Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they have put in place to address the need for training for health professionals concerning Parkinson's-related dementias.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
We are working closely with a wide range of organisations on the implementation of the Challenge, including the Dementia Action Alliance; the Alliance includes organisations representing people with Parkinson’s such asParkinson’s UK.
By October 2013, 108,000 National Health Service staff had received Tier 1 training on dementia, enabling them to spot the early symptoms of dementia, know how to interact with people with dementia and ensure that patients receive the most appropriate care. The Government’s refreshed Mandate to Health Education England, published on 1 May 2014, builds on this by setting an ambition for a further 250,000 NHS staff to receive Tier 1 training on dementia by March 2015, with the tools and training opportunities being made available to all staff by the end of 2018.
Over 100,000 social care workers have received some form of dementia awareness training through workforce development funding from local authorities and care providers.
Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that clinicians making Individual Funding Requestsfor the prescription of Duodopa to people with Parkinson's are informed of the outcome within 40 days.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
From April 2013, NHS England assumed responsibility for commissioning adult specialist neurosciences services, including the majority of services for patients with Parkinson's disease, with some being the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups.
NHS England has advised that it does not routinely fund Duodopa (co-careldopa) for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Clinicians can submit individual funding requests for this treatment on behalf of their patients as per NHS England's individual funding requests standard operating procedure, which is at:
www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/cp-04.pdf
NHS England has advised that its individual funding request process is monitored against the standard operating procedure to ensure that referring clinicians are informed of outcomes in a timely manner.
Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that recommendations by the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group on theprescription of Duodopa for people with Parkinson's have been developed with public and patient engagement.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The operation of the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) is a matter for NHS England. NHS England has advised that the CPAG is chaired by a lay member and has four public members as part of its core membership.
The draft policy on Duodopa was developed by the Neurosciences Clinical Reference Group, which has four patient/carer members. Registered patient and public stakeholders had an opportunity to share their views and comment on this draft policy before it was considered by CPAG.
CPAG has made recommendations to NHS England. NHS England's decision on whether Duodopa should be routinely commissioned will be subject to 12 weeks public consultation.