Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 supporting all NHS Trusts to offer Oppositional Defiant Disorder as a diagnosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are no plans to make such an assessment. Individual diagnoses are a matter for clinicians. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence provides national clinical guidelines concerning the recognition and management of conduct disorders in children and young people, including oppositional defiant disorder. We expect clinicians, commissioners, and providers to adhere to this guidance.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to tackle shortages in ADHD medications.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We understand how frustrating and distressing medicine shortages can be and we want to assure patients that we are working with the respective manufacturers to resolve the issues as soon as possible and to ensure patients have continuous access to medicines for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the United Kingdom, in the short and long term.
We have issued communications to the National Health Service to advise healthcare professionals on management of patients whilst there continue to be disruptions to supplies. Patients are advised to speak to their clinician regarding any concerns they have and to discuss the suitability of treatment with alternative medicines.
Disruptions to the supply of medicines used for the management of ADHD 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: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department is taking steps to enable (a) doctors and (b) dentists from Ukraine to practice in the UK.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The General Medical Council (GMC) is the independent regulator of all medical doctors in the United Kingdom. The GMC has introduced several measures to support applications from Ukraine including waiving application fees and working with applicants to source documents. Information about these measures is available at the following link:
The General Dental Council (GDC) is responsible for regulating dentistry qualifications and additions to the UK dental register. The GDC has advised that it is keen to support refugees with their registration applications wherever possible. Dedicated information for refugees is available at the following link:
https://www.gdc-uk.org/registration/join-the-register/information-for-refugee-dental-professionals
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she had had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of extending the funding of the Suicide Prevention Grand Fund.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No such discussions have taken place. The process for assessing all applications made to the Suicide Prevention Grant Fund is still ongoing.
The fund attracted a huge amount of interest from the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, from small, community-led organisations at local level to large national level organisations. We received over 1800 applications overall, covering a range of activities aimed at preventing suicides. We are currently assessing bids and we aim to inform applicants on whether they have been successful by the end of the year.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what training NHS staff receive on supporting children with oppositional defiant disorder.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Individual employers are responsible for ensuring their staff are trained and competent to carry out their role. The standard of training for health care professionals is the responsibility of respective independent statutory regulatory bodies who set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses. It is also the responsibility of higher education institutions to write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet the regulators’ outcome standards.
Whilst not all curricula may necessarily highlight a specific condition, they all emphasise the skills and approaches a healthcare practitioner must develop to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients, including to support children with oppositional defiant disorder where appropriate.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 increase understanding amongst employers of endometriosis and its impact on people affected.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Women’s Health Strategy sets out ambitions that health conditions and disabilities are no longer a barrier to women’s participation in the workplace. It also sets out our ambitions for tackling taboos, including endometriosis, that can surround women’s health in the workplace, and for improving support for employers and colleagues.
As part of the Health and Wellbeing Fund 2022-25, the Department of Health and Social Care has awarded almost £2 million across 16 organisations to provide a holistic support offer to assist women with reproductive health issues, including menstrual health and gynaecological conditions, to remain in or return to the workplace. Additionally, the Equality Hub is working with employers to identify existing support on women’s reproductive health in the workplace and, in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health and Social Care, is building peer networks to promote good practice.
The Government’s Women’s Health Ambassador is focused on raising the profile for women’s health and supporting implementation of the strategy, including breaking down the stigma surrounding particular areas of women’s health, including endometriosis.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 retain NHS phlebotomists.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS People Plan and the NHS People Promise set out a comprehensive range of actions to improve staff retention. They provide a strong focus on creating a more modern, compassionate and inclusive National Health Service culture by strengthening health and wellbeing, equality and diversity, culture and leadership and flexible working.
NHS priorities and operational planning guidance 2023/24 has asked systems to refresh their 2022/23 whole system workforce plans to improve staff retention through a systematic focus on all elements of the NHS People Promise. Staff wellbeing should be strategically aligned with elective recovery plans, including workforce demand and capacity planning. In addition, the NHS Retention Programme is continuously seeking to understand why staff leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay while keeping them well.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan builds on the NHS People Plan and sets out how to improve culture and leadership to ensure that up to 130,000 fewer staff leave the NHS over the next 15 years. This includes implementing actions from the NHS People Plan that have been shown to be successful, implementing plans to improve flexible opportunities for prospective retirees and delivering the actions needed to modernise the NHS pension scheme.
These interventions apply across staff groups, including phlebotomists.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 average time between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis for people with endometriosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Women’s Health Strategy sets out our ambition for improving care for women and girls with endometriosis, with a reduced diagnosis time for those with severe endometriosis. We are investing £25 million in women’s health hubs, so that women can get better access to care for menstrual problems, including for women with suspected or diagnosed endometriosis.
Through the NHS Delivery Plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care we are increasing activity through dedicated and protected surgical hubs that conduct planned procedures only. Surgical hubs are focusing on providing high-volume low-complexity surgery such as laparoscopies for suspected endometriosis.
Endometriosis can only be definitively diagnosed through a laparoscopy under general anaesthetic, and so for women with less severe endometriosis it may be more appropriate to treat symptoms of endometriosis with a presumed diagnosis rather than with a definitive diagnosis, avoiding the need for an invasive procedure.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that type 2 diabetic patients have access to treatment in the context of shortages in the supply of Ozempic.
Answered by Will Quince
We are aware of a supply issue with Ozempic, which has been largely driven by off-label use for weight loss. We have issued guidance in the form of Medicine Supply Notifications and, on 18 July, issued a National Patient Safety Alert which made it clear that Ozempic, which is solely licensed to treat Type 2 diabetes, should only be used for that purpose, and should not be routinely prescribed for weight loss.
We have engaged with relevant regulators and the General Pharmaceutical Council, General Medical Council, Health and Care Professions Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council and Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland have issued a joint statement stressing the importance of health and care professionals meeting regulatory standards.
We have also added Ozempic and other glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists to the list of medicines that cannot be exported from, or hoarded in, the United Kingdom.
We are continuing to work closely with manufacturers and others working in the supply chain to help ensure the continued supply of these medicines for UK patients, for example by asking suppliers to expedite deliveries. We have provided advice for healthcare professionals on how to manage patients requiring this medicine whilst there are shortages and are keeping this under review as the situation evolves. If any patient is concerned about their treatment, they should discuss this with their clinician at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 reduce gynaecology waiting lists in hospitals.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery Plan for Tackling the COVID-19 Backlog of Elective Care’ outlines how the National Health Service will bring down waiting times across all elective services. The plan does not detail approaches for each specialty but commits to eradicate all waits of longer than a year for elective care by March 2025, except for in the case of patient choice.
To support this plan and tackle waiting lists, including those in gynaecology, the Government has committed more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to drive up and protect elective activity. We are also increasing capacity, including for gynaecological surgery, through our surgical hubs, delivered by the Getting It Right First Time ‘High Volume Low Complexity’ programme.