Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on staffing levels in the NHS.
Answered by Steve Barclay
NHS Digital publishes data on the nationality of staff working in the National Health Service in England and the latest figures show that there were over 3,200 more European Union nationals working in the NHS in September 2017 than before the referendum result.
The Government is committed to ensuring that the NHS and social care system have the nurses, midwives, doctors, carers and other health professionals that it needs.
We continue to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels across the NHS and adult social care, and we are working across Government to ensure there will continue to be sufficient staff to deliver the high quality services on which patients rely following the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU.
On 8 December, the UK and EU Commission reached an agreement which delivered on the Prime Minister’s number one priority, to safeguard the rights of people who have built their lives in the UK and EU, following the UK’s exit from the EU.
The agreement will guarantee the rights of the 150,000 EU nationals working in our health and care system. It means that EU citizens living lawfully in the UK and UK nationals living lawfully in the EU by 29 March 2019 will be able to stay and enjoy broadly the same rights and benefits as they do now.
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
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 effectiveness of Kalydeco as a treatment for people with cystic fibrosis.
Answered by Steve Brine
During the last five years, NHS England commissioned a health technology assessment to review the clinical evidence for Kalydeco (Ivacaftor) and decided at the time that it would support its use to treat one gene mutation. Subsequently it has broadened use for other gene mutations following further evidence reviews.
For commissioned drugs such as Kalydeco (Ivacaftor) for named mutations, prescribing decisions are made by multidisciplinary teams in hospitals commissioned by NHS England to provide specialised services for adults and children with cystic fibrosis.
NHS England is investing significant resources into the provision of Kalydeco which works directly on the genes causing cystic fibrosis and in medicines that reduce the impact of the disease.
NHS England and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust jointly collect outcomes data through the Cystic Fibrosis Registry to inform better management of the disease.
Information about specialised National Health Service commissioning is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-a/a01/
Asked by: Hugh Gaffney (Labour - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has to increase support for people with mental health conditions over the next two years.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Government is committed to improving mental health provision across England. We are driving an ambitious programme of work under the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, which includes delivering a major expansion of services.
This programme includes enhancing liaison psychiatry in accident and emergency (A&E), so that patients presenting at A&E with a mental health crisis will have access to psychiatric liaison to ensure they get the right treatment as quickly as possible. It will also expand crisis resolution and home treatment teams, so that people can expect support to be available as a safe and effective alternative to hospital, and improve perinatal mental health services for women during pregnancy and in the first postnatal year, so that women are able to access the right care at the right time and close to home.