Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the number of women referred to Memory Services when experiencing cognitive symptoms of menopause.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
No specific assessment has been made as data on the number of menopausal women referred to memory services is not held centrally.
However, NHS England has undertaken preliminary work to deliver improved menopause care. An optimal clinical pathway is currently being developed by a menopause clinical reference group, which will include memory-loss and concentration-loss as symptoms women may present with.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
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 provide additional support for research into potential links between dementia and the menopause.
Answered by James Morris
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including into dementia and the menopause. The NIHR’s School for Primary Care Research has funded an observational study investigating the risks of developing dementia associated with menopausal hormone therapies.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many women received Hormone Replacement Therapy prescriptions for (a) utrogestan, (b) body-identical oestrogen patches and gels, (c) non-body-identical oestrogen, (d) non-body identical progestogens and (d) the testosterone products (i) testogel, (ii) testim and (iii) tostran in each of the last ten years by Parliamentary constituency or the lowest available administrative level if that data is not available.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The information is not held in the format requested.
The attached table shows items dispensed in the community at clinical commissioning group level in England from 2015/16 to 2021/22.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his policy that there should be a comprehensive public health framework for gambling policy in the UK.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is the lead department responsible for gambling policy. We continue to work with the Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport on the current public health approach to addressing harmful gambling.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of clinicians' recommendation that there should be a levy board responsible for a statutory gambling levy in the UK.
Answered by Maggie Throup
We are working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to assess the effectiveness of existing funding arrangements to support projects and services related to problem gambling. This includes the appropriate governance structures to oversee this funding. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s white paper with proposals for reform is expected to be published shortly.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has for a public health campaign to update women on the menopause support available to them.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The UK Menopause Taskforce’s first meeting, held on 3 February 2022, agreed that future meetings would be scheduled by themes, including education and awareness. This will consider how to ensure that women, the general public and healthcare professionals are well-informed about the menopause. In December 2021, the Department announced plans to appoint the first Women’s Health Ambassador for England. The Ambassador will focus on raising the profile for women’s health issues, such as the menopause, increasing awareness of taboo topics and including a range of collaborative voices to implement the Women’s Health Strategy.
The forthcoming Women’s Health Strategy will also contain a priority menopause chapter detailing the support available to menopausal individuals.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea 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 oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on 29 October 2021, Official Report, column 538, what progress he has made on reducing the costs of repeatable prescriptions for HRT for women experiencing menopausal symptoms.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Subject to consultation with relevant professional bodies, we will deliver the cost reduction through a bespoke pre-payment certificate (PPC) for hormone replacement therapy. As a PPC usually applies to all medicines on National Health Service prescriptions, we are working with the NHS Business Services Authority to implement a solution as soon as possible.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has write to healthcare professionals to remind them of the NICE guidelines for menopause care and the ability to prescribe twelve months supply on one prescription; and what his timetable is for doing that.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Department is in discussions with the Royal College of General Practitioners and other stakeholders on communications to healthcare professionals on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines for menopause care.
NICE’s guideline recommends that each treatment for short-term menopausal symptoms should be reviewed at three months to assess efficacy and tolerability and annually thereafter, unless there are clinical indications for an earlier review. NICE does not make recommendations on length of prescription as this is a clinical decision. However, NHS England and NHS Improvement advise that general practitioners can prescribe up to 12 month’s supply, where clinically appropriate.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress has been made on the implementation of the new annual prepayment certificate for hormone replacement therapy products; for what reason implementation will take a further 12 months; and what steps he plans to take to ensure that the target implementation date of April 2023 is met.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Subject to consultation with relevant professional bodies, we will deliver the cost reduction through a bespoke pre-payment certificate (PPC) for hormone replacement therapy. As a PPC usually applies to all medicines on National Health Service prescriptions, we are working with the NHS Business Services Authority to implement a solution as soon as possible.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to meet representatives from the pharmaceutical supply companies to discuss availability issues with hormone replacement therapy products; and when those meetings are scheduled to take place.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Department regularly discusses the supply of human replacement therapy products with pharmaceutical companies and trade bodies. On 31 March 2022, I met with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and the British Generic Manufacturers Association to discuss the availability of these products.