Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including material on (a) diagnosing and (b) detecting cardiovascular diseases in women's health hubs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No specific assessment has been made. We are investing £25 million in women’s health hubs, so that women can get better access to care for menstrual problems, contraception, menopause, and more. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services that meet the needs of their local population, and will determine the exact services that their women’s health hub will provide, so long as they deliver the core services set out in the Women’s Health Hubs: Core Specification, which is available at the following link:
Future expansion of women’s health hubs will reflect the need to meet women’s health needs holistically. This could also include developing care pathways into wider health and public services, including those for cardiovascular disease, however hubs should not create an additional step in the patient journey, or delay referral for specialist or urgent care where required.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help increase the availability of heart valve surgery for (a) women and (b) ethnic minorities.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England continues to work with its partners in raising awareness of aortic stenosis, with a particular focus on women. NHS England is also working to increase access to cardiac surgery. The breathlessness pathway, launched in April 2023, encourages general practitioners to examine all patients for the signs of valvular heart disease. Heart valve disease is a focus for cardiac networks, with pathways in in place to improve early detection of valve disease in the community.
In November 2023, a dedicated Heart Valve Disease (HVD) Expert Advisory Group was convened to provide NHS England’s Cardiac Transformation Programme with leadership, advice, quality assurance, expert review, and endorsement of the projects and deliverables that comprise the HVD workstream, with a focus on improving the speed and equity of access to high quality treatment for heart valve patients.
To improve the early detection and diagnosis of heart valve disease across England, including aortic stenosis, £2.3 billion has been committed to open 160 community diagnostic centres by March 2025. This will increase the volume of diagnostic activity and further reduce patient waiting times. The centres have delivered over 5 million additional tests since July 2021, including those that detect cardiovascular disease.
In addition, the National Health Service is investing in cardiac networks to support whole pathway improvements. These networks have been developed to take an evidenced based, clinically led, whole pathway approach to improvement, from prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and through to end-of-life care.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help increase awareness of the symptoms of heart valve disease in women.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England continues to work with its partners in raising awareness of aortic stenosis, with a particular focus on women. NHS England is also working to increase access to cardiac surgery. The breathlessness pathway, launched in April 2023, encourages general practitioners to examine all patients for the signs of valvular heart disease. Heart valve disease is a focus for cardiac networks, with pathways in in place to improve early detection of valve disease in the community.
In November 2023, a dedicated Heart Valve Disease (HVD) Expert Advisory Group was convened to provide NHS England’s Cardiac Transformation Programme with leadership, advice, quality assurance, expert review, and endorsement of the projects and deliverables that comprise the HVD workstream, with a focus on improving the speed and equity of access to high quality treatment for heart valve patients.
To improve the early detection and diagnosis of heart valve disease across England, including aortic stenosis, £2.3 billion has been committed to open 160 community diagnostic centres by March 2025. This will increase the volume of diagnostic activity and further reduce patient waiting times. The centres have delivered over 5 million additional tests since July 2021, including those that detect cardiovascular disease.
In addition, the National Health Service is investing in cardiac networks to support whole pathway improvements. These networks have been developed to take an evidenced based, clinically led, whole pathway approach to improvement, from prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and through to end-of-life care.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 16 November to Question 881 on Bowel Cancer: Screening, what her planned timetable is for publishing a decision on lowering the screening age for bowel cancer from 60 to 50 years old.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England started the lowering of age for bowel cancer screening in April 2021. The following table shows the rollout plan for the bowel screening:
Cohort age at first invitation | Year invitations start |
Age 56 | 2021/22 |
Age 58 | 2022/23 |
Age 54 | 2023/24 |
Age 50 and 52 | 2024/25 |
Note: The timeline may differ slightly from region to region
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 16 November to Question 881 on Bowel Cancer: Screening, when the last review of the national bowel cancer screening programme was completed; and what her planned timetable is for completing the next review.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) last looked at the evidence to optimise the population screening of bowel cancer in 2018. The Committee recommended screening every two years with the FIT test at 50 to 74 years old, rather than starting at 60 years old.
Since then, work has been underway to lower the bowel cancer screening age from 60 years old in a phased manner, so that by 2025, people aged 50 years old will receive a FIT test.
With these changes still being implemented, a date for the next review of bowel cancer screening has not yet been set. In the meantime, if any member of the public or stakeholder feels there should be further changes to the programme, these can be submitted via the UK NSC’s next annual call, which opens in summer 2024.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure women who use wheelchairs have access to mammograms.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is committed to improving the accessibility of the screening programmes it commissions under the Public Health Services (S7a) agreement, particularly for under-served groups in society.
Contractually, providers of screening services in the National Health Service are required to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that their services are accessible for people with disabilities. For example, the NHS breast screening service offers longer appointments at accessible sites to support women with physical disabilities.
Services make reasonable adjustments within the constraints of equipment, to ensure that disabled people are offered the opportunity to have breast screening, however there may be situations where this is not possible. Providers will deal with these on a case by case basis and offer an alternative approach as necessary.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 rates of breast screening participation in Yorkshire.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data on screening participation in Yorkshire is collected and assessed yearly by NHS England. Data is collected on screening coverage, the percentage of women adequately screened in the last three and a half years, and uptake which shows the percentage of women invited who attended screening within six months of their invitation. The latest data, which is from 2020/21 for Yorkshire, shows that uptake was 61.4%, with coverage being 64.4%.
The national targets for uptake are as follows:
- Acceptable level: greater than or equal to 70.0%
- Achievable level: greater than or equal to 80.0%
The national targets for coverage are as follows:
- Acceptable level: greater than or equal to 70.0%
- Achievable level: greater than or equal to 80.0%
Data is published by NHS England and available at the following link:
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the national bowel screening programme, when he plans to next review that programme; and whether he has plans to raise the acceptable and achievable bowel screening target thresholds in line with breast screening targets.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The national bowel cancer screening programme in England is currently revising all standards and as a part of this process current thresholds will be reviewed. This review will consider the lowering of the screening age for bowel cancer from 60 to 50 years old.
The process for setting standards involves the meeting of experts as well as meeting with stakeholders and interested parties to ensure the standards are evidence based, acceptable and realistic. Full details on how these standards are set is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/principles-of-population-screening/screening-standards
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 whether any hospitals in South Yorkshire contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Answered by Will Quince
The National Health Service has been surveying sites and undertaking reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) mitigation work since 2019 and has issued guidance for trusts nationally on how to establish the presence of RAAC in their estate. There is ongoing engagement with trusts on a national and regional level to ensure RAAC is identified across the NHS estate.
The Department has published a full list of hospitals with confirmed RAAC on GOV.UK, which is available at the following link:
As of 17 October, there is one hospital in South Yorkshire with confirmed RAAC, Barnsley Hospital. The trust has joined the national RAAC programme.
Where structural surveys identify RAAC in their estate, trusts are inducted into the national programme. Each site will be different, and just because RAAC is present, it does not necessarily mean there is a high risk.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to chapter 2 of the report entitled, Tipping Point: The Future of Dementia, published by Alzheimer’s Research UK in September 2023, whether he has considered the potential merits of taking steps to increase NHS capacity to diagnose dementia.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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 to support delivery of timely diagnoses within systems.