Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
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 ensure the adequacy of supply of medicinal cannabis so that people who require it are able to fill their prescriptions lawfully after the transition period.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department, supported by the British Embassy to The Hague, has reached an agreement with the Dutch Government to allow the continued supply of Bedrocan oils, a form of unlicensed medicinal cannabis, against United Kingdom prescriptions for existing patients until 1 July 2021. The medicines supply chain has ensured that there continues to be good supply of licensed and unlicensed cannabis-based medicines after the transition period.
The Written Ministerial Statement of 26 January HCWS734 provided an update on action taken by the Government on supply from the Netherlands and next steps to establish a more permanent solution.
The Department has not made an assessment of the efficacy of the different unlicensed cannabis-based medicines. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance that states that there is insufficient evidence on the clinical and cost effectiveness of these products, to support their use in the National Health Service. The Department is working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement and the National Institute of Health Research to establish clinical trials to develop the evidence base to support further commissioning decisions.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reasons Government contracts for the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) were awarded to companies with (a) no prior expertise in producing PPE and (b) limited financial capability; and what steps the Government has taken to ensure that it demonstrated appropriate competitive tendering for PPE.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Guidance on how contracting authorities should respond to COVID-19 was published on 18 March at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0120-responding-to-covid-19
Authorities are allowed to procure goods, services and works with extreme urgency in exceptional circumstances using regulation 32(2)(c) under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. These include a direct award due to extreme urgency or the absence of competition. Over 1,000 purchase orders have been raised with suppliers for COVID-19 related work, the majority through a direct award.
The Government issued a public call to action to support the increased requirements of personal protective equipment (PPE). The aim was to reach suppliers who had experience of supplying PPE and also those who had no prior experience but who had access to sources of PPE through their business contacts. To date this has resulted in 15,000 suppliers offering their help and support. All offers were prioritised based on volume, price, clinical acceptability and lead time – this is the time from an offer being accepted by the Department to the supplier delivering those items. Many suppliers with no previous experience of PPE repurposed their production lines and/or their supply routes in order to begin or increase production or the supply of PPE items. These were often established private businesses whose net asset position is only one factor in evaluating their offer.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department collects on the number of people with Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Figures on the number of people with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) and the proportion of these people who receive an annual care review, are not available. However, The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) estimates that SPMS affects around 9,000 people in England.
The NICE guideline ‘Multiple sclerosis in adults: management’, updated in 2019 sets out best practice on the diagnosis, treatment, care and support of people with SPMS. It contains recommendations for multi-professional care teams, including an annual comprehensive care review for all people with multiple sclerosis. The guidance is available at the following link:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg186/resources/multiple-sclerosis-in-adults-management-pdf-35109816059077
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of people with Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis in England receive an annual care review.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Figures on the number of people with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) and the proportion of these people who receive an annual care review, are not available. However, The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) estimates that SPMS affects around 9,000 people in England.
The NICE guideline ‘Multiple sclerosis in adults: management’, updated in 2019 sets out best practice on the diagnosis, treatment, care and support of people with SPMS. It contains recommendations for multi-professional care teams, including an annual comprehensive care review for all people with multiple sclerosis. The guidance is available at the following link:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg186/resources/multiple-sclerosis-in-adults-management-pdf-35109816059077
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
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 potential benefits of Integrated Care Systems for people with Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made. Integrated care systems enable National Health Service organisations, in partnership with local councils and others, to take collective responsibility for managing resources, delivering NHS standards, and improving the health of the population they serve, including people with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve health outcomes for people living with Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In order to improve the care and outcomes for people with progressive neurological conditions, such as secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS), NHS England and NHS Improvement produced a progressive neurological conditions RightCare toolkit, in collaboration with key stakeholders such as the MS Trust and the MS Society. This toolkit supports systems to understand and deliver the priorities in care for people living with various progressive neurological conditions, in line with best-practice guidelines.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance has been issued for healthcare practitioners to support the accurate diagnosis of people with signs and symptoms of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) is a stage which comes after relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) for many people with the condition. After a diagnosis of RRMS has been established, clinicians will observe the patient's symptoms over a period of time, in order to determine if they are associated with SPMS. With this type of multiple sclerosis (MS), a person’s disability gets steadily worse and they are less likely to have relapses (when symptoms get worse but then get better).
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline ‘Multiple sclerosis in adults: management’, updated in 2019 sets out best practice on the diagnosis, treatment, care and support of people with MS. The guidance sets out a number of initial presentations that clinicians should be aware of when looking for signs of MS. This is supplemented by the NICE Quality Standard for MS, published in 2016, which describes what high-quality MS care, including diagnosis, looks like.
The NICE guidance is included in the following links:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg186/resources/multiple-sclerosis-in-adults-management-pdf-35109816059077
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs108
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Minister for Women and Equalities's answer to question 73 at the oral evidence session of the Women and Equalities Select Committee on 22 April 2020, what the Government's policy is on restrictions on medical treatment for gender dysphoria for people under the age of 18.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
People under 18 are able to access the following medical treatment from gender identity services: psychological assessment, hormone blockers and cross sex hormones.
Surgery is not available through the under 18 service.
The availability of these treatments is dependent on age as when young people reach the age of 16, they are presumed in law to be competent to give consent for themselves for their own surgical, medical or dental treatment, and any associated procedures, such as investigations, anaesthesia or nursing care.
Those under 16 are not automatically presumed to be legally competent to make decisions about their healthcare. However, the courts under the Gillick competence, have stated that under 16s will be competent to give valid consent to a particular intervention if they have “sufficient understanding and intelligence to enable them to understand fully what is proposed”.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people in each ethnic group have (a) been tested, (b) tested positive and (c) died following a positive test as a result of covid-19.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Data on the number of people who have been tested, tested positive, and died from COVID-19 are not currently available in the format requested.
The latest data on the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public
Public Health England is gathering and analysing data to measure the impact of COVID-19 across different population groups. This includes work to analyse confirmed cases, hospitalisations and deaths relating to COVID-19 by ethnicity, where this data is available.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether stocks of insulin will continue to be stockpiled to prepare for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The Department fully understands that maintaining access to insulin is vitally important to many people in this country.
The Government remains committed to leaving the European Union with a deal. We have now reached agreement with the EU on an extension to the Article 50 period until 31 October at the latest, with the option to leave earlier as soon as a Withdrawal Agreement has been ratified.
Under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, there will be an implementation period running till the end of 2020, during which there will be no changes to the current trading arrangements with the EU. Therefore, if the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified, the supply of medicines will continue on the same basis it does now during this period.
Leaving without a deal remains the legal default at the end of the extension period if no Withdrawal Agreement is agreed. Therefore, as a responsible Government, we will continue to prepare to minimise any disruption to the supply of medicines and medical products in a potential ‘no deal’ scenario.
We are continuing to work with trade bodies and other stakeholders to review the position carefully before sharing further guidance at the earliest opportunity. Stockpiled medicines were not procured by the Department as part of our ‘no deal’ plans and remain the property of medicines suppliers. On 26 April we wrote to pharmaceutical companies, including those who supply insulin, asking in the meantime, that all ‘no deal’ measures (such as stockpiles, additional buffer stocks etc) should remain in place but on hold until further guidance is available.
We are confident that if everyone, including suppliers, freight companies, our European neighbours, and the health and care system, does what they need to do, the supply of medicines and medical products should be uninterrupted in the event we leave the EU without a deal.