Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
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 help improve outcomes for people with brain tumours; and if he will develop a brain tumour strategy to help improve (a) diagnosis, (b) treatments and (c) support from clinical nurse specialists for (i) patients and (ii) families.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Department, NHS England, and the National Institute for Health Care and Research (NIHR) are taking several steps to help improve outcomes for brain tumour patients.
NHS England has worked with the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission to designate centres of excellence in the management of brain tumours, with nine centres having achieved this designation. The mission has a workstream on training to expand the brain tumour treatment workforce, with collaboration between National Health Service bodies, royal colleges, and charities.
NHS England is committed to ensuring that all cancer patients are offered Holistic Needs Assessment and Personalised Care and Support Planning, ensuring care is focused on what matters most to each person. As well as this, all patients, including those with secondary cancers, will have access to the right expertise and support, including a Clinical Nurse Specialist or other support worker.
Further to this, in September 2024, the NIHR announced new research funding opportunities for brain cancer research, spanning both adult and paediatric populations. This includes a national NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium, to ensure the most promising research opportunities are made available to adult and child patients, and a new funding call to generate high quality evidence in brain tumour care, support, and rehabilitation.
As part of our 10-Year Health Plan to radically reform our broken NHS, we will fight cancer on all fronts, from prevention, to diagnosis, treatment, and research.
We will get the NHS diagnosing cancer, including brain tumours, on time, diagnosing it earlier, and treating it faster, so more patients survive this horrible set of diseases, and we will improve patients’ experience across the system. To do this, we will address the challenges in diagnostic waiting times, providing the number of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and other tests that are needed to reduce cancer waits.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what can be done to address the shortage and delays obtaining ADHD medications in North Down constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department monitors and manages medicine supply at a national level so that stocks remain available to meet regional and local demand. Information for the North Down constituency is a matter for the devolved government in Northern Ireland.
The Department has been working hard with industry, the devolved administrations, and NHS England to help resolve the supply issues with some attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medicines, which are affecting the United Kingdom and other countries around the world. As a result of intensive work, some issues have been resolved, and all strengths of lisdexamfetamine, atomoxetine capsules, and guanfacine prolonged-release tablets are now available.
We are continuing to work to resolve supply issues, where they remain, for methylphenidate prolonged-release tablets. We are engaging with all suppliers of methylphenidate prolonged-release tablets to assess the challenges faced and their actions to address them. We are also directing suppliers to secure additional stocks, expedite deliveries where possible, and review plans to further build capacity to support continued growth in demand for the short and long-term. We anticipate intermittent regional supply disruptions to continue, and we expect supply to improve in the UK from October 2024 onwards.
In parallel, the Department has worked with specialist clinicians, including those within the National Health Service, to develop management advice for NHS clinicians to consider prescribing available alternative brands of methylphenidate prolonged release tablets or available alternative ADHD medicines. We would expect ADHD service providers and specialists to follow our guidance, which includes offering rapid response to primary care teams seeking urgent advice or opinions for the management of patients, including those known to be at a higher risk of adverse impact because of these shortages.
To aid ADHD service providers and prescribers further we have widely disseminated our communications and continually update a list of currently available and unavailable ADHD products on the Specialist Pharmacy Service website, helping ensure that those involved in the prescribing and dispensing of ADHD medications can make informed decisions with patients.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what can be done to reduce waiting times for patients referred for ADHD assessments in North Down constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As health is a devolved matter, each administration of the United Kingdom takes its own decisions on the provision of assessments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
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) increase access to and (b) improve prostate cancer (i) diagnosis and (ii) treatment, in the context of disparities in early detection rates across different socio-economic groups; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of conducting more proactive screenings for high-risk individuals.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Department has invested £16 million in the TRANSFORM trial which seeks to find ways to diagnose prostate cancer as early as possible. This trial will compare the most promising tests to look for prostate cancer in men that do not have symptoms, and aims to address disparities in early detection rates across different groups.
We are also working with NHS England to support the National Health Service in meeting the Faster Diagnosis Standard for cancer to be diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days from an urgent suspected cancer referral. This includes introducing best practice timed pathways for prostate cancer to streamline diagnostic pathways and speed up diagnoses.
To improve treatment, NHS England has funded 10 clinical audits, including on prostate cancer. Using routine data collected on patients diagnosed with cancer in an NHS setting, the audit will look at what is being done well, where it’s being done well, and what needs to be done better. This will seek to reduce unwarranted variation in treatment and reduce inequalities across different groups.
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is already undertaking an evidence review into prostate cancer screening and will report within the UK NCS’s three-year work plan. The evidence review includes modelling the clinical cost effectiveness of several approaches to prostate cancer screening, including targeted and proactive screening aimed at groups of people identified as being at higher than average risk.