Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of people with long covid.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government does not currently routinely record the total number of people with long COVID, or new cases identified. However, the most recent data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that for the four week period ending 5 March 2023: 1.9 million people, or 2.9% of the population, in private households in the United Kingdom reported experiencing long COVID symptoms; 83,000 people first had, or suspected they had, COVID-19 less than 12 weeks previously; 1.73 million people had symptoms for 12 or more weeks, 1.3 million people for at least a year and 762,000 for at least two years; and 1.5 million people reported day-to-day activities adversely affected. Of these, 381,000 people reported that their ability to undertake day-to-day activities had been limited a lot.
On 25 April 2024, the ONS will be publishing additional analysis from the fortnightly Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study, including data on trends in ongoing symptoms of COVID-19. This article will expand on the existing analysis published in the Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study’s data tables, to look more in depth at trends in self-reported symptoms of COVID-19, including ongoing symptoms and associated risk factors.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with the Department of Health in Northern Ireland on NHS dental provision.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 13 December 2023, I met with the Ministers and officials from across the four nations to discuss dentistry provision. There was an agreement to continue to work on a United Kingdom-wide basis for international recruitment initiatives. The Permanent Secretary of Northern Ireland's Department of Health, alongside Government officials, was present for the meeting. The Government's Chief Dental Officer for England also meets regularly with his counterparts in the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her expected timescale is for the availability of the Galleri blood test in cancer testing and diagnosis across the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS-Galleri trial is looking into the use of a new blood test to see if it can help the National Health Service to detect cancer early, when used alongside existing cancer screening. The trial recruited the target of 140,000 participants, and interim results are expected in spring or summer 2024.
If the trial is successful, the NHS has committed to rolling out up to one million Galleri tests in 2024 and 2025, as part of an interim implementation pilot. The clinical trial is currently planned to conclude in 2025, with results expected in 2026.
Should the final results be positive, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) may consider the use of the test in a national screening programme. A UK NSC-recommended national screening programme would need to consider the effectiveness of the test, balancing the risk of false positives and unnecessary invasive treatments, against potential early detection.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps her Department has taken to encourage people to be tested for HIV.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The HIV Action Plan is the cornerstone of our approach to drive forward progress and achieve our goal of ending new HIV transmissions, AIDS, and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030. A key principle of our approach is to ensure that all populations benefit equally from improvements made in HIV outcomes, including through testing.
As part of the HIV Action Plan, the Department is investing over £4.5 million from 2021 to 2025 to deliver the HIV Prevention Programme, a nationally co-ordinated programme of HIV prevention work that is designed to complement locally commissioned prevention activities, in areas of high HIV prevalence and for communities at risk of HIV transmission. The programme also aims to improve knowledge and understanding of HIV transmission and reduce stigma within affected communities through the delivery of public campaigns such as National HIV Testing Week, and evidence-based HIV prevention interventions in partnership with local organisations and charities. During National HIV Testing Week this year, we dispatched over 24,000 kits.
As an additional part of the HIV Action Plan, NHS England has expanded opt-out HIV testing in 34 emergency departments in local areas in England with extremely high HIV prevalence and the whole of London, including some areas with high HIV prevalence. This programme began in 2022 and is funded by NHS England, with £20 million until the end of March 2025. In the first 21 months, the programme has preliminarily identified 685 people newly diagnosed with HIV, and 384 people previously diagnosed with HIV but not in care.
Given the success of the programme, the Department has committed an additional £20 million for new research, which will involve an expansion and evaluation of opt-out blood borne virus testing, including for HIV, in 47 additional emergency departments in local areas with high HIV prevalence across England. Funding will support 12 months of testing for each emergency department, to begin in April 2024, although it is at the discretion of individual sites when the testing will commence.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many over 25s have been diagnosed with osteoporosis in the last three years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not collected in the format requested. However, the below table shows the number of finished admission episodes (FAEs) with a primary diagnosis of osteoporosis, for patients aged 25 years old and over in England, for the years 2020/21 to 2022/23:
Year | FAEs |
2020/21 | 32,552 |
2021/22 | 43,391 |
2022/23 | 47,015 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics from NHS England.
Note: This data provides a proxy to show overall trends.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 February 2024 to Question 12362 on Operating Theatres: Fires, how (a) her Department and (b) NHS England defines the most serious surgical fires and burns; what steps she is taking to ensure the mandatory reporting of such (i) fires and (ii) burns; and how many such (A) fires and (B) burns have been reported by NHS England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Any unexpected or unintended incident which could have or did lead to harm to one or more patients can be recorded on the Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service, to support local and national learning. This can include surgical fires or burns. We are informed that NHS England does not define the severity of harm related to surgical fires or burns specifically. Grading the severity of harm related to a patient safety incident that is recorded on LFPSE, should be done using NHS England’s guidance on recording patient safety events and levels of harm, which asks that near miss events be graded as no harm. The guidance is available at the following link:
If a surgical fire or burn is assessed locally and constitutes a patient safety event, it would fall under the scope of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) Regulations 16 or 18, and must be reported to the CQC. This means that the most serious surgical fires or burns which result in serious harm or the death of a service user, are subject to mandatory reporting. NHS trusts can comply with this requirement by recording patient safety events using the LFPSE service, and NHS England shares all such data with the CQC, who are responsible for regulating compliance with CQC regulations. CQC Regulations 16 and 18 are available respectively, at the following links:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/regulations/regulation-16-notification-death-service-user
Although the recording of wider patient safety events onto LFPSE is a voluntary process, providers are encouraged to record all patient safety incidents, irrespective of the level of harm, to support local and national learning.
The LFPSE service and its predecessor, the National Reporting and Learning System, do not have specific categories for surgical fires or burns. Determining how many patient safety events related to surgical fires or burns were recorded by National Health Service providers in each of the last five years would require a search of the free text of recorded patient safety events, using key words, and a subsequent expert clinical review of all potential records to determine relevance to the question. This could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how (a) her Department and (b) NHS England define the severity of (i) a surgical fire, (ii) a surgical burn and (iii) a near miss related to a surgical fire or burn.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Any unexpected or unintended incident which could have or did lead to harm to one or more patients can be recorded on the Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service, to support local and national learning. This can include surgical fires or burns. We are informed that NHS England does not define the severity of harm related to surgical fires or burns specifically. Grading the severity of harm related to a patient safety incident that is recorded on LFPSE, should be done using NHS England’s guidance on recording patient safety events and levels of harm, which asks that near miss events be graded as no harm. The guidance is available at the following link:
If a surgical fire or burn is assessed locally and constitutes a patient safety event, it would fall under the scope of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) Regulations 16 or 18, and must be reported to the CQC. This means that the most serious surgical fires or burns which result in serious harm or the death of a service user, are subject to mandatory reporting. NHS trusts can comply with this requirement by recording patient safety events using the LFPSE service, and NHS England shares all such data with the CQC, who are responsible for regulating compliance with CQC regulations. CQC Regulations 16 and 18 are available respectively, at the following links:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/regulations/regulation-16-notification-death-service-user
Although the recording of wider patient safety events onto LFPSE is a voluntary process, providers are encouraged to record all patient safety incidents, irrespective of the level of harm, to support local and national learning.
The LFPSE service and its predecessor, the National Reporting and Learning System, do not have specific categories for surgical fires or burns. Determining how many patient safety events related to surgical fires or burns were recorded by National Health Service providers in each of the last five years would require a search of the free text of recorded patient safety events, using key words, and a subsequent expert clinical review of all potential records to determine relevance to the question. This could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how her Department records instances of near misses for (a) surgical fires and (b) other patient safety incidences.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Any unexpected or unintended incident which could have or did lead to harm to one or more patients can be recorded on the Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service, to support local and national learning. This can include surgical fires or burns. We are informed that NHS England does not define the severity of harm related to surgical fires or burns specifically. Grading the severity of harm related to a patient safety incident that is recorded on LFPSE, should be done using NHS England’s guidance on recording patient safety events and levels of harm, which asks that near miss events be graded as no harm. The guidance is available at the following link:
If a surgical fire or burn is assessed locally and constitutes a patient safety event, it would fall under the scope of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) Regulations 16 or 18, and must be reported to the CQC. This means that the most serious surgical fires or burns which result in serious harm or the death of a service user, are subject to mandatory reporting. NHS trusts can comply with this requirement by recording patient safety events using the LFPSE service, and NHS England shares all such data with the CQC, who are responsible for regulating compliance with CQC regulations. CQC Regulations 16 and 18 are available respectively, at the following links:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/regulations/regulation-16-notification-death-service-user
Although the recording of wider patient safety events onto LFPSE is a voluntary process, providers are encouraged to record all patient safety incidents, irrespective of the level of harm, to support local and national learning.
The LFPSE service and its predecessor, the National Reporting and Learning System, do not have specific categories for surgical fires or burns. Determining how many patient safety events related to surgical fires or burns were recorded by National Health Service providers in each of the last five years would require a search of the free text of recorded patient safety events, using key words, and a subsequent expert clinical review of all potential records to determine relevance to the question. This could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 ensure that people with lower gastrointestinal cancers are diagnosed in line with the faster diagnosis standard.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is taking steps to achieve the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), which aims to ensure people with cancer or suspected cancer, including lower gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, are diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days of referral. The Department is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 related backlogs in elective care, which includes 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.
To achieve the FDS target specifically, NHS England have implemented a timed pathway for lower GI cancer, by requiring faecal immunochemical testing (FIT) for patients in primary and secondary care settings on a suspected lower GI cancer pathway. FIT testing prevents patients from having unnecessary colonoscopies, freeing up capacity for these procedures, and ensuring the most urgent symptomatic patients are seen more quickly. Across 2022/2023, the proportion of lower GI referrals with a related FIT test rose from 24% to 69%.
NHS England is also implementing non symptom specific pathways (NSS) for patients who present with non-specific symptoms or combinations of non-specific symptoms that can indicate several different cancers, including symptoms that may indicate lower GI cancers.
In addition, at the 2021 Spending Review the Government awarded £2.3 billion to transform diagnostic services from 2022 to 2025, most of which will help increase the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, prioritising CDCs for cancer services. General practice teams have also been given direct access to tests like computed tomography scans, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasounds helping to cut waiting times and speed up the diagnosis of, or ruling out of, cancer. This funding is also being used to expand endoscopy capacity within acute settings, and in CDCs.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 improve the rate of early diagnosis of (a) bowel and (b) bowel-related cancers.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is taking steps to improve the rate of early diagnosis for all cancers, including bowel and bowel-related cancers, and is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan, for tackling the COVID-19 related backlogs in elective care. This includes 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.
NHS England is working to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard, which sets a target of 28 days from urgent referral by a general practitioner or screening programme to patients being told that they have cancer, or that cancer is ruled out. To achieve this target NHS England has: streamlined bowel cancer pathways by implementing faecal immunochemical testing triage for patients in primary and secondary care settings on a suspected cancer pathway; implemented non-symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms, or combinations of non-specific symptoms, that can indicate several different cancers; and has opened community diagnostic centres across England, expanding diagnostic capacity and by prioritising this capacity for cancer services.
In 2023 the NHS England’s Help Us Help You campaign urged people to take up the offer of bowel screening when invited, and the screening offer for the bowel screening programme is being gradually extended from age 60 down to 50 years old by 2025, ensuring more people are screened and potentially diagnosed with bowel cancer at the earliest stage. The National Health Service is also now offering routine preventative bowel cancer screening to thousands of people in England with a genetic condition, Lynch syndrome, that increases their chance of developing bowel cancer and other certain other cancers. This gives the NHS a better chance of finding cancers at a time when they can be more easily and effectively treated.