Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to ensure that any point-of-care diagnostic tests for urinary tract infections approved by NICE are made available to women in (a) rural, (b) deprived and (c) other areas.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England and the Anti Microbial Resistance Programme is working to support the development and deployment of point-of-care diagnostic tests approved by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for urinary tract infection (UTI) diagnosis, and education on the use of these tests will form a key part of ensuring equitable accesses to women, including in rural and deprived areas.
NHS England are also working with industry partners, charities, pathology and clinicians to understand the clinical need for new point of care diagnostics as this will help ensure the future pipeline of UTI diagnostics are fit-for-need.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment the Government has made of the potential impact of the planned NHS doctor apprenticeship scheme on health inequalities.
Answered by Will Quince
The medical degree apprentices will undertake the same General Medical Council approved training gaining skills and knowledge in a broad based training curriculum including health inequality. Medical degree apprentices will typically be recruited from their local areas making the medical workforce more representative of local communities and supporting local recruitment and retention in under-doctored areas. This in turn will support the improvement in health inequalities in local populations.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
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 merits for reducing antimocrobial resistance of speeding up regulatory approval for new urinary tract infection point-of-care diagnostics such as Lodestar DX and UTRiPLEX.
Answered by Will Quince
The speed of regulatory approval is reliant on the device manufacturer's ability to submit required documentation for registration with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which includes evidence that it conforms to United Kingdom legal requirements as described by the UK Medical Devices Regulations. The MHRA will check the documentation and revert with a registration letter that enables the point-of-care diagnostic devices to be placed on the market in the UK. Manufacturers of innovative products can also seek advice from the MHRA through its Innovation Accelerator.
NICE has published an article describing the potential merits for reducing antimicrobial resistance with four innovative tests for diagnosing urinary tract infections which include Lodestar Dx and UTRiPLEX.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the planned NHS Federated Data Platform, what steps the Government is taking to (a) assess the suitability of the businesses bidding for the contract, (b) ensure that patient’s consent is received before personal and sensitive data is shared with the winning company and (c) prevent the misuse of personal and sensitive data by the winning company.
Answered by Will Quince
Regarding the suitability of businesses bidding for the contract, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Ealing Central and Acton on 1 December to Question 90852.
Regarding the assurance that patient’s consent is received before personal and sensitive data is shared with the successful bidder, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Norwich South on 22 September 2022 to Question 49205.
Regarding prevention of the misuse of personal and sensitive data by the successful bidder, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Manchester Gorton on 30 March 2023 to Question 171540.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve access to dementia diagnoses.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
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 (ICBs) to support delivery of timely diagnoses within systems.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
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 providing gender or sex-disaggregated data on antibiotic consumption in England.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) English surveillance programme for antimicrobial utilisation and resistance report and programme aim to develop and maintain robust surveillance systems for monitoring and reporting trends in antimicrobial use and resistance.
Alongside surveillance of antibiotic consumptions trends, the report presents evidence pooled from a literature scoping review investigating the association between elements of health inequalities and risk of antimicrobial prescribing in High Income Countries. Trends were identified for sex, with females having the highest overall antibiotic use except for indications including acne, respiratory tract infections and pharyngitis, amongst others.
The report also presents data on the rate of COVID-19 therapeutics across the country by sex and age. Antibiotic prescribing surveillance data are shared with NHS England and at cross-Government boards on a quarterly basis, as well as being published on the Fingertips tool. UKHSA are committed to identifying surveillance reporting gaps to understand the impact of antimicrobial prescribing and resistance by sex, and on Core20PLUS populations.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps the Government have taken to (a) reduce the number of people with learning disabilities or autism in psychiatric hospitals, (b) improve the supported housing services available to people with learning disabilities or autism and (c) improve the community mental health services available to people with learning disabilities or autism.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
In 2023/24, we are investing an additional £121 million to improve community support for people with a learning disability and autistic people as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, including funding for Children and Young People’s keyworkers.
The Ministerially-chaired Building the Right Support (BtRS) Delivery Board is overseeing implementation of the BtRS Action Plan (2022) which brings together actions across Government and public services to strengthen community support and reduce overall reliance on mental health inpatient care for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
From 2022/23 to 2024/25, we will continue to provide funding to build specialised housing, through the CASSH Fund, for older people and adults with learning disabilities or autism, physical disabilities and mental ill-health. Alongside this, the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme (2021-2026) includes delivery within the programme for new supported housing.
In addition, the Government is supporting the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Bill, which includes a range of measures intended to improve quality of supported housing. We are investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services in England, including those based in the community, by March 2024. This will allow an additional 2 million people, including people with learning disabilities and autism, to get the mental health support they need.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to implement the policies set out in the Women’s Health Strategy for England, published on 30 August 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
In January the Department set out its eight priorities for the first year of implementing the Women’s Health Strategy, July 2022 to July 2023, in a letter to MPs. Good progress is being made to deliver these priorities. For example, recently, the Department has reduced the cost of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prescriptions through a bespoke HRT prescription pre-payment certificate. From 1 April 2023, women can pay a one-off charge equivalent to two single prescription charges (£19.30) for all their HRT prescriptions for a year.
We are also investing £25 million in women’s health hubs, so that women can get better access to care for essential services such as menstrual problems, contraception and the menopause. We will update Parliament annually on progress, with the first update due in September 2023.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to (a) develop and (b) implement a rapid system of evaluating new protective and prophylactic Covid-19 drugs and treatments.
Answered by Will Quince
As we move out of the pandemic response, it is right that existing methods for understanding the clinical and cost-effectiveness of medicines are used to inform routine commissioning arrangements, including for new COVID-19 drugs and treatments.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent, expert body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources.
As part of supporting this transition, NICE published final guidance on 29 March that recommends three medicines as options for treating COVID-19 in adults. Because new COVID-19 variants develop over time, NICE is also developing a new review process to update its recommendations on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 treatments, so they can be made available more quickly to patients if they show promise against new variants and are found to be cost-effective. A four-week public consultation on proposals for the new rapid update process was launched on 6 April.
New medicines for COVID-19 that are referred to NICE by the Department will be evaluated through NICE’s technology appraisal process. NICE aims to publish guidance within 90 days of marketing authorisation (licensing) being issued by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. NICE works with stakeholders to align its appraisal timelines with the regulatory process.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
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 Integrated Care Boards on (a) the impact of increases in the cost of living on people diagnosed with coeliac disease and (b) gluten free prescribing for people diagnosed with coeliac disease.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
No specific discussions have been had. The majority of services for patients with coeliac disease are commissioned locally by integrated care boards, who are best placed to plan the provision of services subject to local prioritisation and funding.
A range of gluten free staples are available on prescription. Approximately 89% of prescription items are currently dispensed free of charge and there is a wide range of exemptions from prescription charges already in place for those with the greatest need.