Asked by: Gloria De Piero (Labour - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the one-year survival rates are for women diagnosed with cervical cancer following (a) a routine smear test and (b) diagnosis by other means.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Cervical screening is not a test for cancer. Cervical screening detects abnormalities within the cervix that could, if undetected and untreated, develop into cervical cancer. It is unusual to detect an invasive cervical cancer on a screening test and this would need to be confirmed by a diagnostic test.
For those cervical cancers which are detected through screening, the one-year relative survival is 99%. This compares to 86% for all cervical cancers; 83% for those diagnosed after a Two Week Wait referral; and 45% for those diagnosed as an emergency.
Asked by: Gloria De Piero (Labour - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of increasing the minimum age for women receiving smear tests to 25 on cervical cancer detection rates in women under that age.
Answered by Jane Ellison
In 2012 the United Kingdom National Screening Committee made a recommendation that the age of first invitation for cervical screening should be 25. This was based on a review which looked at the latest available evidence on risks and benefits for cervical screening in women aged 20-24.
Asked by: Gloria De Piero (Labour - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the take-up rate is of the HPV vaccine for girls in (a) Ashfield constituency, (b) Nottinghamshire and (c) the UK.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Data for the Mansfield and Ashfield Clinical Commissioning Group are included within the Nottinghamshire Local Authority, which is within the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Area Team.
The uptake rates for the first dose of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine given to Year 8 girls (12-13 year olds) from 1 September 2014 to 31 August 2015 are:
Nottinghamshire local authority: 89.1%;
South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Area Team: 90.0%; and
United Kingdom: 89.5%.
The latest published figures for the HPV vaccination programme cover the 2014/15 academic year, and show the uptake rate for the first dose of this two dose programme. Vaccine uptake data covering the second dose will not be available until autumn 2016.
Asked by: Gloria De Piero (Labour - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps are being taken to address the downward trend in cervical cancer screening uptake.
Answered by Jane Ellison
There is a range of work going on to understand the reasons for the decline and to try to address them. This includes:
- Data and information – access to data, cleansing, benchmarking for providers, timely and useful for commissioners;
- behavioural insight – communication with commissioners, providers, patients, public;
- commissioning levers – commissioning contracts in public health (S7a), primary care;
- partnership work – relationships with commissioners and providers; and
- sharing best practice – what works well, evaluation, how to embed quality improvement
Public Health England Screening is also awaiting the outcome from the Strategies to Increase Cervical screening uptake at first invitation (STRATEGIC) trial which looks at various interventions to help assist women to attend screening and increase uptake across all quintiles. The trial was completed in 2015 and researchers are expected to publish findings later this year.
Asked by: Gloria De Piero (Labour - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many women in Ashfield constituency have had cervical smears in each of the last five calendar years; and what the average number and proportion of women who have had those smears is in all parliamentary constituencies.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Cervical screening data is provided at local authority (LA) level.
The screening coverage trend for Ashfield and other LAs in the last five years for women age appropriate can be accessed using the following link:
Manipulation of the tool is necessary for obtaining information for other LAs.
Asked by: Gloria De Piero (Labour - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the NHS's policy is on prescribing gluten-free food items to coeliacs; and whether any changes have recently been made to the allowance for such items.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Gluten-free foods are available on National Health Service prescription to patients with established gluten-sensitive enteropathies. The Department provides general practitioners (GPs) and other prescribers with a list of recommended gluten-free products to help patients, including those with coeliac disease, to manage their condition but does not issue guidance on the number of units that should be prescribed.
Prescribing decisions are a matter for GPs and other prescribers. Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) set local guidelines on the number of units to be prescribed for their patients, depending upon age, sex and individual clinical circumstances. A national charity – Coeliac UK – publishes guidelines on the dietary requirements for coeliac patients which can help inform CCG local decisions.
GPs should always satisfy themselves that the medicines or other substances they consider appropriate for their patients can be safely prescribed and that patients are adequately monitored.
Asked by: Gloria De Piero (Labour - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether Nottingham Emergency Medical Services and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust will receive further funding from the Government to provide any extra services in Ashfield and Mansfield required as a result of Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Services no longer providing such services.
Answered by Ben Gummer
This is a matter for local National Health Service commissioners.
NHS England advises that Mansfield and Ashfield Clinical Commissioning Group’s contract with the caretaker providers has been established on the same basis as the previous contract with Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Services.
Asked by: Gloria De Piero (Labour - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the implications are for his policy on private NHS contractors carrying out healthcare services of the failure of Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Services to be able to continue to provide such services; what steps his Department is taking to ensure that other such contractors continue to provide the services for which they are contracted; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for securing the provision of services to meet the needs of their population. The Department expects CCGs to hold providers to account in a way which works effectively in their area.
CCGs are free to commission services from the provider that they feel offers the best services for the local population in line with the legislative framework. We do not anticipate that the failure of Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Services will affect this policy.
Asked by: Gloria De Piero (Labour - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure an acceptable level of care for patients in Ashfield constituency following changes to the provision of urgent out-of-hours GP and care home support services provided by Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Services.
Answered by Ben Gummer
This is a matter for the National Health Service locally. Mansfield and Ashfield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) advises that the needs of people in Ashfield are now being met by Nottingham Emergency Medical Services, which is providing urgent and
out-of-hours care, and by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s care home support service.
The CCG advises that it took all necessary action as soon as it knew that Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Services (CNCS) was no longer in a position to continue providing services. Despite very short notice of the extent of CNCS’s difficulties, the CCG states that it has safely executed a smooth handover of services. It has rigorously monitored the quality of the caretaker providers’ performance during the handover, and will continue to do so.
The CCG will now review procurement options for the long-term delivery of local out-of-hours and urgent care services.
Asked by: Gloria De Piero (Labour - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will receive further funding from the Government to provide any extra A&E care required as a result of Central Nottinghamshire Clinical Services no longer providing such care.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Additional funding for Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (SFHFT) would be a matter for the local clinical commissioning groups.
NHS England advises that SFHFT has neither requested nor received additional funding as a result of the new caretaker arrangements. Nottingham Emergency Medical Services, the new caretaker provider of out of hours urgent care services at King’s Mill and Newark hospitals, has met the needs of the patients.
We are advised by NHS England that in the period since the handover took place there has been no material impact on the performance of either SFHFT or the mid Nottinghamshire health and social care system against the national four-hour accident and emergency standard.