Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - 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 (Labour - 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
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 (Labour - 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
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 (Labour - 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 (Labour - 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.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - 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 the guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) entitled Endometriosis: diagnosis and management, NG73, published on 6 September 2017, if he will hold discussions with NICE on (a) reviewing and (b) updating that guidance to help improve (i) the (A) pharmacological and (B) non-pharmacological approaches for pain management, (ii) care pathways for endometriosis outside the pelvic cavity and (iii) mental health support.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body responsible for its published guidelines. NICE’s guideline on the diagnosis and management of endometriosis includes recommendations on pharmacological pain management and organisation of care. It also states that women with suspected or confirmed endometriosis should be provided with information and support that takes into account their psychosexual and emotional needs.
NICE updated this guideline in 2021 to highlight that people with endometriosis outside the pelvic cavity should be referred to a specialist endometriosis centre. In light of the continued interest in this topic, NICE is currently reviewing its guideline to determine whether it should be updated.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her policy is on providing specialist NHS help to every mother following a miscarriage.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
It is our ambition that every maternity service should have a bereavement specialist midwife. Mental health services in England have been expanded to include new mental health ‘hubs’ for new, expectant or bereaved mothers. The hubs will offer treatment for a range of mental health issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder after miscarrying or giving birth and fear of childbirth, to approximately 6,000 women in the first year.
We plan to introduce a pregnancy loss certificate in England, as recommended by the interim update of the independent Pregnancy Loss Review. This will allow a non-statutory, voluntary scheme to enable parents who have experienced a loss before 24 weeks of pregnancy to record and receive a certificate to provide recognition of their loss.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will (a) provide an above inflation pay rise to NHS workers in 2022 and (b) ensure that that pay rise takes into account real term changes in NHS workers' pay since 2010; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of a below inflation pay rise on NHS staff (i) retention, (ii) vacancies and (iii) recruitment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government has accepted the recommendations made by the independent Pay Review Bodies (PRBs) for National Health Service staff. The majority of NHS staff, including nurses, paramedics and midwives, will receive an increase in basic pay of at least 4% to 9.3%. The PRBs’ recommendations are based on an assessment of evidence from a range of stakeholders, including NHS system partners, trades unions and the Government, which consider recruitment, retention and staff motivation.
The NHS People Plan focuses on retaining staff by improving the experience of working in the NHS, including measures which address health and wellbeing. The NHS Retention Programme also targets interventions to support staff to remain in the NHS and understand the reasons why staff leave.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
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 in response to the report entitled Recovering diabetes care: preventing the mounting crisis, published by Diabetes UK; and what estimate he has made of when the standard and speed of healthcare for people received with diabetes will return to pre covid-19 pandemic levels.
Answered by James Morris
We are aware of the recent Diabetes UK report. NHS England’s Diabetes Programme continues to work with systems on the restoration of routine care provision and to address health inequalities.
The ‘2022/23 priorities and operational planning guidance’ asks that processes within diabetes care are restored to pre-pandemic levels by the end of March 2023. In 2022/23, we have allocated £36 million to integrated care systems (ICS), weighted by local levels of economic deprivation, to support the recovery of routine diabetes care. Each ICS is finalising operational plans for prioritised activities to support recovery.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of teaching on eating disorders in medical schools; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure doctors have the training, knowledge and skills required to identify and support people with an eating disorder.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No specific assessment has been made. However, the Department has engaged with partners through the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s Delivery Group, led by NHS England and NHS Improvement, to improve adult eating disorder services.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with Health Education England to develop and increase the specialist eating disorder workforce and improve the skills of staff in other health settings. This includes working with the General Medical Council to ensure eating disorders are included among outcome measures for newly qualified clinicians and with the Medical Schools Council to increase the coverage of eating disorders in undergraduate study. NHS England and NHS Improvement are also working with the Royal College of Psychiatrists to support the implementation of new guidance on medical emergencies in eating disorders to support healthcare professionals in a range of settings.