Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether NHS England's decision to treat 10,000 hepatitis C patients represents a cap on the number of patients the NHS can treat in 2016–17.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England’s approach paces the roll-out of hepatitis C treatment in accordance with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommendation for prioritisation and the modelling assumptions which informed the NICE recommendations.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether patients who meet the eligibility criteria for NICE-approved medicines for hepatitis C will have access to treatment in line with their rights under the NHS Constitution in 2016–17, even if more than 10,000 patients have already been treated.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England’s approach paces the roll-out of hepatitis C treatment in accordance with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommendation for prioritisation and the modelling assumptions which informed the NICE recommendations. These are in line with patients’ rights under the NHS Constitution.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government on which specific NICE guidance NHS England based its decision to restrict access to new treatments for hepatitis C to 10,000 patients in 2016–17.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The planning approach for hepatitis C is set out in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Technology Appraisals 363, 364 and 365 which require Operational Delivery Networks to prioritise treatment for patients with the highest unmet clinical need. We understand from NHS England that the figure of 10,000 patients reflects NICE modelling used for its recommendations and published alongside the guidance.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that the objectives of the hepatitis C improvement framework can still be achieved.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England has been rapidly working on their plans for access to treatment during 2016/17 following enactment of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence technical appraisal guidance and has committed to produce an operational framework for the treatment of hepatitis C during 2016/17. This will set out NHS England’s commitment to improving outcomes in hepatitis C across England.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether plans to introduce a hepatitis C improvement framework have been abandoned and, if so, why.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England has been rapidly working on their plans for access to treatment during 2016/17 following enactment of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence technical appraisal guidance and has committed to produce an operational framework for the treatment of hepatitis C during 2016/17. This will set out NHS England’s commitment to improving outcomes in hepatitis C across England.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review their hepatitis C strategy in the light of other European countries' strategies for tackling hepatitis C.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England has been rapidly working on their plans for access to treatment during 2016/17 following enactment of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence technical appraisal guidance and has committed to produce an operational framework for the treatment of hepatitis C during 2016/17. This will set out NHS England’s commitment to improving outcomes in hepatitis C across England.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people diagnosed with hepatitis C are eligible for treatment under the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance for new direct acting antiviral drugs.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
Based on National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) modelling, NHS England has planned for 10,000 patients to be treated in 2016/17. No national registry exists for hepatitis C and as a result NICE estimates that the NHS should be treating 10,000 people based on the total number of people diagnosed with hepatitis C, their genotype, their treatment history and their disease severity, all of which impact on treatment eligibility.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many hepatitis C patients NHS England is planning to treat in 2016–17.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England is planning to treat 10,000 patients with chronic hepatitis C in 2016/2017.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government for what reason NHS England intends to treat only a specified number of patients in 2016–17, as defined by recently published run rates for operational delivery networks services.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) specifically requires Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) to prioritise hepatitis C patients on the basis of highest unmet clinical need, as part of a progressive rollout of treatments over the next five years.
NHS England is funding providers to double the number of patients treated and this number will ensure the National Health Service fully meets in 2016/17 the patient numbers NICE set out for progressive rollout of the treatments at the time it published its guidance.
NHS England has invested in a Commissioning for Quality and Innovation scheme to incentivise ODNs to meet their agreed rate of roll-out. If their treatment rates deviate from this agreed rate of treatment, they are no longer eligible for these incentives.
In meeting the obligations of its Mandate, NHS England has set out a planning approach for hepatitis C that delivers access to NICE recommended treatment without disinvestment in other health services.
Asked by: Lord Mancroft (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress Operational Delivery Networks have made in establishing services for prisoners diagnosed with hepatitis C.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England, Public Heath England, the National Offender Management Service and other organisations including the Royal College of General Practitioners have developed resources to support prison healthcare teams in delivering a blood-borne virus (BBV) opt-out testing programme. This covers all aspects of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C (HCV) and other BBVs including testing, managing positive and negative test results, providing advice on harm minimisation and supporting prisoners into treatment.
Specialised HCV Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) ensure specialist oversight of HCV services in order maximise uptake and completion of HCV treatment. NHS England has linked every prison to the relevant ODN and a service specification for ODNs directs specialist service providers to accept patients from prisons.