Asked by: Danny Kinahan (Ulster Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23467, what progress has been made on the procurement of the HPV vaccine.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department is considering the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s advice on this potential programme. Following this, consideration will be given to the procurement of vaccine.
Asked by: Danny Kinahan (Ulster Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when HPV vaccinations are planned to be available at sexual health clinics to men who have sex with men.
Answered by Jane Ellison
In November 2015, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the expert body that advises the Government on all immunisation matters, advised that a targeted human papilloma virus vaccination programme should be undertaken for men who have sex with men up to 45 years of age who attend genitourinary medicine and HIV clinics. They noted that this should be subject to procurement of the vaccine and delivery of the programme at a cost-effective price.
The Department is considering the JCVI’s advice and will confirm its plans in due course.
Asked by: Danny Kinahan (Ulster Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that the men who have sex with men population is aware of the availability of the HPV vaccination at sexual health clinics.
Answered by Jane Ellison
In November 2015, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the expert body that advises the Government on all immunisation matters, advised that a targeted human papilloma virus vaccination programme should be undertaken for men who have sex with men up to 45 years of age who attend genitourinary medicine and HIV clinics. They noted that this should be subject to procurement of the vaccine and delivery of the programme at a cost-effective price.
The Department is considering the JCVI’s advice and will confirm its plans in due course.
Asked by: Danny Kinahan (Ulster Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to deal with antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department is leading the United Kingdom’s wide-ranging response to address the significant threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
In September 2013 Department of Health, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the devolved administrations published the UK 5 Year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy 2013 – 2018, which is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-5-year-antimicrobial-resistance-strategy-2013-to-2018
The Strategy addresses AMR within a “one health” context, spanning people, animals, agriculture and the wider environment. The overall aims of the Strategy are to prevent the number of infections requiring antibiotics occurring in the first place, protect the antibiotics we currently have by using them responsibly, and promote the development of new antibiotics and diagnostics.
Globally, the UK has been leading an international response to tackling AMR. In May 2015, the World Health Assembly adopted an ambitious World Health Organization Global Action Plan on AMR (WHO GAP) that the UK contributed towards developing. Furthermore, we are supporting a high level meeting on AMR at the United Nations General Assembly later this year, as was called for in the WHO GAP.
We are also promoting the independent review led by Lord O’Neill exploring ways in which the development of new antibiotics can be stimulated internationally.
Asked by: Danny Kinahan (Ulster Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve outcomes for people with rarer cancers.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Health is, of course, a devolved matter; however, ensuring the National Health Service is able to support the use of effective treatments for rare cancers, is a key priority. The four United Kingdom health departments and Cancer Research UK are jointly funding a network of 18 Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres. These are driving the development and testing of new anti-cancer treatments to deliver real benefits for patients, including those with rare cancers.
In England, the Cancer Taskforce published its report, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes, in July 2015, and made many recommendations relevant to rarer and blood cancers, focussing on improving access to diagnostic testing, and increasing patient access to the most advanced treatments.
Asked by: Danny Kinahan (Ulster Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will place greater emphasis on improving cancer diagnosis rates when forming his Department's policies in future.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Improving early diagnosis of cancer is a priority for this Government. We will continue to work with NHS England, Public Health England and other partners to achieve early diagnosis through improved screening programmes, Be Clear on Cancer campaigns to raise awareness of symptoms of cancer to encourage people with symptoms to present promptly to their general practitioner (GP), and help for GPs to refer more accurately.
We have committed to implementing recommendation 24 of the Independent Cancer Taskforce’s report Achieving World-Class Outcomes that by 2020, everyone referred with a suspicion of cancer will receive either a definitive diagnosis or the all-clear within four weeks. NHS England is working with partners across the health system to consider how best to take this forward. This standard will be underpinned by investment of up to £300 million more in diagnostics each year by 2020.
NHS England has launched a major early diagnosis programme, Accelerate, Co-ordinate, Evaluate (ACE), working jointly with Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support to test new innovative approaches to identifying cancer more quickly. Outputs from the first wave of test sites, which commenced in April 2015, will be delivered on a phased basis, with the majority falling between September 2015 and December 2016. It is expected that ACE Wave 1 evaluation will be complete by mid-2017.
In June this year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published an updated guideline ‘Suspected cancer: recognition and referral’. The guideline focuses on key symptoms, to make it easier to use and will continue to support GPs to identify patients with symptoms of suspected cancer, and urgently refer them as appropriate. The guideline recommends a lower referral threshold for urgent referrals where cancer is suspected.
Asked by: Danny Kinahan (Ulster Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the annual cost is of the health needs of UK thalidomide survivors.
Answered by George Freeman
In addition to using NHS services, thalidomide survivors have access to health grants in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The grants are administered by the Thalidomide Trust and allocations in 2015 are set out in the following table.
Allocations under the Thalidomide Health Grants in 2015
Country | Total Allocation (£000s) | Number of beneficiaries |
England | 7,454 | 325 |
Scotland | 1,254 | 55 |
Wales | 782 | 31 |
Northern Ireland | 472 | 19 |
Asked by: Danny Kinahan (Ulster Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will implement the recommendations made in the Independent Cancer Taskforce's new Cancer Strategy.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Independent Cancer Taskforce published its report, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes, in July this year. It identified improving support for people living with and beyond cancer, and improving long-term quality of life as high priorities.
NHS England is currently working with partners across the health system to determine how best to take forward the recommendations of the Taskforce report. A cross-system Cancer Transformation Board, chaired by the new National Cancer Director, Cally Palmer, will be established to oversee implementation of the strategy, and will have its first meeting in early 2016. The Transformation Board will formulate more detailed plans for implementation of the report’s recommendations based on the final outcome of the spending review. More details will be available in early 2016.