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, with reference to research by Christine Camacho and Luke Munford at the University of Manchester showing that deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide are higher in northern and coastal local authorities, what steps they are taking to address that regional inequality.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper sets out the Government’s ambition to improve living standards and wellbeing across the UK, invest in communities, and improve public services. It sets mutually reinforcing levelling up missions to focus Government action, including a health mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030, and increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.
The Government has published a 10-year drug strategy and is investing an extra £532 million between 2022/23 to 2024/25 to improve drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services. This funding is being used by local authorities to create places for an additional 54,500 people in drug and alcohol treatment services and bolster the workforce, seeking to prevent nearly 1,000 deaths. This funding is being targeted to areas of highest need first.
The Department is increasingly focusing on supporting local areas, including better meeting the needs of vulnerable groups. Current work includes: providing targeted support to local areas; enhancing data tools to better inform local needs assessments; supporting workforce development; implementation of the commissioning quality standard; and sharing good practice. Implementation support will adapt over the course of the 10-year strategy in response to need, to ensure we reach the drug strategy goals.
We also published our new Suicide Prevention Strategy for England in September 2023, setting out the actions we will take to save lives and reduce suicides within the next few years, and have set out our intention in the strategy to write guidance for local areas to support them in aligning their own strategies with the national strategy. We have also established a £10 million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund to run from 2023 to March 2025, and on 4 March 2024 we announced the 79 organisations across the country that have been allocated funding. We have also launched a new nationwide, near real-time suspected suicide surveillance system, that will improve the early detection of, and timely action to, address changes in suicide rates or trends.
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, with reference to research by Christine Camacho and Luke Munford at the University of Manchester, what steps they are taking to reduce regional inequalities in what those researchers refer to as "Deaths of Despair".
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Levelling Up the United Kingdom white paper sets out the Government’s ambition to improve living standards and wellbeing across the UK, invest in communities, and improve public services. It sets mutually reinforcing levelling up missions to focus Government action, including a health mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030, and increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035.
The Government has published a 10-year drug strategy and is investing an extra £532 million between 2022/23 to 2024/25 to improve drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services. This funding is being used by local authorities to create places for an additional 54,500 people in drug and alcohol treatment services and bolster the workforce, seeking to prevent nearly 1,000 deaths. This funding is being targeted to areas of highest need first.
The Department is increasingly focusing on supporting local areas, including better meeting the needs of vulnerable groups. Current work includes: providing targeted support to local areas; enhancing data tools to better inform local needs assessments; supporting workforce development; implementation of the commissioning quality standard; and sharing good practice. Implementation support will adapt over the course of the 10-year strategy in response to need, to ensure we reach the drug strategy goals.
We also published our new Suicide Prevention Strategy for England in September 2023, setting out the actions we will take to save lives and reduce suicides within the next few years, and have set out our intention in the strategy to write guidance for local areas to support them in aligning their own strategies with the national strategy. We have also established a £10 million Suicide Prevention Grant Fund to run from 2023 to March 2025, and on 4 March 2024 we announced the 79 organisations across the country that have been allocated funding. We have also launched a new nationwide, near real-time suspected suicide surveillance system, that will improve the early detection of, and timely action to, address changes in suicide rates or trends.
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 plans they have to consult patients, clinicians and manufacturers on the categorisation of products available on Part IX of the Drug Tariff as proposed in the recent consultation paper; and what assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed changes to Drug Tariff Part IX on (1) patients with continence care needs, (2) continence care services, (3) the range of devices available to clinicians and patients, and (4) new product development and innovation in medical devices in the continence sector.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The consultation response on the proposed amendments to Part IX is expected to be released in May 2024, which will outline the Government’s response. Any amendments that are taken forward will happen gradually, with review points, and engagement with stakeholders, including industry, patient representatives, clinicians, and National Health Service organisations. The Department will share a timeline of the proposed changes taken forward in due course.
The Department believes that it is currently difficult to identify which devices are broadly comparable, and whether more expensive devices provide added value. The proposed amendments that were consulted on intend to increase meaningful choice, not to decrease choice for clinicians and patients. Comparison between products can increase awareness of different brands amongst prescribers, which can also support small and medium sized businesses in entering the market.
The Department is aware that there are some very good devices in use, relied upon by clinicians and patients. Part IX will remain a list of devices available to be prescribed in the community via the FP10 prescription route.
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 when they will publish a timeline for the implementation of the proposed changes to Drug Tariff Part IX; provide the definition of "quality" that will be used as part of the enhanced assessment process included in those proposed changes; and publish in full the responses received to that consultation.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The consultation response on the proposed amendments to Part IX is expected to be released in May 2024, which will outline the Government’s response. Any amendments that are taken forward will happen gradually, with review points, and engagement with stakeholders, including industry, patient representatives, clinicians, and National Health Service organisations. The Department will share a timeline of the proposed changes taken forward in due course.
The Department believes that it is currently difficult to identify which devices are broadly comparable, and whether more expensive devices provide added value. The proposed amendments that were consulted on intend to increase meaningful choice, not to decrease choice for clinicians and patients. Comparison between products can increase awareness of different brands amongst prescribers, which can also support small and medium sized businesses in entering the market.
The Department is aware that there are some very good devices in use, relied upon by clinicians and patients. Part IX will remain a list of devices available to be prescribed in the community via the FP10 prescription route.