Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
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 implications for his policies of prohibiting gay and bisexual men from donating their plasma to a trial to provide treatment for covid-19.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No individual is excluded from giving blood, platelets or plasma based on sexual orientation. However, all men must wait three months after having sexual contact with another man before donating. This is based on expert advice from the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs.The three-month deferral period is to reduce the risk of any very recently acquired infections not being detected on screening and further tests. For that reason, the current donor selection guidelines remain in place for the convalescent plasma donation programme.
The Equality Act 2010 states that blood services do not contravene anti-discrimination legislation by excluding people from donating blood as long as this exclusion or deferral is based on a reasonable and reliable assessment of risk to the public.
We recognise that people want to be considered as individuals as much as possible. Separately to the convalescent plasma trial, NHS Blood and Transplant are already working collaboratively with LGBT+ groups on blood donation, through the FAIR (For Assessment of Individualised Risk) steering group. The FAIR group is using an evidence-based approach to explore if a more individualised blood donation risk assessment can be safely and practically introduced, while ensuring the safe supply of blood to patients.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the cost of medical treatment provided by the NHS to foreign nationals was repaid by those nationals in each of the last five years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department does not hold the requested information.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
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 ensure the adequate supply of (a) Sertraline, (b) Quetiapine and (c) Venlafaxine for the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for leaving the European Union. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the uninterrupted supply of medicines and medical products, including those used for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, once we have left the EU.
The Department, as part of our EU exit preparations, is implementing a multi-layered approach to mitigate potential disruption to supply, which consists of stockpiling where possible, securing freight capacity, changing or clarifying regulatory requirements, procuring additional warehousing, working closely with industry to improve trader readiness and putting in place the National Supply Disruption Response to manage potential shortages. Further details can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of anti-depressants used in the UK are imported from the EU; and what steps he is taking to ensure the adequacy of the supply of those medicines in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for leaving the European Union. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the uninterrupted supply of medicines and medical products, including those used for the treatment of depression, once we have left the EU.
Companies have shared details of their no-deal EU exit contingency planning, including their supply chain routes, in confidence and it would not be appropriate for us to share this commercially sensitive information.
The Department, as part of our EU exit preparations, is implementing a multi-layered approach to mitigate potential disruption to supply, which consists of stockpiling where possible, securing freight capacity, changing or clarifying regulatory requirements, procuring additional warehousing, working closely with industry to improve trader readiness and putting in place the National Supply Disruption Response to manage potential shortages. Further details can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the health benefits of eating wild game meat.
Answered by Steve Brine
No assessment on the health benefits of game meat has been made. Current advice on red and processed meat is for high consumers to reduce their intake to the population average intake equivalent to 70 grams a day. This is based on a review by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition in 2010, available at the following link:
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to investigate the causes of pain and suffering to male patients by mesh implants; and what corrective procedures are being developed by Government health experts.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The main reported complication following abdominal and hernia repair and urogynaecological procedures for both men and women identified by the the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency Yellow Card Scheme, is post-operative pain, which may be temporary, but may become a chronic complication and this can happen even in the absence of a repair using a synthetic implant.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced a number of guidance documents regarding mesh implants for both men and women. These include the technology appraisal guidance on laparoscopic surgery for inguinal hernia repair which was last reviewed in February 2016 and is available at:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta83
The medical technologies guidance on the PolySoft hernia patch used with ONSTEP technique to treat inguinal hernias which was published in August 2014 is available at:
https://www.nice.org.uk/advice/mib9
NICE is also currently producing guidance relating to ‘Persistent pain: assessment and management’, with a draft guidance consultation due between 22 July -3 September 2019 and the final publication date currently being projected for 20 January 2020, and guidance into laparoscopic ventral mesh rectopexy for internal rectal prolapse which will include men and is expected to be published on 20 June 2018.