Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
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 trends in the level of care and support available for women with breast cancer in (a) Merseyside, (b) North West England and (c) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The National Cancer Programme is committed to ensuring, where appropriate, every person diagnosed with cancer, including breast cancer, will have access to personalised care, including a needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information by 2021. This involves assessing the trends in the level of care and support available for all cancer patients, including breast cancer, at a Cancer Alliance level.
Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance have achieved full implementation of personalised stratified follow up for breast cancer patients, which includes supported self-management, holistic needs assessments, care planning and health and wellbeing information. Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance are also looking to improve personalised follow up for all cancers, including breast cancer, such as improving access to psychological care and access to care for, and prevention of, other consequences of treatment. The provision of support and care in the area covered by the Alliance has significantly improved (Alliance level results from the National Cancer Patients Experience Survey (2018)). Cancer patients in Cheshire and Merseyside rate their overall care as 8.9/10, with 92% reporting that they had access to a Clinical Nurse Specialist. For breast cancer patients, 98% of patients reported having access to a Clinical Nurse Specialist, and their overall rating of care was 9.1/10.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his department has made an assessment of the potential merits of developing a public health campaign to reduce late diagnosis among (a) BME and (b) female people living with HIV.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
Reducing late diagnoses of HIV amongst black and minority ethnic (BAME) people and women living with HIV is already an aim of Public Health England’s (PHE) HIV prevention programmes.
HIV Prevention England, the national HIV prevention campaign funded by PHE and delivered by Terrence Higgins Trust, aims to promote HIV testing to reduce undiagnosed and late HIV diagnoses in Black African communities (men and women), men who have sex with men, and other groups in which there is a higher or emerging burden of infection. Further information is available to view at the following link:
https://www.hivpreventionengland.org.uk/
PHE also runs the HIV Innovation Fund which supports volunteer organisations leading new approaches to HIV prevention and focuses on engaging at-risk or under-served communities. Since 2015, the HIV Innovation Fund has supported 16 projects specifically targeted at Black African/other BAME people, and three targeted at women. Projects funded in 2018 are available to view the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/innovative-hiv-prevention-projects-reached-170000-people-in-2018
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the NICE guidance on prescribing cannabis-based products for medical use will be published.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is due to publish its guidelines on cannabis-based products for medicinal use in October 2019. The guidance will focus on four indications: chronic pain, intractable nausea and vomiting, treatment-resistant epilepsy and spasticity. It will be based on the best available international evidence and produced using NICE’s world-renowned process for delivering such guidelines.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of NHS prescriptions for medical cannabis issued in each month since 1 November 2018.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
NHS England is using extant systems to monitor use of the newly rescheduled unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use in England. In England, these systems monitor the number of items dispensed and associated costs in primary care and the volume of products used and associated cost in secondary care. NHS England Controlled Drug Accountable Officers are also collecting local intelligence in both the National Health Service and independent sector.
Data on the number of items of cannabis-based medicines dispensed in NHS primary care in England from November 2018 to January 2019 has been published by the NHS Business Services Authority. Such data is published three months in arrears, and we expect information for February 2019 to be published shortly.
The published data shows that the following number of items of Nabilone and Sativex (two cannabis-based medicines) were dispensed from November 2018 to January 2019:
| November 2018 | December 2018 | January 2019 |
Nabilone | 46 | 49 | 44 |
Sativex | 175 | 181 | 167 |
Data from the NHS Business Services Authority for between November 2018 and January 2019 shows that no prescriptions were dispensed for unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use in primary care in England during this time. We expect data for February 2019 to be available shortly.
Unlike NHS primary care where all dispensed prescriptions are processed centrally, this is not the case for secondary care. This information is collected by a third party and not routinely published.
94 patients have accessed Epidiolex though GW Pharma’s early access programmes ahead of a licensing decision by the European Medicines Agency.
Intelligence from NHS England Controlled Drugs Accountable Officers is that, up until the end to March 2019, one private prescription has been issued for a cannabis-based product for medicinal use in secondary/tertiary care in England.
Import notifications to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency indicate a greater number of supplies. We are therefore cross-checking to ensure that information on the number of prescriptions for cannabis-based products for medicinal use aligns across the different data sources.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
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 developing a competency framework for the provision of children’s palliative care.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
No specific assessment has been made.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
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 reduce the level of smoking.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Tobacco Control Plan for England, published in July 2017, outlines our commitment to reduce smoking prevalence still further, en route towards a smokefree generation. The Government will therefore continue to adopt a comprehensive approach to tobacco control, including tough legislation, high duty rates, cessation services and social marketing campaigns. The Tobacco Control Delivery Plan, published in June 2018 sets out the actions which different agencies will take in order to meet the aims of the plan, and how progress will be monitored.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
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 reduce the number of young people taking up smoking.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Tobacco Control Plan for England, published in July 2017, outlines our commitment to reduce smoking prevalence still further, en route towards a smokefree generation. The Government will therefore continue to adopt a comprehensive approach to tobacco control, including tough legislation, high duty rates, cessation services and social marketing campaigns. The Tobacco Control Delivery Plan, published in June 2018 sets out the actions which different agencies will take in order to meet the aims of the plan, and how progress will be monitored.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to enact the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases in England.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Government is committed to the implementation of the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases that sets out a long-term strategic vision for improving the lives of people with rare diseases and conditions.
NHS England announced in March 2017 an intention to publish an implementation plan for England setting out its delivery contribution to the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases in 2017/18 as part of the plans for the next steps of the Five Year Forward View. The Department is coordinating the implementation plan for England regarding the non-National Health Service lead commitments in the Strategy also to be published in 2017/18.
A progress report on the implementation of the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases was published early in 2016 and a further update will be published in early 2018.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many doses of pandemic H1N1 vaccine were administered in the UK in the 2010-11 influenza season.
Answered by Jane Ellison
An estimated 172,260 doses of pandemic flu vaccine were administered from 1 September 2010 to 28 February 2011.
The Department issued a letter from the Chief Medical Officer on 6 January 2011 about seasonal influenza vaccine uptake and supply. It noted that if efforts to source seasonal flu locally had not been successful, then the H1N1 monovalent vaccine Pandemrix could be offered to those eligible for seasonal flu vaccine.
Asked by: Stephen Twigg (Labour (Co-op) - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the NHS advised GPs to administer the pandemic influenza vaccine during the 2010-11 winter due to shortages of supply of seasonal influenza vaccine.
Answered by Jane Ellison
An estimated 172,260 doses of pandemic flu vaccine were administered from 1 September 2010 to 28 February 2011.
The Department issued a letter from the Chief Medical Officer on 6 January 2011 about seasonal influenza vaccine uptake and supply. It noted that if efforts to source seasonal flu locally had not been successful, then the H1N1 monovalent vaccine Pandemrix could be offered to those eligible for seasonal flu vaccine.