Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 help reduce rates of liver cancer in the UK.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is supporting the National Health Service to reduce rates of liver cancer in England through NHS England providing support to the NHS to help patients live healthier lives, improve early diagnosis, and develop new treatments.
Improving early cancer diagnosis is a priority. The NHS is working towards the NHS Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage 1 and 2 by 2028, meaning 55,000 more people each year will survive their cancer at least five years after diagnosis. To deliver this, the Department is driving faster roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, establishing 123 community diagnostic centres (CDCs), with capacity prioritised for cancer. NHS cancer standards will also be reformed with the support of clinicians to speed up diagnosis for patients. In addition, the NHS-Galleri Trial is looking into the use of a new blood test to see if it can help the NHS to detect cancer early when used alongside existing cancer screening, including liver cancers.
The NHS’s Core20PLUS5 programme is a national intervention which aims to provide the best treatment and care for patients and tackling health disparities. The Government’s Major Conditions Strategy, focused on six major groups of conditions, including cancers, will apply a geographical lens to address regional disparities in health outcomes and improve healthy life expectancy.
The Department has also committed support to the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce, which targets cancers with stubbornly poor survival rates. This partnership focuses on liver, pancreas, lung, brain, oesophagus and stomach cancers, raising awareness of these less survivable cancers so more people understand their symptoms and go to see their GP if they have concerns.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of reinstating the positions of National Clinical Director for (a) gastroenterology and (b) liver disease.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A National Clinical Director provides clinical advice and leadership on the NHS England Internal Medicine Specialised Services portfolio, which includes specialised gastroenterology and liver disease. A National Speciality Advisor provides clinical advice more specifically to the hepatobiliary and pancreas programme.
The Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme has invested in clinical leadership in gastroenterology, which is one of its priority workstreams. The programme will be establishing a liver disease programme in 2024/25, including recruiting to a clinical lead role.
The National Clinical Director for Cancer is leading work on on-the-spot liver scans, that has already found that around one in ten people in communities visited have advanced liver damage that needs further monitoring or treatment as it could lead to liver cancer.
NHS England is funding preventative interventions that support individuals to reduce the harm caused by alcohol use and obesity. To support this work, NHS England has invested in a National Clinical Director for Diabetes & Obesity and a National Speciality Advisor for alcohol dependence.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the letter of 7 March 2023 from the then Minister for Social Care to the Chief Executive of the British Liver Trust, whether it remains his policy that fibroscans will be in use at 100 community diagnostic centres by March 2025; how many fibroscans have been delivered to community diagnostic centres since March 2023; and whether he has considered the potential merits of setting a new target.
Answered by Will Quince
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will commission research into a potential link between rates of liver disease and higher associated mortality rates in areas of deprivation.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department invests over £1 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds and supports health, public health and social care research that leads to improved outcomes for patients and the public and makes the health and social care system more efficient, effective, and safe. Research evidence is vital for improving treatments and outcomes for people, including those with liver disease.
The Department does not directly commission research, we invite funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including liver disease. As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. The level of research spend in a particular area, is driven by factors including scientific potential and the number and scale of successful funding applications. It is also worth noting that all applications that were fundable in open competition have been funded.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the letter from the Secretary of State for Health to his counterparts in the Welsh and Scottish governments on 13 August, what (1) arrangements, or (2) agreements, they have made with those governments concerning the reduction of hospital waiting lists.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to reducing waiting times across England and the United Kingdom, and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Steve Barclay MP) has written to the devolved administrations to offer to work collaboratively to reduce long waits. He also indicated that he would consider any request for patients waiting for lengthy periods for treatment in Scotland and Wales to be able to choose from alternate providers in England.
Officials in the Department are seeking an initial meeting with the devolved administrations to discuss how we can work jointly and share lessons on tackling the longest waits.
More generally, the Government has a longstanding history of close working with the Devolved Governments on cross-border commissioning arrangements. These have been in place for several years and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland already have the power to contract with any National Health Service provider in England for specific services.
For example, NHS England commissions five specialised services on behalf of patients from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: Choriocarcinoma, Craniofacial services, Liver transplantation (where this takes place at English providers), Retinoblastoma, and Specialist paediatric liver services.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his letter to his counterparts in Scotland and Wales on 13 August 2023, what steps he plans to take to ensure that patients on waiting lists in Northern Ireland can receive treatment in England.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government are committed to reducing waiting times across England and the United Kingdom, and my Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has written to the devolved administrations to offer to work collaboratively to reduce long waits. He also indicated that he would consider any request for patients waiting for lengthy periods for treatment in Scotland and Wales to be able to choose from alternate providers in England.
Officials in the Department are seeking an initial meeting with the devolved administrations to discuss how we can work jointly and share lessons on tackling the longest waits.
More generally, the UK Government has a longstanding history of close working with the Devolved Governments on cross-border commissioning arrangements. These have been in place for several years and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already have the power to contract with any National Health Service provider in England for specific services.
For example, NHS England commissions five specialised services on behalf of patients from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: choriocarcinoma; craniofacial services; liver transplantation (where this takes place at English providers); retinoblastoma; and specialist paediatric liver services.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the prominence of microplastic contaminants in human tissue samples.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is aware of a several published research papers that report finding microplastic particles in human tissues such as a lung and diseased liver. These studies are small but do indicate the potential of small numbers of microplastic particles to enter some human tissues. UKHSA is not directly involved with this work and is not currently assessing the prevalence of microplastic particles in human tissues, but does have some research work ongoing with Imperial College London to look at the factors that contribute to the uptake of microplastic particles into tissues.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 February 2022 to Question 119579 on Liver Diseases: Health Services, what steps he is taking to implement the findings of the Hepatobiliary Clinical Reference Group review of the stocktake of health inequalities in liver disease commissioned by NHS England in 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England Hepatobiliary Clinical Reference Group has formally received the stocktake of health inequalities in liver disease it commissioned in 2021. It is now working to determine an appropriate action plan to address the report’s findings. The conclusions drawn within the report will inform the update to the hepatobiliary service specification, which is currently in train.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 February 2022 to Question 119579, if he will publish the Hepatobiliary Clinical Reference Group stocktake of health inequalities in liver disease commissioned by NHS England in 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England Hepatobiliary Clinical Reference Group has formally received the stocktake of health inequalities in liver disease it commissioned in 2021. It is now working to determine an appropriate action plan to address the report’s findings. The conclusions drawn within the report will inform the update to the hepatobiliary service specification, which is currently in train.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
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 implement the guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on the use of FibroScan for assessing liver fibrosis and cirrhosis outside secondary and specialist care, published on 7 June 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
Intelligent Liver Function Tests are carried out in laboratories and therefore cannot be done at a Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC). These tests determine whether a fibroscan is required. There are 10 CDCs currently providing ultrasound liver elastography (fibroscan). NHS England has plans to understand the diagnostic pathways for liver disease and how CDCs can further support this. The pathway for assessing liver disease should start with blood tests taken in primary care, with FIB-4 liver tests available at NHS trusts. NHS England has not made an assessment of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on the use of FibroScan for assessing liver fibrosis and cirrhosis outside secondary and specialist care.