Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of (a) the average waiting time, (b) the number of women waiting and (c) the number of women waiting over one year for a gynaecological appointment or procedure; what steps she is taking to help reduce waiting times for these appointments; and whether she has made an estimate of when waiting times will return to pre covid-19 levels.
Answered by Will Quince
As of September 2022, the median average waiting time for gynaecology treatment was 15.7 weeks. The information requested on the number of women waiting for an appointment or procedure is not held centrally.
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out how the National Health Service will recover and expand elective services over the next three years, including gynaecological services. We have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available in 2021/2022 to increase elective activity. This funding aims to deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million additional checks and procedures and 30% further elective activity by 2024/25 than pre-pandemic levels.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the context of the cost of living crisis, if he will extend eligibility for free prescriptions to (a) those in receipt of tax credits and (b) more widely to protect people’s access to healthcare.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
There are currently no plans to extend eligibility for free prescriptions. The NHS Business Services Authority issues NHS Tax Credit exemption certificates for full help with health costs, including free prescriptions, where the annual family income used to calculate Tax Credits is £15,276 or less and the person receives either Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit paid together or Working Tax Credit including a disability or severe disability element.
We have also frozen prescription charges this year and approximately 89% of prescription items in England are provided free of charge. To support those who do not qualify for an exemption from prescription charges, the cost of prescriptions can be capped by purchasing a prescription pre-payment certificate, which can be paid for in instalments. A holder of a 12-month certificate can get all the prescriptions they need for just over £2 per week.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
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 Government's progress against its target to make England smoke-free by 2030; and whether the Government will be providing additional investment to stop smoking support services to meet that objective.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
We are currently considering the recommendations made in ‘The Khan review: making smoking obsolete’ and how these measures can ensure we meet the 2030 target. Further information on these plans, including on investment, will be available in due course.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she expects the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to conclude its appraisal of Evusheld.
Answered by Will Quince
On 10 August 2022, the Department referred Evusheld to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to evaluate its clinical and cost effectiveness for preventing COVID-19. From 29 July to 12 August 2022, NICE consulted with provisional stakeholders on the suggested remit, draft scope and provisional stakeholder list of consultees and commentators.
NICE has begun its evaluation and currently expects to publish draft guidance in April 2023 with final guidance in May 2023. In discussion with the manufacturer AstraZeneca, NICE is expediting the appraisal process by bringing forward the deadline for the company’s evidence submission in order to issue guidance to the National Health Service as soon as possible.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of calorie labelling on menus on people with (a) eating disorders and (b) forms of body dysmorphia, and what steps her Department took to limit the potential negative impacts of that policy on those groups.
Answered by Caroline Johnson - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
In response to consultation feedback, we have exempted schools from the requirement to display calorie information and we included provision for businesses to provide a menu without calorie information at the request of the customer. We continue to evaluate the impact of the out of home calorie labelling Regulations, including on people living with eating disorders. We will publish a post-implementation review within five years of implementation, which will consider the implementation and effectiveness of the policy.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Leukaemia Care's Left to #WatchWaitWorry campaign, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policy of that campaign; and whether the Government will take additional steps to support patients who are on watch and wait advice for leukaemia.
Answered by Will Quince
We are committed to ensuring that all leukaemia patients have access to holistic needs assessments, personalised care and support planning and personalised care interventions. These ensure care focuses on what matters most to each patient, whilst empowering them to self-manage where appropriate and provide a rapid route back into the healthcare system if they notice any worrying changes or need to seek help. The personalised care programme also includes ensuring patients receive high quality information.
In 2020/2021 Health Education England made 250 training grants available for existing and aspiring clinical nurse specialists (CNSs). The 2021 National Cancer Patient Experience Survey found that of 1,662 respondents with leukaemia, 88.5% reported that they received a named contact to support them through their cancer treatment, with 79.3% reporting that this was a CNS.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to provide support for unpaid carers in the context of the cost of living crisis, including ensuring (a) access to breaks, (b) respite and care services and (c) support to balance paid work with care.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a range of sustainable high-quality care and support services, including for unpaid carers. Local authorities are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any unpaid carer who appears to have a need for support and to meet their eligible needs on request from the carer.
Funding for respite and short breaks for carers is included in the National Health Service contribution to the Better Care Fund (BCF). In 2022/23, £291.7 million from the BCF is earmarked to provide short breaks and respite services and advice and support for carers under the Care Act. Legislation to introduce one week of leave for unpaid carers will be brought forward when Parliamentary time allows.
Many carers will be amongst the eight million low-income households in receipt of a means-tested benefit who will receive the £650 Cost of Living payment. Six million people in receipt of an eligible disability benefit will also receive the £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment, which includes carers in receipt of a qualifying benefit. The Pensioner Cost of Living Payment of £300 per household will be paid with the winter fuel payment this winter.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment her department has made of the potential merits of convening a dementia medicines taskforce as proposed by the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK in March 2022; and if she will make it her policy to convene such a taskforce.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Officials have met Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) and discussed the proposal for a Dementia Medicines Taskforce and considered the merits of the proposal to accelerate patient access to medicines with NHS England. On 14 August 2022, the Government launched the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Mission, which meets some of the objectives of ARUK’s proposal.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to improve diagnosis rates for breast cancer.
Answered by Will Quince
The NHS Long Term Plan set an ambition for 75% of cancers to be diagnosed at stage one or two by 2028, which has now been achieved for breast cancer. The NHS Breast Screening Programme offers all women in England aged 50 years old to their 71st birthday the opportunity to be screened every three years for breast cancer. The Programme issues invitations to 1.9 million women every year, which detects 20,000 breast cancers and prevents approximately 1,300 deaths.
NHS England’s National Cancer Programme is working with clinical experts, patients and charities to produce a best practice timed pathway for breast cancer. These pathways set out the sequence and maximum timeframes in which triage, diagnostic tests and assessments should be delivered, to support delivery of the 28 day Faster Diagnosis Standard.
A recent ‘Help us help you’ campaign focused on the barriers to earlier presentation in all cancer types, including breast cancer and aimed to address underlying challenges to earlier diagnosis. This campaign saw a 1600% increase in the numbers of visits to the NHS.UK cancer symptoms information.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) treatment, (b) diagnosis and (c) survival rates for people with bladder cancer.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England (NHSE) has funded the following treatments for bladder cancer from the date of draft positive National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance in the last 12 months:
- September 2021 - Atezolizumab for untreated PD-L1-positive advanced urothelial cancer when cisplatin is unsuitable
- April 2022 - Avelumab for maintenance treatment of locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer after platinum-based chemotherapy
- July 2022 - nivolumab for adjuvant treatment of invasive urothelial cancer at high risk of recurrence.
The NHSE Cancer Programme’s key approach to improving survival rates for cancer, including bladder cancer, is earlier diagnosis. One of the principal priorities, as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, is to increase the proportion of cancers diagnosed at stages one and two to 75% by 2028. The latest NHS ‘Help Us Help You’ campaign focuses on the barriers to earlier presentation across all cancer types, and aims to address some of the underlying challenges to earlier diagnosis. This phase of the campaign has so far run during March and June 2022 and in both months saw 1,600% increases in the numbers of visits to the NHS website’s cancer symptoms page. NHSE’s plans include repeating the abdominal and urological symptoms campaign, which addresses symptoms relevant to bladder cancer.