Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he plans to reply to the letter of 6 October 2017 from the hon. Member for Bridgend on Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group's proposed withdrawal of transport for renal dialysis patients.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Department received the hon. Member’s letter of 6 October on 9 October. The Department responded on 1 November.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve the (a) transparency of publicly-funded medical research and development and (b) accessibility and affordability of medicines developed from public research.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Research can only improve the lives of people or the wider United Kingdom economy if it can be accessed. A culture of openness also improves the quality and relevance of the research we support.
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is funded through the Department to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. The NIHR invests over £1 billion into health and public health research and is committed to “adding value in research” by maximizing the potential impact of research that it funds for patients and the public. This means ensuring that it answers the right questions (including effectiveness and cost effectiveness of interventions), delivers research efficiently and publishes results in full in an accessible and unbiased way.
Full and open access to the knowledge generated by research is of the utmost importance to the NIHR. Our commitment to transparency, our NIHR Journals Library, open access policy, and our endorsement of the World Health Organization joint statement on the disclosure of results ensures that ideas and knowledge derived from publicly funded research are made available and accessible for public use.
The Government works to improve accessibility and affordability of medicines, whether funded through public research or in the private sector, through a number of activities involving a range of parties.
The Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Act 2017 (the Act) amends the NHS Act 2006 to:
- Put beyond doubt that the Secretary of State can require companies in the statutory scheme to make payments to control the cost of health service medicines;
- Enable the Secretary of State to require companies to reduce the price of an unbranded generic medicine, or to impose other controls on that company’s unbranded medicine, even if the company is in the voluntary scheme, currently the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme 2014, for their branded medicines; and
- Enable the Secretary of State to make regulations to obtain information on sales and purchases of health service products from all parts of the supply chain, from manufacturer to pharmacy, for defined purposes.
The Government will respond shortly to the Accelerated Access Review (AAR). The AAR made recommendations to get transformative drugs and treatments to patients faster whilst ensuring the National Health Service gets value for money and remains at the forefront of innovation.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal guidance and the associated funding requirement plays an important role in ensuring that patients have access to cost-effective new medicines, including medicines developed from public research.
The NIHR provides support for the development of new medicines, primarily through its investment in early translational research infrastructure in the NHS and through a range of research funding programmes.
The funding provided for the NIHR research infrastructure provides the expertise and facilities the NHS needs for first-class research, which health and life sciences industry researchers can access at any stage of the clinical development process. This helps drive faster translation of basic science discoveries into tangible benefits, for patients and the health system and has been specifically designed to close the gaps in translation identified in the Cooksey review in 2006.
All NIHR research infrastructure actively supports contract and collaborative research with the life sciences industry, and supports the commercialisation of new research and related technologies, including through spin-outs and licensing arrangements. This supports the translation of new medicines and helps grow new companies (including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)). This helps ensure the UK remains one of the best places to develop and launch innovative medicines, technologies and diagnostics, benefitting patients and the health system.
NIHR research programmes generate high quality evidence on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of medicines for the NHS and public health services, including informing NICE guidance. The NIHR funds a number of programmes, of which The Health Technology Assessment programme is the largest. It funds independent research about the effectiveness, costs and broader impact of healthcare treatments and tests for those who plan, provide or receive care in the NHS. The NIHR also funds the Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme that supports collaborative research and development projects in medtech SMEs, universities and the NHS on the development of innovative medical technologies by de-risking early stage projects that have a strong potential for acceptance for use in the NHS, as well as make them attractive to follow-on funders and investors.
The NIHR Innovation Observatory (NIHRIO) applies state-of-the-art data analytics to explore trends in health innovation across drugs, medical technologies, diagnostic tools and healthcare services. Using digital tools, NIHRIO appraises and supplies timely information to stakeholders including the Department, policymakers, academia and industry, so that developments leading to better and more cost effective healthcare can be identified.
The Department is also working alongside the Association of Medical Research Charities and a number of their members to look at how information from medical research into medicines can be translated more systematically to marketing authorisations and into patient care.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to promote opportunities for patients to participate in clinical research; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The development of new and better treatments would not be possible without patients and the public taking part in research, and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is committed to their active involvement in National Health Service, public health and social care research. In 2015/16, more than 605,000 people participated in clinical research studies through the NIHR Clinical Research Network. INVOLVE, the NIHR’s national advisory group on patient and public involvement in research, help members of the public to advise on NIHR research, helps to identify and prioritise research topics, assess funding proposals, and carry out and disseminate findings. INVOLVE is also at the forefront of a growing international public involvement movement seeking to collectively promote and advance public involvement in health and social care research around the world.
The Government also supports the work of the James Lind Alliance, which brings patients, carers, clinicians and medical research charities together to identify and prioritise research topics. In addition, we fund the UK Clinical Trials Gateway and Join Dementia Research to enable patients and clinicians to find out about clinical trials that may be of interest to them.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of the system-wide cap of £20 million for NICE approved medicines proposed by NHS England with the aims and objectives of the Accelerated Access Review; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Government considers that the introduction of the budget impact test in April this year for technologies with an annual budget impact greater than £20 million per year is fully in line with the aims and objectives of the Accelerated Access Review.
Under the budget impact test, £20 million does not represent a cap on what the National Health Service will spend on any individual drug in a given year. The test is simply intended to provide an opportunity for NHS England to enter into commercial negotiations with companies to bring down the price of very high cost medicines. The opportunity for companies to negotiate with NHS England will enable new types of commercial arrangement, which means that ‘win-win’ scenarios are possible for the NHS and industry, a key aim of the Accelerated Access Review.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the use of silver-coated catheters in hospitals on (a) infection rates and (b) costs; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Brine
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has assessed the clinical and cost-effectiveness of silver-based catheters versus hydrophilic and silicone catheters in reducing healthcare-associated urinary tract infections in both primary and secondary settings.
The guidance is available here:
This NICE guidance revealed a gap in the evidence for the effectiveness of indwelling catheters in the long term, with further evidence needed to assess the clinical and cost-effectiveness of silver-coated catheters.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people with Parkinson's disease have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983 in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The number of people detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 with specific conditions is not collected centrally.