Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
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 help mitigate the effect of pension taxation on the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
I laid provided a Written Ministerial Statement (HCWS1587) on 4 June 2019 setting out the interim People Plan for the National Health Service. As part of this, it was announced that the Department would publish a consultation exploring proposals to introduce greater pension flexibility for clinicians in the NHS Pension Scheme. Increased flexibility is designed to address disincentives that may encourage senior clinicians to limit or reduce their workloads whilst participating in the NHS Pension Scheme.
The consultation will propose a 50:50 option which is intended to provide increased flexibility to clinicians regarding the growth of their NHS Pension Scheme benefits. This option will offer a 50% pension accrual and halved contributions. It was requested by the British Medical Association earlier this year, and they have welcomed this as a step in the right direction.
Retaining and maximising the contribution of our highly-skilled clinical workforce is crucial to the delivery of the ambitions for patient care set out in the Long Term Plan for the NHS. Accordingly, the Government is prepared to provide pension flexibility that appropriately balances the benefit of new flexibilities with their affordability to the public purse.
The consultation period will be an opportunity to listen to a range of views before reaching a final proposition that works for both staff and taxpayers. The Department encourages staff and employers to engage with our consultation when it opens this month.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to allow a wider range of support workers to distribute and sign parents' application forms to increase the take-up of healthy start vouchers.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
We are developing a digital approach to Healthy Start, which should make it easier for families to apply for, receive and use Healthy Start benefits. As part of the digitisation process, we are developing and testing an online application form to replace the current paper form.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
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 May 2019 to Question 254153 on prescriptions: universal credit, when the new NHS prescription form will be introduced; and whether the new form will be used throughout the UK.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
A revised version of the FP10 prescription form, featuring a dedicated tick-box for use by Universal Credit (UC) claimants who meet the criteria for free National Health Service prescriptions, has been approved by Ministers.
Any change involves major system and software updates across the NHS to allow the re-designed form to be used and processed. The revised paper form is currently being prepared for testing, to ensure it is compatible with the scanners used by the NHS Business Services Authority.
The revised form will be introduced at the earliest opportunity. The new form is for use in England only.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on ensuring that medical cannabis is available to people who need it.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The law was changed on 1 November 2018 to allow clinicians on the General Medical Council’s ‘Specialist Register’ to prescribe cannabis-based products for medicinal use, where clinically appropriate and in the best interest of patients.
Interim clinical guidance has been issued by the Royal College of Physicians, the British Paediatric Neurology Association and the Association of British Neurologists to support doctors looking to prescribe cannabis-based products. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has been commissioned to develop updated clinical guidance on the prescribing of cannabis-based medicinal products, which will be published by October 2019. It will be based on the best available international evidence and will have been produced using NICE’s world-renowned process for delivering such guidance.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) national and (b) regional supplies of radionuclide chemicals.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The Department is not aware of any disruption to the supply of medical radionuclide chemicals (radioisotopes) at a national level. However, the Department does not hold information about the volume of any of medical radioisotopes that are currently available at a national or regional level.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
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 ensure that all patients who would benefit from medical cannabis are able to access that treatment on prescription on the NHS.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
Cannabis-based products for medicinal use are no different from other medicines, and existing systems for the funding of both licensed and unlicensed medicines apply.
Any medicines which receive a marketing authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency or European Medicines Agency will be assessed for cost effectiveness by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. This is the foundation of National Health Service decisions about routine funding, and applies to all licensed medicines. For unlicensed medicines, the normal NHS medicines governance systems apply, as they do to all locally funded unlicensed treatments. These processes support good clinical practice and safe and effective prescribing. Decisions will be taken, at NHS Trust level on a case by case basis, based on the needs of the individual patient and the evidence of efficacy and cost effectiveness available.
My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has heard patients report difficulties in accessing medicinal cannabis. As a result, he asked the Department to work closely with NHS England to undertake a rapid process evaluation. This is underway and will review NHS system processes to identify and make recommendations to address any barriers to clinically appropriate prescribing, should they exist.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish the Green Paper on social care funding.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
As people live longer than ever before, sometimes with complex care needs, we need to ensure the social care system is sustainable in the longer term. The Green Paper remains a priority for the Government. We are continuing to work on it closely, taking the time to consult with key stakeholders and take their feedback into consideration. As such, it will be published at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the level of child tooth decay was in (a) Birkenhead, (b) Bootle and (c) Crewe in each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
Data on the level of child tooth decay in five-year-old children are published at upper and lower-tier local authority level and, therefore, are not available in the format requested.
Local authority data for 2014/15 and 2016/17 is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/oral-health-survey-of-5-year-old-children-2014-to-2015
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/oral-health-survey-of-5-year-old-children-2017
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timetable is for the conclusion of negotiations between NHS England, NICE and Vertex on access to (a) Orkambi and (b) Symkevi for people with cystic fibrosis.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
NHS England provided an update to the Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC) of the House of Commons on 23 May 2019, which can be found at the following link:
This update informed the HSCC that a revised and improved offer had been made to Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Discussions between Vertex, NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) are ongoing.
The Government fully supports NICE and NHS England in seeking to ensure access for patients to effective and innovative medicines at a price that represents value to the National Health Service, and expects companies to engage realistically with NHS England and NICE regarding pricing issues. Where companies engage positively and show appropriate flexibility, it is possible to find a way to enable access to important treatments in a way that is also cost effective for the NHS.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
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 13 May 2019 to Question 249855 on Blood: Contamination, whether any treatment is offered to donors whose blood donation tests are positive for infection.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS Blood and Transplant’s Clinical Support Team provides support and advice for any donor whose blood donation tests positive for infection.
The donor will be asked to discuss the result with one of NHS Blood and Transplant’s Clinical Support Team clinical staff and, with the donor’s consent, NHS Blood and Transplant’s Clinical Support Team will arrange a referral to their general practitioner or a specialist, who will discuss the need for any treatment with the donor.