Asked by: Lord Benyon (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many families seeking continuing healthcare pay for legal support.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Information on the number of people paying for legal support regarding NHS Continuing Healthcare is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Lord Benyon (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to simplify the continuing health care application process.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department is working with NHS England, clinical commissioning groups, Directors of Adult Social Services, local authorities and stakeholder groups to understand how the NHS Continuing Healthcare experience can be improved for all.
Additionally, NHS England launched the NHS Continuing Healthcare Strategic Improvement Programme on 1 April 2017. The aim of the Strategic Improvement Programme is to provide fair access to NHS Continuing Healthcare in a way which ensures better outcomes, better experience, and better use of resources.
Asked by: Lord Benyon (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 9 July 2015 to Question 5351, what mechanisms are in place to assess whether the dietary and other standards set out in the service specifications for pancreatic cancer are being met.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The standards set for pancreatic cancer are reviewed in two ways:
- By local commissioning teams to check compliance against the service review with each provider. This is a formal process and providers not meeting the key requirements are required to produce an action plan. This includes compliance with multi-disciplinary team membership.
- Where Cancer Peer Review applies to a service, providers are assessed and measures that are not met are followed up with the Trust Board.
Some of the areas referred to in the service specification are linked services under the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups and are included so the relationships between different parts of the pathway are clear.
Asked by: Lord Benyon (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he expects the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to commence work on the development of clinical guidance for pancreatic cancer.
Answered by George Freeman
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has advised that it expects to commence work on the development of a clinical guideline on pancreatic cancer in late Autumn 2015. The provisional schedule for development of this guideline will be made available on NICE’s website: www.nice.org.uk in due course.
Asked by: Lord Benyon (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that all pancreatic cancer patients have access to dietetic treatment, advice and support; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England has a published a service specification for pancreatic cancer which clearly defines what it expects to be in place for providers to offer evidence-based, safe and effective pancreatic cancer services. This service specification has been developed by specialised clinicians, commissioners, expert patients and public health representatives to describe core and developmental service standards.
The service specification sets out that all patients with upper gastrointestinal disease (including pancreatic cancer) are at risk of dietary problems and should have access to full dietetic inpatient and outpatient services. Dieticians should be available to see patients during regular outpatient clinics and be available for consultation on ward rounds and multidisciplinary team meetings.
The full service specification can be found at:
http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/a02-cncr-panc.pdf
Asked by: Lord Benyon (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 3 December 2014 to Question 216468, what progress he has made in establishing trials for pancreatic cancer patients using stereotactic ablative radiotherapy.
Answered by George Freeman
Cancer Research UK is funding the SPARC trial, which is led by the University of Oxford. This is a phase I trial of pre-operative, margin intensive, stereotactic body radiation therapy for previously untreated borderline resectable pancreatic cancer. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network is providing research infrastructure for the trial.
Asked by: Lord Benyon (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure new treatment options for pancreatic cancer are made available on the NHS at the earliest opportunity; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
In commissioning cancer services, NHS England is supported by clinical reference groups (CRGs) which are responsible for developing strategies, pathways and service specifications for each group of cancer type, including a Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic CRG which covers pancreatic cancer. CRGs consider the latest evidence available.
We take the issue of ensuring rapid access to innovative therapies very seriously, which is why we have launched an Accelerated Access Review to make recommendations to Government later in the year on speeding up access for National Health Service patients to innovative and cost effective new medicines, diagnostics and medical technologies.
Asked by: Lord Benyon (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to include aortic stenosis in future cardiovascular strategies.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England has no plans to publish a future cardiovascular disease strategy at this time.
Improvements in detection and management of valve disease will be achieved by encouraging practitioners and providers to follow clinical guidelines and by commissioning means. Surgery and transcatheter aortic valve replacement are commissioned by NHS England through specialised commissioning but investigations, initial diagnosis and medical management are commissioned by clinical commissioning groups.
Asked by: Lord Benyon (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to task NICE with publication of guidelines for heart valve disease.
Answered by George Freeman
From April 2013, NHS England is the lead commissioner for clinical guidelines for topics which have a principal focus on healthcare.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a clinical guideline on chronic heart failure in 2010 that includes recommendations on the management of chronic heart failure caused by valve disease. Further information is available on NICE’s website at:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg108
NICE has reviewed the need to update this clinical guideline and concluded in January 2015 that an update will be scheduled into its work programme. Details of the update will be available on NICE’s guidelines in development webpage in due course.
Asked by: Lord Benyon (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to ensure earlier referral of heart valve patients from secondary to tertiary care; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England has no plans to publish a future cardiovascular disease strategy at this time.
Improvements in detection and management of valve disease will be achieved by encouraging practitioners and providers to follow clinical guidelines and by commissioning means. Surgery and transcatheter aortic valve replacement are commissioned by NHS England through specialised commissioning but investigations, initial diagnosis and medical management are commissioned by clinical commissioning groups.