Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with stakeholders on tackling shortages of atorvastatin.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There have been supply issues with atorvastatin, but as a result of our work to manage those issues, including engaging with alternative suppliers to cover supply gaps in order to meet demand, they have now been resolved.
The medicine supply chain is highly regulated, complex, and global. Supply disruption is an issue which affects the United Kingdom, as well as other countries around the world. There can be a variety of causes, including manufacturing issues, problems with access to raw ingredients, and sudden spikes in demand.
Whilst we can’t always prevent supply issues, the Department has well-established tools and processes to manage them, in order to mitigate risks to patients. We work closely with the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and others operating in the supply chain to help ensure patients continue to have access to suitable medicines when supply is disrupted.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department is taking steps to bring waiting times for mental health patients in-line with waiting times for physical health patients.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We remain committed to achieving parity between mental and physical health services, as outlined in the parity of esteem definition set out in a letter to the Public Accounts Committee in February 2024.
Given funding is important for reaching parity of esteem, we are making good progress with investment in National Health Service mental health services. Between 2018/19 and 2023/24, NHS spending on mental health has increased by £4.7 billion in cash terms, as compared to the target of £3.4 billion in cash terms set out at the time of the Long-Term Plan. For 2024/25, mental health spend is forecast to continue to grow, and will make up 9.01% of all recurrent NHS spending.
In February 2022, NHS England published the outcomes of its consultation on the potential to introduce five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services, as part of its clinically led review of NHS Access Standards. These are: for an urgent referral to a community based mental health crisis service, a patient should be seen within 24 hours of referral, across all ages; for a very urgent referral to a community based mental health crisis service, a patient should be seen within four hours of referral, for all age groups; patients referred from accident and emergency should be seen face to face within one hour by a mental health liaison or children and young people’s equivalent service; children, young people and their families and carers presenting to community-based mental health services, should start to receive care within four weeks of referral; and adults and older adults presenting to community-based mental health services should start to receive help within four weeks of referral.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)
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 ensure that seriously ill children and their families can access information on how to access emotional and psychological support.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The clinical team responsible for a seriously ill child’s physical healthcare should discuss and review their emotional and psychological status regularly with them, or their family, and support them with access to information and services for their mental health if needed. Commissioners are encouraged to ensure local pathways include assessment and ongoing support of patients’ mental and psychological wellbeing and cognitive status.
The Health and Care Act 2022 placed a legal duty on integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission palliative and end of life care services, which meet the needs of their whole population. To support ICBs in this, NHS England has published statutory guidance, along with service specifications for children and young people, which make reference to including a holistic approach to care. This includes links to social prescribing, assessing, and addressing the needs of children, young people and families, and clear referral pathways to other services such as children and young people’s mental health services. The statutory guidance and the service specifications for children and young people are available respectively at the following links:
Patients’ family members who feel they need emotional and psychological support should speak to their general practice, or can self-refer to NHS Talking Therapies online. Details are available on the NHS website.
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 estimate she has made of the number and proportion of NHS providers that have adopted two stage shared decision-making across all admitted pathways.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In May 2023, NHS England published guidance setting out five core perioperative care requirements relating to the care of adult patients awaiting planned inpatient surgery. One of these requirements is that patients must be involved in shared decision making regarding admitted pathways. NHS England does not collect data on the number of National Health Service providers that have adopted two stage shared decision making across all admitted pathways. NHS England’s published guidance is available at the following link:
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve access to mental health services in Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Health Service forecasts that, between 2018/19 and 2023/24, spending on mental health services has increased by £4.7 billion in cash terms, compared to the target of £3.4 billion set out at the time of the NHS Long Term Plan. All integrated care boards are also on track to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard in 2023/24.
Almost £16 billion was invested in mental health in 2022/23, enabling over 3.5 million people, including in the Suffolk Coastal constituency, to be in contact with mental health services, a 10% increase on the previous year.
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 is taking steps to ensure that people with low agency have an opportunity to raise concerns and complaints within the NHS; and what recent discussions she has had with NHS leaders on this matter.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There is a range of support available for people who may need help when making a complaint. This includes the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), which is available in most hospitals. The PALS offers confidential advice, support, and information to help resolve concerns or problems, as well as information about the National Health Service complaints procedure, including how to get independent help. Support is also available from the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service. Advocates can provide a range of support, such as help writing a complaint letter, and attending meetings with complainants. People can get advice from a complaints advocate at any stage of the process, so it is never too late to ask for help.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with relevant stakeholders on tackling shortages of Ezetimibe.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is aware of supply issues affecting several Ezetimibe suppliers. We are engaging with these suppliers to address the issues, and are working with alternative suppliers to ensure supplies remain available.
The medicine supply chain is highly regulated, complex, and global. Supply disruption is an issue which affects the United Kingdom, as well as other countries around the world. There can be a variety of causes, including manufacturing issues, problems with access to raw ingredients, and sudden spikes in demand.
Whilst we can’t always prevent supply issues, the Department has well-established tools and processes to manage them, in order to mitigate risks to patients. We work closely with the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and others operating in the supply chain to help ensure patients continue to have access to suitable medicines when supply is disrupted.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of NHS provision for the diagnosis of ADHD in (a) Oxfordshire and (b) England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including access to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessment and treatment, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance. The NICE guideline on ADHD does not recommend a maximum waiting time from referral for an assessment of ADHD to the point of assessment or diagnosis. The Department has not made a specific assessment of the availability of National Health Service provision for the diagnosis of, or treatment of, ADHD in Oxfordshire.
In respect of the adequacy of ADHD service provision nationally, in December 2023, NHS England initiated a rapid piece of work to consider ADHD service provision within the NHS. The initial phase of work identified challenges, including with current service models and the ability to keep pace with demand. Following this initial review, NHS England is establishing a new ADHD taskforce alongside the Government, to look at ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The new taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD, and to help provide a joined up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.
Alongside the work of the taskforce, NHS England has announced that it will continue to work with stakeholders to develop a national ADHD data improvement plan, carry out more detailed work to understand the provider and commissioning landscape, and capture examples from local health systems which are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services, to ensure best practice is captured and shared across the system.
In respect of the availability of NHS provision for the treatment of ADHD nationally, the Department is aware of, and taking action to address, disruptions to the supply of medicine used for the management of ADHD. Disruptions to the supply of medicines have been primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites. Nationally, the Department has been working hard with industry to help resolve those issues as quickly as possible. As a result of our ongoing activity, some issues have been resolved. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to the supply of some other medicines, including methylphenidate and guanfacine. The latest information we have received from manufacturers is that these should largely be resolved by May 2024 and October 2024, respectively.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of NHS provision for the treatment of ADHD in (a) Oxfordshire and (b) England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including access to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessment and treatment, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance. The NICE guideline on ADHD does not recommend a maximum waiting time from referral for an assessment of ADHD to the point of assessment or diagnosis. The Department has not made a specific assessment of the availability of National Health Service provision for the diagnosis of, or treatment of, ADHD in Oxfordshire.
In respect of the adequacy of ADHD service provision nationally, in December 2023, NHS England initiated a rapid piece of work to consider ADHD service provision within the NHS. The initial phase of work identified challenges, including with current service models and the ability to keep pace with demand. Following this initial review, NHS England is establishing a new ADHD taskforce alongside the Government, to look at ADHD service provision and its impact on patient experience. The new taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the NHS, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD, and to help provide a joined up approach in response to concerns around rising demand.
Alongside the work of the taskforce, NHS England has announced that it will continue to work with stakeholders to develop a national ADHD data improvement plan, carry out more detailed work to understand the provider and commissioning landscape, and capture examples from local health systems which are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services, to ensure best practice is captured and shared across the system.
In respect of the availability of NHS provision for the treatment of ADHD nationally, the Department is aware of, and taking action to address, disruptions to the supply of medicine used for the management of ADHD. Disruptions to the supply of medicines have been primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites. Nationally, the Department has been working hard with industry to help resolve those issues as quickly as possible. As a result of our ongoing activity, some issues have been resolved. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to the supply of some other medicines, including methylphenidate and guanfacine. The latest information we have received from manufacturers is that these should largely be resolved by May 2024 and October 2024, respectively.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 eliminate (a) cervical and (b) other cancer caused by human papillomavirus.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, alongside routine screening, is key to protecting people against strains of HPV that can cause some cancers including cervical, anal, head and neck cancer.
The NHS Cervical Screening Programme (CSP) provides all women and people with a cervix between the ages of 25 and 64 years old with the opportunity to be screened routinely, to detect certain types of HPV infection which cause 99.7% of cervical cancer. An in-service evaluation is being commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Care Research to determine whether HPV self-sampling could be used to improve the NHS CSP.
The HPV vaccination is offered to all adolescents in Year 8 of school, and catch-up vaccinations are available to those up to 25 years old, those born on or after 1 September 2006, for both females and males who may have missed vaccination under the schools’ programme, providing an additional failsafe. The HPV vaccination is also recommended to gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, up to and including those aged 45 years old.
NHS England’s vaccination strategy sets out a range of ambitions to improve uptake across the National Health Service’s vaccination programmes. This includes building on existing work and delivery to develop implementation plans for how HPV vaccinations, alongside cervical screening and pre-cancer treatment, can help achieve the NHS ambition to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040.