Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much has been spent by East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust on (a) legal fees and (b) other costs associated with terminating the employment of Gordon Fleming and defending legal action brought by him.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The total legal costs incurred by the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust, since 2014, in respect of all matters, proceedings and appeals involving Mr Gordon Fleming is £252,162.15 plus VAT. This figure includes disbursements and Counsel’s fees. The Trust is unable to quantify other costs.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what process NICE will use to scope for the review of the NICE appraisal methodology; and whether the issue of combination treatments will be considered within scope.
Answered by Steve Brine
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is in the process of planning how to conduct its scoping of the review of the methods for technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies evaluations. Scoping will involve industry and other relevant stakeholders, including patient organisations. Additional detail and more information will be made available on the NICE website in due course.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has received representations on patient anxieties about access to medicines including for epilepsy and depression; and what plans the Government has for communication on the availability of such medicines.
Answered by Steve Brine
Medicines shortages are an ongoing issue that the Department manages constantly. The Department receives a wide range of representations regarding the availability of medicines on a regular basis.
The Department’s Medicines Supply Team has well established procedures to deal with medicine shortages and works closely with all stakeholders to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when they do arise.
Every shortage is different. The decision to communicate, and type of communication, will depend on a number of factors. We work closely with all stakeholders in these situations to provide advice on management options and to consider how best to communicate a supply problem to those affected. Where necessary, we will engage with relevant patient groups regarding specific medicine shortages, including, for example, several epilepsy patient groups.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
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 merits of monitoring influenza vaccination uptake among social care staff.
Answered by Steve Brine
Frontline social care workers should be provided with influenza vaccine by their employer, with some staff able to access vaccination from their general practitioner or community pharmacy in a scheme funded by NHS England. Collecting comprehensive uptake data at a national level would be challenging. Most social care organisations do not have appropriate systems in place either to deliver influenza vaccine or collect uptake information and there are a large number of organisations, many independent, in the sector.
In 2016/17, Public Health England undertook a pilot data collection in a sample of 320 care homes across England with a response rate of 51%. 70% of responding care homes do not have systems in place to collect data on staff influenza vaccination. In addition, only 38% of the responding care homes in the study sample provided data on vaccine uptake despite considerable local follow-up.
For the 2018/19 season, NHS England is collecting data on the number of social care workers that access vaccination through the scheme they fund for some staff.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
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 merits of funding the free influenza vaccine for social care staff.
Answered by Steve Brine
Flu vaccination of social care workers is recommended to protect staff, protect vulnerable users and to contribute to resilience of the health and social care system in the winter, including prevention of outbreaks in care homes.
In October 2017, NHS England announced additional funding to support vaccination of frontline social care staff working in residential and care homes and in the community and offering direct care to vulnerable people. The 2017/18 NHS seasonal flu programme offered by general practices and community pharmacy was extended to include frontline social care staff. This was continued in 2018/19 and extended to frontline health and care staff working in the voluntary managed hospice sector. This scheme is intended to complement, not replace, any established occupational health schemes that employers have in place to offer the flu vaccination to their workforce.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
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 implement the recommendation from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsmen's December 2017 report entitled Ignoring the alarms: How NHS eating disorder services are failing patients that his Department and NHS England should review the existing quality and availability of adult eating disorder services to achieve parity with child and adolescent services.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
In response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report, NHS England has convened a working group with NHS Improvement, Health Education England, the Department and other partners to co-ordinate the actions being taken in response to the recommendations. These actions will inform future planning for improvements to adult eating disorder services.
NHS England commissioned NHS Benchmarking to collect data on the current levels of provision across community and inpatient services for adults with an eating disorder. This work reported to NHS England in 2018 and a modelling exercise has taken place to establish the baseline, understand the geographical variation, and the cost and workforce required to achieve parity with children and young people’s eating disorder services.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to exclude epilepsy medications from the Serious Shortage Protocol for medicines; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Brine
Any serious shortage protocol would be developed with and signed off by clinicians. Only if clinicians deem it appropriate, an alternative quantity, strength, pharmaceutical form or medicine can be dispensed in line with the protocol. Each protocol would clearly set out what action can be taken by the retail pharmacy, under what circumstances, for which patients and during which period.
Protocols for therapeutic or generic equivalents will not be suitable for all medicines and patients. For example, they would not be suitable for treatments where the medicines that are prescribed need to be prescribed by brand for clinical reasons, for example anti-epilepsy medicines. In these cases, patients would always be referred back to the prescriber for any decision about their treatment before any therapeutic or generic alternative is supplied.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
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 current uptake of winter 2018-19's influenza vaccination among those who are eligible for free treatment.
Answered by Steve Brine
Influenza vaccine coverage is closely monitored, with publication of weekly and monthly reports throughout the flu season. In addition, Public Health England publishes an annual report on gov.uk in the spring with finalised data on vaccine uptake.
The following table shows the latest available data on the uptake of the influenza vaccine amongst eligible groups for 2018/19:
Patient Group | 2018/19 (%) |
Patients aged 65 years or older | 69.9 |
Patients aged six months to under 65 years in risk groups (excluding pregnant women without other risk factors) | 45.1 |
Pregnant women (including those in risk groups) | 43.8 |
Patients aged two years old (including those in risk groups) | 41.9 |
Patients aged three years old (including those in risk groups) | 43.5 |
Notes:
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of essential epilepsy medicines imported from the EU in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
We understand that epilepsy medicines are vitally important to many people in this country. Our contingency plans aim to ensure that the supply of epilepsy medicines and other essential medicines to patients is not disrupted in all European Union exit scenarios, including a ‘no deal’ exit.
That is why on 23 August 2018, the Department wrote to all pharmaceutical companies that supply prescription only medicines and pharmacy medicines to the United Kingdom that come from, or via, the EU or European Economic Area (EEA) asking them to ensure a minimum of six weeks additional supply in the UK, over and above existing business-as-usual buffer stocks, by 29 March 2019.
We followed that up on 7 December 2018 when the Department wrote to pharmaceutical companies that supply licensed medicines to the UK from or via the EU/EEA, and/or manufacture medicines in the UK, informing them of the updated reasonable worst-case scenario border planning assumptions and asking them about their current transportation routes and their ability to re-route their supply chains if they currently rely on Dover and/or Folkestone.
In response to those communications we have received very good engagement from industry, including companies supplying epilepsy medicines to the UK, who share our aims of ensuring continuity of medicines supply for patients is maintained and able to cope with any potential delays at the border that may arise in the short term in the event of a ‘no deal’ EU exit.
Asked by: Norman Lamb (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letter from the right hon. Member for North Norfolk and the hon. Member for Ellesmore Port and Neston of 17 December 2018, in relation to Dr Chris Day.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department has received both letters regarding Dr Chris Day from the Rt. hon. Member for North Norfolk and the hon. Member for Ellesmore Port and Neston dated 26 July 2018 and 17 December 2018. Officials are carefully considering their contents and preparing responses and my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State will be responding to the hon. Members’ letters shortly.