Asked by: Christina Rees (Labour (Co-op) - Neath)
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 20 October 2020 to Question 100504 on Sepsis, what steps his Department has taken to specifically support the diagnosis of Sepsis.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
To support the delivery of objectives set out in the ‘UK’s 20-year vision for Antimicrobial Resistance’ and five-year national action plan, NHS England and NHS Improvement have specifically committed to development of and access to diagnostics in relation to infections. This commitment includes:
- supporting the establishment of the Accelerated Access Collaborative and Pathway and ensure its work can support antimicrobials and diagnostics;
- preparing a two to five-year urgent diagnostics priority list and use Target Product Profiles for research and development;
- introducing incentives to develop and evaluate rapid diagnostics;
- streamlining the regulation processes to help get new diagnostics through as quickly as possible, including developing evidence-based guidance for using tests, and;
- working with National Health Service partners and industry to tackle barriers to new innovations being adopted in the NHS, building on the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy and the response to the Accelerated Access Review.
Asked by: Christina Rees (Labour (Co-op) - Neath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the capacity and effectiveness of diagnostics throughout the NHS.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Professor Sir Mike Richards was commissioned to undertake a review of diagnostics capacity (NHS Long Term Plan, 3.55). The report, ‘Diagnostics: recovery and renewal’, was discussed at the NHS England and NHS Improvement public Board meeting on 1 October 2020. The report was published with the Board papers and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Christina Rees (Labour (Co-op) - Neath)
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 diagnostic testing for sepsis and bloodstream infections.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Since 2014, the Government has invested over £360 million in antimicrobial resistance research and development, including funding to support the development of diagnostics for infection. In order to support the work in delivering upon objectives set out in both the ‘UK’s 20-year vision for Antimicrobial Resistance’ and five-year national action plan, NHS England and NHS Improvement has laid out human health-related commitments specifically regarding the development of and access to diagnostics in relation to infections.
Asked by: Christina Rees (Labour (Co-op) - Neath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the recommendations of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sepsis Annual Report 2019; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The United Kingdom’s five-year antimicrobial resistance (AMR) strategy, published in January 2019, includes the commitment to develop a real-time patient level data source of a patient’s infection, treatment and resistance history which will be used to inform their treatment and the development of interventions to tackle severe infection, sepsis and AMR. This commitment was reaffirmed in the open consultation ‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s’, published by the Department and Cabinet Office on 22 July 2019.
Public Health England continues to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of sepsis by building sepsis messaging into the national Start4life Information Service for Parents email programme which targets parents of zero to five-year olds. Any nationally supported campaigns must be aimed at appropriate audiences and deliver measurable outcomes. The Department looks to NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Cross-System Sepsis Programme Board, which brings together a group of front-line experts from across the health and care system including the UK Sepsis Trust, for advice on the best interventions to improve patient outcomes.
NHS England and NHS Improvement will consider other recommendations of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sepsis Annual Report 2019 in the context of its overall work on infection prevention.
Asked by: Christina Rees (Labour (Co-op) - Neath)
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 ensure better use of data interoperability to identify patients most at risk of sepsis.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The United Kingdom’s five-year antimicrobial resistance (AMR) strategy, published in January 2019, includes the commitment to develop a real-time patient level data source of a patient’s infection, treatment and resistance history which will be used to inform their treatment and the development of interventions to tackle severe infection, sepsis and AMR. This commitment was reaffirmed in the open consultation ‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s’, published by the Department and Cabinet Office on 22 July 2019.
Public Health England continues to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of sepsis by building sepsis messaging into the national Start4life Information Service for Parents email programme which targets parents of zero to five-year olds. Any nationally supported campaigns must be aimed at appropriate audiences and deliver measurable outcomes. The Department looks to NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Cross-System Sepsis Programme Board, which brings together a group of front-line experts from across the health and care system including the UK Sepsis Trust, for advice on the best interventions to improve patient outcomes.
NHS England and NHS Improvement will consider other recommendations of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sepsis Annual Report 2019 in the context of its overall work on infection prevention.
Asked by: Christina Rees (Labour (Co-op) - Neath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the recommendations of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sepsis Annual Report 2019, if he will commit to commissioning a public awareness campaign on sepsis to (a) make more people aware of and (b) improve survival rates for people experiencing that condition.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The United Kingdom’s five-year antimicrobial resistance (AMR) strategy, published in January 2019, includes the commitment to develop a real-time patient level data source of a patient’s infection, treatment and resistance history which will be used to inform their treatment and the development of interventions to tackle severe infection, sepsis and AMR. This commitment was reaffirmed in the open consultation ‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s’, published by the Department and Cabinet Office on 22 July 2019.
Public Health England continues to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of sepsis by building sepsis messaging into the national Start4life Information Service for Parents email programme which targets parents of zero to five-year olds. Any nationally supported campaigns must be aimed at appropriate audiences and deliver measurable outcomes. The Department looks to NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Cross-System Sepsis Programme Board, which brings together a group of front-line experts from across the health and care system including the UK Sepsis Trust, for advice on the best interventions to improve patient outcomes.
NHS England and NHS Improvement will consider other recommendations of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sepsis Annual Report 2019 in the context of its overall work on infection prevention.
Asked by: Christina Rees (Labour (Co-op) - Neath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with pharmaceutical companies on stockpiling breast cancer medicines to prepare for the possibility of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
On 23 August 2018 the Department wrote to all pharmaceutical companies that supply the United Kingdom with prescription only or pharmacy medicines from, or via, the European Union/European Economic Area, asking them to ensure they have a minimum of six weeks’ additional supply in the UK, over and above their business as usual operational buffer stocks, by 29 March 2019 in the unlikely the event that the UK were to leave the EU without a deal.
Since then, we have received very good engagement from industry who share our aims of ensuring continuity of medicines supply for patients is maintained and able to cope with any potential delays at the border that may arise in the short term in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
We understand medicines for breast cancer patients are vitally important to many people in this country. However, the Department recognises that through its medicines supply contingency programme, it is requesting sensitive commercial information from pharmaceutical companies. To reassure participating companies, we have committed to treating all information received confidentially, securely and to using it only for the purposes of the Department’s programme. That means not introducing information about a company, specific medicine or their supply routes into the public domain.
Asked by: Christina Rees (Labour (Co-op) - Neath)
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 effect of delays in drug supply chains on access to medicines for breast cancer patients in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
On 23 August 2018 the Department wrote to all pharmaceutical companies that supply the United Kingdom with prescription only or pharmacy medicines from, or via, the European Union/European Economic Area, asking them to ensure they have a minimum of six weeks’ additional supply in the UK, over and above their business as usual operational buffer stocks, by 29 March 2019 in the unlikely the event that the UK were to leave the EU without a deal.
Since then, we have received very good engagement from industry who share our aims of ensuring continuity of medicines supply for patients is maintained and able to cope with any potential delays at the border that may arise in the short term in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
We understand medicines for breast cancer patients are vitally important to many people in this country. However, the Department recognises that through its medicines supply contingency programme, it is requesting sensitive commercial information from pharmaceutical companies. To reassure participating companies, we have committed to treating all information received confidentially, securely and to using it only for the purposes of the Department’s programme. That means not introducing information about a company, specific medicine or their supply routes into the public domain.
Asked by: Christina Rees (Labour (Co-op) - Neath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many of his Department's officials are solely responsible for (a) reducing physical inactivity and (b) reducing obesity among children and adults.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
It is not possible to provide figures on what proportion of the Department’s funding is allocated to reduce physical inactivity because budgets from across the Department and Public Health England (PHE) contribute to this area.
The Department does not have a separate team in which members are working solely full-time on reducing physical inactivity or reducing obesity among children and adults. Officials from across the Department work flexibly and may have a role in these areas. In addition, officials from PHE also contribute to this work.
Asked by: Christina Rees (Labour (Co-op) - Neath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of his Department's funding was allocated to reduce physical inactivity in (a) 2014-15, (b) 2015-16 and (c) 2016-17; and what he plans to spend on that in 2017-18.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
It is not possible to provide figures on what proportion of the Department’s funding is allocated to reduce physical inactivity because budgets from across the Department and Public Health England (PHE) contribute to this area.
The Department does not have a separate team in which members are working solely full-time on reducing physical inactivity or reducing obesity among children and adults. Officials from across the Department work flexibly and may have a role in these areas. In addition, officials from PHE also contribute to this work.