Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS guidance, Supporting pregnant women using maternity services during the coronavirus pandemic: Actions for NHS providers, published on 14 December 2020, what steps he is taking to ensure that NHS Trusts adhere to that guidance; and what steps his Department is taking to support NHS trusts to follow that guidance.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In January 2022 NHS England and NHS Improvement reissued guidance on supporting pregnant women with maternity services. This sets the expectation for all trust boards to continue to enable partners to accompany women to all appointments and throughout birth while continuing to ensure the safety of services. All providers in England report that they are following this guidance. Should any issues with compliance arise, NHS England and NHS Improvement’s regional teams, including the regional chief midwife, work with individual trusts where appropriate to support them towards compliance.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his timetable is for publishing the review into the variation in provision of NHS fertility services; and following that review, whether he plans to take steps to ensure that Clinical Commissioning Groups are prevented from setting additional non-clinical criteria for fertility services, including having children from previous relationships.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department undertook a review on the variation in access to National Health Service fertility services, which was completed in 2021. The results of this internal review will inform future policy. We will set out our initial aims in the Women’s Health Strategy, due to be published in the spring.
We expect local NHS commissioning bodies to commission fertility services in line with the National Institute for National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines, to ensure equitable access in England. We are aware that some commissioners set additional non-clinical criteria, which can include having children from previous relationships. This is outside the best clinical practice within NICE’s fertility guidelines.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
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 ensure that all 100 community diagnostic hubs implement NICE guideline NG78 to include diagnostic tests to detect fibrosis.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Cystic fibrosis is mainly detected in new-born babies as part of the heel prick test. Otherwise, it is normally diagnosed by a combination of gene sequencing from blood tests and a sweat test, which is performed at specialist centres. Long term follow-up of lung function, or spirometry, is similarly performed at specialist centres. As such, this patient group and diagnosis is not in scope for community diagnostic centres.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much and what proportion of the £2.3 billion announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 to transform diagnostic services will support liver disease.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The funding announced at the Spending Review will increase the capacity and efficiency of diagnostic services overall. While some of these services can be used to diagnose liver disease, there will not be a specific allocation for liver disease. Services and equipment used to diagnose liver disease will also be used to diagnose a range of conditions.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will commit to allocating additional funding to NHS eating disorder services in 2022-23.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In 2022/23, £53 million has been allocated for children and young people’s community eating disorder services. We are also planning to invest an additional £696 million in in services for adults with severe mental illnesses, including care for people with eating disorders.