with their chosen IT system supplier.

The Department is aware of the disruption to service this has caused to some contractors, and the concerns that contractors have overpaid. That is why the claim window has been extended, and the NHSBSA is working closely with contractors’ IT suppliers to reconcile the data to ensure every consultation is captured and paid. We are keeping the situation under close review.