Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NICE assessments of rare tumour type treatments consider both the failure rate of radiotherapy and the success rate of new treatments.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In its evaluations of new health technologies, including for rare diseases, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) takes into account all health-related costs and benefits, including evidence of comparative outcomes against existing treatment options such as radiotherapy. Full details of the process and methods used by NICE in undertaking evaluations are set out in NICE health technology evaluations: the manual, published on the NICE website and available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/process/pmg36/chapter/introduction-to-health-technology-evaluation
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she plans to take to allocate remaining funding from the People at the Heart of Care funding for adult social care reform.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In July 2023, the Department allocated this remaining funding to the Market Sustainability Improvement Fund, with £570 million allocated over the next two years. This fund is designed to maximise the impact of our system reform by further improving workforce recruitment and retention.
All other reform funding has been allocated.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to allocate remaining funding from the People at the Heart of Care funding for adult social care reform.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
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 reduce waitlists for NHS cardiovascular care services.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery Plan for Tackling the COVID-19 Backlog of Elective Care’ outlines how the National Health Service will bring down waiting times across all elective services. The plan does not detail approaches for each specialty but commits to eradicate all waits of longer than a year for elective care by March 2025, except for in the case of patient choice.
To support this plan and tackle waiting lists, including those for heart procedures, the Government has committed more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to drive up and protect elective activity.
The Department has also been supporting local areas to recover delivery of the NHS Health Check, which aims to prevent heart attacks and strokes, and detect disease earlier. It assesses the top risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and helps people to reduce their risk by supporting them to make healthier choices and access clinical care. The latest data shows that by April 2023 delivery activity had returned to pre-pandemic levels. The Department is also taking forward a programme of work to increase access to the programme, investing nearly £17 million in the development of an innovative digital NHS Health Check.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
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 reduce waiting times for heart procedures.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery Plan for Tackling the COVID-19 Backlog of Elective Care’ outlines how the National Health Service will bring down waiting times across all elective services. The plan does not detail approaches for each specialty but commits to eradicate all waits of longer than a year for elective care by March 2025, except for in the case of patient choice.
To support this plan and tackle waiting lists, including those for heart procedures, the Government has committed more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to drive up and protect elective activity.
The Department has also been supporting local areas to recover delivery of the NHS Health Check, which aims to prevent heart attacks and strokes, and detect disease earlier. It assesses the top risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and helps people to reduce their risk by supporting them to make healthier choices and access clinical care. The latest data shows that by April 2023 delivery activity had returned to pre-pandemic levels. The Department is also taking forward a programme of work to increase access to the programme, investing nearly £17 million in the development of an innovative digital NHS Health Check.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his Department's policies of the World Health Organization declaring Aspartame as a potential carcinogenic in the context of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No assessment has been made in relation to the use of aspartame in drinks in scope of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. The safety of sweeteners, including aspartame, is the responsibility of the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The FSA considers that the safety of aspartame has been evaluated by various Scientific Committees and it is considered safe at current permitted levels of use.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report on the evaluation of the potential carcinogenic effects of aspartame has not yet been published. Once IARC’s report is published, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) will undertake their risk assessment on the use of aspartame as an additive. Following JECFA’s assessment, the FSA will review the evidence and decide whether any further actions are needed.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to improve the testing and diagnosis of hearing impairment conditions in NHS hospitals.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Government is taking a number of steps to improve the testing and diagnosis of hearing impairment conditions in National Health Service hospitals. NHS England is working to improve diagnostic services, including audiology, through its National Diagnostic Transformation Programme. Under the programme, a national data collection for audiology services is being coordinated from June 2023. The data collected will capture activity related to waiting times, equipment, workforce, facilities, and digital. The results from this will inform service improvement and future workforce planning at local, regional, and national level.
There is currently a small number of audiology services across England that are commissioned to accept self-referrals. NHS England is aiming to expand direct access and self-referral where general practitioner involvement is not clinically necessary, including for hearing aid services, through the Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care and the 2023/24 Priorities and Operating Planning guidance.
During 2023/34 NHS England will also be reinforcing the improvement guide ‘Approaches to Addressing Audiology Waiting Times’, which was developed for local integrated care systems in December 2022, through shared learning webinars.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department issues guidance to NHS trusts on the accommodation of transgender patients in hospitals.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England publishes guidance to all National Health Service trusts on how they should deliver same sex accommodation in order to eliminate mixed sex accommodation breaches in NHS hospitals. This includes information regarding how trusts should accommodate transgender patients. NHS England’s guidance is currently being updated and a revised version will be published in due course.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessments he has made of the adequacy of branding and packaging regulations for e-cigarettes manufacturers in ensuring those goods do not appeal to children and teenagers under the age of 18.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We have regulations in place to discourage underage vaping. The law protects children through restricting sales of vapes to over 18 year olds only, limiting nicotine content, refill bottle and tank sizes, labelling requirements and through advertising restrictions.
The Department continues to work with the Advertising Standards Authority to enforce the current set of regulations and to work with platforms to improve their community guidelines.
However, given the changing circumstances surrounding vapes, the Government has launched a call for evidence on youth vaping to identify opportunities to reduce the number of children accessing and using vape products. This explores issues such as the appearance and packaging of vapes, their marketing, branding and promotion, and the role of social media.
The call for evidence will close on Tuesday 6 June. Following this, the Government will consider a range of options based on the evidence provided, including potential changes to vaping policy and regulations.
Asked by: Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle online content targeted at young people that promotes vaping.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We have regulations in place to discourage underage vaping. The law protects children through restricting sales of vapes to over 18 year olds only, limiting nicotine content, refill bottle and tank sizes, labelling requirements and through advertising restrictions.
The Department continues to work with the Advertising Standards Authority to enforce the current set of regulations and to work with platforms to improve their community guidelines.
However, given the changing circumstances surrounding vapes, the Government has launched a call for evidence on youth vaping to identify opportunities to reduce the number of children accessing and using vape products. This explores issues such as the appearance and packaging of vapes, their marketing, branding and promotion, and the role of social media.
The call for evidence will close on Tuesday 6 June. Following this, the Government will consider a range of options based on the evidence provided, including potential changes to vaping policy and regulations.