Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
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 improve the treatment of Cholangiocarcinoma cancers; and whether a proportion of the additional funding allocated to her Department in the Spring Budget 2024 will be used to treat Cholangiocarcinoma cancers.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cancer is being diagnosed at an earlier stage, more often, with survival rates improving across almost all types of cancer, and the National Health Service has been seeing and treating record numbers of cancer patients over the last two years. Improving early diagnosis of cancer, including cholangiocarcinoma cancers, is a priority for the NHS. The NHS has an ambition to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028, which will help tens of thousands of people live for longer.
Although funding for treatment isn’t allocated for specific cancers, the Government has provided significant additional funding to the NHS and adult social care in England. Measures introduced at the Spring Budget will protect levels of funding for the NHS in England in real terms in 2024/25, by providing an extra £2.5 billion for 2024/25, meaning a total budget of £164.9 billion.
While this additional spending is needed, the Government recognises that more money cannot always be the answer to improving outcomes for patients. Alongside the £2.5 billion of extra funding for day-to-day activities, the Government will invest £3.4 billion to reform the way the NHS works. This funding will significantly reduce the 13 million hours of time doctors spend on poor IT, freeing up significant capacity, and revolutionising treatment for a range of illnesses such as cancer and strokes. This will double the investment in technological and digital transformation in the NHS in England, and turn the NHS into one of the most digitally enabled, productive healthcare systems in the world.
On 14 August 2023, the Government published the Major Conditions Strategy’s Case for Change and Our Strategic Framework, which sets out our approach to making the choices over the next five years that will deliver the most value when facing the health challenges of today and of the decades ahead, including for cancer. It will look at the treatment and prevention of cancer, covering the patient pathway. The strategy will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers, to improve outcomes and experience for cancer patients.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions her Department has had with cancer treatment support groups on the use of direct funds to support patients and their families.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care, and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer treatment, which encompasses recovery spaces. Additionally, and as outlined in the 2024/25 NHS England Planning Guidance, NHS England are providing over £266 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances, to support delivery of the operational priorities for cancer.
The Department and NHS England meet regularly to discuss a wide range of issues regarding cancer. The Department's ministers and officials also frequently meet with key stakeholders within the cancer community, including discussions on support for patients and their families. As stated in the NHS Long Term Plan for Cancer, where appropriate, every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information, and support. NHS England provides personalised cancer care and support plans, to support both patients and their families at all stages of their cancer journey. This is being delivered in line with the NHS Comprehensive Model for Personalised Care, empowering people to manage their care and the impact of their cancer, and maximise the potential of digital and community-based support. NHS England estimates that approximately 80% of cancer multidisciplinary teams are now offering Personalised Care and Support Planning, ensuring physical, practical, emotional, and social needs are identified and addressed at all stages of the cancer pathway. Additionally, Personalised Stratified Follow Up pathways, which adapt care to the needs of individual patients after cancer treatment, are being rolled out by cancer multi-disciplinary teams, and are required for at least eight cancer types by 2023/24.
General practice surgeries also conduct cancer care reviews at regular intervals after cancer diagnosis, to offer support with any needs patients may have. This includes providing access to other specialist-led services who work alongside patients’ medical teams, to support patients and their families, such as counsellors, rehabilitation specialists, or social prescribers, who can connect you to community groups or services for more support. This is part of NHS England’s drive to universal personalised care that will see at least 2.5 million people benefiting from personalised care by 2023/24.
NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning and ensuring the healthcare needs of local communities in England are met, including for cancer patients. NHS England provide access to a personal health budget, which is an amount of NHS money that is allocated to support the health and wellbeing needs of a patient if eligible. More information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/help-with-health-costs/what-is-a-personal-health-budget/
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding has her Department allocated to provide recovery spaces for families of cancer treatment patients.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care, and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer treatment, which encompasses recovery spaces. Additionally, and as outlined in the 2024/25 NHS England Planning Guidance, NHS England are providing over £266 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances, to support delivery of the operational priorities for cancer.
The Department and NHS England meet regularly to discuss a wide range of issues regarding cancer. The Department's ministers and officials also frequently meet with key stakeholders within the cancer community, including discussions on support for patients and their families. As stated in the NHS Long Term Plan for Cancer, where appropriate, every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information, and support. NHS England provides personalised cancer care and support plans, to support both patients and their families at all stages of their cancer journey. This is being delivered in line with the NHS Comprehensive Model for Personalised Care, empowering people to manage their care and the impact of their cancer, and maximise the potential of digital and community-based support. NHS England estimates that approximately 80% of cancer multidisciplinary teams are now offering Personalised Care and Support Planning, ensuring physical, practical, emotional, and social needs are identified and addressed at all stages of the cancer pathway. Additionally, Personalised Stratified Follow Up pathways, which adapt care to the needs of individual patients after cancer treatment, are being rolled out by cancer multi-disciplinary teams, and are required for at least eight cancer types by 2023/24.
General practice surgeries also conduct cancer care reviews at regular intervals after cancer diagnosis, to offer support with any needs patients may have. This includes providing access to other specialist-led services who work alongside patients’ medical teams, to support patients and their families, such as counsellors, rehabilitation specialists, or social prescribers, who can connect you to community groups or services for more support. This is part of NHS England’s drive to universal personalised care that will see at least 2.5 million people benefiting from personalised care by 2023/24.
NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning and ensuring the healthcare needs of local communities in England are met, including for cancer patients. NHS England provide access to a personal health budget, which is an amount of NHS money that is allocated to support the health and wellbeing needs of a patient if eligible. More information is available at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/help-with-health-costs/what-is-a-personal-health-budget/
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to increase funding for biomedical research on long covid.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
For long COVID, research and scientific evidence is pivotal in shaping our understanding of causes and effects for individuals and the population. Over £50 million has already been invested in long COVID research projects to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and underlying mechanisms of the disease and the effectiveness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and interventions, as well as to evaluate clinical care.
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including long COVID. The Medical Research Council also funds biomedical research into long COVID. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his Department's policy that a patient's GP practice be informed if that patient visits different hospitals in the same NHS trust with similar illnesses or injuries.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
A patient’s general practice (GP) would usually be informed when they attended hospital, either via a discharge letter, or via a notification on an electronic patient record system. This is dependent on the National Health Service trust knowing the patient’s registered GP. A patient may object to the sharing of their information with their GP when visiting a trust, for example when attending accident and emergency, and the trust will need to follow data protection legislation and guidance to determine whether it is in its best interests to still share this with the patient’s GP.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2023 to Question 197773 on Defibrillators: Public Places, if he will provide breakdown of those defibrillators registered with the Circuit in England by (a) community centres, (b) public parks, (c) sports centres, (d) work spaces, (e) schools and (f) universities.
Answered by Will Quince
The Circuit is operated independently by the British Heart Foundation, in partnership with the Resuscitation Council UK, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives and the National Health Service. The Department does not have access to the information held on the Circuit and it is therefore not possible to provide information as requested.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of families were (a) eligible for and (b) claimed Healthy Start Scheme vouchers by 12 September 2023.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The NHS Business Services Authority operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. Monthly uptake figures for the Healthy Start scheme are published on the NHS Healthy Start website, which is available at the following link:
https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthcare-professionals/
The latest uptake figures were published on 31 August 2023. In August 2023, uptake for the NHS Healthy Start scheme was 66.0%, with 557,460 eligible beneficiaries.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many defibrillators have been installed in public spaces in England as of August 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
The British Heart Foundation, in partnership with the Resuscitation Council UK, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives and the National Health Service, has set up The Circuit, which is a national database of where defibrillators can be found so that ambulance services can identify the nearest defibrillator at the time of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
The Circuit is live in all ambulance services across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. As of August 2023, there were 54,976 defibrillators registered with the Circuit in England.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for a person to have an initial appointment at a memory clinic in each region.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2023 to Question 193607 on Health Services: Wirral South, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for treatment on the Wirral.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has committed more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to drive up and protect elective activity across England including the Wirral. This is supported further by £5.9 billion investment in capital for new beds, equipment, and technology.
In July 2022 we met our target to virtually eliminate long waits of two years or more for elective procedures, and significantly reduced the number of patients waiting 18 months or more by April 2023 by over 91% from the peak in September 2021. We have now moved our focus to cutting waits of 65 weeks or more to as near zero as possible by March 2024; this includes patients waiting for treatment in the Wirral. Capacity is being sought across the National Health Service and the independent sector locally, regionally and across the country to support efforts in hitting this target.
From October 2023, all patients waiting over 40 weeks where a decision to treat a patient has been made but the patient does not have a date for their treatment will be able to initiate a request to transfer to another provider and receive treatment more quickly via the Patient Initiated Digital Mutual Aid System.