Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the current level of funding for research into fungal infections is; and what the projected budget for such research is for the next five years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Department’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including fungal infection research. However, it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. In the last five years, the NIHR has invested more than £6 million in research into fungal infection.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential risks posed by treatment resistant fungal infections.
Answered by Caroline Johnson - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
Misuse and overuse of antimicrobials, such as fungal agents, is a factor in the development of drug-resistant pathogens. NHS England’s national pharmacy and prescribing clinical lead is supported by seven regional antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) leads. These AMS leads collaborate with regional National Health Service stakeholders and partner organisations, including infection prevention and control, patient safety, diagnostics and sepsis teams, the Department, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Health Education England and the Care Quality Commission, to contribute to multi-professional endeavours to mitigate the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
NHS England’s AMR diagnostics team advise that high-level research has been undertaken to understand the need for optimal fungal diagnostics and resistance testing. This has highlighted opportunities for improvement in data collection regarding the use of diagnostics, surveillance and consistent access to diagnostics.
The UKHSA reports on antifungal resistance against systemic antifungals utilised in the treatment of candidaemia, in the English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance report. Resistance to the key antifungals, amphotericin B, caspofungin and fluconazole, appears to have been decreasing in all Candida species. Fluconazole resistance decreased from 8.2% of Candida blood isolates tested in 2016 to 3.2% in 2020. Resistance to amphotericin B and caspofungin decreased slightly from 2016 to 2020, by 1.3% to 1.1%, and 3.4% to 3.3% respectively.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of (a) patients admitted to hospital and (b) patients receiving medical treatment following a fungal infection in each of the last 3 years.
Answered by Caroline Johnson - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
This information is not held in the format requested. However, the following table shows the number of person IDs with a primary diagnosis of fungal infection and finished admission episodes (FAEs) and finished consultant episodes (FCEs) where a main procedure took place in 2019/20 and 2020/21 in English National Health Service hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.
Year | Number of person IDs with a primary diagnosis | Number of person IDs with a primary diagnosis with a procedure |
2019/20 | 7,638 | 5,483 |
2020/21 | 5,224 | 3,674 |
Source: NHS Digital
Notes:
- B49.X Unspecified mycosis
- B20.5 HIV disease resulting in other mycoses
- B35.0 Tinea barbae and tinea capitis
- B35.1 Tinea unguium
- B35.2 Tinea manuum
- B35.3 Tinea pedis
- B35.6 Tinea cruris
- B36.9 Superficial mycosis, unspecified
- B48.7 Opportunistic mycoses
Research indicates that fungal infections are also known as mycosis, therefore the ICD-10 block B35-B49 Mycoses may be pertinent and has also been included in the data. It should be noted that there may be other codes within the ICD-10 classification which maybe applicable to the condition.
Data is also held on total systemic antifungal prescribing in NHS hospital trusts recorded as defined daily doses (DDDs) per 1,000 admissions per day in 2020. The total consumption of antifungals in NHS acute trusts in 2020 was 0.63 DDDs per 1,000 admissions per day. This is a 21% increase in the rate of prescribing from 2019. The collection of the NHS England’s antifungal commissioning for quality and innovation data was interrupted by COVID-19.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the report by Panorama that Operose Health have used less qualified staff to consult with patients without supervision.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Physician associates (PAs) are not a substitute for a general practitioner. The use of PAs in primary care is detailed in the Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service, which describes the role and the tasks a PA funded by the Additional Role Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) would be expected to undertake. It also references the expectation of the supervision of PAs. NHS England and NHS Improvement have committed to review the ARRS by the end of 2023.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what was the cost of personal protective equipment purchased by the NHS in 2021; and how much and what proportion of that equipment was manufactured in the UK.
Answered by Edward Argar
The vast majority of personal protective equipment was supplied under contracts agreed in 2020, with deliveries into 2021 and 2022. Payments authorised in 2021 show a total of 1.36 billion items at a purchase price of £795 million. Of those, 846 million items or 62% were supplied by United Kingdom manufacturers at a purchase price of £704 million.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to prevent imports of medical goods and personal protective equipment produced by forced labour.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Department published its Modern Slavery statement in October 2021 which is available at the following link:
Contracts are normally placed in line with Departmental terms and conditions which include clauses requiring Good Industry Practice to ensure that there is no slavery or human trafficking in supply chains. Suppliers appointed to NHS Supply Chain framework contracts, which provide the majority of medical goods and services to the National Health Service, must comply with the Labour Standards Assurance System or they can be removed from consideration for future procurement.
The Department was aware that the direct, urgent sourcing and purchasing of personal protective equipment in 2020 involved higher risks in ethical and business practices and had a number of mitigations in place. The Department of Health and Social Care engaged with NHS Supply Chain, the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office regarding modern slavery concerns in awarding contracts. Additional training and guidance was distributed to strengthen buying professionals’ knowledge of modern slavery risks specific to the pandemic.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 11 November 2020, Official Report, column 1022, regarding the production of PPE in the UK, what was the percentage of PPE produced in the UK in the most recent month for which figures are available.
Answered by Edward Argar
This information is not available in the format requested. However, of 36.4 billion items ordered by 6 December 2021, 3.9 billion were ordered from United Kingdom manufacturers.