Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
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 concerns raised by the British Society for Rheumatology with the National Homecare Medicines Committee, Care Quality Commission and General Pharmaceutical Council on the safety and performance of homecare medicines services across England.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is aware of the British Society for Rheumatology’s (BSR) concerns. Providers of Homecare Medicine services to National Health Service patients do so under framework agreements which may be held at national with NHS England and regional at NHS procurement hubs or local at hospital trust level. This requires a high degree of centralised co-ordination for which the National Homecare Medicines Committee (NHMC) supports and advises the NHS on matters relating to homecare medicines services. The committee liaises with homecare providers through their trade association the National Clinical Homecare Association (NCHA) to support and co-ordinate development of the homecare market and discuss any system wide issues.
When the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) indicate that the services levels of a provider on a national NHS England framework or NHS regional framework or contract are not to the standard expected, the NHMC which is managed by and includes representation from NHS England enacts an escalation process which involves meetings with individual providers to discuss safety and performance issues. If necessary, the regulators the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC) are also informed.
The NCHA and NHMC have met with the British Society for Rheumatology to discuss their concerns. Proposals are currently being discussed between the parties to establish a formal, ongoing dialogue which may also include representation from other medical specialties.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has had discussions with relevant stakeholders on trends in the number of (a) nurse and (b) pharmaceutical staff vacancies within the (i) quality assurance and (ii) governance disclipines of homecare medicines services.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England’s Commercial Medicines Unit, which manages the national framework agreements for the provision of homecare medicines services, holds regular engagement meetings with providers on the framework and when appropriate will discuss recruitment and retention of staff. The National Homecare Medicines Committee also holds discussions regarding recruitment, retention and vacancies during engagement meetings with providers when appropriate to do so.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
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 to work with (a) patient groups, (b) industry stakeholders and (c) other relevant parties on finding solutions to the challenges of patient access to combination therapy treatments, including (i) a lack of framework for multi-indication pricing, (ii) rigid cost-effectiveness frameworks and (iii) legal barriers.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department wants patients to benefit from access to effective new treatments at a price that represents value and is fair to all parties. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been able to recommend over 95% of the combination therapies on which it published technology appraisal guidance between 2017 and 2022. NICE is developing a modular approach to its methods and process updates and potential topics will be considered by NICE taking into account all relevant factors.
NHS England’s Commercial Framework for New Medicines recognises that realising the full potential health benefits from combination drug therapies can be challenging given the requirement for commercial confidentiality and the need to maintain competition.
Alongside NICE, NHS England has been supporting the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) efforts to find solutions to enable companies to engage with one another where health-improving combination therapies face challenges coming to market.
In the United Kingdom, the Competition and Markets Authority represents the sole competent authority, and the commercial aspects of bringing combination therapies to the market must be compliant with relevant legislation.
There are currently no plans to establish a task and finish group.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what percentage of cancer therapies assessed by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have been for combination therapies rather than monotherapies in each year since 2017; and what percentage of terminated NICE appraisals for cancer therapies have been for combination therapies rather than monotherapies in each year since 2017.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2022, 27% of cancer appraisal recommendations made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence related to combination therapies and 38% of terminated cancer drug appraisals related to combination therapies.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department will publish a specification for an electronic prescribing system for homecare medicines services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Homecare Medicines Committee’s (NHMC) standardisation programme includes an NHS Digital strategy project. Within the NHMC there is a digital sub-group working closely with NHS Digital on the output-based specification for e-prescribing for homecare medicines services to use an Electronic Prescribing System. This work is at an advanced stage in preparation for consultation with NHMC during 2023.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his 10-year plan for dementia will include provisions to recover the dementia diagnosis rate to pre-pandemic levels.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Timely diagnosis of dementia is vital to ensure that a person with dementia can access the advice, information, care and support that can help them to live well with the condition and remain independent for as long as possible.
In December 2022, the recovery of the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7% was included in the National Health Service priorities and operational planning guidance as part of the refined mental health objectives for 2023/24. This reinforces the importance of dementia as a key priority for NHS England and provides a clear direction for integrated care boards to ensure support for delivery of timely diagnoses within systems, enabling access to appropriate post-diagnostic support.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with NHS England on the 10-year plan for dementia.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department continues to work closely with NHS England on plans for dementia in England and further information will be available in due course.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Federated Data Platform on urgent and emergency care.
Answered by Will Quince
The primary focus of the federated data platform will be the five national use cases as identified and stated within the Prior Information Notice: population health management, care coordination including discharges, elective recovery, vaccinations and immunisations and supply chain. Although these do not directly include urgent or emergency care, the improved flow of patients though hospitals will result from the implementation and will directly impact urgent and emergency care services.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made towards delivering the NHS Long Term Plan ambition to help prevent up to 150,000 heart attacks, strokes and dementia cases by 2029.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Progress on delivering this ambition has been affected by the pandemic. The Department is working with NHS England and local government to recover cardiovascular disease prevention services to deliver the NHS Long Term Plan ambition.
Asked by: Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many new patients have been (a) detected with atrial fibrillation and (b) treated with an appropriate NICE recommended treatment, since the introduction of the NHS Framework Agreement on Direct Oral Anticoagulants in January 2022.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information on the number of new patients detected with atrial fibrillation is not collected in the format requested. As of October 2022, 126,000 patients on general practitioner practice atrial fibrillation registers who were eligible for anticoagulation received treatment. The proportion of patients treated with anticoagulation increased by 3% from April to October 2022.
An annual evaluation of the National Health Service commissioning guidance and framework agreement for anticoagulation will be made in the first quarter of 2023/24 when the relevant prescribing and performance data is finalised.