Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has made to his EU counterparts on the presence of the European Medicines Agency in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by David Mowat
The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) future location is not an issue that falls within the United Kingdom’s own competence but will be decided by the 27 remaining European Union member states. The Government is fully assessing how the UK’s decision to leave the European Union will impact on medicines regulation in the UK, including the potential relocation of the EMA. Whatever the future relationship between the UK and EMA, the Government will work to ensure that patient access to medicines will not be adversely impacted.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has made to his EU counterparts on the UK remaining a member of the European Medicines Agency after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by David Mowat
The Government is fully assessing how the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union will impact on medicines regulation in the UK. This includes the UK’s future membership with the European Medicines Agency which will be considered in upcoming negotiations between the UK and EU.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to review the decision to remove Lutetium-177 octreotate therapy treatments from the Cancer Drugs Fund list.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
I refer the hon. Member to the Answer given by the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Life Sciences (George Freeman) on 12 July 2016 to Question 41736.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his Department's national three-to-five strategy is for supporting the training and development of advanced paediatric and neonatal nurse practitioners, to enable skilled acute care for infants, children and young people close to home.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Department does not have a dedicated three to five strategy for supporting the training and development of advanced paediatric and neonatal nurse practitioners.
It is Health Education England’s (HEE) responsibility to ensure that there is sufficient future supply of staff, including those needed in specialist fields such as this, to meet the workforce requirements of the English health system.
As part of its ongoing work HEE continually looks to ensure that staff groups, such as those highlighted, have the correct planned workforce growth, consider whether new roles are required and ensure that existing undergraduate training and education meets the needs of both students and patients.
At a local level, it is the responsibility of National Health Service organisations to ensure that their staff, through Continuing Professional Development, have the ongoing skills required to deliver safe and effective care to patients.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to formalise the children's hospice grant for 2017-18.
Answered by David Mowat
The Department provided grant funding in 2013-16 to Together for Short Lives, the organisation supporting children’s hospices, to support the Transition Taskforce. The Taskforce provides guidance and training that supports good transitions locally between children’s and adult services for those with life-limiting conditions or needing palliative care.
NHS England is continuing to prioritise funding for the children’s hospice grants programme at the current level. NHS England has been engaging with children’s hospices through Together for Short Lives prior to a consultation on the allocation method for the 2017-18 grant.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to provide support to children's hospices which extend their services for young adults.
Answered by David Mowat
The Department provided grant funding in 2013-16 to Together for Short Lives, the organisation supporting children’s hospices, to support the Transition Taskforce. The Taskforce provides guidance and training that supports good transitions locally between children’s and adult services for those with life-limiting conditions or needing palliative care.
NHS England is continuing to prioritise funding for the children’s hospice grants programme at the current level. NHS England has been engaging with children’s hospices through Together for Short Lives prior to a consultation on the allocation method for the 2017-18 grant.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department and NHS England plan to take to improve birth outcomes for women (a) from ethnic minority groups, (b) of lower socio-economic status and (c) from other groups who experience poorer birth outcomes.
Answered by Ben Gummer
In November, the Government announced a national ambition to halve the rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries occurring during or soon after birth by 2030. To help meet these aims the Government established a capital fund of £2.24 million to support trusts to buy equipment to improve safety. More than 90 trusts were successful in sharing this funding. In addition, the Government is investing £500,000 to develop a new web-based system to be used consistently across the National Health Service so staff can review and learn from every stillbirth and neonatal death, and over £1 millon in multi-disciplinary training programmes to ensure staff have the skills they need to deliver world-leading safe care.
In February 2016, the report of the National Maternity Review ‘Better Births’ was published. It sets out a vision for the future of maternity care in England and puts forward a series of recommendations to ensure that services become safer, more personalised, kinder, professional and more family-friendly. Additionally, in March, NHS England launched the Saving Babies’ Lives Care Bundle designed to support providers and commissioners of maternity care to take action to reduce stillbirths and early neonatal deaths.
There is evidence to suggest that when implemented the proposals outlined in Better Births will lead to a reduction in inequality of outcomes from maternity services. In particular, more continuity of carer and greater personalisation of care should result in improvements in services to groups of women who tend to experience poorer outcomes, and in turn lead to improved outcomes for women and their babies.
Later this year the Department will begin a targeted campaign to raise awareness of stillbirth, neonatal death and maternal death risk factors which will be aimed at 16-21 year olds, lower socio-economic groups and ethnic minority groups.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions NHS England has had with Health Education England, the Nursing Midwifery Council and the Royal College of Obstetricians on delivery of multi-disciplinary training for maternity services.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The report of the National Maternity Review: Better Births, published earlier this year, set out wide-ranging proposals designed to make care safer and give women greater control and more choices. Multi-professional education and training were among a number of recommendations that the report made.
Health Education England (HEE) has established a Maternity Safety Steering Group (MSSG) which first met in December 2015. The MSSG has representatives from the Department of Health, NHS Litigation Authority, NHS England, Public Health England, the Royal Colleges, Institute of Health Visitors, Perinatal Institute for Maternal and Child Health and British Association of Perinatal Medicine. The group works in collaboration to consider what training programmes are available and used in trusts, and to identify appropriate training packages to cover all aspects of maternity safety.
NHS England is working closely, and will continue to have regular discussions, with partners across the system to discuss multi-professional and multi-disciplinary training, including the Royal Colleges, HEE and the Department. These discussions include the implementation of the recommendations of the National Maternity Review report.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions NHS England has had with Health Education England and the Royal Colleges on multi-professional training.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The report of the National Maternity Review: Better Births, published earlier this year, set out wide-ranging proposals designed to make care safer and give women greater control and more choices. Multi-professional education and training were among a number of recommendations that the report made.
Health Education England (HEE) has established a Maternity Safety Steering Group (MSSG) which first met in December 2015. The MSSG has representatives from the Department of Health, NHS Litigation Authority, NHS England, Public Health England, the Royal Colleges, Institute of Health Visitors, Perinatal Institute for Maternal and Child Health and British Association of Perinatal Medicine. The group works in collaboration to consider what training programmes are available and used in trusts, and to identify appropriate training packages to cover all aspects of maternity safety.
NHS England is working closely, and will continue to have regular discussions, with partners across the system to discuss multi-professional and multi-disciplinary training, including the Royal Colleges, HEE and the Department. These discussions include the implementation of the recommendations of the National Maternity Review report.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the (a) cost to the economy and (b) number of deaths attributable to antimicrobial resistance in the last 12 months for which figures are available; whether he has made such estimates for future years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
A broad estimate of the cost of antimicrobial resistance to the National Health Service is £180 million per annum.
Antimicrobial resistance is a global problem. In the longer term, a forecast of the global economic costs and deaths attributable to antimicrobial resistance is available from the independent review on antimicrobial resistance led by Lord O'Neill of Gatley. His review estimates that drug-resistant infections could kill an extra 10 million people globally every year by 2050, and have a cumulative cost to the world of around $100 trillion in lost output.
The United Kingdom is taking the lead in addressing antimicrobial resistance globally, investing £265 million in the Fleming Fund to strengthen surveillance of drug resistance and laboratory capacity in developing countries.