Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the availability in the UK of clinical expertise to treat scarlet fever and Kawasaki disease.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government published the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases in November 2013. The strategy contains over 50 commitments to ensure people living with a rare disease, such as Kawasaki disease, have access to the best evidence-based care and treatment that health and social services, working with charities, researchers and industry can provide.
It is the responsibility of the professional regulators to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricular to ensure newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. This includes training in both scarlet fever and Kawasaki disease.
Health Education England works with bodies that set curricula such as the General Medical Council and the Royal Colleges to seek to ensure training meets the needs of patients.
The Department and its arm’s length bodies have not published any specific guidance on the similarities between Kawasaki disease and scarlet fever.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline on the assessment and initial management of fever in under 5s sets out the circumstances in which a diagnosis of Kawasaki disease should be considered, and Public Health England (PHE) has endeavoured to keep healthcare professionals, schools and the general public informed of the increased incidence of scarlet fever through timely information, news stories and updates on the PHE website and by using social and other media. These awareness raising measures assist general practitioners and other frontline healthcare professionals in reaching a correct diagnosis more quickly and encourage patients to seek medical advice early so that suspected cases receive prompt antibiotic treatment to reduce the risk of complications and limit further transmission.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to support children with Kawasaki disease.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government published the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases in November 2013. The strategy contains over 50 commitments to ensure people living with a rare disease, such as Kawasaki disease, have access to the best evidence-based care and treatment that health and social services, working with charities, researchers and industry can provide.
It is the responsibility of the professional regulators to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricular to ensure newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. This includes training in both scarlet fever and Kawasaki disease.
Health Education England works with bodies that set curricula such as the General Medical Council and the Royal Colleges to seek to ensure training meets the needs of patients.
The Department and its arm’s length bodies have not published any specific guidance on the similarities between Kawasaki disease and scarlet fever.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline on the assessment and initial management of fever in under 5s sets out the circumstances in which a diagnosis of Kawasaki disease should be considered, and Public Health England (PHE) has endeavoured to keep healthcare professionals, schools and the general public informed of the increased incidence of scarlet fever through timely information, news stories and updates on the PHE website and by using social and other media. These awareness raising measures assist general practitioners and other frontline healthcare professionals in reaching a correct diagnosis more quickly and encourage patients to seek medical advice early so that suspected cases receive prompt antibiotic treatment to reduce the risk of complications and limit further transmission.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average amount of time taken for an autism diagnosis was in (a) Leeds, (b) Yorkshire and (c) England in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The information collected centrally about this is gathered as part of the Autism Self-Assessment Framework undertaken by Public Health England on behalf of the Department. This covers adults only and the first time this topic was included was 2013. In 2013 Leeds reported an average wait for referral to diagnostic services of 36 weeks. In 2014 Leeds reported that the average wait between referral and assessment in their autism diagnosis service was 14 weeks.
In view of the informal nature of the data collection and the incompleteness of responses, we do not routinely produce data aggregated to regional or England level.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in (a) Leeds and (b) Yorkshire have been diagnosed with autism.
Answered by Alistair Burt
This data is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that access to Everolimus for children with tuberous sclerosis complex-related kidney tumours is included in the NHS England draft commissioning policy on that drug.
Answered by George Freeman
The commissioning of most health services for children is the responsibility of local clinical commissioning groups. NHS England has the role of commissioning the specialised services which patients with tuberous sclerosis access. In addition clinical policies are developed for new treatments that potentially change the impact of the disease.
NHS England has approved, as an in year service development, the routine commissioning of Everolimus for angiomyolipomas associated with tuberous sclerosis. The policy statement will be published in the next few days which will define the clinical criteria for which access is supported.
A full clinical policy for the use of Everolimus for subependymal giant cell astrocytoma is currently out for public consultation. This policy proposition will be considered for investment in the annual prioritisation round in June 2016.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support his Department gives to children with tuberous sclerosis complex.
Answered by George Freeman
The commissioning of most health services for children is the responsibility of local clinical commissioning groups. NHS England has the role of commissioning the specialised services which patients with tuberous sclerosis access. In addition clinical policies are developed for new treatments that potentially change the impact of the disease.
NHS England has approved, as an in year service development, the routine commissioning of Everolimus for angiomyolipomas associated with tuberous sclerosis. The policy statement will be published in the next few days which will define the clinical criteria for which access is supported.
A full clinical policy for the use of Everolimus for subependymal giant cell astrocytoma is currently out for public consultation. This policy proposition will be considered for investment in the annual prioritisation round in June 2016.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) pharmacy closures and (b) job losses caused by planned reductions to the community pharmacy budget.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Community pharmacy is a vital part of the National Health Service and can play an even greater role. In the Spending Review the Government re-affirmed the need for the NHS to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of services including public access to medicines. Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.
Our proposals are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. A consequence may be the closure of some pharmacies but that is not our aim.
We are not able to assess which pharmacies may close or the number of people who may lose their jobs, because we do not know the financial viability of individual businesses or the extent to which they derive income from services commissioned locally by the NHS or local authorities or have non-NHS related income.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
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 on patient access to medicines of planned reductions to the community pharmacy budget.
Answered by Alistair Burt
Community pharmacy is a vital part of the National Health Service and can play an even greater role. In the Spending Review the Government re-affirmed the need for the NHS to deliver £22 billion in efficiency savings by 2020/21 as set out in the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View. Community pharmacy is a core part of NHS primary care and has an important contribution to make as the NHS rises to these challenges. The Government believes efficiencies can be made without compromising the quality of services including public access to medicines. Our aim is to ensure that those community pharmacies upon which people depend continue to thrive and so we are consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.
Our proposals are about improving services for patients and the public and securing efficiencies and savings. A consequence may be the closure of some pharmacies but that is not our aim.
We are not able to assess which pharmacies may close or the number of people who may lose their jobs, because we do not know the financial viability of individual businesses or the extent to which they derive income from services commissioned locally by the NHS or local authorities or have non-NHS related income.
Asked by: Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent progress has been made on access to Translarna in discussions between NICE, NHS England and the relevant pharmaceutical company.
Answered by George Freeman
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently evaluating Translarna (ataluren) for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy through its highly specialised technology programme. The publication date for NICE’s final guidance is to be confirmed.
NHS England has advised that it is in constructive discussions with the pharmaceutical company about the development of a managed access agreement for Translarna and a progress update will be given at the next NICE Evaluation Committee meeting on 17 February 2016.
In the absence of guidance from NICE, it is for commissioners to make decisions on whether to fund medicines based on an assessment of the available evidence.