Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (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 of surgical fires and burns on the length of patients' hospital stays.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Surgical fires and burns occur in, on, or around a patient undergoing surgery. Risk factors include use of ignition sources, for example, electrical surgical equipment and lasers, and fuel sources, for example, alcohol preparation solutions that are accidentally allowed to pool on or under the patient.
Any unexpected or unintended incident which could have or did lead to harm to one or more patients can be recorded on the Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service, to support local and national learning. This would include surgical fires or burns. Providers are encouraged to foster a positive safety culture among their staff, and to ensure an appropriate local focus on incident recognition, recording, and response.
Recording onto LFPSE is a voluntary process, except where reporting to NHS England fulfils duties for other statutory mandatory requirements, such as reporting notifiable incidents to the Care Quality Commission (CQC). NHS England shares all such data with the CQC. Notifiable incidents include events resulting in serious harm or the death of a service user, and therefore the most serious surgical fires or burns are subject to mandatory reporting. However, providers are encouraged to record all patient safety incidents, irrespective of the level of harm, to support local and national learning.
We are informed by NHS England that no assessment has been made of the impact of surgical fires or burns on the length of patients' hospital stays.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (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 cost and resource savings to NHS England that could be realised through (1) a broader focus on preventative healthcare, and (2) a reduction in malnutrition across the population.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is good evidence that preventative action can benefit individuals and promote efficient and effective use of National Health Service resources. This is an important factor in Government’s determination to tackle the drivers of preventable poor health, such as smoking and obesity.
Efforts to prevent malnutrition and to treat it early could potentially have major effects in reducing both the clinical and economic burden of malnutrition. We know better diagnosis and detection are key. This is why we continue to train all health staff to spot the early warning signs of malnutrition so effective treatment can be put in place. Everyone from the health and social care professionals to individuals in the wider community have a role to play.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to invest in diagnostic innovations and expand access to improve dementia diagnoses across NHS England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Timely diagnosis of dementia is vital to ensure that a person with dementia can access the advice, information, care and support that can help them to live well with the condition and remain independent for as long as possible.
In 2021/22, the Government allocated £17 million to the National Health Service to address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses. In accordance with the Government’s commitments, we will also double funding for dementia research to £160 million per year by 2024/25. This will span all areas of research, including diagnosis.
NHS England continues to monitor the monthly dementia diagnosis rate and analyse trends at national, regional and integrated care board level, and is committed to recovering diagnosis rates to the national ambition.
They have a proactive national dementia programme in place, which includes monitoring international trial data, funding diagnosis improvement projects and informing ongoing research into the identification and management of dementia.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that all instances of fires in operating theatres across NHS England are reported to the Care Quality Commission.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Health and care providers in England are not required to report all surgical fires to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), except for those considered to be a serious incident. If the incident is serious, CQC is notified through the transfer of Strategic Executive Information System.
If CQC notes any fire safety concerns during an inspection, the provider gets referred to the local fire authority for them to take the appropriate action.
Any unexpected or unintended incident which could have or did lead to harm to one or more patients can be recorded on the Learn from Patient Safety Events service, to support local and national learning. This would include incidents caused by surgical fires or burns. Providers are encouraged to foster a positive safety culture among their staff, and ensure an appropriate local focus on incident recognition, recording, and response.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (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 of access to cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator modulator therapies for people with cystic fibrosis on the ability of people with other respiratory conditions to receive lung transplants.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Lung transplantation has demonstrated greater survival benefits in general for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) over other diagnoses warranting transplantation. However, the use of CF transmembrane conductance regulator modulators may further increase median survival. Overall, individual differences still exist and the decision to list a patient at a transplant centre is always down to the patient’s clinical team, based on the patient’s individual circumstances.
The selection process should always be fair and transparent and the whole population of potential lung transplant recipients is considered. Treatment including transplant is based both on clinical need and a patient’s capacity to benefit as well as the balance of risk and alternative therapies.
As lung transplantation has evolved, recommendations and indications are constantly being updated. The International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation published a consensus document in 2021, for selecting candidates for lung transplantation. A copy of the selection criteria is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans (1) they have made, and (2) are already in progress, to expand molecular radiotherapy service capacity.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions treatments that have either been approved via the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence technology appraisal process or NHS England’s clinical commissioning development process. Service provision will normally be reviewed at the point that new treatments are approved through either of these two routes.
Where additional capacity is required to meet demand, this will be put in place. Developers of new medicines can apply to the Early Access to Medicines Scheme, Project Orbis or The Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway to accelerate the time to market for new products.
In relation to molecular radiotherapy, linked to the implementation of the new service specification, NHS England will be undertaking an assessment of service readiness to implement new technologies.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the revised service specification for molecular radiotherapy is expected to be implemented by NHS England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The current published Brachytherapy and Molecular Radiotherapy Service Specification is expected to be replaced from April 2024 with standalone service specifications covering Brachytherapy and Molecular Radiotherapy.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of regional inequalities in access to molecular radiotherapy services; and what plans they have to reduce inequalities in access to those services.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Based on information provided by National Health Service trusts, there are 38 providers of this service in England, spread across each of the seven NHS regions.
As part of the implementation process of the new standalone service specification for molecular radiotherapy (MRT), which is expected from April 2024, work will be undertaken to confirm the nature and type of MRT services being provided by trusts and allow for access considerations to be taken into account.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Alzheimer's Research UK report Tipping Point: The Future of Dementia, published in September, whether they have any plans with the NHS to conduct a national clinical trial of blood tests to support the development of methods to promote the diagnosis of dementia at different stages of its development.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to conduct a national clinical trial of blood tests. The National Health Service is working in partnership with the Government established Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Mission, which has a national leadership role working with academic and industry partners to discover, validate and operationalise a suite of clinically actionable and decision-enabling biomarkers. Alongside the very welcome linked investments being made in research by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and charities, it is hoped that validated Alzheimer’s blood tests will become available for use in front line NHS care in the next few years.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Alzheimer's Research UK report Tipping Point: The Future of Dementia, published in September, what steps they are taking to address the finding in that report that "38 per cent of over-65s in England estimated to be living with dementia never get a diagnosis", potentially rendering them ineligible for any treatment that is approved.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Diagnosis of dementia is vital to ensure that a person with dementia can access the advice, information, care and support that can help them to live well with the condition and remain independent for as long as possible.
In December 2022, the recovery of the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7% was included in the National Health Service priorities and operational planning guidance as part of the refined mental health objectives for 2023/24. This reinforces the importance of dementia as a key priority for NHS England and provides a clear direction for integrated care boards to support delivery of timely diagnoses within systems.
NHS England continues to monitor the monthly dementia diagnosis rate and analyse trends at national, regional and integrated commissioning board level.
The estimated dementia diagnosis rate has been increasing throughout 2023 and in October reached 64.5%, the highest rate since the introduction of the primary care dementia publication in April 2022.