Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of adapting HTM 01-04: Decontamination of linen for health and social care guidance to include plastics and linen substitutes.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the potential merits of adapting HTM 01-04: Decontamination of linen for health and social care guidance, to include plastics and linen substitutes.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
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 reduce the average time taken for an endometriosis diagnosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Care for menstrual problems including endometriosis is a 2024 priority for implementing the Women’s Health Strategy. We are investing £25 million in establishing women’s health hubs, which will play a key role in improving access to care for menstrual problems including suspected endometriosis.
Through the NHS Delivery Plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care, we are increasing activity through dedicated and protected surgical hubs that conduct planned procedures only. Surgical hubs are focusing on providing high-volume low-complexity surgery such as laparoscopies for suspected endometriosis. As of March 2024, 48 surgical hubs conduct gynaecological procedures.
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are playing an important part in tackling the backlogs of people waiting for diagnostic tests, which includes checks, tests, and scans for patients on gynaecological pathways, including those with endometriosis. As of March 2024, there are 155 CDCs open already, and up to 160 set to open by March 2025.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is currently updating its guideline on diagnosing and managing endometriosis, which will provide healthcare professionals with evidence-based recommendations on diagnosing and treating endometriosis. NHS England is also updating the service specification for severe endometriosis, which sets the standards of care expected from National Health Service organisations.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Women's Health Strategy for England, updated on 30 August 2022, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of progress on the 10-year ambition that women and girls with severe endometriosis experience better care.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No specific assessment has been made. Care for menstrual problems including endometriosis is a 2024 priority for implementing the Women’s Health Strategy. We are investing £25 million in women’s health hubs, so that women can get better access to care for menstrual problems, including women with suspected or diagnosed endometriosis.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is in the process of updating its recommendations on diagnosing endometriosis, and surgical management of endometriosis if fertility is a priority. The NICE will provide information on the expected publication date of its final guidance in due course.
Additionally, NHS England is updating the service specification for severe endometriosis, which defines the expected standards of care. This update will ensure that specialist endometriosis services have access to the most up-to-date evidence and advice, and will improve standards of care for women with severe endometriosis.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
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 funding for the ambitions in the Women's Health Strategy for England, updated on 30 August 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Women’s Health Strategy sets out our plans for boosting the health and wellbeing of women and girls, and for improving how the health and care system engages and listens to all women. The funding confirmed at the last Spending Review was on top of the historic long-term National Health Service settlement announced in 2018. Taken together with funding announced at subsequent fiscal events, it means the NHS resource budget in England will increase in cash terms to £164.9 billion in 2024/25, up from £121.7 billion in 2019/20.
We are also investing in a number of specific programmes within the strategy. For example, we are investing £25 million in the expansion of women’s health hubs over 2023/2024 and 2024/2025, and recently announced a £35 million investment to further improve maternity safety across England over 2024/2025 to 2026/2027.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to provide additional funding to the NHS for (a) diagnostic tools and (b) the workforce to help prepare for the potential arrival of new dementia treatments.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has established a dedicated national programme team, which is working in partnership with other national agencies and with local health systems to co-ordinate the preparations for the potential roll out of new treatments.
The team at NHS England are assessing the additional scanning, treating and monitoring capacity which would be required if potential new Alzheimer’s treatments are approved and determined to be clinically and cost-effective. This includes securing additional diagnostic capacity including magnetic resonance imaging, lumbar puncture, and positron emission tomography and computed tomography.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of geographical disparities in access to specialist dementia diagnostics on the (a) accuracy and (b) timeliness of diagnoses across regions.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has been commissioned by NHS England to develop a resource to support investigation of the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates. The aim of this work is to provide context for variation and enable targeted investigation and provision of support at a local level, to enhance diagnosis rates. The tool has been released and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent (a) death and (b) serious illness of (i) mothers and (ii) babies from Group B Streptococcal Infection.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) plays a key role in combatting Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection both through routine service activities and innovative research. Trends, characteristics, and outcomes of infection are monitored through surveillance, vital for prevention efforts, providing means to understand differential risk within our population, which has informed guidance change. Emergence of new strains is monitored at the reference laboratory, vital to understanding the potential vaccine coverage and escape once vaccines are licensed. Furthermore, genomic assessment of strains identified the presence clusters, an important finding highlighting the potential for spread of infection within hospitals.
The Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre at UKHSA Porton Down is part of an international consortium funded by the Gates Foundation to develop standardised assays to quantify immune responses to GBS in natural immunity studies and vaccine trials.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the review of the list of notifiable diseases as part of proposed amendments to the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010, if he will take steps to add Group B Streptococcal Infection in schedule 1 of those Regulations.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Following a review of the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010 by the Department and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the Government published a public consultation between 12 July and 15 November 2023, seeking views on proposed amendments to the regulations.
Adding Group B Streptococcal Infection to schedule 1 of the regulations was not included in the consultation proposals, but a small number of respondents suggested it could be suitable for inclusion.
A summary of responses to the consultation has been published. The Department and UKHSA are considering the consultation responses, and confirmation of any changes to the regulations will be published in due course.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that the NHS has an adequate supply of Esketamine for use in clinical settings.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst there have been no recent discussions with NHS England on the procurement or supply of esketamine, the Department is aware that the supplier of esketamine solution for injection discontinued this product in the United Kingdom in June 2023. We have worked with suppliers to ensure that alternative products are made available and we have spoken with specialist importers, who have advised that they could source unlicensed imports of esketamine, if needed.
The Department has well-established procedures to deal with supply issues and works closely with industry, the National Health Service, and others to manage supply issues and prevent shortages, helping to resolve any issues as soon as they arise. We work with the NHS to share information about supply issues and guidance for healthcare professionals on how to manage patients whilst there is a disruption to supply.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had recent discussions with the Chief Executive of NHS England on the (a) procurement of and (b) supply chain for Esketamine.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst there have been no recent discussions with NHS England on the procurement or supply of esketamine, the Department is aware that the supplier of esketamine solution for injection discontinued this product in the United Kingdom in June 2023. We have worked with suppliers to ensure that alternative products are made available and we have spoken with specialist importers, who have advised that they could source unlicensed imports of esketamine, if needed.
The Department has well-established procedures to deal with supply issues and works closely with industry, the National Health Service, and others to manage supply issues and prevent shortages, helping to resolve any issues as soon as they arise. We work with the NHS to share information about supply issues and guidance for healthcare professionals on how to manage patients whilst there is a disruption to supply.