Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency plans to assess the long-term health implications of the mixture of Dicyclomine and Doxylamine in the previous pregnancy drug Debendox.
Answered by Will Quince
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) does not plan to assess the long-term health implications of the mixture of Dicyclomine and Doxylamine in the previous pregnancy drug Debendox. This medicine was withdrawn for commercial reasons from the market in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s.
MHRA remains alert to emerging evidence concerning the safety and efficacy of all medicines, taking action to protect the public when necessary. We encourage anyone to report side effect or adverse reactions to medicines they may have taken, however long ago, via the Yellow Card scheme.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to ensure that learning from (a) the Mpox and (b) other outbreaks is used to inform long-term healthcare (i) policy and (ii) practices.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The UK Health Security Agency is assessing both the successes and issues arising from the response to mpox. We are also working with partners in Government, academia and industry to understand the findings from evaluation of COVID-19 policies and exercises and identify lessons that can be learned for future incidents.
We will build these lessons into the design and implementation of future policy and practice, and the Centre for Pandemic Preparedness is tracking them to ensure that improvement actions are taken.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide additional (a) funding and (b) guidance to sexual health clinics for preparing for future outbreaks.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Sexual health services (SHS) are funded through the public health grant. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including the need for sexual health services taking account of their statutory duties.
The UK Health Security Agency has published guidance designed to help healthcare providers, including sexual health clinics, to manage sexually transmitted infection (STI) outbreaks. This guidance provides advice on how to detect, investigate and control outbreaks of STIs, and is available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/sexually-transmitted-infections-stis-managing-outbreaks
In March 2023 the Department published an integrated SHS service specification for use by local authorities, which describes the role of sexual health services in managing outbreaks and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to conduct equality, diversity, and inclusion assessments of (a) vaccine delivery programmes and (b) their impact on health inequalities.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The Department undertakes equality analyses of all policy decisions to assess the impact of these on protected characteristics under the Public Sector Equality Duty and is committed to delivering vaccines to everyone who is eligible.
This includes targeted campaigns for communities known to have lower vaccine uptake as well as providing clear and accurate information about vaccine benefits and eligibility, including in braille and multiple languages. General practices (GPs) and provider incentives are also in place to find local solutions and diversification mechanisms are being developed to make getting vaccinated easier for all. The UK Health Security Agency also publish reviews of disparities in vaccine uptake and its relation to other health disparities as part of their Immunisations Inequalities Strategy.
It is vitally important that everyone takes up the vaccinations to which they are entitled, for themselves, their families, and wider society. Anyone unsure about their eligibility or vaccination status should contact their GP for advice.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to establish a network of relevant stakeholders to advise him on planning for (a) future outbreaks and (b) Mpox.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
On behalf of the Secretary of State, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is responsible for protecting the nation from the impact of key health threats, including, but not limited to, future outbreaks of infectious diseases. As part of its work to prepare for, prevent and respond to emerging health threats UKHSA regularly engages with a wide network of relevant stakeholders. This includes key delivery partners, such as the National Health Service, Local Authorities and the life sciences industry, academia, civil society organisations and international partners.
In relation to mpox specifically, UKHSA convenes a cross-agency mpox oversight group to consult on key issues relating to the mpox response in the United Kingdom. This group comprises key stakeholders from across UKHSA, the Department, NHS England, local Government, clinical professional bodies and civil society. UKHSA continues to monitor the epidemiology of the mpox outbreak and stands ready to scale up its response as required.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
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 tackle multi-drug non-susceptible strains of gonorrhoea.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The effectiveness of treatment for gonorrhoea continues to be threatened by the development of resistance to the last-line treatment, ceftriaxone. The UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Gonococcal Resistance to Antimicrobials Surveillance Programme (GRASP) includes a suite of testing and surveillance systems to detect and monitor antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and potential treatment failures. GRASP reports annually on drug resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae in England and Wales and has directly influenced changes in treatment guidelines on three occasions.
Additionally, all primary diagnostic laboratories test gonococcal isolates for susceptibility to ceftriaxone and refer suspected resistant isolates to the UKHSA national reference laboratory for confirmatory testing and follow-up in real-time. UKHSA has published guidance on managing cases of ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhoea and performs a risk assessment for each case. If there is a risk of transmission within England, UKHSA instigates an Incident Response to contain spread.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to develop a national campaign to prevent anti-HIV stigma.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Improving quality of life for people living with human immunodeficiency virus and addressing stigma is a key objective in our HIV Action Plan, published in December 2021.
As part of the plan, the Department is investing over £3.5 million from 2021 to 2024 to deliver the National HIV Prevention Programme. This includes the National HIV Testing Week which seeks to normalise and reduce barriers to testing, such as stigma.
We are also working to improve workforce training in the National Health Service to increase HIV awareness and in collaboration with the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) continue to monitor the levels of stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with HIV within the health and social care system as well as within community settings. Results from the HIV patient survey Positive Voices carried out by UKHSA and academic partners will be published in 2023 and include more granular data to help us understand people’s experiences with HIV stigma.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
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 tackle gonorrhoea in the UK.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Local authorities are mandated to provide confidential, open access sexual health services. These services include testing and treatment for gonorrhoea. It is recommended that all those attending services with needs relating to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are tested for gonorrhoea, syphilis, human immunodeficiency virus, and chlamydia, even if asymptomatic.
UK Health Security Agency undertakes surveillance of testing and diagnoses of STIs at commissioned sexual health services, including online testing to monitor testing and diagnoses, and provide information on local and national trends in gonorrhoea.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
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 tackle chlamydia in the UK.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The aim of England’s National Chlamydia Screening Programme (NCSP) is to reduce the health harms caused by untreated chlamydia infection in women by ensuring all eligible women under the age of 25 years old are offered a chlamydia test.
UK Health Security Agency works with providers and commissioners of sexual and reproductive health services to implement the NCSP, monitor levels of chlamydia testing and diagnoses through our national surveillance systems and evaluate the impact of chlamydia screening on health outcomes.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken recent steps to provide (a) additional funding for sexual health services and (b) sexual health risk reduction (i) advice and (ii) interventions that are available (A) face-to-face and (B) online.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 17 January to Question 120079.