Asked by: Iain Wright (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to increase the supply of the BCG vaccine for the treatment of patients affected by bladder cancer; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Freeman
The supply problems with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) bladder instillations are affecting countries worldwide, and have arisen due to manufacturing problems. One of the two United Kingdom licensed BCG bladder instillations has been unavailable since 2012, and the manufacturer of the other has increased its production as far as possible to help meet the shortfall. The Department and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency are working closely with both suppliers, as well as others in the supply chain, to ensure that everything possible is being done to make supplies available for patients who need this treatment. The Department has also been in close contact with the British Association of Urological Surgeons who have issued advice for clinicians.
Asked by: Iain Wright (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in (a) Hartlepool and (b) the North East had to wait on trolleys for more than 12 hours to be admitted to a hospital ward in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Data from November 2010 onwards is available in the NHS England weekly accident and emergency (A&E) performance reports, which are published online at:
http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/
Prior to this period A&E data was collected quarterly from 2001-02 and this can be found at:
Asked by: Iain Wright (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time is for mental health talking therapies in (a) Hartlepool constituency and (b) the North East.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table. The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) dataset contains information on referrals to IAPT services which provide talking therapies. Information is provided both for Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) and for all 12 North East CCGs combined for the year 2013/14. Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees CCG includes Hartlepool constituency and the CCG is the smallest geographical breakdown available.
The number of referrals entering treatment1 in the year, with mean and median waiting times (days), for IAPT services in 2013/14. Data shown for NHS Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees CCG and all North East CCGs combined2. |
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Organisation name | Referrals entering treatment | Mean3 waiting time to first treatment appointment (days) | Median3 waiting time to first treatment appointment (days) |
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NHS Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees CCG | 7,050 | 27 | 11 |
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All North East CCGs combined | 50,845 | 25 | 11 |
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1In order to enter treatment a referral must have a first treatment appointment (an appointment with a therapy type recorded) in the year. | ||||
2CCG is based on general practitioner (GP) Practice. Where GP Practice is not recorded, or cannot be assigned to a CCG, the referral is categorised as 'Unknown'. | ||||
3Means and medians have been rounded to the nearest whole number. | ||||
Notes:
Waiting time is measured by counting the number of days between a referral being received and the first treatment appointment. For 2013/14, the presence of a valid therapy type is used as an indicator of whether treatment was provided in the course of the appointment.
Entering treatment figures are rounded to the nearest 5.
It is generally advised that the median is used as the more reliable measure of average waiting time, as this accounts better for any outliers in the data.
Source: IAPT Dataset, Health and Social Care Information Centre
Asked by: Iain Wright (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many nurses in North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust have had their pay downgraded as a consequence of national consultations; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Dan Poulter
No nurses have had their pay downgraded as a result of national consultations. Banding of nursing posts is a matter for local employers, involving local Trade Unions, using the Agenda for Change job evaluation framework.
We have written to Paul Garvin, Chair of the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, informing him of the hon. Member’s enquiry. He will reply shortly and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library.
Asked by: Iain Wright (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what mechanisms are in place for engagement and joint working between NICE and the Scottish Medicines Consortium for (a) sharing best practice in the early access of medicines in the UK, (b) avoiding duplication in the licensing of medicines and (c) promotion of the UK for inward investment into research, clinical trials and manufacture of medicines.
Answered by George Freeman
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides guidance and advice to improve health and social care in England and details of how NICE works with other organisations to fulfil its statutory functions can be found in its framework agreement available at:
NICE does not have a formal agreement with the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) but wherever appropriate will engage with the SMC, and in particular will invite the SMC to be a stakeholder in guidance development.
NICE supports the early access of medicines in a number of ways. In addition to formal guidance on new treatments, NICE also publishes Evidence Summaries on new medicines on a monthly basis to support the introduction of new medicines and existing medicines with new indications. Since 2012, NICE has published over 140 evidence summaries on new medicines.
NICE is not responsible for the licensing of medicines but works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency which issues the marketing authorisation (licence) for all new medicines to ensure information on the safety and effectiveness of those medicines being evaluated by NICE is shared appropriately to facilitate decision making in timely fashion.
With regard to the promotion of inward investment into research, clinical trials and manufacture of medicines, NICE provides a fee-for-service consultation to pharmaceutical companies to advise on early product development plans on whether these will generate relevant evidence for future submissions to NICE and other evaluations to enable market access. To date, NICE has worked with over 30 different organisations in a wide variety of clinical areas.
Asked by: Iain Wright (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent representations he has received on hospital services in the North East of England.
Answered by Dan Poulter
A search of the Department’s Ministerial correspondence database has identified 14 items of correspondence received since 1 October 2014 about the reconfiguration of hospital services in the North East. This is a minimum figure which represents correspondence received by the Department’s Ministerial correspondence unit only. There have been six Parliamentary Questions and one Parliamentary Petition. There have been no meetings with Ministers.
Asked by: Iain Wright (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to his announcement on 20 November 2014 of an Innovative Medicines and MedTech Review, launched on 20 November 2014, what the formal terms of reference are for the review and what the deadline is for the review to report.
Answered by George Freeman
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement that I made on 20 November 2014, Official Report, column 14WS. The review of the pathways for the development, assessment, and adoption of innovative medicines and medical technology will consider how to speed up access for National Health Service patients to cost-effective new diagnostics, medicines and devices.
The Government is working to establish the formal terms of reference for the review. These will be published in due course. The exact structure of the review is currently being considered and, as appropriate, procurements will be through standard departmental procurement processes.
The review will set out both short and long-term options for action by Government and relevant bodies — including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and NHS England. Officials are already working with these bodies and will continue to do so as the review progresses.
The review will take into account a wide range of evidence to draw up its recommendations. We anticipate an initial report before the autumn.
Asked by: Iain Wright (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to his announcement on 20 November 2014 of an Innovative Medicines and MedTech Review, if he will ensure that the review will take into consideration the conclusions of NICE following its consideration of responses to the Value-Based Assessment consultation.
Answered by George Freeman
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement that I made on 20 November 2014, Official Report, column 14WS. The review of the pathways for the development, assessment, and adoption of innovative medicines and medical technology will consider how to speed up access for National Health Service patients to cost-effective new diagnostics, medicines and devices.
The Government is working to establish the formal terms of reference for the review. These will be published in due course. The exact structure of the review is currently being considered and, as appropriate, procurements will be through standard departmental procurement processes.
The review will set out both short and long-term options for action by Government and relevant bodies — including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and NHS England. Officials are already working with these bodies and will continue to do so as the review progresses.
The review will take into account a wide range of evidence to draw up its recommendations. We anticipate an initial report before the autumn.