Asked by: Baroness Morgan of Cotes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether clinical commissioning groups' medicine management teams are held accountable by NHS England where they choose not to follow NICE guidelines.
Answered by David Mowat
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) cannot ignore National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines without having a clear clinical case for doing so, as they are based on the best available evidence. In the event of this happening there would have to be a clear documented rationale signed off through CCG governance.
Asked by: Baroness Morgan of Cotes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the number of clinical commissioning groups that have undertaken an equality impact assessment before making changes to their prescription policy.
Answered by David Mowat
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for decisions on commissioning health services to best meet the needs of their local population and are accountable for local prescribing policy decisions. In commissioning services CCGs will reflect the needs of local people and support improvements in health and healthcare outcomes.
Asked by: Baroness Morgan of Cotes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what accountability mechanisms are in place for the scrutiny of decisions made by a clinical commissioning group's medicine management team.
Answered by David Mowat
The majority of clinical commissioning groups (CCG), including medicine management teams, are represented on wider Area Prescribing Committees (APCs). APCs work to support clinicians across their geographical area with evidence-based and cost effective prescribing decisions. CCGs will scrutinise decisions in different ways in accordance with their own governance arrangements.
Asked by: Baroness Morgan of Cotes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he will publish the evidence he has concerning B12.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Department has received a small number of letters about the availability of injectable B12 over the counter and the issue was also raised at a meeting between the B12 Deficiency Group and the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health (Jane Ellison) in July 2016. All authorised medicines for injection are classified by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency as prescription only. Whether or not a patient could self-administer a prescribed medicine would be a matter of clinical judgement for the patient’s doctor to determine.
The diagnosis and treatment for B12 deficiencies is well established and reported in the British Committee for Standards in Haematology (BCSH) guidance document, Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of Cobalamin and Folate disorders. The guidance was last updated in May 2014 and can be found at the following link:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjh.12959/epdf
The BCSH operates independently of the Department and NHS England and produces evidence-based guidelines for both clinical and laboratory haematologists on the diagnosis and treatment of haematological disease, drawing on the advice of expert consultants and clinical scientists practicing in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Baroness Morgan of Cotes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent representations he has received on the availability of injectable B12 over the counter.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Department has received a small number of letters about the availability of injectable B12 over the counter and the issue was also raised at a meeting between the B12 Deficiency Group and the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health (Jane Ellison) in July 2016. All authorised medicines for injection are classified by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency as prescription only. Whether or not a patient could self-administer a prescribed medicine would be a matter of clinical judgement for the patient’s doctor to determine.
The diagnosis and treatment for B12 deficiencies is well established and reported in the British Committee for Standards in Haematology (BCSH) guidance document, Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of Cobalamin and Folate disorders. The guidance was last updated in May 2014 and can be found at the following link:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjh.12959/epdf
The BCSH operates independently of the Department and NHS England and produces evidence-based guidelines for both clinical and laboratory haematologists on the diagnosis and treatment of haematological disease, drawing on the advice of expert consultants and clinical scientists practicing in the United Kingdom.