Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has considered introducing mandatory training for health professionals on PANS and PANDAS.

General practitioners and other healthcare professionals are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This includes taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, to ensure that they can continue to provide high quality care to all patients.

The training curricula for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the relevant medical royal college and has to meet the standards set by the General Medical Council (GMC), which is an independent statutory body. The GMC has the general function of promoting high standards of education and co-ordinating all stages of education to ensure that medical students and newly qualified doctors are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential for professional practice.

Whilst curricula do not necessarily highlight specific conditions for doctors to be aware of, they instead emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients. Whilst the Department, through NHS England, is able to influence the content of training courses, we consider that the curricula are best set by the regulators, royal colleges, and professional bodies working together.