Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with relevant stakeholders on the availability of GLP-1 medication.
Answered by Will Quince
There are global supply issues with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), which are licensed for treating patients with type 2 diabetes. This appears to be largely driven by off-label prescribing for weight loss, which has led to shortages of these medicines for patients with type 2 diabetes.
We are working closely with national diabetes specialists, the National Health Service, wholesalers, all manufacturers of these medicines and the relevant regulatory bodies and agencies to address this problem and to understand how we can help ensure type 2 diabetic patients continue to get access to treatment.
The Department routinely shares information about medicine supply issues directly with the NHS so they can put management plans in place to mitigate the risk of the shortages impacting patients.
We have issued guidance in the form of a Medicine Supply Notification, addressing all GLP-1 RAs, advising healthcare professionals on how to manage patients requiring these medicines.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps to ensure that access to IVF is (a) fair and (b) equal in Ealing Central and Acton constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Funding decisions for health services in England, including IVF, are made by Integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population.
The Women’s Health Strategy was published in August 2022 and contained a number of important changes and future ambitions to improve the variations in access to NHS funded fertility services.
We will improve access to IVF by removing the additional financial burden on female same-sex couples accessing treatment. We will be working with NHS England to assess fertility provision across ICBs, with a view to removing non-clinical access criteria. We will also work with stakeholders to improve information provision on fertility and fertility treatments, including on the NHS website, and introduce greater transparency of the local provision of IVF.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken with NHS England to remove non-clinical eligibility criteria for IVF treatment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Funding decisions for health services in England, including IVF, are made by Integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population.
The Women’s Health Strategy was published in August 2022 and contained a number of important changes and future ambitions to improve the variations in access to NHS funded fertility services.
We will improve access to IVF by removing the additional financial burden on female same-sex couples accessing treatment. We will be working with NHS England to assess fertility provision across ICBs, with a view to removing non-clinical access criteria. We will also work with stakeholders to improve information provision on fertility and fertility treatments, including on the NHS website, and introduce greater transparency of the local provision of IVF.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of introducing stronger regulations for businesses that promote very low-calorie diets.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Department has no plans to assess the potential merits of introducing stronger regulations for businesses that promote very low-calorie diets.
The UK governments dietary recommendations on how to achieve a healthy, balanced diet are set out through the Eatwell Guide, this shows that foods high in fat, salt or sugar should be eaten less often and in small amounts.
The Government continues to actively promote how to maintain a healthy diet through a range of platforms, including the NHS.UK website, social media and campaigns such as Better Health.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to improve (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment of eating disorders.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Under the NHS Long Term Plan, we will invest almost £1 billion extra in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness by 2023/24. This will give 370,000 adults with severe mental illnesses, including eating disorders, greater choice and control over their care and support them to live well in their communities. As part of this we are expanding community eating disorder services capacity, including crisis care and intensive home treatment.
Since 2016, investment in children and young people's community eating disorder services has risen every year, with an extra £54 million per year from 2022/23. This extra funding will enhance the capacity of community eating disorder teams across the country.
NHS England is refreshing guidance on children and young people's eating disorders, including to increase the focus on early identification and intervention. Updated guidance will highlight the importance of improved integration between dedicated community eating disorder services, wider children and young people's mental health services, schools, colleges and primary care to improve awareness, provide expert advice and improve support for children and young people presenting with problems with eating, whilst ensuring swift access to specialist support as soon as an eating disorder is suspected.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has taken steps to help ensure that people with HIV have equal access to fertility treatments.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs has established a working group to review the current guidelines on gamete donation. This includes consideration of its position on gamete donors with human immunodeficiency virus. We will consider any advice that may result from this review.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding for clinical trials for new treatments for Alopecia conditions.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including alopecia conditions. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 end the Black maternal mortality gap.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
While births in England are among the safest globally, we must do more to ensure maternity care is consistent regardless of ethnicity. To address this, Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems have begun to publish Equity and Equality Action Plans to tackle disparities in outcomes and experiences of maternity care at a local level.
NHS England have developed fourteen Maternal Medicine Networks across England, to ensure that all women with chronic and acute medical problems around pregnancy have access to specialist management and care from physicians and obstetrics, tackling the biggest contributors to maternal mortality. Knowing that black women are more likely to suffer with a pre-existing condition, they should be a key group for whom the networks provide benefit.
Further to this, the Maternity Disparities Taskforce, who last held a meeting in April, brings together experts from across the health system, government departments and the voluntary sector to explore and consider evidence-based interventions to tackle maternal disparities.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the (a) closure and (b) reduction in size of mental health hubs for NHS staff on those staff.
Answered by Will Quince
Staff mental health hubs were established in October 2020 with funding subsequently extended to March 2023. They were funded on a non-recurrent basis using additional funding from Government as a short-term response to the pressure on the workforce from COVID-19. A number of systems across the National Health Service have chosen to continue to fund the work of the hubs. We are working with NHS England to explore how we can ensure all staff can access specialist support when they need it.
The health and wellbeing of NHS staff is a priority. NHS England has developed a range of health and wellbeing support for staff and earlier this year published a strategy to grow and strengthen occupational health and wellbeing services across the NHS. NHS staff can continue to access NHS Practitioner Health, a national support service for staff with more complex mental health needs brough about by serious issues such as trauma or addiction.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 potential merits of providing additional funding for research into treatments for myalgic encephalomyelitis.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has asked the UK Clinical Research Collaboration to convene a subgroup on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) with a range of stakeholders, including research funders, to ensure high quality applications for research into ME/CFS and support the research community to build capacity and capability.
On 12 May 2022, we announced the intention to develop a cross-Government Delivery Plan for ME/CFS in England. The delivery plan will build on the recommendations of the ME/CFS Priority Setting Partnership and the recently updated guideline from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to ensure that people living with ME/CFS have the appropriate support.