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 reduce waiting times for kidney disease diagnosis.
Answered by Will Quince
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance, Chronic kidney disease: Assessment and management [NG203], updated in November 2021, sets out best practice for clinicians in the diagnosis and management of chronic kidney disease. The guidance covers monitoring for those patients at risk, pharmacological management and referral where appropriate. The guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng203
In addition to evidence-based guidance to support clinicians to diagnose problems of the kidney, we are also working to detect people at risk of kidney disease through the NHS Health Check Programme. The Programme, which is available to people aged between 40 and 74 years old who are not already on a chronic disease register, assesses people’s health and risk of developing certain health problems. Using this information, patients are supported to make behavioural changes and access treatment which helps to prevent and detect kidney disease earlier.
We are investing in new delivery models for the NHS Health Check, including nearly £17 million for the development and roll-out of an innovative new national digital NHS Health Check that will give people choice about where and when to have a check.
The NHS England Renal Services Transformation Programme has recently launched a toolkit which identifies principles and actions that the health care system can take to improve the identification of kidney disease. The principles will encourage integrated care systems to focus on early identification and management of kidney disease but outlines actions developed in collaboration with clinical and operational colleagues that could help them achieve better patient outcomes and experience.
NHS England is also reviewing renal service specifications. Historically, these specifications have focused on advanced disease. However, future versions will support early diagnosis and intervention.
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 (a) providing additional funding for services that help people stop smoking and (b) using proceeds from the tobacco industry to fund smoking cessation services.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Public Health Grant will increase over the current spending review period, rising to nearly £3.6 billion in 2024/25 and continues to support local authorities to provide a range of public health services, including stop smoking services.
Latest figures from 2021/22 show that local authorities reported spend of £68 million on local authority led stop smoking services, with further reported spend of nearly £12 million on wider tobacco control.
Local authorities are best placed to identify the groups within their community where resources should be focused to reduce smoking harms. We continue to work with HM Treasury regarding tobacco taxation and revenue funding, including reviewing options to raise additional funds for smoking cessation services.
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 is taking steps to improve access to (a) technological and (b) psychological support for people with diabetes.
Answered by Will Quince
The latest technological support for people with diabetes, the hybrid closed loop system (the ‘artificial pancreas’) is currently progressing through the final stages of a Technical Assessment by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Ensuring that these technologies can be provided on the National Health Service at a cost-effective price increases access to these technologies for all eligible people.
The latest data shows over 60% of people with Type 1 diabetes were prescribed flash glucose monitoring, against an NHS Long Term Plan target of 20%. When the programme commenced, Flash was twice more likely to be prescribed to patients living in the most affluent areas. The current ratio between most and least affluent is now down to less than 1.2 times more likely, with many areas reporting complete parity.
As of October 2022, 97% of pregnant women living with type 1 diabetes were offered continuous glucose monitoring. The latest figures indicate that there is equitable access to the technology across deciles and ethnicities in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation.
NHS England has commissioned digital support programmes for people with diabetes. People with type 1 diabetes can self-refer to ‘MyType1 Diabetes’ and people with type 2 diabetes can self-refer to the online Healthy Living Programme.
Approximately 72% of children and young people living with type 1 diabetes have registered with the Digibete app, a free online service to support children and young people to manage their type 1 diabetes.
The Spring 2023 Budget contained a package of over £400 million to support the long-term sick, and disabled. This includes approximately £200 million for digital mental health – to modernise NHS Talking Therapies services in England. NHS Talking Therapies services provide evidence-based psychological treatments for people with depression and anxiety disorders, and comorbid long-term physical health conditions such as diabetes.
Building on Type 1 Disordered Eating (T1DE) pilots the NHS Diabetes Programme approved funding for five additional T1DE sites.
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 ensure that women are able to access breast screening.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has invested £10 million into the NHS Breast Screening Programme for 28 new breast screening units targeted at areas where they are needed most. This will provide extra capacity for services to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, boost uptake of screening in areas where attendance is low, and tackle health disparities.
Further steps to remove barriers to attending breast screening include promoting the use of text message alerts to remind women of upcoming appointments. National Health Service breast screening providers are also being encouraged to work with their partners to bring together work to make sure as many people as possible can access breast screening services.
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 his Department is taking to improve diagnosis times for pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is working with NHS England to improve diagnosis for those with cancer, including pancreatic cancer. The Elective Recovery Plan, published on 8 February 2022, set out the ambition that 75% of patients who have been urgently referred by their general practitioner (GP) for suspected cancer will be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days by March 2024. To deliver this plan, the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis.
In addition, the Government has awarded £2.3 billion to transform diagnostic services over the next three years. Most of this will help increase the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, prioritising CDCs for cancer services.
The National Health Service has implemented ‘non-specific symptom pathways’ for patients who have symptoms that do not align to a particular type of tumour, including for non-specific symptoms of pancreatic cancer. There are 103 pathways currently in place, with the aim being to have national coverage by March 2024.
To encourage people to see their GP if they notice symptoms that could be cancer, NHS England runs the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaigns, which address the barriers that deter patients from accessing the NHS.
In addition, the NHS has allocated £10 million to innovations to support earlier and more efficient diagnosis, including the PinPoint blood test and a new genetic test that can be used as a ‘liquid biopsy’ for those with suspected pancreatic cancer.
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 - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
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 - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
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
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 - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
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.