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 he plans to review the prescription charge exemption list.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to review the list of prescription charge exemptions.
Approximately 89% of prescription items are dispensed free of charge in the community in England, and there are a wide range of exemptions from prescription charges already in place, for which those with the greatest need may be eligible. Eligibility depends on the patient’s age, whether they are in qualifying full-time education, whether they are pregnant or have recently given birth, whether they have a qualifying medical condition, or whether they are in receipt of certain benefits or a war pension.
People on low incomes can apply for help with their health costs through the NHS Low Income Scheme. Prescription prepayment certificates (PPCs) are also available. PPCs allow people to claim as many prescriptions as they need for a set cost, with three-month and 12-month certificates available. The 12-month PPC can be paid for in instalments.
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 recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of (a) removing Value Added Tax on defibrillators and (b) other fiscal steps to encourage provision of automatic external defibrillators.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
No recent discussions have been held regarding removing Value Added Tax on defibrillators or other fiscal steps to encourage provision of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs).
As of 22 September 2023, community organisations had been able to apply for a grant to fund a life-saving defibrillator for their local area. An initial estimate of 1,000 new defibrillators were to be provided by the fund, with the potential for this to double as successful applicants will be asked to match the funding they receive partially or fully.
Smarter Society received applications for 4,773 AEDs and has delivered 2,000 AEDs. This means that due to the high level of demand, Smarter Society has successfully delivered the fund and further applications are not being accepted at this time. The Department is considering how best to continue supporting organisations that want to obtain an AED in the future.
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 discussions she has had with (a) the British Heart Foundation and (b) other relevant organisations on the survival rate of people who suffer cardiac arrest outside of hospital.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Department officials met with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and NHS England in November 2023 to discuss access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and AED cabinets. Officials also attended a workshop co-hosted by the BHF and NHS England in January 2024, on the same issue.
To improve survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases, the Government launched a new £1 million one-off fund that will expand community access to AEDs. The grant was made available from September 2023. We estimated 1,000 new defibrillators would be provided by the fund, with the potential for this to double as most applicants would be asked to match the funding they receive partially or fully. To date, the grant has successfully delivered 2,000 AEDs.
Applications for AEDs are selected in line with criteria to provide AEDs where there is greatest need. The criteria include remote communities with extended ambulance response times, places with high footfall and high population densities, hotspots for cardiac arrest including sporting venues and venues with vulnerable people, and deprived areas.
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 the Government is taking to expand (a) access to and (b) provision of public automatic external defibrillators.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Department officials met with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and NHS England in November 2023 to discuss access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and AED cabinets. Officials also attended a workshop co-hosted by the BHF and NHS England in January 2024, on the same issue.
To improve survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases, the Government launched a new £1 million one-off fund that will expand community access to AEDs. The grant was made available from September 2023. We estimated 1,000 new defibrillators would be provided by the fund, with the potential for this to double as most applicants would be asked to match the funding they receive partially or fully. To date, the grant has successfully delivered 2,000 AEDs.
Applications for AEDs are selected in line with criteria to provide AEDs where there is greatest need. The criteria include remote communities with extended ambulance response times, places with high footfall and high population densities, hotspots for cardiac arrest including sporting venues and venues with vulnerable people, and deprived areas.
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 the mental health of (a) doctors and (b) the wider NHS workforce.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The mental health and wellbeing of the National Health Service workforce is of paramount importance. My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Chief Executive of the NHS understand and sympathise with the concerns raised last month, in relation to the future of the NHS Practitioner Health service. They took swift action to ensure that it will continue to provide a full service to doctors and senior managers during 2023/24, whilst a review is carried out. This was confirmed by NHS England on 15 April 2024.
NHS England is reviewing the service as part of a wider review of its mental health and wellbeing offer to staff. They are working collaboratively with regions and integrated care systems to agree the best approach to providing mental health support for staff, including outreach for the workforce. They will confirm future arrangements once this review has been completed.
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 made an impact assessment of ending new registrations by secondary care staff to the NHS Practitioner Health Programme before taking that decision; and whether she plans to reinstate this support.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The mental health and wellbeing of the National Health Service workforce is of paramount importance. My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Chief Executive of the NHS understand and sympathise with the concerns raised last month, in relation to the future of the NHS Practitioner Health service. They took swift action to ensure that it will continue to provide a full service to doctors and senior managers during 2023/24, whilst a review is carried out. This was confirmed by NHS England on 15 April 2024.
NHS England is reviewing the service as part of a wider review of its mental health and wellbeing offer to staff. They are working collaboratively with regions and integrated care systems to agree the best approach to providing mental health support for staff, including outreach for the workforce. They will confirm future arrangements once this review has been completed.
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 discussions she has had with the Chief Executive of NHS England on the renewal of funding for the NHS Practitioner Health Programme; and whether she plans to continue funding that programme beyond 31 March 2025.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The mental health and wellbeing of the National Health Service workforce is of paramount importance. My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Chief Executive of the NHS understand and sympathise with the concerns raised last month, in relation to the future of the NHS Practitioner Health service. They took swift action to ensure that it will continue to provide a full service to doctors and senior managers during 2023/24, whilst a review is carried out. This was confirmed by NHS England on 15 April 2024.
NHS England is reviewing the service as part of a wider review of its mental health and wellbeing offer to staff. They are working collaboratively with regions and integrated care systems to agree the best approach to providing mental health support for staff, including outreach for the workforce. They will confirm future arrangements once this review has been completed.
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 her Department has made of the effectiveness of the NHS Practitioner Health Service in safeguarding the mental health of NHS professionals.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The mental health and wellbeing of the National Health Service workforce is of paramount importance. My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Chief Executive of the NHS understand and sympathise with the concerns raised last month, in relation to the future of the NHS Practitioner Health service. They took swift action to ensure that it will continue to provide a full service to doctors and senior managers during 2023/24, whilst a review is carried out. This was confirmed by NHS England on 15 April 2024.
NHS England is reviewing the service as part of a wider review of its mental health and wellbeing offer to staff. They are working collaboratively with regions and integrated care systems to agree the best approach to providing mental health support for staff, including outreach for the workforce. They will confirm future arrangements once this review has been completed.
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 increase the proportion of people who receive treatment for cancer within 31 days of a decision to begin that treatment.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department is taking steps to reduce cancer diagnosis and treatment waiting times across England, including the time between an urgent general practice referral and the commencement of treatment for cancer for patients. The Government is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care, and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity. Additionally, as outlined in the 2024/25 NHS England Planning Guidance, NHS England is providing over £266 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances, to support delivery of the operational priorities for cancer.
To help achieve the cancer waiting times standards, NHS England is streamlining cancer pathways. This includes implementing non-symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms, as well as timed cancer pathways focused on the most challenged pathways, such as lower gastrointestinal and skin cancer. The pathways aim to support improvements in operational performance and patient experience, as well as providing models to support sustainable improvement.
Furthermore, to improve cancer treatment we are maximising the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity. We are currently delivering the second year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres (CDCs). We are ensuring timely implementation of new CDC locations and upgrades to existing CDCs, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics. As of April 2024, 160 CDCs are operational, and have delivered almost 8 million tests, checks, and scans since July 2021. Additionally, we are supporting advances in radiotherapy. Since 2016, we’ve invested £162 million into cutting-edge radiotherapy equipment to replace or upgrade over 100 radiotherapy treatment machines.
We are committed to delivering the best possible outcomes for patients, and our approach is seeing success. Almost 344,000 people received their first cancer treatment in the 12 months to March 2024. Further, 2023/24 is the best year so far for the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), with the latest performance data showing that NHS England hit the FDS target for the second month in a row at 77.3%, above the standard of 75%. We have also reduced the 62 day or over cancer referral to treatment backlog, to pre-pandemic levels.
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 increase the proportion of people who are provided a cancer diagnosis within 28 days of their referral for testing.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department is taking steps to reduce cancer diagnosis and treatment waiting times across England, including the time between an urgent general practice referral and the commencement of treatment for cancer for patients. The Government is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care, and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity. Additionally, as outlined in the 2024/25 NHS England Planning Guidance, NHS England is providing over £266 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances, to support delivery of the operational priorities for cancer.
To help achieve the cancer waiting times standards, NHS England is streamlining cancer pathways. This includes implementing non-symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms, as well as timed cancer pathways focused on the most challenged pathways, such as lower gastrointestinal and skin cancer. The pathways aim to support improvements in operational performance and patient experience, as well as providing models to support sustainable improvement.
Furthermore, to improve cancer treatment we are maximising the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity. We are currently delivering the second year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres (CDCs). We are ensuring timely implementation of new CDC locations and upgrades to existing CDCs, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics. As of April 2024, 160 CDCs are operational, and have delivered almost 8 million tests, checks, and scans since July 2021. Additionally, we are supporting advances in radiotherapy. Since 2016, we’ve invested £162 million into cutting-edge radiotherapy equipment to replace or upgrade over 100 radiotherapy treatment machines.
We are committed to delivering the best possible outcomes for patients, and our approach is seeing success. Almost 344,000 people received their first cancer treatment in the 12 months to March 2024. Further, 2023/24 is the best year so far for the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), with the latest performance data showing that NHS England hit the FDS target for the second month in a row at 77.3%, above the standard of 75%. We have also reduced the 62 day or over cancer referral to treatment backlog, to pre-pandemic levels.