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 - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
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 - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
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.
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 ensure that people with a severe mental illness, including those who do not have a diagnosis of psychosis or bipolar disorder but whose illness causes a severe functional impairment, are correctly identified and invited for their covid-19 vaccination as part of JCVI Group 6.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
People with severe mental and their carers should receive an invitation from their general practitioner (GP) for their COVID-19 vaccination appointment. If someone is unsure if they have a severe mental illness which falls within the official definition, they are encouraged to contact their GP or mental health team. GP teams are encouraged to prioritise people with mental illness, applying a flexible approach to defining severe mental illness. For example, this could include people who are severely unwell with an eating disorder or a diagnosis of personality disorder.
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, whether there is a cross-governmental group with a focus on health inequalities.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson MP) on 22 February 2021 to Questions 151866 and 151867.
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, with reference to the forthcoming Mental Health Act white paper, what the Government's timetable is for bringing forward legislative proposals.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government published its white paper, ‘Reforming the Mental Health Act’ on 13 January. At the same time, we launched a formal 14-week consultation, which will run until April 2021.
The white paper contains a full response to the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act and considers each of the Review’s recommendations in turn. The Government welcomed the Independent Review’s final report and accepts the vast majority of these recommendations.
We will publish a response to this consultation this year and, for those changes which require legislation, our ambition is to share a draft Mental Health Bill around this time next year for pre-legislative scrutiny.
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, with reference to the forthcoming Mental Health Act white paper, whether the Government plans to implement each recommendation set out in the 2018 report on the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government published its white paper, ‘Reforming the Mental Health Act’ on 13 January. At the same time, we launched a formal 14-week consultation, which will run until April 2021.
The white paper contains a full response to the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act and considers each of the Review’s recommendations in turn. The Government welcomed the Independent Review’s final report and accepts the vast majority of these recommendations.
We will publish a response to this consultation this year and, for those changes which require legislation, our ambition is to share a draft Mental Health Bill around this time next year for pre-legislative scrutiny.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What plans he has to implement the recommendations of the final report of the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983, published on 6 December 2018.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We remain committed to publishing our white paper which will set out the Government’s response to Sir Simon Wessely’s Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983 and pave the way for reform of the Act.
We will publish our white paper very shortly.
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 has taken to coordinate with Cabinet colleagues a cross-Government approach to reducing health inequalities as part of its response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We remain committed to levelling up health outcomes so everyone can enjoy a long, healthy life whoever they are, wherever they live and whatever their social circumstances.
The Minister for Equalities (Kemi Badenoch MP) is already leading work across Government to tackle the disparities highlighted by Public Health England in June. This includes reviewing the effectiveness and impact of current actions, actions to modify existing policy and policy in development to address these disparities. Over the last six months, Ministers have commissioned urgent work across Departments to ensure the response to COVID-19 is fully cognisant of and mitigating, the risk to those groups disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and its accompanying restrictions.
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, with reference to the NHS England announcement, Rough sleepers in homeless hotspots to benefit from NHS mental health outreach, published on 14 October 2019, whether the roll-out of that initiative will go ahead as planned due to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England and NHS Improvement still intend to roll-out mental health support for rough sleepers in at least 20 targeted areas with high levels of rough sleeping by 2023/24.
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 he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to co-ordinate the Government's support for people’s mental health and wellbeing in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We know that there is the potential for an increase in demand for mental health services. Ministers in the Department are engaging regularly with their counterparts across Whitehall on how best the Government can prevent and mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on mental health and wellbeing.
We are also working with the National Health Service, Public Health England and other key partners to gather evidence and assess the potential longer-term mental health impacts and plan for how to support mental health and wellbeing throughout the ‘recovery’ phase.