Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 (a) potential implications for his policies of trends in the level of profits generated by private care homes in the last three years and (b) potential impact of this has on the funding and sustainability of social care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Provider profits are a necessary component of any healthy industry and play an important role in attracting investment to the sector. The Department monitors financial health using the Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, Amortisation, Rent and Management (EBITDARM) margin, a recognised accountancy measurement for businesses with assets and incomes such as care homes. Latest published data is from the Care Quality Commission’s Market Oversight scheme last year and suggests that non-specialist care homes had an EBITDARM margin of 26.9% as of March 2024.
We have provided the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF) to local authorities since 2023/24, with one of the three target areas local authorities can spend their allocations on being to improve fee rates to providers. MSIF is designed to support increased adult social care capacity and improve market sustainability.
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes a duty to work closely with local provider to promote best practice and achieve a sustainable balance of quality, effectiveness, and value for money.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 with (a) UK Research and Innovation and (b) the National Institute for Health and Care Research to prioritise further research into early diagnosis of (i) pancreatic cancer and (ii) other less survivable cancers.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Government responsibility for funding cancer research is shared between UK Research and Innovation, funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and including the Medical Research Council, and the NIHR. Research funders work closely to drive the maximum collective research impact on policy, practice, and individual lives.
NIHR investments are pivotal to informing efforts to improve cancer prevention, treatment, and outcomes. An example of this is the NIHR investing £2.4 million into the miONCO-Dx trial, which seeks to develop a blood test designed to detect 12 different cancers, that could transform how cancer is diagnosed in the National Health Service.
The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including all cancers. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality. Welcoming applications on all cancers to all NIHR programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of the amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.
The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on how the NHS will improve diagnosis and outcomes for cancer patients in England.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard applications are processed within 21 days.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Processing Deprivation of Liberty Safeguard (DoLS) applications is the responsibility of local authorities. There is considerable variation in how local authorities process and complete their DoLS applications with some areas successfully processing applications within 21 days. It is the responsibility of local authorities to make sure their systems for managing DoLS are informed by best practice.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with the Royal College of Physicians on the administrative error in the 2023 Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK part two examinations.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that this will be a concerning time for those doctors affected. We have asked the UK Statutory Education Bodies, which is NHS England in the case of England, to work with the Royal College of Physicians and the General Medical Council to ensure this issue is rectified as a matter of urgency.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 reduce speech and language therapy workforce shortages.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want to remove the barriers to training as a speech and language therapist (SLT), which is why eligible SLT students can get a non-repayable grant of £5,000 a year through the NHS Learning Support Fund. Further financial support is also available for childcare, dual accommodation costs, and travel. This is in addition to the student support package available from Student Finance England, which includes loans for tuition fees and living costs.
We will also publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan which will deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade to ensure that the National Health Service has the right people, including those who work in speech and language therapy, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 with Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis to help improve health outcomes for people with pulmonary fibrosis.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is responsible for the commissioning of services for interstitial lung disease and funds the cost of anti-fibrotic treatments to treat this disease. Access to these treatments has recently been expanded to patients with non-idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, following the publication of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s Technology Appraisal, Nintedanib for treating progressive fibrosing interstitial lung diseases, in November 2021.
In order to increase awareness of pulmonary fibrosis, NHS England has established 13 Respiratory Clinical Networks across the country. These have been vital in providing clinical leadership for respiratory services and supporting services in primary care, including restoring spirometry, which is one of the tests used to diagnose pulmonary fibrosis.
Pulmonary rehabilitation plays an important role in the management of patients with pulmonary fibrosis and should be made available to all patients who would benefit from this intervention.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 improve diagnosis times for people with pulmonary fibrosis.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is responsible for the commissioning of services for interstitial lung disease and funds the cost of anti-fibrotic treatments to treat this disease. Access to these treatments has recently been expanded to patients with non-idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, following the publication of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s Technology Appraisal, Nintedanib for treating progressive fibrosing interstitial lung diseases, in November 2021.
In order to increase awareness of pulmonary fibrosis, NHS England has established 13 Respiratory Clinical Networks across the country. These have been vital in providing clinical leadership for respiratory services and supporting services in primary care, including restoring spirometry, which is one of the tests used to diagnose pulmonary fibrosis.
Pulmonary rehabilitation plays an important role in the management of patients with pulmonary fibrosis and should be made available to all patients who would benefit from this intervention.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 increase access to pulmonary fibrosis treatment in England.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is responsible for the commissioning of services for interstitial lung disease and funds the cost of anti-fibrotic treatments to treat this disease. Access to these treatments has recently been expanded to patients with non-idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, following the publication of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s Technology Appraisal, Nintedanib for treating progressive fibrosing interstitial lung diseases, in November 2021.
In order to increase awareness of pulmonary fibrosis, NHS England has established 13 Respiratory Clinical Networks across the country. These have been vital in providing clinical leadership for respiratory services and supporting services in primary care, including restoring spirometry, which is one of the tests used to diagnose pulmonary fibrosis.
Pulmonary rehabilitation plays an important role in the management of patients with pulmonary fibrosis and should be made available to all patients who would benefit from this intervention.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
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 with NHS England and the Department for Education to reduce speech and language therapy waiting lists.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community health services, including speech and language therapy, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.
We recognise the impact that long waits to access speech and language therapy can have on the individual, as well as their families and carers, and we are working closely with NHS England and the Department of Education to improve timely access to community health services and on actions to reduce long waits.
We continue to improve access to Speech and Language Therapy by including the Early Language and Support for Every Child (ELSEC) pathfinder project within the Department for Education’s existing Change Programme, in partnership with NHS England.
The ELSEC programme provides training and support to education settings, through a new workforce model that employs pre-qualification speech and language Therapy Support Assistants, and focuses on early intervention, to increase their ability to support children’s speech, language, and communication development.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with medical suppliers on the availability of Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department continues to engage with all suppliers of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) to boost production to mitigate the supply issue. Suppliers have managed to secure additional pharmaceutical ingredient resulting in expected increased volumes of PERT for 2025. The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the gap in the market and provided advice to clinicians on prescribing and ordering these imports.
In December 2024, the Department issued further management advice to healthcare professionals. This includes actions for clinicians to consider these unlicensed imports when licensed stock is unavailable and for integrated care boards to ensure local mitigation plans are put in place and implemented.