Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the July 2017 tobacco control plan for England, when the Government plans to announce a date for achieving its smokefree generation target of smoking prevalence at 5 per cent or below.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The Government’s vision, as set out in the Tobacco Control Plan for England published in 2017, is to create a smokefree generation by reducing adult smoking prevalence to 5% or below. The current smoking rates for England are 14.4%, the lowest on record. The Government has not yet committed to a date by which to achieve a smokefree generation but continues to keep progress on reducing prevalence under close review.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
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 that tobacco companies have no involvement in (a) smoking cessation services and (b) public health campaigns.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The United Kingdom is a signatory to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The Government takes very seriously its treaty obligations, including the commitment under Article 5.3 to protect public health policies with respect to tobacco control from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry. It expects all public bodies to follow comply with the FCTC Secretariat’s guidance on this Article.
To remind the National Health Service of this commitment, NHS England issued a note to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in the CCG bulletin dated 26 July 2018. Public Health England (PHE) has also written to local authorities and Directors of Public Health advising against such partnerships, a message reiterated in the PHE blog. The blog is available to view at the following link:
https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2018/01/05/duncan-selbies-friday-message-5-january-2018/
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the level of vacancy is in histopathology departments.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
NHS Improvement publishes vacancy data for three staff groups; doctors, nurses and ‘other staff’. These vacancy statistics are published for England and at the regional level of North, Midlands and East, London and South.
They do not specifically produce vacancy data for histopathology departments or any vacancy data for each National Health Service hospital or trust.
NHS Digital published the latest NHS Improvement vacancy data which can be found in the following link:
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients have received whole genome sequencing through the NHS; and how many of those patients had a type of blood cancer.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, the National Health Service has committed to sequencing 500,000 whole genomes by 2023/24.
During 2019, the NHS will begin to offer whole genome sequencing (WGS) as part of clinical care for:
- Seriously ill children likely to have a rare genetic disorder;
- People with one of 21 rare conditions where current evidence supports early adoption of WGS as a diagnostic test; and
- People with specific types of cancer for which there is likely to be the greatest patient benefit from using WGS – children with cancer, sarcoma and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
As the price of whole genome sequencing falls and the evidence improves, we envisage that it will be extended to more conditions and therefore more patients.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients he estimates will benefit from whole genome sequencing in (a) 2019 and (b) each of the next five years.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, the National Health Service has committed to sequencing 500,000 whole genomes by 2023/24.
During 2019, the NHS will begin to offer whole genome sequencing (WGS) as part of clinical care for:
- Seriously ill children likely to have a rare genetic disorder;
- People with one of 21 rare conditions where current evidence supports early adoption of WGS as a diagnostic test; and
- People with specific types of cancer for which there is likely to be the greatest patient benefit from using WGS – children with cancer, sarcoma and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
As the price of whole genome sequencing falls and the evidence improves, we envisage that it will be extended to more conditions and therefore more patients.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the NHS Genomic Medicine Service will begin performing whole genome sequencing.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, the National Health Service has committed to sequencing 500,000 whole genomes by 2023/24.
During 2019, the NHS will begin to offer whole genome sequencing (WGS) as part of clinical care for:
- Seriously ill children likely to have a rare genetic disorder;
- People with one of 21 rare conditions where current evidence supports early adoption of WGS as a diagnostic test; and
- People with specific types of cancer for which there is likely to be the greatest patient benefit from using WGS – children with cancer, sarcoma and Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
As the price of whole genome sequencing falls and the evidence improves, we envisage that it will be extended to more conditions and therefore more patients.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's policy is on social prescribing.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
‘Prevention is better than cure’, published by the Department in November 2018, highlighted the important role social prescribing can play in reducing people’s isolation and improving levels of activity.
As set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England has committed to deliver at least £4.5 billion of new investment in primary medical and community health services over the next five years. Part of this investment will support the recruitment of over 1,000 trained social prescribing link workers - in place by the end of 2020/21 rising further by 2023/24, with the aim that over 900,000 people are able to be referred to social prescribing schemes by then.
The Prevention document and the Long Term Plan can be found at the following links:
www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-long-term-plan/
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Prevention is better than cure vision published by his Department in November 2018, whether the forthcoming prevention Green Paper will include oral health.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
We are considering a number of policy options for the prevention green paper and will be mindful of oral health opportunities.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure the sustainability of the supply of new entrants as operating department practitioners.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Reforms to healthcare education funding that started to take effect from 1 August 2017 have unlocked the cap which constrained the number of pre-registration healthcare programmes, including those for Operating Department Practitioners (ODP), allowing students to gain access to degree training courses.
Separately, Health Education England will be supporting the implementation of an apprenticeship route to professional qualification for ODPs offering an ‘earn as you learn’ route in to the profession.
Asked by: Sarah Wollaston (Liberal Democrat - Totnes)
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 attract registered staff to work within the perioperative environment.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Recruitment is a matter for National Health Service trusts to manage at the local level.
Health Education England (HEE) leads a Return to Practice (RtP) programme that enables Nurses, Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) (including Operating Department Practitioners) and healthcare scientists that have left their professions to re-enter and gain their Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration.
The RtP programme led by HEE is open to and supports:
- All AHPs or healthcare scientists who live and plan to work in England, once returned to the HCPC register;
- AHPs or healthcare scientists who have previously registered with the HCPC or qualified in the United Kingdom, but have not registered in the last five years; and
- Registrants who remained on the HCPC register for more than two years but have not practiced.