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Written Question
Antimicrobials: Drug Resistance
Thursday 26th May 2022

Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report published by his Department entitled Tackling antimicrobial resistance 2019–2024: the UK's 5-year national action plan, published on 24 January 2019, whether his Department is taking steps to (a) tackle the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance and (b) embed support for antimicrobial stewardship in his Department's work.

Answered by Maggie Throup

The United Kingdom’s antimicrobial national action plan aims to reduce the need for and unintentional exposure to antimicrobials by lowering the burden of infection; optimise the use of antimicrobials; and invest in innovation, supply and access of new diagnostics, therapies and vaccines.

Diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship leads have been appointed in NHS England regional teams and national toolkits, decision aids and guidelines to support the appropriate use of antimicrobials have been developed and published. Commissioning for Quality and Innovation schemes for management of urinary tract infection and reducing antimicrobial use in secondary care have also been implemented.


Written Question
Antimicrobials: Drug Resistance
Thursday 26th May 2022

Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the 2016 Review on Antimicrobial Resistance: Lord O’Neill’s independent review of antimicrobial resistance in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, which recommended that all antibiotic prescribing should be informed by rapid diagnostics, what steps he is taking to ensure that primary care settings are equipped with point of care multiplex testing technology.

Answered by Maggie Throup

As part of the United Kingdom’s national action plan for antimicrobial (AMR) resistance, NHS England and NHS Improvement’s AMR programme is examining the adoption of innovations in diagnostics, improving clinical best practice and applying point-of-care testing for urinary tract infections, respiratory tract infections, surgical site infections and acute deterioration, including sepsis.

This aims to identify any gaps in diagnostic pathways and practices with a focus on improving patient outcomes and antimicrobial stewardship in National Health Service and community care settings. Optimising the potential use of point-of-care multiplex testing in primary care is also being considered. NHS England and NHS Improvement supports the appointment of diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship leads in each regional team in England. Additionally, national guidelines and national toolkits such as TARGET in primary care and ‘Start SMART then focus’ in secondary care, support antimicrobial stewardship, including the appropriate use of diagnostic tests and tools.


Written Question
Antimicrobials: Drug resistance
Thursday 26th May 2022

Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)

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 on the effectiveness of rapid point of care diagnostics across the NHS in helping the UK to be a world-leader in the delivery of antimicrobial stewardship programmes.

Answered by Maggie Throup

As part of the United Kingdom’s national action plan for antimicrobial (AMR) resistance, NHS England and NHS Improvement’s AMR programme is examining the adoption of innovations in diagnostics, improving clinical best practice and applying point-of-care testing for urinary tract infections, respiratory tract infections, surgical site infections and acute deterioration, including sepsis.

This aims to identify any gaps in diagnostic pathways and practices with a focus on improving patient outcomes and antimicrobial stewardship in National Health Service and community care settings. Optimising the potential use of point-of-care multiplex testing in primary care is also being considered. NHS England and NHS Improvement supports the appointment of diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship leads in each regional team in England. Additionally, national guidelines and national toolkits such as TARGET in primary care and ‘Start SMART then focus’ in secondary care, support antimicrobial stewardship, including the appropriate use of diagnostic tests and tools.


Written Question
Antimicrobials: Diagnosis
Thursday 26th May 2022

Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)

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 potential merits of increasing adoption of rapid point of care diagnostics to support antimicrobial stewardship objectives within (a) primary and (b) community care settings across the NHS.

Answered by Maggie Throup

As part of the United Kingdom’s national action plan for antimicrobial (AMR) resistance, NHS England and NHS Improvement’s AMR programme is examining the adoption of innovations in diagnostics, improving clinical best practice and applying point-of-care testing for urinary tract infections, respiratory tract infections, surgical site infections and acute deterioration, including sepsis.

This aims to identify any gaps in diagnostic pathways and practices with a focus on improving patient outcomes and antimicrobial stewardship in National Health Service and community care settings. Optimising the potential use of point-of-care multiplex testing in primary care is also being considered. NHS England and NHS Improvement supports the appointment of diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship leads in each regional team in England. Additionally, national guidelines and national toolkits such as TARGET in primary care and ‘Start SMART then focus’ in secondary care, support antimicrobial stewardship, including the appropriate use of diagnostic tests and tools.


Written Question
Urinary Tract Infections
Thursday 11th November 2021

Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how data on urinary tract infection instance in clinical settings is being collated at a national level, following the suspension of the National Safety Thermometer and the move to data collection at Trust level.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

NHS England requires English hospital providers through the National Health Service Standard Contract to submit data detailing hospital activity relating to NHS-provided or NHS funded care. This data is collated and published by NHS Digital. It includes hospital admissions where the patient was diagnosed with urinary tract infection. This can be found in the annual Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care (APC) dataset at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-admitted-patient-care-activity

Separately, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency undertakes surveillance of bloodstream infections in hospital and community settings, including information on the infection source through NHS acute trusts reporting infection cases.

NHS safety thermometer data collection was stopped in March 2020 due to emerging evidence that the data collected was incomplete and not being used as intended to support safety improvement and in part to support the COVID-19 response by freeing up nursing time.


Written Question
Urinary Tract Infections
Thursday 11th November 2021

Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data on urinary tract infection instance in clinical settings is being centrally collated by (a) NHS England, (b) his Department and (c) the UK Health Security Agency, given that this data is now primarily gathered at a local level.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

NHS England requires English hospital providers through the National Health Service Standard Contract to submit data detailing hospital activity relating to NHS-provided or NHS funded care. This data is collated and published by NHS Digital. It includes hospital admissions where the patient was diagnosed with urinary tract infection. This can be found in the annual Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care (APC) dataset at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-admitted-patient-care-activity

Separately, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency undertakes surveillance of bloodstream infections in hospital and community settings, including information on the infection source through NHS acute trusts reporting infection cases.

NHS safety thermometer data collection was stopped in March 2020 due to emerging evidence that the data collected was incomplete and not being used as intended to support safety improvement and in part to support the COVID-19 response by freeing up nursing time.


Written Question
Coronavirus: North Yorkshire
Monday 4th January 2021

Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)

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 provide health facilities for people who experience long-term effects of covid-19 in (a) Thirsk and Malton constituency and (b) North Yorkshire.

Answered by Nadine Dorries

NHS England has provided £10 million to fund over 40 pioneering ‘long COVID-19’ specialist clinics including seven in the North East and Yorkshire region. The plans for these clinics were published on 15 November and commissioning guidance was made available on 6 November.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have committed to ensuring clinics will be available from early December 2020. In response, each integrated care system is working towards the provision of at least one such service, although the exact location for each is yet to be provided.

A number of these clinics are already established, and new clinics will start to accept patients at the end of November. More details will be made available shortly.


Written Question
Urinary Tract Infections
Thursday 22nd October 2020

Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to World Patient Safety Day 2020, what steps his Department is taking to improve the (a) tracking and (b) prevention of catheter acquired urinary tract infections; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Public Health England’s (PHE’s) continuous routine laboratory surveillance does not include device use or procedures associated with urinary infections, such as urinary catheters. Therefore, no estimate has been made of the number of catheter-acquired urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) which develop into a gram-negative bloodstream infection.

No assessment has been made on the effect of CAUTIs on antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic over-prescription.

However, PHE’s English surveillance programme for antimicrobial utilisation and resistance (ESPAUR) is working with the National Health Service and across sectors, to develop and maintain surveillance systems for monitoring trends in antimicrobial use and resistance in England. Further details are available in the ESPAUR report 2018-19 at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-surveillance-programme-antimicrobial-utilisation-and-resistance-espaur-report


Written Question
Urinary Tract Infections
Thursday 22nd October 2020

Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)

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 catheter acquired urinary tract infections on (a) antimicrobial resistance and (b) antibiotic over-prescription; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Public Health England’s (PHE’s) continuous routine laboratory surveillance does not include device use or procedures associated with urinary infections, such as urinary catheters. Therefore, no estimate has been made of the number of catheter-acquired urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) which develop into a gram-negative bloodstream infection.

No assessment has been made on the effect of CAUTIs on antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic over-prescription.

However, PHE’s English surveillance programme for antimicrobial utilisation and resistance (ESPAUR) is working with the National Health Service and across sectors, to develop and maintain surveillance systems for monitoring trends in antimicrobial use and resistance in England. Further details are available in the ESPAUR report 2018-19 at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-surveillance-programme-antimicrobial-utilisation-and-resistance-espaur-report


Written Question
Urinary Tract Infections
Thursday 22nd October 2020

Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of catheter acquired urinary tract infections which develop into a gram negative bloodstream infection; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Public Health England’s (PHE’s) continuous routine laboratory surveillance does not include device use or procedures associated with urinary infections, such as urinary catheters. Therefore, no estimate has been made of the number of catheter-acquired urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) which develop into a gram-negative bloodstream infection.

No assessment has been made on the effect of CAUTIs on antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic over-prescription.

However, PHE’s English surveillance programme for antimicrobial utilisation and resistance (ESPAUR) is working with the National Health Service and across sectors, to develop and maintain surveillance systems for monitoring trends in antimicrobial use and resistance in England. Further details are available in the ESPAUR report 2018-19 at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-surveillance-programme-antimicrobial-utilisation-and-resistance-espaur-report