Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
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 ensure that the proposals in the consultation, Conditions for which over the counter items should not routinely be prescribed in primary care: A consultation on guidance for CCGs do not contravene the principle in the NHS constitution whereby access to NHS services is based on clinical need and not an individual’s ability to pay and NHS services are free of charge except in limited circumstances sanctioned by Parliament.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England, in partnership with NHS Clinical Commissioners (the organisation that represents clinical commissioning groups (CCGs)) has recently published CCG guidance setting out recommendations on conditions for which over the counter items should not routinely be prescribed in primary care. This guidance has not introduced any charges for NHS services; it does however outline appropriate prescribing for the 35 conditions specified.
The guidance issued is commissioning guidance for CCGs in England only, and is not a clinical guideline and as such, it does not affect a general practitioner’s (GP) ability to determine what the cause of specified symptoms are, to make a diagnosis and then to act appropriately. Furthermore, any such guidance does not preclude the ability of an individual to access their GP for whatever symptoms they are experiencing, to seek advice and appropriate treatment. In addition there are several exceptions within the guidance that outline specific scenarios (i.e. long term or complex conditions that require over the counter treatments, vulnerable patients, to treat side effects of other prescription only drugs) where prescribing should continue.
Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he plans to lay before Parliament a remedial order to allow single parents to apply for a parental order following surrogacy.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Drafting work on the remedial order is ongoing, which we currently estimate will be laid in the autumn session of Parliament.
Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many prisoners are taking part in drug and alcohol treatment programmes (a) in total and (b) in each prison in England and Wales.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Public Health England provides local information for performance monitoring in the restricted access section of the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System website, but does not publish national data centrally.
Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve diagnosis of hepatic encephalopathy.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Hepatic encephalopathy is an important end stage complication of liver disease. Monitoring at a national level is difficult because there is no specific code in the 10th edition of the International Classification of Diseases system (ICD10). The ICD10 guide recommends that patients with hepatic encephalopathy are classified as K72.9; hepatic failure, un-specified. Public Health England is working on raising the profile of hepatic encephalopathy with the Lancet Commission.
Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons the strategy for combating liver disease referred to by the Prime Minister on the 10 Downing Street website on 28 July 2011 has not been published.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Whilst NHS England is responsible for the overall national approach to improving clinical outcomes for people with liver disease, Public Health England (PHE) is working with the Lancet Commission on Liver Disease. This work involves regular meetings with Professor Richard Williams, (Lead, Lancet Standing Commission into Liver Disease in the UK), and attending action planning meetings.
PHE is working with NHS England and liver charities to respond to the key recommendations of the Lancet Commission and will produce a Liver Disease Framework in summer 2015 outlining the scope of its activities.
This will cover PHEs extensive programme of activities to tackle the three main risk factors for liver disease: alcohol, obesity and Hepatitis B & C; work with the Lancet Commissioners and GPs to strengthen detection and interventions for early stage liver disease and for identification of high risk patients; support a national needs assessment for liver disease services in the NHS.
Asked by: Wayne David (Labour - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to implement the recommendations of the Lancet Commission report on liver disease, published on 27 November 2014.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Whilst NHS England is responsible for the overall national approach to improving clinical outcomes for people with liver disease, Public Health England (PHE) is working with the Lancet Commission on Liver Disease. This work involves regular meetings with Professor Richard Williams, (Lead, Lancet Standing Commission into Liver Disease in the UK), and attending action planning meetings.
PHE is working with NHS England and liver charities to respond to the key recommendations of the Lancet Commission and will produce a Liver Disease Framework in summer 2015 outlining the scope of its activities.
This will cover PHEs extensive programme of activities to tackle the three main risk factors for liver disease: alcohol, obesity and Hepatitis B & C; work with the Lancet Commissioners and GPs to strengthen detection and interventions for early stage liver disease and for identification of high risk patients; support a national needs assessment for liver disease services in the NHS.