Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to include musculoskeletal services in the Getting It Right First Time programme.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not directly set the scope of the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme as it sits within NHS England’s formal structure. The scope of workstreams for the programme is directed by NHS England, in discussion with key stakeholders.
The programme undertakes clinically led reviews of specialties, including musculoskeletal (MSK) services. These reviews combine wide-ranging data and analysis with the input and expertise of senior clinicians to examine effectiveness of current services and identify opportunities for improvement.
In 2021, NHS England launched The BestMSK Health Collaborative, which aimed to recover and rebuild high-quality, high-value personalised MSK provision, integrated across primary, community and secondary care and with mental health, social services and third sector organisations. This programme closed at the end of September 2022, and key workstreams were subsumed by the GIRFT programme from October.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
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 give Integrated Care Systems flexibility to deliver bespoke vaccination programmes.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government is committed to improving vaccination uptake rates to fully protect the public from vaccine preventable diseases, in part through making it as easy as possible for people to get vaccinated.
There is ongoing work as part of the NHS England future vaccine strategy to look at more local solutions to vaccine delivery. This may include integrated care boards taking a more active role in vaccine delivery.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the percentage of seasonal flu vaccinations which can be delivered by (a) Community Pharmacies, (b) General Practice, (c) other providers.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS providers determine how many seasonal flu vaccines to buy each year based on their local populations, eligible cohorts and uptake ambitions for the NHS programme as outlined in the annual flu system letter. The letter, published on the 25 May 2023, is based on the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) who review the latest evidence on flu vaccines and advise on the type of vaccine to be offered to different age groups and on which vaccines should be prioritised for various at-risk groups.
General Practitioners and community pharmacists are responsible for ordering their own flu vaccines for the adult population from suppliers. These are then used to deliver the national flu vaccination programme, with deliveries phased through the season to help mitigate against risks of wastage, cold chain failure and to adequately cover the peaks and flows of local demand. In addition, Hospital Trusts are commissioned at local discretion, to further support delivery of the national flu vaccination programme, for example to women who are pregnant, long stay in-patients and those accessing outpatients' services.
School Age Immunisation Services (SAIS) are commissioned regionally to deliver the school aged influenza programme in line with the annual flu system letter and amendment published on the July 3, 2023. The school age programme for 2023/24 includes primary school aged children from Reception to Year 6 and secondary school-aged children in Years 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. Vaccines for the children’s programme are procured nationally with SAIS
providers responsible for drawing down their own vaccines according to their schedules, capacity and demand, with deliveries phased through the season to help mitigate against risks of wastage and cold chain failure.
For in detail seasonal influenza percentage uptake delivered by (a) Community Pharmacies, (b) General Practice, (c) other providers please see page 41 and 42 of the following link:
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of not offering free flu vaccinations to 50 to 64-year-olds on (a) public health, (b) the economy (c) the NHS and (d) social care capacity.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department is guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on the approach to the seasonal flu vaccination programme in England. Details about the flu vaccination programme for 2023/24, including which groups will be eligible for a free vaccine and the vaccines that will be reimbursable to National Health Service providers, were published on 25 May 2023. The groups eligible for a free flu vaccine for the 2023 to 2024 season include those aged 65 years old and over and those aged six months old to under 65 years old in clinical risk groups.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, eligibility for the influenza programme was temporarily extended to include all adults aged between 50 and 64 years old to protect the population from the potential threat of cocirculation of COVID-19 and influenza, and to alleviate pressure on the NHS. In the JCVI’s advice for the 2023/24 programme published in November 2022, it stated that whilst there would be a health benefit in vaccinating low-risk 50- to 64-year-olds, it is uncertain whether this would be cost effective, and that the overall priority should be to extend the childhood programme in secondary schools as this would be more cost effective and likely to have a greater impact on morbidity and mortality compared with vaccinating 50- to 64-year-olds.
Whilst there was no quantitative assessment made of additional indirect benefits to public health, the economy and NHS and social care capacity of not offering flu vaccinations to 50- to 64-year-olds this year, we did take into consideration qualitative evidence, including the benefits of seasonal flu vaccination on reducing winter pressures, when making our overall assessment. The Department will continue to be guided by JCVI advice on cost effectiveness.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with integrated care boards on the future of the NHS England Children’s Hospice Grant.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is investing £25 million in the grant this financial year, to provide care closer to home for those seriously ill as and when they need it. NHS England has now confirmed that it will be renewing the grant for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million grant funding for children’s hospices. NHS England will confirm the funding mechanism and individual hospice allocations in due course.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
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 14 June 2023 to Question 188489 on Pharmacy, what his timetable is for implementation of secondary legislation on the hub and spoke model; and whether the legislation will apply to all parts of Great Britain.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We are finalising our response to the consultation and the timetable for bringing forward the implementing of the legislation. The intention is that the legislation will apply in all parts of the United Kingdom, but that will be dependent on the availability of parliamentary time across the four nations.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
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 increase rheumatology services’ access to podiatry services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The composition of rheumatology teams is for local determination.
NHS England is working with The Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme. The GIRFT report published in February 2021, on rheumatology recommends that patients have the right to a podiatrist and can access podiatry services, alongside other healthcare professionals, through a single named contact. This implementation of the recommendation is ongoing.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
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 help increase (a) the number of sports and exercise consultants and (b) access to sports and exercise medicine.
Answered by Will Quince
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston on 14 June 2023 to Question 187999.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
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 expand the number of allied health professionals working within rheumatology teams.
Answered by Will Quince
The composition of rheumatology teams is for local determination. In 2021/22, the Health Education England (HEE) National AHP Workforce Supply Project (2021/22) delivered recruitment initiatives including improved return to practice pathways, pre-registration apprenticeships and more jobs for new graduates. A HEE national programme started in 2022/23 to support National Health Service trusts with allied health professionals (AHP) international recruitment.
The AHPs Strategy for England ‘AHP’s Deliver 2022-2027’ was published in June 2022, one of the key ambitions is to promote the wellbeing of AHPs. HEE is developing Advanced Practice Credentials for Allied Health Professionals, this supports retention of staff through increased job satisfaction and improved quality of care, by enhancing AHP clinical and leadership skills.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the efficacy of smoking cessation (a) products and (b) approaches; and what research his Department has commissioned into the efficacy of smoking cessation (i) products and (ii) approaches.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The assessment of the efficacy of smoking cessation products and approaches are presented in the evidence review for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline ‘Tobacco: preventing uptake, promoting quitting and treating dependence’ published 30 November 2021 available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng209/evidence/evidence-reviews-11188110061?tab=evidence
Through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the Department regularly commissions research into the efficacy of smoking cessation products and approaches. Active NIHR projects include:
- Effectiveness of Electronic Cigarettes compared with combination nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease And effect on Lung health (ECAL study);
- Effects of e-cigarettes vs usual care for smoking cessation when offered at homeless centres: A cluster randomised controlled trial;
- Cessation of Smoking Trial in the Emergency Department (CoSTED); and
- Do e-cigarettes help smokers quit when not accompanied by intensive behavioural support?
The NIHR is also the largest funder of the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group which conducts systematic reviews of the evidence on interventions to prevent and treat tobacco addiction.