Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 25 May 2016 to Question 37198, how many of the leaflets entitled Why the Government believes that voting to remain in the European Union is the best decision for the UK have been returned to his Department; and what the postage cost to the Government has been of such returns.
Answered by Jane Ellison
I refer the hon. Member to the Prime Minister's response of 25 May 2016. This information is not collated centrally by the Department.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average cost of treating a patient with (a) hepatitis C, (b) cirrhosis and (c) hepatitis C and cirrhosis has been in the last 12 months for which figures are available.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the table below and is from reference costs, which are the average unit cost to National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year. Reference costs are published annually, with most recently available data being for 2014-15.
Reference costs for acute care are collected by healthcare resource group (HRG), which are standard groupings of clinically similar treatments that consume similar levels of healthcare resource. HRGs are organised by chapters and sub-chapters, representing different body systems, and HRG sub-chapters GC and PG describe hepatobiliary and pancreatic system disorders for adults and children respectively. The average costs in the following table will therefore include the costs to NHS hospitals of treating hepatitis C and cirrhosis, as well as the costs of other related disorders.
These costs do not include high cost drugs, or treatment in outpatient or other settings outside of hospital. They reflect the costs of a single episode of care under one consultant for a patient admitted to hospital. Patients admitted to hospital may have multiple episodes of care and each one of these episodes will be recorded separately.
Table: Average cost to NHS hospitals of treating hepatobiliary and pancreatic system disorders, 2014-15 (excluding high cost drugs, or treatment in outpatient or other settings outside of hospital)
| Average cost per unit of activity (£) |
Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders | 1,751 |
Paediatric, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders | 2,344 |
Source: Reference costs, Department of Health
Notes:
GC17A Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Multiple Interventions, with CC Score 9+
GC17B Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Multiple Interventions, with CC Score 4-8
GC17C Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Multiple Interventions, with CC Score 0-3
GC17D Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Single Intervention, with CC Score 9+
GC17E Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Single Intervention, with CC Score 4-8
GC17F Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with Single Intervention, with CC Score 0-3
GC17G Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, without Interventions, with CC Score 8+
GC17H Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, without Interventions, with CC Score 5-7
GC17J Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, without Interventions, with CC Score 2-4
GC17K Non-Malignant, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, without Interventions, with CC Score 0-1
PG71A Paediatric, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with CC Score 2+
PG71B Paediatric, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with CC Score 1
PG71C Paediatric, Hepatobiliary or Pancreatic Disorders, with CC Score 0
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what help is available to people with hepatitis C infection from contaminated blood.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Under the current support arrangements, people infected with hepatitis C through the use of National Health Service blood products are offered a lump sum payment of £20,000 on registering and the option to apply for certain discretionary support: both financial and non-financial. Should they develop “Stage 2” hepatitis C, the later stage of the disease, patients are then offered an additional lump sum of £50,000 and a regular annual payment of £14,749. Those people co-infected with hepatitis C stage 2 and HIV are offered a regular annual payment of £29,498. Currently 595 people are receiving these regular annual payments. In addition, 242 people are receiving regular payments for HIV infection.
However, the Department is consulting on options for a future support scheme which aims to ensure all of those infected with hepatitis C and registered with the payment schemes would receive regular annual payments, up to £15,000. There are currently 2,424 people with “stage 1” hepatitis C currently registered with the payment schemes who would benefit additionally from this proposed change.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people who were infected with hepatitis C due to contaminated blood products supplied by the NHS have attained sustained virological response following treatment for the infection.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Information on the numbers of people with hepatitis C through NHS-supplied blood or blood products who have attained sustained virological response following treatment for the infection is not held centrally. NHS England’s commissioning policy is for the treatment of patients based on clinical need, not on the route of infection.
All patients who meet the policy criteria, including those infected through NHS-supplied blood or blood products, are eligible for the new hepatitis C treatments. This will be dependent upon the individual patient’s hepatitis C genotype and cirrhosis status.
Asked by: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to his Department's publication, Living Well for Longer: One year on, published in March 2015, when he plans to publish a hepatitis C Improvement Framework.
Answered by Jane Ellison
A date for publication of the hepatitis C Improvement Framework has not yet been set. Public Health England continues working with NHS England and Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) to establish a process of monitoring hepatitis C treatment access and uptake.
Following their establishment in August 2015, ODNs will need to continue to be developed as a mechanism for ensuring equitable access to expert multidisciplinary team care and treatment for hepatitis C. ODNs are working to develop their plans, based on the published service specification and with the support of local specialised commissioning teams and regional Clinical Directors of specialised commissioning. Work is also underway to establish by February 2016 a national network of ODN clinical leads to share good practice. In addition, the draft hepatitis C improvement framework includes a numbers of areas pertinent to ODN operation and will therefore support further development of their role.