Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
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 monitor long covid.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department uses estimates from the Office for National Statistics of self-reported ongoing symptoms following COVID-19 infection to inform decision-making. Since September 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement have also published activity data and demographic information for patients referred to a post-COVID-19 assessment service.
Additionally, the Department has invested over £50 million in dedicated research to improve knowledge and understanding of the condition.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Rapid Cancer Registration and Treatment Data published by the National Disease Registration Service, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the data in that publication that shows 13,000 fewer prostate cancer diagnoses to the end of April 2021 compared with historical trends; and what plans he has to increase the rate of those diagnoses.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are encouraging all those with cancer symptoms to come forward for treatment, though media engagement such as the ‘Help us to help you ‘campaign. There are currently eleven urology or prostate Rapid Diagnostic Centre (RDC) pathways operational or in development, some of which cover multiple hospital sites. RDCs have been developed to deliver faster and earlier cancer diagnosis, including for prostate cancer. RDCs will be the default model for all cancer pathways across all 21 Cancer Alliances in England by 2024.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England’s Monthly Provider Based Data and Summaries, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the data set out in those publications that shows 50,000 fewer referrals for suspected prostate cancer patients than historical trends during the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We are encouraging all those with cancer symptoms to come forward for treatment, though media engagement such as the ‘Help us to help you ‘campaign. There are currently eleven urology or prostate Rapid Diagnostic Centre (RDC) pathways operational or in development, some of which cover multiple hospital sites. RDCs have been developed to deliver faster and earlier cancer diagnosis, including for prostate cancer. RDCs will be the default model for all cancer pathways across all 21 Cancer Alliances in England by 2024.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
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 9 September to Question 41823 on Prostate Cancer: Diagnosis, for what reason no formal assessment has been made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the number of referrals for suspected prostate cancer; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Data on prostate cancer is not available as a separate data set. It is published monthly as a subset of data on urological malignancies, which includes a number of different possible cancers.
The Department continues to work with the National Health Service to improve services. There are now 11 urology or prostate rapid diagnostic centre pathways either under development or operational to help recover these services.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many grants were awarded by Health Education England to enable existing and aspiring nurses to train as non-medical practitioners to support the prostate cancer workforce in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 10 September 2021 to Question 41820.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Health Education England has plans to improve reporting on the number of clinical nurse specialists working in (a) urology and (b) prostate cancer as part of its review into the long-term strategic trends in the health and social care workforce.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The National Health Service Electronic Staff Record does not enable the identification of cancer nurse specialists.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the National Disease Registration Service’s Rapid Cancer Registration and Treatment Data, what recent assessment he has made of the trend in the level of prostate cancer diagnoses up to the end of April 2021; and what steps he is taking to improve the diagnosis of prostate cancer.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of people coming forward with symptoms and being referred with suspected cancer recovered throughout 2020. Urological cancers, including prostate cancer, referrals were almost at pre-pandemic levels by June 2021.
The latest phase of the ‘Help us help you’ campaign raises awareness of abdominal symptoms of cancer, including for urological cancers. Awareness of prostate cancer risk and symptoms is also being raised through media and charities. Those presenting to their general practitioner with symptoms which could be prostate cancer will be assessed and referred in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance, which states that they should be referred on a suspected cancer pathway for an appointment within two weeks. This guidance has remained in place throughout the pandemic.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many grants were awarded by Health Education England to enable existing and aspiring nurses to train as non-medical practitioners to support the prostate cancer workforce in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The NHS People Plan published in July 2020 committed to offering training grants to 250 nurses in 2020/21 to enable them to become cancer nurse specialists. In order to maximise training opportunities, Health Education England awarded 1,238 training grants in 2020/21 to existing and aspiring cancer nurse specialists. This offer was further extended in 2021/22 with a further 250 training grants made available. Uptake data for the current financial year is not yet available.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Health Education England (a) audits the amount of money made available to NHS Trusts for training purposes and (b) assesses whether NHS Trusts are investing the money to meet the objectives of the NHS Long Term Plan for enhanced professional skills development within the cancer workforce.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Health Education England (HEE) provides activity-based education funding to National Health Service trusts which supports continuing professional development, workforce development and the development of the future workforce. Where this funding is provided by HEE, it is managed through the NHS Education Contract. HEE monitors the delivery of education programmes funded by HEE, including those related to the cancer workforce, to ensure delivery of the funding objectives.
NHS trusts have other sources of training income and are responsible for how they invest this money and train their staff. It is the responsibility of individual NHS organisations who invest this funding to undertake relevant assurance processes to ensure outcomes are being met.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he made of the implications for his policies of data set out in NHS England’s Monthly Provider Based Data and Summaries, published in May 2021, on the length of the waiting time for patients to be diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No formal assessment has been made.