Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 allocating funding for additional research into reactive hypoglycaemia.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), which has a broad portfolio of research into diabetes and related symptoms.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including reactive hypoglycaemia. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications for funding 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: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to review NICE guidelines on the treatment of myalgic encephalomyelitis; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Steve Brine
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is responsible for determining whether its guidance should be updated to take into account new evidence. NICE is currently updating its clinical guideline on the diagnosis and management of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis and is consulting stakeholders on a draft scope for the guideline update.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients in (a) the UK, (b) West Yorkshire and (c) Colne Valley suffer from asthma.
Answered by Steve Brine
We do not hold the data in the format requested. However, the Department can provide a response using data from the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) covering primary care. This data covers England and we cannot answer for the entire United Kingdom.
The QOF provides the number of patients registered with asthma for England, West Yorkshire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) and NHS Greater Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), for 2016/17, shown in the following table.
QOF Asthma recorded disease prevalence, 2016-17 | Asthma Recorded Prevalence | |||
Organisation Name | Number of practices | List Size | Register of asthma patients | Prevalence (%) |
England | 7,392 | 58,029,147 | 3,444,218 | 5.94 |
West Yorkshire STP | 334 | 2,682,913 | 170,435 | 6.35 |
NHS Greater Huddersfield CCG | 37 | 246,583 | 15,923 | 6.46 |
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 reviewing prescription charges for people with long-term conditions.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Department has no plans to review prescription charges for people with long-term conditions. In the financial year 2016/17, prescription charge income generated £554.9 million of revenue for the National Health Service which played a key role in contributing to the cost of providing services.
Source: Department of Health Annual Report and Accounts 2016-17
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 implications for his Department's policies of the recommendations of the mental health matters too reports of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Parkinson's disease.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Officials have noted the recommendations of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Parkinson's disease. NHS England is working with the Neurological Alliance in support of the new national Neurology Advisory Group, which is considering ways to reduce variation and drive improvement in neurological care. This includes looking at issues such as psychological support, which were raised in the report ‘Parity of Esteem for People affected by Neurological Conditions: meeting the emotional, cognitive and mental health needs of neurology patients’, published by the Neurological Alliance on 5 July 2017. The Neurological Alliance is an umbrella organisation that represents a wide range of neurological condition charities including Parkinson’s UK.
Parkinson’s disease is more commonly diagnosed in older people, therefore NHS England anticipates that its work to improve older people’s mental health, and particularly increase their access to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services, will benefit people living with Parkinson’s disease. NHS England has introduced financial incentives through the Mental Health Quality Premium in 2017/18 and 2018/19 to reward clinical commissioning groups for improvements in access to, and outcomes from, IAPT services for under-represented groups, in particular older people.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans are in place to support people with Parkinson’s disease who have mental health conditions.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Officials have noted the recommendations of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Parkinson's disease. NHS England is working with the Neurological Alliance in support of the new national Neurology Advisory Group, which is considering ways to reduce variation and drive improvement in neurological care. This includes looking at issues such as psychological support, which were raised in the report ‘Parity of Esteem for People affected by Neurological Conditions: meeting the emotional, cognitive and mental health needs of neurology patients’, published by the Neurological Alliance on 5 July 2017. The Neurological Alliance is an umbrella organisation that represents a wide range of neurological condition charities including Parkinson’s UK.
Parkinson’s disease is more commonly diagnosed in older people, therefore NHS England anticipates that its work to improve older people’s mental health, and particularly increase their access to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services, will benefit people living with Parkinson’s disease. NHS England has introduced financial incentives through the Mental Health Quality Premium in 2017/18 and 2018/19 to reward clinical commissioning groups for improvements in access to, and outcomes from, IAPT services for under-represented groups, in particular older people.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has to support people with young-onset dementia.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We remain committed to delivering the Challenge on Dementia 2020 in full to make England the best place in the world for people with dementia to live. The Challenge and the commitments made in it apply to everyone diagnosed with dementia regardless of age.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 implications for his Department's policies of the actions for government set out by Alzheimer’s Research UK on its website.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government’s Challenge on Dementia and associated implementation plan describes a programme of action to transform care and experience for people living with dementia, their carers and families by 2020. We are committed to implementing the Challenge in full.
We are currently undertaking a Review of the Challenge on Dementia implementation plan which will reflect on what has been achieved so far and what more needs to be done to meet the commitment. The results will inform the next stage of the Challenge, and establish what additional actions can be taken to ensure the commitments are met by 2020 as planned.
We have acknowledged that an ageing society means that we need to reach a longer-term sustainable settlement for social care. This is why the Government has committed to publishing a Green Paper by summer 2018 setting out its proposals for reform.
The steps that we are already taking will address the issues raised in the reports to ensure that people with dementia receive high quality care and support from health and social services at all times.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 implications for his Department's policies of the the recommendations of the fix dementia care reports published by the Alzheimer’s Society.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government’s Challenge on Dementia and associated implementation plan describes a programme of action to transform care and experience for people living with dementia, their carers and families by 2020. We are committed to implementing the Challenge in full.
We are currently undertaking a Review of the Challenge on Dementia implementation plan which will reflect on what has been achieved so far and what more needs to be done to meet the commitment. The results will inform the next stage of the Challenge, and establish what additional actions can be taken to ensure the commitments are met by 2020 as planned.
We have acknowledged that an ageing society means that we need to reach a longer-term sustainable settlement for social care. This is why the Government has committed to publishing a Green Paper by summer 2018 setting out its proposals for reform.
The steps that we are already taking will address the issues raised in the reports to ensure that people with dementia receive high quality care and support from health and social services at all times.
Asked by: Thelma Walker (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people had to wait for longer than 12 weeks for a formal diagnosis of dementia after their first appointment with a GP.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The national commitment for the dementia diagnosis rate is two-thirds of the estimated population living with dementia to have a formal diagnosis. At the end of April 2018, 116 of 195 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) had met the two-thirds national standard.
A national diagnosis rate of at least 66.7% was initially achieved at the end 2015, and this has been maintained ever since. The current national dementia diagnosis rate is 67.3% (April 2018).
NHS England recognises that CCGs have varying levels of need for support based on their performance against the indicators, and has developed a support offer to assist areas in improving dementia services including diagnosis rates.