Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of full-time equivalent and fully qualified GPs, excluding GPs in a training grade, that were practising in Manchester Withington constituency (a) on 20 October 2022 and (b) in 2013.
Answered by Will Quince
This information is not collected in the format requested.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
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 engage with people who have Huntington's disease as part of the consultation for the 10 Year Mental Health Plan.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We have launched a public call for evidence to support the development of a new, 10-year, cross-Government plan for mental health and wellbeing in England. We encourage those with lived experience to respond to the call for evidence, including those with Huntington’s disease. The call for evidence is open until 7 July 2022.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
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 help ensure that people who have Huntington's disease can access mental health services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Patients with Huntington's Disease have access to a range of mental health support, through general practitioners, local mental health services, specialised neurology services and clinical geneticists and genetic counsellors through the clinical genomic service.
The clinical genomic service specification is currently being reviewed, which includes strengthening access to mental health support services. The revised specification will be subject to public consultation before final approval. NHS England’s neuroscience transformation programme is developing optimal pathways for neurology services, which include common principles regarding access to appropriate timely mental health support.
In addition, the neuropsychiatry service specification is in development, which will outline the multi-disciplinary approach to caring for patients with complex neurological conditions who require specialised assessment and mental health support.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will clarify guidance on the ability for a prescription for medical cannabis given by a specialist to subsequently be taken over by a GP under a shared care arrangement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The law requires that unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use (CBPMs) be supplied under either the prescription or direction of a clinician on the General Medical Council’s (GMC) Specialist Register. As with all areas of clinical practice, the GMC’s guidance states that all doctors must recognise and work within the limits of their competence. This is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline ‘Cannabis-based medicinal products’, which states that after the initial prescription, subsequent prescriptions of CBPMs may be issued by another prescriber as part of a shared care agreement under the direction of an initiating specialist prescriber, if:
- shared care is appropriate and in the person’s best interest;
- the person's clinical condition is stable; and
- the other prescriber is confident to make a fully informed prescribing decision about cannabis-based medicinal products.
If a general practitioner (GP) accepts ongoing shared care responsibilities and continues prescribing once a patient has been initiated and stabilised on CBPMs, they must be confident to accept the associated legal and professional responsibilities associated with doing so, which are increased in the case of an unlicensed product. This includes accountability for the quality of the product prescribed. Treatments initiated privately would not usually be prescribed by a GP under shared care unless the requested treatment is approved under existing National Health Service policies or there are exceptional circumstances. This remains the case even if that privately funded treatment has been shown to have clinical benefit for the individual patient. This applies to all treatments.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to invest funding allocated under the Dementia Moonshot to infrastructure for dementia clinical research.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
There are no specific plans to allocate funding to infrastructure for dementia clinical research. However, we will announce our strategy for dementia research in due course. Plans for delivering a dementia moonshot are subject to the forthcoming Spending Review settlements.