Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of standardising funding for hospices.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we also recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, play in providing support to people at the end of life, and their loved ones. Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding hospices receive is dependent on many factors, including what other statutory services are available within the integrated care board footprint.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
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 23 May to Question 185601 on Dentistry: Qualifications, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of offering people living in the UK priority assess to the Overseas Registration Exam for Non-European Economic Area nationals.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No assessment has been made. The General Dental Council (GDC), as an independent regulator, is responsible for the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) application process. All ORE Part 1 and Part 2 exams open for booking eight to ten weeks prior to the exam taking place. Every candidate on the relevant candidate list is emailed when a new exam date becomes available for booking. All places on exams are booked on a first come, first served basis.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
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 access to the Overseas Registration Exam for Non-European Economic Area nationals wanting to practice dentistry in the UK.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We have recently introduced legislation that enables the General Dental Council (GDC) to increase the capacity of its Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) and improve its international registration processes. It will be for the GDC, as an independent regulator, to decide how best to use the flexibility that the legislation allows to increase the capacity of the ORE assessment.
The current legal framework for the ORE will remain in place until the GDC introduces new rules on the operation of the ORE 12 months after the legislation comes into force, in March 2024. In the meantime, the GDC has announced that it has tripled the number places for Part 1 of the ORE in response to the current demand, meaning there will be 600 places available for the August 2023 sitting of the ORE Part 1, instead of the usual 200.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the review by Seafish entitled Review of the application of the Official Control Regulations for shellfish, published June 2021, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of that review's findings; and what progress has been made by the Food Standards Agency on implementing the Review's recommendations.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has assessed the recommendations set out in the Seafish Review and in collaboration with shellfish stakeholders has prioritised those considered workable within the existing legal framework. Proposals which require legislative change are not considered feasible at the present time. To date, the FSA has introduced two new criteria for handling high results, updated protocols to confirm that appropriately validated alternative test methods can be used for official control purposes and communicated that local authorities can delegate official control sampling to third parties.
The FSA is also working on further revisions to its approaches, including reviewing the timeframe for resampling and reopening production areas after high results. This work is complex and takes time. It is imperative that any changes introduced ensure continued food safety and maintain the confidence of consumers and trading partners.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
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 provide support for children's mental health in rural communities.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for ensuring appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of local populations. Adjustments are made in the core ICB allocations formula to allow for variation in the costs of providing health care between rural and urban areas.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits to investing an additional £2.3 billion a year in mental health services by 2023/24. This increased investment will improve access to mental health services, including in rural communities. By 2023/24, a further 345,000 children and young people will be able to access National Health Service-funded mental health support. In 2021/22, we provided an additional £79 million to allow a further 22,500 more children and young people to access community health services and accelerate the coverage of mental health support teams in schools and colleges. These teams are now available for 26% of pupils and will increase to nearly 400 teams for approximately 35% of pupils by April 2023.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help reduce disparities in dementia diagnosis rates between Integrated Care Systems.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has commissioned the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network to investigate the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates in targeted areas in England. This includes the assessment of underlying population characteristics such as rurality, ethnicity, and age to provide context for variation and enable targeted investigation and provision of support locally.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
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 extend free TB vaccinations to include all those that work with bovines.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Based on the current available evidence, there are no plans to extend free Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccinations to all those who work with bovines. BCG vaccination against tuberculosis (TB) is not usually recommended for people aged over 16 years old, unless the risk of exposure is high. BCG vaccination can be offered to veterinary staff and staff, such as abattoir workers, who handle animals or animal materials which could be infected with TB.
Under these current criteria in the Green Book, a very small subset of farmers may be eligible for the BCG vaccination. Their eligibility for TB vaccination should be based on an individual risk assessment. Those eligible would access the vaccine through a private occupational health provider and may seek further advice from the National Farmers Union. Non-National Health Service providers can charge for this service.
Under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH), all new employees, including farmers, should undergo a pre-employment health assessment, which should include a review of immunisation needs. The COSHH risk assessment will indicate which pathogens staff are exposed to in their workplace, such as bovine TB. Staff considered to be at risk of exposure to pathogens should be offered routine pre-exposure immunisation as appropriate. This decision should also take into account the safety and efficacy of available vaccines. Staff not considered to be at risk need not routinely be offered immunisation, although post-exposure prophylaxis may occasionally be indicated.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS Blood and Transplant algorithm which decides how organs are allocated has been updated since the new drug Trikafta was introduced for cystic fibrosis sufferers.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS Blood and Transplant has a selection and allocation policy for each organ, ensuring a transparent process to balance reducing mortality on waiting lists and matching donor lungs with recipients to provide the best outcome for all listed patients. The algorithm is not dependent on the primary disease and patients are only placed on the transplant list after maximal therapy.
NHS Blood and Transplant’s Lung Advisory Group would regard a trial of Trikafta (Kaftrio) as an important pre-referral step and most cystic fibrosis physicians would prescribe this prior to the referral of patients for transplantation.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reopen town-based minor injuries units that were closed in the initial response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, a number of type 3 and 4 services have been temporarily closed or reconfigured due to a number of issues related to the outbreak. For example, reduction in footfall, requirement to redeploy staff due to system pressures elsewhere or sites unable to comply with social distancing guidelines.
Taking into consideration pressures associated with the COVID-19 outbreak, the re-opening and reconfiguration of services is being led locally and reviewed on an ongoing basis, supported by NHS England and NHS Improvement regions.
Asked by: Anthony Mangnall (Conservative - Totnes)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve vaccination rates in areas of the UK where they are below the national average.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England and NHS England and NHS Improvement are undertaking a range of actions to improve vaccination coverage across all the routine immunisation programmes in England. This includes targeted initiatives where rates are below the national average, informed by data that identifies underserved populations, as well as improvements being rolled out nationally, such as improved access to appointments, better communication with the public, and additional training for healthcare professionals.