Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of the availability of Elvanse medication.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision, including for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessment and support, to meet the health and care needs of their local population, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. NICE guidelines for ADHD diagnosis and management aim to improve the diagnosis of ADHD and the quality of care and support people receive. The Department is looking into options for improving data collection and reporting on ADHD assessment waiting times, to help improve access to ADHD assessments in a timely way and in line with the NICE guidelines.
Disruptions to the supply of medicines used for the management of ADHD, including Lisdexamfetamine (Elvanse), have been primarily driven by issues which have resulted in capacity constraints at key manufacturing sites. The Department has been working closely with the respective manufacturers and some issues have now been resolved. However, we know that there continue to be disruptions to the supply of some other medicines, which should resolve by April 2024.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's publication entitled 2023/24 priorities and operational planning guidance, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of (a) NHS audiology departments and (b) private sector AQP audiology services that have successfully implemented a self-referral patient pathway.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England conducted a national Integrated Care Board (ICB) service level self-assessment in September 2023 which reported 88 age related hearing loss audiology services offering Self-Referral routes into existing audiology pathways in England.
To raise awareness of self-referral into audiology services, NHS England is adding information on the relevant condition specific pages on the NHS.UK website. ICBs are responsible for ensuring patients have the information they need to make decisions about their care including if they have the option to self-refer to locally commissioned services.
NHS England has supported ICBs to introduce self-referral routes via a range of national measures including web based collaborative sharing and learning spaces where examples, case studies and answers to frequently asked questions are shared and ICBs can discuss implementation with other areas. NHS England is also delivering a series of national Communities of Practice webinars.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's publication entitled 2023/24 priorities and operational planning guidance, whether her Department has provided further (a) guidance and (b) other support to relevant Integrated Care Boards to help support the delivery of a self-referral patient pathway for audiology services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England conducted a national Integrated Care Board (ICB) service level self-assessment in September 2023 which reported 88 age related hearing loss audiology services offering Self-Referral routes into existing audiology pathways in England.
To raise awareness of self-referral into audiology services, NHS England is adding information on the relevant condition specific pages on the NHS.UK website. ICBs are responsible for ensuring patients have the information they need to make decisions about their care including if they have the option to self-refer to locally commissioned services.
NHS England has supported ICBs to introduce self-referral routes via a range of national measures including web based collaborative sharing and learning spaces where examples, case studies and answers to frequently asked questions are shared and ICBs can discuss implementation with other areas. NHS England is also delivering a series of national Communities of Practice webinars.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's publication entitled 2023/24 priorities and operational planning guidance, what information has been provided to NHS patients to enable them to (a) self-refer into audiology services and (b) identify whether their local service has a self-referral patient pathway.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England conducted a national Integrated Care Board (ICB) service level self-assessment in September 2023 which reported 88 age related hearing loss audiology services offering Self-Referral routes into existing audiology pathways in England.
To raise awareness of self-referral into audiology services, NHS England is adding information on the relevant condition specific pages on the NHS.UK website. ICBs are responsible for ensuring patients have the information they need to make decisions about their care including if they have the option to self-refer to locally commissioned services.
NHS England has supported ICBs to introduce self-referral routes via a range of national measures including web based collaborative sharing and learning spaces where examples, case studies and answers to frequently asked questions are shared and ICBs can discuss implementation with other areas. NHS England is also delivering a series of national Communities of Practice webinars.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
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 improve indoor air quality in (a) low-income homes and (b) urban areas.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence originally worked with Public Health England in publishing guidance setting out actions that can be taken by different parties to improve air quality in the home. The guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng149
Guidance on understanding and addressing the health risks of damp and mould has been jointly published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the UK Health Security Agency. This guidance is aimed at all social and private rented housing landlords in England, tenants, owner occupiers and professionals, and we expect it to be of relevance to low-income homes. The guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/damp-and-mould-understanding-and-addressing-the-health-risks-for-rented-housing-providers/understanding-and-addressing-the-health-risks-of-damp-and-mould-in-the-home--2
The Air Quality Strategy published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in April 2023 includes a section on indoor air quality for local authorities to consider in determining local action. In addition, the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 sets out the measures that government will take to improve air quality more generally, including actions focused on urban areas.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of setting the air quality target for PM2.5 at 10 micrograms per cubic meter by 2030 on (a) public health and (b) mortality rates.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) does not currently intend to undertake any assessments of the impact of air quality targets for PM2.5 on public health or mortality rates.
In 2023, UKHSA estimated the impact of current emission policies on future mortality and hospital admissions in the United Kingdom. This found a greater than 30% reduction in attributable mortality beyond 2030 for current policies compared with 2018.
In 2018, the former Public Health England estimated that a one µg/m3 reduction in fine particulate air pollution in England could prevent around 50,000 cases of coronary heart disease, 15,000 strokes, 9,000 cases of asthma and 4,000 lung cancers between 2017 and 2025.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the number and proportion of patients waiting in emergency departments for 12 hours or more from their time of arrival.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of setting a target for hospitals to not exceed 85 per cent occupancy levels.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care sets a performance ambition to improve accident and emergency wait times to 76% of patients being admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours by March 2024, rather than a bed occupancy level ambition.
National Health Service trusts are operationally responsible for managing bed occupancy and patient flow as part of delivering improved performance against this ambition. Our plan commits to delivering 5,000 additional beds to the permanent bed base this winter, which supports NHS capacity and occupancy pressures.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of an uplift in funding for pharmacies.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) 2019-24 five-year deal commits £2.592 billion each year to the sector. In September 2022, we announced an additional one-off £100 million investment across this and last financial year. In May, as part of the Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, we announced a further investment of up to £645 million over two years to expand the services offered by community pharmacies.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to reply to correspondence from the hon. Member for Manchester Gorton dated 21 February 2023, reference AK54612.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I replied to the hon. Member on 19 April 2023