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 criteria she uses to assess the success of Government policy on (a) alcohol use and (b) alcohol harm.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have a range of metrics which we monitor to assess the success of our work to reduce alcohol harm, including the Health Survey for England. The Government takes a wide-ranging approach to addressing alcohol-related harms, including promoting the United Kingdom’s Chief Medical Officer’s low risk drinking guidance. Approximately 80% of adults drink within the guidelines of 14 units of alcohol a week.
Population level alcohol consumption has remained stable over recent years. Among children aged 11 to 15 years old, alcohol consumption has decreased significantly in the last 20 years. However, while we are seeing an increasing number of people drinking at lower levels or abstaining, we have also seen more people drinking at higher-risk levels. As a result, some indicators of harm have increased, and we are committed to addressing these, including through the establishment of alcohol care teams in the 25% acute hospitals in England with the greatest need, through the NHS Long Term Plan.
Community treatment for alcohol dependence is highly effective. In 2020/21, 62% of people in alcohol-only treatment completed treatment free of dependence, the highest completion rate for any substance misuse group. We have committed to making further improvements to the alcohol and drug treatment system through the 10-year Drug Strategy.
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, when she plans to publish a response to her Department's consultation on Mandating quit information messages inside tobacco packs, which closed on 10 October 2023.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, and causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK. It also costs our country £17 billion a year, and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. Alongside creating the first smokefree generation in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, we are also scaling up our efforts to support existing smokers in quitting. We have provided an additional £70 million per year to local authority led stop smoking services, and we are investing in a new incentives programme to support pregnant women to quit. We are also providing £15 million a year to fund anti-smoking campaigns.
The Government ran a consultation on mandating informative messages about quitting smoking inside tobacco packs, which was open from 14 August 2023 to 10 October 2023. This included proposed inserts on a number of themes related to stopping smoking, such as benefits to physical and mental health, financial benefits, and how to access stop-smoking aids. We will aim to publish the response to this consultation in this parliamentary session.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
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 merits of commissioning research on the potential impact on patient care of granting independent prescribing responsibilities to dietitians.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Dieticians can currently supply and administer medicines using Patient Group Directions and train to use supplementary prescribing. At present, these are deemed to be the most appropriate medicines mechanisms for their use.
The University of Surrey is carrying out a study which looks at the effect of dietitians and therapeutic radiographers prescribing on patients, staff, and services. The project began in 2019 and is now in its final phase.
The Department works with NHS England to ensure that the prescribing responsibilities for all Allied Health Professionals, including dietitians, are regularly reviewed and updated. Where it is deemed clinically appropriate and necessary to extend prescribing responsibilities to Allied Health Professionals, the Department follows an established process for making changes that ensures proposals are safe and beneficial for patients.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
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 merits of extending independent prescribing responsibilities to dietitians.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Dieticians can currently supply and administer medicines using Patient Group Directions and train to use supplementary prescribing. At present, these are deemed to be the most appropriate medicines mechanisms for their use.
The University of Surrey is carrying out a study which looks at the effect of dietitians and therapeutic radiographers prescribing on patients, staff, and services. The project began in 2019 and is now in its final phase.
The Department works with NHS England to ensure that the prescribing responsibilities for all Allied Health Professionals, including dietitians, are regularly reviewed and updated. Where it is deemed clinically appropriate and necessary to extend prescribing responsibilities to Allied Health Professionals, the Department follows an established process for making changes that ensures proposals are safe and beneficial for patients.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Department's press release entitled AI to speed up lung cancer diagnosis deployed in NHS hospitals, published on 30 October 2023, how many of the NHS trusts listed have (a) received funding and (b) rolled out AI tools to speed up the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since the original announcement, two additional trusts have been included in this initiative, bringing the total to 66, from the previously announced 64. Funding to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer has so far been provided to 63 of the 66 trusts participating. This represents 11 of the 12 participating imaging networks. The remaining imaging network has recently completed its procurement process, with a finalised outcome expected soon. All 63 funded trusts are currently in the process of deploying the AI technologies. We anticipate the first trusts will begin utilising these technologies for patient care from May 2024.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to publish the informative learning and feedback from the Innovative Devices Access Pathway pilot.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Innovative Devices Access Pathway (IDAP) pilot is due to run until March 2025. We are conducting internal and external reviews to seek feedback and learning from the pilot. This will provide comprehensive insights and knowledge to inform the feasibility and development of a future IDAP pathway. The outcome of these reviews will inform a wider evaluation of the IDAP. Further details of the future IDAP pathway, and the outcome of the pilot, will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
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 increase (a) internal expertise and (b) capacity in the New Hospitals Programme in (i) technical design and (ii) programme delivery.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As is usual for major Government programmes, the New Hospitals Programme (NHP) is using both internal and external resources to ensure the right capabilities and specialist skills are in place to deliver the programme. The NHP is procuring its long-term delivery partner, which will provide flexible external expertise in technical design, commercial functions, programme delivery capabilities, and other areas.
The NHP is developing a Knowledge and Skills Transfer (KST) Strategy to embed the self-sustaining knowledge and skills required to deliver the programme, ensuring that as the balance within the team changes, the appropriate transfers take place.
The NHP continues to support its employees' development and regularly reviews the Learning and Development offer available across the programme, to support staff in the successful delivery of the programme. This includes supporting staff within the NHP, and Project Directors from NHS England trusts, to take advantage of the Government’s Project Academy by participating in the Project Leadership Programme and Major Projects Leadership Academy.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2024 to Question 17965 on Stepping Hill Hospital: Repairs and Maintenance, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the state of repair of buildings at Stepping Hill hospital on capacity in (a) Stockport and (b) Greater Manchester.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not currently collect information on the impact of the condition of the National Health Service estate on capacity. However, we recognise the importance of modern healthcare estates in tackling hospital waiting lists. We are investing significant sums to upgrade and modernise NHS buildings, so staff have the facilities needed to provide world-class care for patients, including £4.2 billion this financial year for trusts to spend on necessary maintenance and repairs. This is on top of expected investment of over £20 billion in the New Hospital Programme, as well as £1.7 billion for over 70 hospital upgrades across England.
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 progress they have made in implementing the three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services, published on 30 March 2023.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is making good progress in delivering its Three year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services, a copy of which is attached. The plan is backed by £186 million of funding per year from April 2024, which sets out how maternity and neonatal care will be made safer, more personalised, and more equitable for women, babies, and families.
For example, many local maternity and neonatal systems have published Equity and Equality Action Plans to tackle disparities in outcomes and experiences of maternity care at a local level. NHS England has published new guidance for general practitioners on the 6-8 week postnatal check, all parts of England have begun rollout of perinatal pelvic health services and 39 maternal mental health services have been established.
All trusts are implementing the third version of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle which provides maternity units with detailed guidance to reduce stillbirths and neonatal deaths.
NHS England’s Digital Maternity Fund has awarded 128 funding bids to support the digitisation of maternity services across England and NHS England have established a new data taskforce to better detect and act sooner on safety issues.
Finally, to increase neonatal cot capacity, £45 million of capital was allocated across several providers to deliver an overall increase of more than 50 cots.
Asked by: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of new data from the Office for National Statistics showing that alcohol-specific deaths are now 32.8 per cent higher than in 2019 and at an all-time high; and what steps they plan to take to tackle rising alcohol harm.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government keeps all official health data related to alcohol consumption and alcohol related harms under regular review. The 2021 Public Health England publication, Monitoring alcohol consumption and harm during the COVID-19 pandemic, found that increases in alcohol consumption since the beginning of the pandemic tended to be among people who were already heavy drinkers before this period, which may be a factor in the increase.
The most effective way to prevent alcohol specific deaths, is drinking within the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ low-risk drinking guidelines, namely under 14 units per week. The Government is supporting people who drink above low-risk levels to reduce their alcohol consumption. As part of the NHS Health Check, questions are asked about alcohol consumption, and appropriate advice given to support people to make healthier choices. Those identified to be drinking at higher-risk levels are referred for liver investigation. The Department is also supporting people with alcohol dependency through the Drug Strategy and NHS Long Term Plan, by facilitating more people in need of treatment into local authority commissioned alcohol treatment services.