Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
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 (a) improve access to NHS hearing aids and (b) reduce waiting times for those aids by working with high street providers.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for the provision of and access to hearing aids for mild to moderate hearing loss in the local population. In 2018, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued guidance, ‘Hearing loss in adults: assessment and management’, which aims to improve hearing loss services, including provision of hearing aids. The guidance brings together evidence, standards and case studies to encourage best practice across England. We expect CCGs to have regard to NICE’s guidance when commissioning National Health Service audiology services.
NHS Supply Chain is the main provider of equipment and consumables to the NHS. However, NHS providers are free to source from other suppliers.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
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 levels of dementia diagnosis.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
NHS England and NHS Improvement are continuing to monitor monthly trends in the dementia diagnosis rate. The national target is for more than 66% of people living with dementia to receive a formal diagnosis. Following the impact of the pandemic, in March 2022 the diagnosis rate increased to 62%.
In 2021/22, we allocated £17 million to address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses. NHS England and NHS Improvement made this funding available to clinical commissioning groups in June 2021. In 2022/23, NHS England will provide funding to support general practitioners in pilots on the approaches to diagnosing dementia for people living with advanced dementia in a care home setting. We will set out plans for dementia in England later this year. The strategy will focus on the specific health and care needs of people living with dementia and their carers, including dementia diagnosis.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to establish a domestic supply of Bedrocan oil for children suffering with severe epilepsy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Domestic manufacture of Bedrolite oil has now been established. The Dutch Government has agreed to allow continued supply of Bedrocan oils against United Kingdom prescriptions until 1 July 2022 to allow domestic manufacture of Bedrocan oils used by patients in the UK to be established. The Department continues to work with the Dutch Government, the Home Office and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to ensure the uninterrupted supply of Bedrocan oils beyond this period.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
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 encourage consultants to prescribe medicinal cannabis to children with severe drug resistant epilepsy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The prescription of any medicine is a clinical decision. The Government has enabled the prescription of cannabis-based products for medicinal use (CBPMs) where it is clinically appropriate.
The licensed cannabis-based medicine Epidyolex is routinely prescribed for two forms of epilepsy. However, clinical guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence demonstrate a clear need for further evidence to support routine prescribing and funding decisions for unlicensed CBPMs. We continue to encourage manufacturers of these products to conduct research and we are working with regulatory, research and National Health Service partners to establish clinical trials to enable evidence based prescribing decisions.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on the manufacture of bedrocan oil in the UK.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The current producer of Bedrocan oils in the Netherlands and the chosen United Kingdom commercial partner are progressing the technology transfer agreement to manufacture three Bedrocan oils - Bedica, Bedrolite and Bedrocan - in the UK. The UK manufacturer has been inspected by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and Home Office to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals and has agreement in principle to produce herbal medicines of this type following the successful production of Bedrolite oils.
The Dutch Government has agreed to allow continued supply of all three Bedrocan oils against UK prescriptions for existing patients for a further three months until 1 July 2022. This should allow for domestic production to be established and approved for all three oils.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department will publish details of the proposed randomised control trials for medicinal cannabis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) reviewed the best available evidence when developing its guideline on prescribing of cannabis-based medicinal products. However, NICE found that current research is limited and of low quality. Observational studies with a small number of patients do not produce results which are sufficiently robust to inform routine clinical or commissioning decisions. To develop evidence on medical cannabis, the Department, via the National Institute for Health Research, will be supporting two randomised controlled trials into epilepsy in adults and children. The trials will commence as soon as possible and results will be published once the trials have completed and the findings have been peer reviewed.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
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 outcomes of observational trials of medical cannabis for children with severe epilepsy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) reviewed the best available evidence when developing its guideline on prescribing of cannabis-based medicinal products. However, NICE found that current research is limited and of low quality. Observational studies with a small number of patients do not produce results which are sufficiently robust to inform routine clinical or commissioning decisions. To develop evidence on medical cannabis, the Department, via the National Institute for Health Research, will be supporting two randomised controlled trials into epilepsy in adults and children. The trials will commence as soon as possible and results will be published once the trials have completed and the findings have been peer reviewed.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made on discussions with the Dutch Government to allow the continued supply of bedrocan oil beyond 1 April 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Dutch Government has confirmed that they will extend the current waiver to allow continued supply of Bedrocan oils against United Kingdom prescriptions for existing patients until 1 April 2022 to allow for domestic production to be established. The Department continues to work closely with the Dutch Government, the Home Office and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to ensure continuity of supply of Bedrocan oils beyond this period.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
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 reduce the amount of single-use plastic in lateral flow test kits.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We are exploring alternatives to the current tests which are also safe and effective and made of predominantly recyclable or biodegradable materials.