Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to inform (a) patients and (b) family members of patients who were treated or assessed by Zholia Alemi that she was employed as an NHS psychiatrist without qualifications for the role.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
NHS England has advised that it has established an Incident Management Group (IMG) to identify and assess any clinical concerns relating to the practise of Zholia Alemi. The IMG aims to confirm Zholia Alemi’s employment history, to assess clinical decisions made by her and to consider whether individuals need to be contacted in due course.
Patients or family members who have a concern about Zholia Alemi or the care received by her have been advised to contact the local NHS service where they were treated.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what forms of redress are available to (a) patients and (b) family members of patients who were treated or assessed by Zholia Alemi who was employed as an NHS psychiatrist despite without qualifications for the role; and what steps his Department plans to take to contact those patients to provide guidance on those forms of redress.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
Redress for actions of National Health Service bodies may be obtained by making a complaint to the provider or the commissioner of the NHS service. A clinical negligence claim against the NHS may also be made.
Patients or family members who have a concern about contact with Zholia Alemi or the care received by her have been advised to contact the local NHS service where they were treated.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to verify the qualifications of the approximately 3,000 individuals who were allowed to join the medical register because they claimed to have a qualification from another country which exempted them from taking the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board exam; and how long that process is estimated to take.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of the approximately 3,000 individuals who were allowed to join the medical register because they claimed to have a qualification from another country which exempted them from taking the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board exam are employed in the NHS in each (a) health trust and (b) medical discipline.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the medical discipline was of each of the approximately 3,000 individuals who were allowed to join the medical register because they claimed to have a qualification from another country which exempted them from taking the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board exam.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which health trusts have employed the approximately 3,000 individuals who were allowed to join the medical register because they claimed to have a qualification from another country which exempted them from taking the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board exam.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will take steps to suspend from the medical register individuals who have been allowed to join that register because they claimed to have a qualification from another country which exempted them from taking the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board exam until that qualification has been independently verified.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
It is a function of the General Medical Council (GMC), the independent regulator of doctors across the United Kingdom, to maintain a register of doctors in the United Kingdom. Where appropriate, it is for the GMC to investigate complaints about doctors on their register and assess whether they should be referred to the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, who determine whether any sanction should be applied with respect to their registration.
The GMC is currently reviewing the qualification of currently licensed doctors, who applied for registration via a route allowing graduates of medical schools in certain Commonwealth countries to obtain registration based on their qualification alone. This route to registration ceased in 2003.
Asked by: Lord Walney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) affordability and (b) NHS procurement options for Liothyronine T3.
Answered by Steve Brine
The costs of branded medicines are controlled by the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme and the statutory scheme for branded medicines. Liothyronine is an unbranded generic medicine. For unbranded generic medicines, the Department encourages competition between suppliers to keep prices down. In primary care, community pharmacies are incentivised to source products at the lowest possible cost and in secondary care, competitive tenders ensure value-for-money to the National Health Service.
Liothyronine is currently the subject of an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority, which has provisionally found that the single supplier of the product abused its dominant position to overcharge the NHS by millions of pounds for liothyronine tablets. A provisional decision does not necessarily lead to an infringement decision. Where companies have breached competition law, the Department will seek damages and invest that money back into the NHS.
Liothyronine was included in NHS England guidance last year; ‘Items which should not routinely be prescribed in primary care’ because more cost effective products than liothyronine are available. That guidance recommends that:
- prescribers in primary care should not initiate liothyronine for any new patient;
- individuals currently prescribed liothyronine should be reviewed by a consultant NHS endocrinologist with consideration given to switching to levothyroxine where clinically appropriate; and
- a local decision, involving the Area Prescribing Committee (or equivalent) informed by National guidance (e.g. from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence or the Regional Medicines Optimisation Committee), should be made regarding arrangements for on-going prescribing of liothyronine. This should be for individuals who, in exceptional circumstances, have an on-going need for liothyronine as confirmed by a consultant NHS endocrinologist.