Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce unplanned admission rates for heart failure.
Answered by David Mowat
NHS England is working with key partners to ensure better co-ordination and integration of all services with the aim of delivering person centred and coordinated care for both men and women, which is tailored to their individual needs and preferences and those of their carer and family.
To support clinicians in the diagnosis and management of heart failure, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published Chronic Heart failure in Adults: Management, and Acute Heart Failure: Diagnosis and Management.
Both sets of guidance highlight the importance of specialist multidisciplinary heart failure teams in the management of patients in order to provide an integrated approach to patient care that is available both in hospital and in the community. The NICE guidance can be found at the following links:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg108/resources/chronic-heart-failure-in-adults-management-35109335688901
To encourage better practice in the caring for heart failure patients, NHS England has established a best practice tariff for non-elective admissions for heart failure to support improved adherence to NICE guidance.
Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of the prevalence of heart failure (a) nationally and (b) in The Cotswolds constituency.
Answered by David Mowat
The heart failure prevalence figures are not collected or published for parliamentary constituencies.
The clinical commissioning group (CCG) of NHS Gloucestershire, which includes the Cotswold constituency area, the prevalence of heart failure recorded by the heart failure primary care register in the general practitioner Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) in 2015/16 was 0.77%.
In England the heart failure prevalence was recorded in the QOF registers as 0.76%, but published evidence1 suggests that this number of people known to general practices is higher in the United Kingdom, approximately 1.22% in men and 0.76% in women, over 558,000 people.
Note:
1 Bhatnagar P, Wickramasinghe K, Williams J, Rayner M, Townsend N. The epidemiology of cardiovascular disease in the UK 2014. Heart 2015;101:1182-1189
Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will place in the Library (a) agendas and (b) minutes of meetings of the NHS England Industry Council; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The Industry Council was established by NHS England in late 2013 to build a more effective and mutually beneficial relationship with the life sciences industry. The Council met three times in 2014.
Given the informal networking nature of the meetings, we understand that minutes were not taken. Outline programmes were however prepared in advance, detailing the speakers and areas of work to be covered, and these are attached.
NHS England is an independent body which determines its own arrangements for liaison with its stakeholders. NHS England continues to support formal engagement with industry through Department of Health led forums including the Ministerial Industry Strategy Group and the Ministerial Medical Technology Strategy Group.
Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he plans next to publish a report on international comparisons of medicines usage; at what frequency he will publish such reports; what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the most recently published report; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
International comparisons of medicines usage are included in the annual publication of the life science competitiveness indicators. This report is published annually, it was last published in March 2015, and the next publication will be inMarch 2016. This provides comparisons of the usage of innovative National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved medicines per head of the population, over time. It does not make adjustments for the prices of medicines and the level of expenditure on medicines in different countries or the financial sustainability of different levels of uptake.
The Accelerated Access Review (AAR) is looking at ways to revolutionise the speed at which 21st century innovations in medicines, medical technologies and digital products get to National Health Service patients and their families. As part of the AAR, RAND Europe completed a piece of work to explore learning from international comparators on how to accelerate access to innovative drugs and medical technologies. This informed much of our early stakeholder engagement and scoping work. The AAR has commissioned a further piece of research to look at best practice international funding and reimbursement models, including testing how these could be applicable to this country’s health and care system.
Link to competitiveness indicators March 2015 publication:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/life-science-sector-data
RAND Europe – Improving Access to Medical Technologies – An International Review:
Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the timescale is on the rollout of the Meningitis B Bexsero Vaccine; what recent discussions he has had on making this vaccine available to teenage student groups; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The national meningococcal B (MenB) immunisation programme for infants is planned to start in England in September 2015. We will be confirming details shortly.
The Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has not recommended the use of MenB vaccine in other age groups. However, JCVI did advise that further research is needed into the effectiveness of the MenB vaccine, Bexsero® in preventing transmission of infection in adolescents. The Department is working with JCVI, Public Health England and groups currently conducting research into meningococcal carriage, to address JCVI’s advice.
Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will provide an update of his Department's negotiations with Novartis on finding a cost-effective price for the Bexsero vaccine; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department is continuing negotiations with the manufacturer to seek supply of the meningococcal B vaccine, Bexsero® at a cost effective price as recommended by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. These negotiations will be completed as soon as practicable.
Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on studies which have been carried out on the efficacy of the drug pemetrexed; if his Department will again make that drug available on the NHS; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for providing advice to the NHS on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of health technologies. It has published guidance on Pemetrexed for types of lung cancer, and recommends its use to some patients based on certain clinical criteria.
There is a legal requirement on the National Health Service to provide funding for treatments and drugs recommended by NICE technology appraisal guidance within three months of the NICE technology appraisal guidance being published.
Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the sale of the Bexsero form of meningococcal group B vaccine to GlaxoSmithKline on (a) his Department's negotiations with Novartis on a price for the vaccine and (b) the roll out of that vaccine.
Answered by Jane Ellison
As the commercial negotiations with Novartis are confidential and this includes any assessments made to inform the negotiations, it is not possible to provide the information requested.
Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many intensive care places in the UK have been occupied by Meningitis B patients since January 2013.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available for England is shown in the following table. Information for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is a matter for the Devolved Administrations.
Number of critical care periods and critical care bed days with a primary diagnosis of meningitis for the period April 2013-March 2014 (provisional data):
Diagnosis | Critical care periods | Critical care bed days |
Viral meningitis | 22 | 72 |
Bacterial meningitis | 238 | 1,572 |
Other /unspecified causes | 56 | 317 |
Occurring in another disease | 110 | 653 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre
Notes:
1. Meningococcal B disease is caused by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis. Information on usage of critical care beds resulting from meningococcal B disease is not separately identifiable. Information on meningococcal septicaemia has not been provided.
2. The data provided covers English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.
3. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital.
4. The following International Classification of Disease (ICD)-10 codes have been used to define meningitis:
A87 Viral meningitis
G00 Bacterial meningitis, not elsewhere classified
G03 Meningitis due to other and unspecified causes
G01.X* Meningitis in bacterial diseases classified elsewhere (in the 1st or 2nd position)
G02* Meningitis in other infectious and parasitic disease classified elsewhere (in the 1st or 2nd position)
Asked by: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average daily cost is of keeping a patient in an intensive care unit.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The information is shown in the following table. It is from reference costs, which are the average unit costs to National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year to NHS patients. Reference costs for acute care are collected by healthcare resource groups (HRGs), which are standard groupings of clinically similar treatments that consume similar levels of healthcare resource. HRGs for critical care, which are organised into neonatal, paediatric and adult critical care, represent the daily cost of the part of the patient’s stay that requires care in a designated critical care bed. Adult critical care is further differentiated into burns, spinal injuries, and all other critical care units. The HRGs cover critical care areas, such as an intensive therapy unit or high dependency unit, but may include temporary, non-standard locations.
Average daily cost of critical care in England, 2012-13:
| Average unit cost per day |
Neonatal critical care | £645 |
Paediatric critical care | £1,494 |
Adult critical care: burns intensive care units | £1,984 |
Adult critical care: spinal injury intensive care units | £887 |
Adult critical care: all other adult critical care units | £1,168 |
Source: Reference costs, Department of Health