Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 ensure that (a) people with eczema are (i) evaluated and (ii) treated by specialists and (b) patient-initiated follow-ups are adopted across the health system.
Answered by Will Quince
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publishes a range of guidance on atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema, and other skin conditions for commissioners and healthcare professionals, with recommendations for diagnosis and referral. The guideline for atopic dermatitis in children aged under 12 years is being updated with draft recommendations published in June 2023. NHS England has made a referral to NICE to develop new guidance on atopic dermatitis in adults.
Whilst NICE guidelines are not mandatory, the Government would expect patients presenting with atopic dermatitis symptoms to be managed according to clinical need and in line with all current guidance.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 provide skills training to help meet (a) medium- and (b) long-term targets for biomedical scientists in the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
As set out in the recently published NHS Long-Term Workforce Plan, we aim to increase training places for healthcare scientists, including biomedical scientists, by 13% to more than 850 places by 2028/29, putting us on the path to increase training places by more than 30% to over 1,000 places by 2031/32.
Apprenticeship routes for healthcare scientists are also being made available, with 20% of training places delivered via an apprenticeship route by 2028/29, supporting an ambition to have 40% of healthcare scientists starting their training via an apprenticeship by 2031/32.
The Government is backing the plan with over £2.4 billion over the next five years.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 train community healthcare professionals to (a) support and (b) provide appropriate referrals to specialist care for people with moderate to severe atopic eczema.
Answered by Will Quince
Training programmes for healthcare professionals must meet the standards set by the regulatory body for their profession. Whilst not all curricula may necessarily highlight a specific condition, they all nevertheless emphasise the skills and approaches a Health Care Practitioner must develop to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients.
The standard of training for health care professionals is the responsibility of the independent statutory health care regulatory bodies, which set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses, and higher education institutions which write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet the regulators’ outcome standards.
Individual employers are responsible for ensuring their staff are trained and competent to carry out their role, including ensuring staff are aware of care pathways and referral routes for those living with moderate to severe atopic eczema.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 provide (a) psychosocial and (b) other mental health support to eczema patients.
Answered by Will Quince
No one is excluded from the Government’s cost of living support as a consequence of a health condition or disability such as eczema. Those with needs arising from such a condition may be entitled to the full range of support depending on their circumstances, including access to an extra costs disability benefit such as the Personal Independence Payment.
In addition, for 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost-of-Living Payments. This will be split into three payments of around £300 each across the year.
We recognise that people’s mental and physical health are intrinsically linked, and people with long term physical health conditions, such as eczema, may also need emotional and psychological support. We are investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services in England by March 2024. This will enable an extra two million people to be treated by mental health services within the National Health Service by March 2024.
Mental Health is one of the group of conditions included in the Department’s Major Conditions Strategy. The strategy will aim to identify actions in the areas of prevention, treatment, and long-term management of care to improve outcomes for individuals across the six major condition groups.
We have continued to expand NHS talking therapies services for all adults with common mental health problems. These services are accessible to all adults in England. People can be referred by a range of practitioners or refer themselves.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to help support eczema patients with increases in the cost of living.
Answered by Will Quince
No one is excluded from the Government’s cost of living support as a consequence of a health condition or disability such as eczema. Those with needs arising from such a condition may be entitled to the full range of support depending on their circumstances, including access to an extra costs disability benefit such as the Personal Independence Payment.
In addition, for 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost-of-Living Payments. This will be split into three payments of around £300 each across the year.
We recognise that people’s mental and physical health are intrinsically linked, and people with long term physical health conditions, such as eczema, may also need emotional and psychological support. We are investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services in England by March 2024. This will enable an extra two million people to be treated by mental health services within the National Health Service by March 2024.
Mental Health is one of the group of conditions included in the Department’s Major Conditions Strategy. The strategy will aim to identify actions in the areas of prevention, treatment, and long-term management of care to improve outcomes for individuals across the six major condition groups.
We have continued to expand NHS talking therapies services for all adults with common mental health problems. These services are accessible to all adults in England. People can be referred by a range of practitioners or refer themselves.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to develop value-based procurement for medical technologies within the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government's new Medical Technology Strategy, published in February 2023, commits to ensuring the right medtech products are available at the right price and in the right place. To ensure the best value for public money, the strategy recognises that the value of medtech products should not be considered in isolation, but across the whole patient pathway, and that the lowest price does not always mean the best value. The Department’s Medtech Directorate is working closely with NHS Supply Chain and NHS England to build on the work already undertaken on the application and adoption of Value Based Procurement (VBP) to develop a consistent methodology to be adopted at both a national and local level.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 ensure that medical technologies procured by the NHS help (a) enable the delivery of the Life Sciences Vision and (b) provide positive patient outcomes.
Answered by Will Quince
The recently announced £650 million life sciences package will support the delivery of plans for accelerating the development, adoption and spread of innovation to bring new products to patients faster, in line with the Life Sciences Vision (LSV). Through the LSV, we are also advancing plans for a new regulatory pathway, which will facilitate the development and uptake of beneficial innovative technologies, and are progressing work to improve the capability to generate Real World Evidence, which will support the National Health Service in selecting products that provide positive patient outcomes.
The Government's new Medical Technology Strategy, published in February 2023, builds on the LSV to set out how the health and social care system can reliably access safe, effective and innovative medical technologies that support the continued delivery of high-quality care, outstanding patient safety and excellent patient outcomes in a way that makes the best use of taxpayer money.
Through the Medical Technology Strategy, we are working closely with NHS Supply Chain and NHS England to implement a consistent methodology for value-based procurement to be adopted at a national and local level and ultimately to provide positive patient outcomes.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the World Health Organisation scheme entitled Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative, what recent estimate he has made of when (a) 90 per cent of girls will be fully-vaccinated with HPV vaccine before the age of 15, (b) 70 per cent of women will be screened with a high-performance test (i) before the age of 35 and (ii) a second time before the aged of 45, (c) 90 per cent of women identified with cervical disease will receive treatment and (d) 90 per cent of women with (A) pre-cancer and (B) invasive cancer will receive treatment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department is committed to driving uptake of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to achieve the World Health Organization’s (WHO) target of 90% coverage. The HPV programme is primarily delivered in schools to support ease of access with alternative sites available for those not in mainstream education. For anyone who missed their offer, catch-up opportunities are offered in schools and general practitioner practices for both girls and boys who are eligible until their 25th birthday.
To support uptake, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency deliver annual communication campaigns to promote the HPV vaccine via general practices and universities, emphasising the benefits of the HPV vaccine for both boys and girls.
The NHS Cervical Screening Programme aligns with the WHO’s target of 70% of women being screened using a high-performance test, by age 35 years old and again at age 45 years old. Published data shows that coverage for March 2022 was 69.9%.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the current vaccine coverage rate for Human papillomavirus vaccination in Ealing; and what recent steps he has taken to support school-based immunisation programmes in (a) London and (b) England to increase levels in vaccination.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency publishes annual vaccine coverage data to track the performance of all teenage and adult national immunisation programmes including protection against human papillomavirus (HPV). Vaccine coverage data shows national as well as regional levels and is available at the following link:
Across England, the HPV vaccine is predominately delivered in schools, helping to combat health inequalities by reaching children from disadvantaged backgrounds, vulnerable families, and others who may not be registered with a general practitioner (GP) practice but who are still in education. Regional teams also host catch up clinics in schools. Alternative sites are available for anyone not in mainstream education, or for those who have missed their offer.
It is vitally important that everyone takes up the vaccinations to which they are entitled; for themselves, their families, and wider society. Anyone unsure about their eligibility or vaccination status should contact their GP for advice.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the UK Health Security Agency publication entitled Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine coverage estimates in England: 2021 to 2022, published on 20 December 2022, what steps his Department is taking to increase HPV vaccine rates to the levels achieved prior to the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
To allow for ease of access, the human papillomavirus (HPV) programme is primarily delivered in England through schools, with alternative provision for those not in mainstream education and catch-up programmes offered through general practitioner (GP) practices for both girls and boys who are eligible but missed their initial offer. Regional NHS teams also host catch up clinics in schools and in local venues in areas with low uptake.
NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency deliver annual communication campaigns to promote the HPV vaccine via general practitioners and universities, emphasising the benefits of the HPV vaccine for both boys and girls.
It is vitally important that everyone takes up the vaccinations to which they are entitled; for themselves, their families, and wider society. Anyone unsure about their eligibility or vaccination status should contact their GP for advice.