Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHS England has taken to improve care for women with heavy menstrual bleeding since the publication of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists National Heavy Menstrual Bleeding Audit in July 2014; and will he make a statement.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Data on the number of women affected by heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) in England is not held centrally.
HMB can have a major impact on a woman’s quality of life. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published guidelines on HMB in March 2018, which aim to improve the care surrounding HMB. The full guidance can be found at the following link:
The NICE guidelines emphasise the advances in treatments for HMB and the choices available for patients. NHS Choices also has a self-assessment website which directs people to primary care if they have HMB, which can be found at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Heavy-periods-self-assessment.aspx
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the economy of women missing work due to heavy menstrual bleeding.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department has not made such an assessment.
Public Health England’s most recent study on the reproductive health of over 7,500 women in the United Kingdom found that menstrual issues (including heavy menstrual bleeding) were reported by half of women in all age groups and three quarters of women in the 16 to 24 age group. Reproductive symptoms often affected women’s ability to carry out their daily activities but symptoms were often concealed, particularly from work colleagues.
Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reproductive-health-what-women-say
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on women’s preferences for managing heavy menstrual bleeding.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Public Health England’s recent research entitled ‘What do women say?’ included a survey of more than 7,500 women, and found that embarrassment commonly acted as a barrier to accessing knowledge or support. There was often a perception that symptoms were normal and should be endured and consequently women feared they might not be taken seriously or that they would be judged negatively for needing help. Feeling well cared for by a healthcare professional in an environment free of judgement was seen as an essential component of good care in order to help overcome barriers to asking for help. This included finding new ways to support people if the existing ways were not working.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline 'Heavy menstrual bleeding: assessment and management' [NG88], published March 2018, includes evidence as to how exploring women's preferences can inform decisions. The guideline includes advice that clinicians should elicit women’s preferences, that treatment decision-making should involve negotiated agreement between women and clinicians, and that women should have adequate time and support in the decision-making process.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
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 reduce variation in the level of treatment of heavy menstrual bleeding throughout the country.
Answered by Steve Brine
The level of provision of treatment for heavy menstrual bleeding, as for all health services they commission, is decided by local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and will take into account the needs of the population overall. Decisions taken by CCGs are underpinned by clinical insight and knowledge of local healthcare needs. As such, provision of services will vary in response to local needs.
CCGs have a legal duty to have regard to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. The NICE guidelines provide detailed guidance on examining the history of the woman, symptoms and carrying out tests. They also set out specific guidelines on management and treatment of heavy menstrual bleeding.
The Evidence Based Interventions Programme announced by NHS England on 30 June 2018 aims to reduce the variation in the use of hysterectomy for heavy menstrual bleeding.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many clinical commissioning groups have commissioned an Intrauterine system service for heavy menstrual bleeding for each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Steve Brine
Information on how many clinical commissioning groups have commissioned an intrauterine system service for heavy menstrual bleeding for each of the last five financial years, is not held centrally.
It is the responsibility of each clinical commissioning group to decide which services they commission. Each decision must be based on clinical evidence, and clinical commissioning groups must ensure they meet their statutory duties when taking this decision.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
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 to promote geriatric medicine to doctors as a career specialism.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Health Education England (HEE) is working to support recruitment into all specialties, including geriatric medicine. HEE works closely with the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) on recruitment and retention in geriatric medicine, for example by nominating a lead postgraduate dean to support the RCP’s specialist advisory committee’s work on training in geriatric medicine.
In the longer term, the expansion of undergraduate medical school places by 1,500 which will be rolled out from September 2018 until September 2020 will also help to increase the supply of doctors to the National Health Service.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to increase the number of medical school places to meet patient demand in the West Midlands.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We are making available 1,500 additional medical school places in England, 630 of which will be available this September.
Following an initial allocation of 500 additional places to existing medical schools, and a competitive bidding and allocation process for the remaining 1,000 places run by Health Education England and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (now the Office for Students), a total of 177 additional medical school places have been allocated to medical schools in the West Midlands.
A breakdown of the places allocated in the West Midlands is provided in the following table and full details can be found at the following link:
https://hee.nhs.uk/news-blogs-events/news/new-medical-schools-open-train-doctors-future
University/medical school | Total additional allocation from expansion | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 |
Keele University | 35 | 15 | 20 | - |
University of Warwick | 16 | 16 | - | - |
Aston University | 100 | 20 | 80 | - |
University of Birmingham | 26 | 26 | - | - |
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the adequacy of the number of physicians in the West Midlands.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Department continues to monitor and analyse overall staffing levels in the National Health Service and adult social care across the West Midlands, as it does the whole of England. We are working across Government to ensure there will continue to be sufficient staff to deliver the high quality services on which patients rely following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union and we have been monitoring leaver and joiner rates of EU staff on a regular basis since the 2016 referendum.
My Rt. hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has recently announced a 25% increase in training places for doctors, which will ensure the West Midlands can become less reliant on overseas doctors over time.
On 8 December the UK and EU Commission reached an agreement which delivered on the Prime Minister’s number one priority, to safeguard the rights of people who have built their lives in the UK and EU, following the UK’s exit from the EU.
The latest nationality statistics show at March 2018 4,558 more EU nationals excluding the UK (EU27) employed in NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups than in June 2016.
The agreement will guarantee the rights of the 158,000 EU nationals working in our health and care system. It means that EU citizens living lawfully in the UK and UK nationals living lawfully in the EU by 29 March 2019 will be able to stay and enjoy broadly the same rights and benefits as they do now.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of patients who (a) had heart attacks, (b) needed hospitalising as a result of heart problems and (c) had fatal heart incidents after their heart procedures were postponed in the last twelve months.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The information requested is not centrally held.
Asked by: Jess Phillips (Labour - Birmingham, Yardley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any Ministers from his Department attended the Presidents Club Charity Dinner run by the Meller Educatonal Trust in an official capacity.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
No Ministers attended the Presidents Club Charity Dinner.