Asked by: Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to encourage routine use of NHS medicines throughout the NHS.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government is committed to ensuring that patients have access to new and effective treatments on terms that represent value to the National Health Service and the taxpayer.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for providing advice to the NHS on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of health technologies. NHS commissioners are legally required to fund treatments recommended by NICE technology appraisal guidance, ensuring consistent access to clinically and cost effective drugs across England.
The Accelerated Access Review, chaired by Sir Hugh Taylor, will make recommendations to government later this spring on reforms to accelerate access for NHS patients to innovative medicines, medical technologies, diagnostics and digital products.
Asked by: Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department, NHS England and NICE will publish work undertaken to analyse variation between areas in treatment for patients during the transition from the current Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) to proposed a new CDF scheme.
Answered by George Freeman
NHS England has advised that it plans to publish analyses of variation in use of Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) drug indications according to geographical areas in the spring of 2016 and then routinely in the future for the new CDF.
Asked by: Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that approved personalised medicines are available to patients with colorectal cancer.
Answered by George Freeman
On 24 September, the NHS England Board agreed the development of a Personalised Medicine Strategy for the National Health Service. Personalised medicine is a move away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to the treatment and care of patients with a particular condition. It uses emergent approaches in areas such as diagnostic tests, functional genomic technologies, molecular pathways, data analytics and real time monitoring of conditions to better manage patients’ health and to target therapies to achieve the best outcomes in the management of a patient’s disease or predisposition to disease. The high-level vision and strategy is to create a Personalised Medicine service in the NHS embracing four overarching principles: the prediction and prevention of disease; more precise diagnoses; targeted and personalised interventions; and a more participatory role for patients.
The independent Cancer Taskforce’s five-year strategy for cancer, Achieving World-Class Outcomes (July 2015), recommends improvements across the cancer pathway, with the aim of improving survival rates.
NHS England is currently working with partners across the health system to determine how best to take forward the recommendations of the Cancer Taskforce. NHS England has appointed Cally Palmer as National Cancer Director to lead on implementation, as well as new cancer vanguards to redesign care and patient experience. She has set up a new Cancer Transformation Board to implement the strategy, and this met for the first time on Monday 25 January. There will also be a Cancer Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Harpal Kumar, to oversee and scrutinise the work of the Transformation Board.
The Accelerated Access Review, chaired by Sir Hugh Taylor, will make recommendations to government on reforms to accelerate access for NHS patients to transformative new medicines and technologies making our country the best place in the world to design, develop and deploy these products. The terms of the reference for the review focus on faster access to innovations, which may include personalised medicines for the treatment of colorectal cancer.
Asked by: Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department has had with (a) NICE and (b) NHS England on the availability of Erbitux for metastatic colorectal cancer patients.
Answered by George Freeman
The Department has regular discussions with both NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on a wide range of issues including the availability of cancer drugs.
NICE is currently updating its technology appraisal guidance on the use of Erbitux (cetuximab) for colorectal cancer along with guidance on another drug Vectibix (panitumumab) (TA240) for previously untreated metastatic colorectal cancer. The anticipated publication date for NICE’s final updated guidance is April 2016.
NHS England is responsible for the operational management of the Cancer Drugs Fund. Erbitux is available in England through the Fund for the first line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer subject to certain criteria including those indications not approved under TA176.
Asked by: Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with NHS England and NICE on the cancer drugs fund consultation.
Answered by George Freeman
NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) consultation on draft proposals on the future of the Cancer Drugs Fund closed on 11 February 2016 and they are currently considering the feedback received. A consultation report will be published on NHS England’s website in due course.
The Department has regular discussions with both NHS England and NICE on a wide range of issues including the future direction of the Fund.
Asked by: Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of additional dialysis beds and staff costs to the NHS in the event of NICE's review of TA 85 [ID456] of immunosuppressant agents for kidney transplant is upheld.
Answered by George Freeman
We have made no such estimate.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently updating its technology appraisal guidance on immunosuppressive therapy for kidney transplant in adults. NICE consulted on its draft recommendations in August 2015 and published its final draft recommendations in December. NICE currently expects to publish its final guidance later this year.
It will be for local National Health Service organisations to consider the impact of the NICE recommendations following guidance publication. NICE will publish a resource impact assessment alongside its guidance to support local implementation of its recommendations.
Asked by: Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Royal College of Anaesthetists' report entitled, Core Standards for Pain Management Services in the UK, published in October 2015, whether his Department has given any consideration to the contents of that report.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England has welcomed the publication of the Core Standards for Pain Management report in the United Kingdom, published by the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in October 2015. Andrew Baranowski, the Chair of NHS England’s Clinical Reference Group for Specialised Pain contributed to this work, which sets out core standards and key recommendations in the management of pain; the commissioning of pain management services and the development of the workforce.
The report is available at:
http://www.rcoa.ac.uk/system/files/FPM-CSPMS-UK2015.pdf
Asked by: Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ask NHS England to publish a case study of the revised Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) patient journey and give examples for how people are initiated onto CDF-approved treatments now and how people will be treated under the proposed new CDF scheme.
Answered by George Freeman
NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence are currently consulting jointly on draft proposals on the future direction of the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). The consultation document states that all patients receiving treatment funded through the CDF on 31 March 2016 will continue to receive treatment until the point that they and their consultant agree that it is appropriate to stop.
NHS England has advised that the aim of the future CDF is to help patients receive new treatments with genuine promise, while real world evidence is collected for up to two years on how well they work in practice. This will then help determine whether the treatment should be accepted for routine use in the National Health Service in the future. It is not possible to make comparisons between the current and future CDF until such time as the consultation has concluded and the responses reviewed.
The consultation was published on 19 November 2015 and is open until 11 February 2016. Further information is available at:
www.engage.england.nhs.uk/consultation/cdf-consultation
Asked by: Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions the his Department, NHS England and NICE have had on the effect of proposed Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) changes on patients prescribed current CDF treatments who will not receive interim funding under that proposed new scheme.
Answered by George Freeman
NHS England and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence are currently consulting jointly on draft proposals on the future direction of the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). The consultation document states that all patients receiving treatment funded through the CDF on 31 March 2016 will continue to receive treatment until the point that they and their consultant agree that it is appropriate to stop.
NHS England has advised that the aim of the future CDF is to help patients receive new treatments with genuine promise, while real world evidence is collected for up to two years on how well they work in practice. This will then help determine whether the treatment should be accepted for routine use in the National Health Service in the future. It is not possible to make comparisons between the current and future CDF until such time as the consultation has concluded and the responses reviewed.
The consultation was published on 19 November 2015 and is open until 11 February 2016. Further information is available at:
www.engage.england.nhs.uk/consultation/cdf-consultation
Asked by: Mark Durkan (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve one-year cancer survival rates over the next five years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
We want to lead the world in fighting cancer. Survival rates have never been higher, but we want to go further. In England, the independent Cancer Taskforce’s five-year strategy for cancer, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes, published in July 2015, recommends improvements across the cancer pathway with the aim of improving survival rates.
Updated National Institute for Health and Care Excellence referral guidelines for suspected cancer could save about 5,000 lives with general practitioners urged to think of cancer sooner and lower the referral threshold for tests. Whilst health is, of course, a devolved matter, we know that these guidelines are often used by the devolved administrations.