Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the national framework for hepatitis C, due for release in spring 2015, will be published, and why it has been delayed.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
A date for publication of the hepatitis C improvement framework has not yet been set. Public Health England continues working with NHS England and Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) to establish a process of monitoring hepatitis C treatment access and uptake.
Following their establishment in August 2015, ODNs will need to continue to be developed as a mechanism for ensuring equitable access to expert multidisciplinary team care and treatment for hepatitis C. ODNs are working to develop their plans, based on the published service specification and with the support of local specialised commissioning teams and regional clinical directors of specialised commissioning. Work is also underway to establish by February 2016 a national network of ODN clinical leads to share good practice. In addition, the draft hepatitis C improvement framework includes a number of areas pertinent to ODN operation and will therefore support further development of their role.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that NHS England and Public Health England provide data demonstrating that there is equitable access to the new hepatitis C treatment.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Public Health England is working with NHS England and the Clinical Leads of the Operational Delivery Networks to ensure that a minimum data set is collected to allow monitoring of patients being treated. Limited demographic information will be requested to help interpret this information in the context of the whole infected population to help assess whether treatment access is as equitable as possible.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they plan to measure the effectiveness of the implementation of the new medicines for hepatitis C treatment, and when they will publish those results.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England has advised that it is working with Public Health England and the clinical leads of the operational delivery networks to agree a common dataset which will enable the effectiveness of new medicines for hepatitis C to be measured.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when NHS England's revised service specification for Hepatitis C networks is expected to be published.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Service Specification was published in June 2015. A copy is attached and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what processes are in place to ensure that people living with Hepatitis C will be able to access new National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved treatments from 31 July 2015.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England extended access to new oral treatments for patients with hepatitis C and cirrhosis at the beginning of June 2015. A copy of the related policy can be found on the NHS England website and accessed via the following link:
A copy of this document is also attached.
From 1 August this year, hepatitis C operational delivery networks will be in place across England to ensure that patients have access to treatment expertise via multi-disciplinary teams.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the commitment in the Conservative Party manifesto to increase the use of new and cost-effective medicines applies to treatments approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for Hepatitis C.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England extended access to new oral treatments for patients with hepatitis C and cirrhosis at the beginning of June 2015. A copy of the related policy can be found on the NHS England website and accessed via the following link:
A copy of this document is also attached.
From 1 August this year, hepatitis C operational delivery networks will be in place across England to ensure that patients have access to treatment expertise via multi-disciplinary teams.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether it is possible to amend the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's process and methodology for technology appraisals midway through an appraisal.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has advised that it follows the processes and methodology set out in its published guidance development manuals. NICE’s processes are sufficiently flexible to enable it to respond to unique situations that arise within an appraisal. There have been occasions where changes to the published processes have been introduced during an ongoing appraisal. In such cases, full consultation with stakeholders on substantive changes have taken place before their implementation.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many meetings they have held with NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to discuss the appraisal and future availability of Hepatitis C medicines; and whether minutes of such discussions will be published.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
A number of meetings and discussions have taken place between Departmental officials, NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence about the appraisal and availability of drugs for the treatment of Hepatitis C. Not all of these were minuted and the Department has no plans to publish minutes for those that were.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the Accelerated Access Review will publish its views on the potential assessment of affordability in relation to the appraisal of new medicines.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Accelerated Access Review will publish its interim recommendations by the autumn, and further recommendations in December.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on patient health of the delay of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance for Sovaldi for the treatment of Hepatitis C.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
I refer my Noble Friend to the Answer I gave to Lord Hunt of Kings Heath in response to his Question HL3887 on 19 January 2015.