Asked by: Lee Rowley (Conservative - North East Derbyshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what clinical trials underway in (a) the UK and (b) elsewhere in the world the Government is monitoring for the purposes of assessing the effectiveness of ivermectin as a treatment for covid-19; and what the timeframes are for the reporting of those trials.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is closely monitoring the evidence on the case for ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19. On 23 June, the PRINCIPLE clinical trial platform announced that ivermectin would be investigated to generate robust data on its effectiveness in treating adults aged 18 years old and over who are at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19. We will closely monitor the data from this trial, as well as emerging clinical trials worldwide to expand our evidence-base on the efficacy of ivermectin. We expect that data will become available from trials throughout 2021 and 2022 and will be reviewed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
Asked by: Lee Rowley (Conservative - North East Derbyshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the planned timetable is for the conclusion of the trials of ivermectin as a potential treatment for covid-19.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has been closely monitoring the evidence on the case for ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19. A recent collection of small studies show some positive indications that ivermectin may act as a treatment for COVID-19. However, further high quality, larger-scale studies are still needed to confirm the safety and efficacy of this treatment. We will continue to closely monitor the data from further emerging clinical trials worldwide to expand our evidence-base on the efficacy of ivermectin in treating COVID-19.
Asked by: Lee Rowley (Conservative - North East Derbyshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made has made of whether pink sputum should be part of the critical illness assessment in the NHS pathway review.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
NHS Pathways includes specific questions designed to determine if any blood has been coughed up by a patient. These questions are continually reviewed in order to enhance and refine the product. The NHS Pathways team is currently reviewing whether asking a caller about ‘pink frothy sputum (or phlegm)’ in the relevant symptomatic pathways is required in the context of the wider critical illness assessment.
Asked by: Lee Rowley (Conservative - North East Derbyshire)
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 using pirfenidone and nintedanib for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for producing evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service on whether medicines represent a clinical and cost-effective use of resources.
NICE has published guidance recommending nintedanib and pirfenidone as options for treating adults with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis if the person has a forced vital capacity between 50% and 80%. NICE is currently considering whether an update to this guidance is required and expects to inform stakeholders of the outcome early this year.
Asked by: Lee Rowley (Conservative - North East Derbyshire)
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 covid-19 outbreak on referrals for brain tumours; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The National Health Service is now working on the restoration and recovery of all cancer services. We are encouraging anybody with symptoms that could be indicative of cancer to contact their general practitioner (GP). GPs will continue to refer on to cancer pathways in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance so that patients can be managed appropriately. Cancer Alliances are working with the NHS to ensure diagnostic services are available to carry out necessary investigations.
Asked by: Lee Rowley (Conservative - North East Derbyshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department have made on rolling out the CARE brand.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In April 2020, the CARE brand was transferred to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from the CARE Badge Community Interest Company.
When this transfer took place, the Government purchased the remaining stock of badges held by the previous brand owner. These were distributed at no cost to social care providers or members of the workforce. Additional badges have been procured and we expect to be able to start delivering them in July.
We also launched the CARE app on 6 May, which provides the social care workforce with advice, guidance, and mental health and wellbeing support, amongst other things, during this difficult time.
Asked by: Lee Rowley (Conservative - North East Derbyshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on negotiations with Vertex Pharmaceuticals on access to Orkambi and Symkevi in England.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
NHS England and NHS Improvement have been leading negotiations with Vertex Pharmaceuticals and have made a revised and improved offer to Vertex that would provide immediate funding for Orkambi and Symkevi in advance of a positive assessment by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). This would be in addition to expanded access to Kalydeco which is already funded by the National Health Service for certain patients. However, Vertex has refused to engage with the NICE process and is yet to accept the NHS England and NHS Improvement offer.
The Government fully supports NICE and NHS England and NHS Improvement in seeking to ensure access for patients to effective and innovative medicines at a price that represents value to the NHS, and it is not for Ministers to intervene in this process. The Department’s approach remains to strongly urge Vertex to accept NHS England and NHS Improvement’s generous offer, but in the absence of a deal, we have asked NHS England and NHS Improvement to continue to explore all options to ensure patients can access treatments as soon as possible.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care will be meeting the Chief Executive of Vertex again in the coming weeks to discuss what the barriers are to an agreement and how the situation can be resolved.
Asked by: Lee Rowley (Conservative - North East Derbyshire)
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 (a) improve early diagnosis of ovarian cancer and (b) reduce the level of variation in diagnosis times between clinical commissioning groups.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The NHS Cancer Programme is committed to improving early diagnosis as outlined in the Long Term Plan ambition to diagnose three-quarters of all cancers at stages 1 and 2 by 2028. This includes all stageable cancers.
To achieve this ambition, the NHS Cancer Programme is working on a number of programmes to improve early diagnosis rates for all cancers. The Rapid Diagnostic Centres (RDCs) are a new flagship policy in the Long Term Plan that offer patients a range of tests in the same day with rapid access to results. These RDCs starting to be rolled out in 2019/20 and will support the overall early diagnosis ambition. The RDCs will upgrade and bring together the latest diagnostic equipment and expertise, building on 10 models piloted with Cancer Research UK, which have focused on diagnosing cancers where patients often present with non-specific symptoms, often the case with ovarian cancer, and may go to their general practitioner many times before being sent for tests, such as blood and stomach cancers.
A new cancer diagnosis standard, designed to ensure that patients find out within 28 days if they have cancer, will be introduced in 2020. All hospitals in England are now collecting data on how long it takes patients to reach cancer diagnosis, and they are working to improve performance over the next year and reduce unwarranted variation, for example geographical variation.
Asked by: Lee Rowley (Conservative - North East Derbyshire)
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 18 December 2017 to Question 120087 on Ovarian Cancer, what the timetable is for a decision to be announced on the next round of cancer audits; and whether ovarian cancer will be included within those audits.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England will hold discussions over the next six months on potential new clinical audit topics including ovarian cancer.
Asked by: Lee Rowley (Conservative - North East Derbyshire)
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 ovarian cancer is either diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England is committed to rolling out a new Faster Diagnosis Standard by 2020 to ensure that patients referred for an investigation with a suspicion of cancer are diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days. National Health Service trusts were able to begin using the new pathways from April 2018 and all will be expected to be using them from April 2019. NHS England committed more than £200 million in cancer services over the next two years, to accelerate diagnosis and enhance quality of life.