Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how the UK's (a) field hospital and (b) other aid to Gaza will be coordinated with (i) local authorities and (ii) international organisations to ensure effective (A) delivery and (B) operation.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
A full UK field hospital run by UK-Med has also arrived in Gaza and is now operational and providing life-saving care.
This facility can be adapted according to needs on the ground and usually includes a pharmacy, triage area, major injuries and resuscitation unit, and maternity care tent. This facility will be able to treat more than 100 patients a day. It will be staffed by both local health workers and international medics, including many from the UK, on the UK-Med Register.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps he is taking to monitor the effectiveness of the (a) UK-funded field hospital and (b) aid delivery in Gaza.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
A full UK field hospital run by UK-Med has also arrived in Gaza and is now operational and providing life-saving care.
This facility can be adapted according to needs on the ground and usually includes a pharmacy, triage area, major injuries and resuscitation unit, and maternity care tent. This facility will be able to treat more than 100 patients a day. It will be staffed by both local health workers and international medics, including many from the UK, on the UK-Med Register.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 audit Pharmacy First; and whether she plans to consult the pharmacy professions on its future.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pharmacy First was launched on 31 January 2024. The Department and NHS England will closely monitor the service. Additionally, the National Institute for Health and Care Research has commissioned a wrap-around evaluation of Pharmacy First, with a focus on antimicrobial resistance. There are no plans to change this service, which has only recently launched, but if any changes were proposed then we would consult Community Pharmacy England, as the representative body for all pharmacy contractors in England.
General practices (GPs) and their teams already refer patients to community pharmacies for a wide range of services. Pharmacy First, for minor illnesses, is built on the existing Community Pharmacy Consultation Service. NHS England has further engaged with GP representatives during the development and launch of Pharmacy First.
The Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care announced plans to significantly improve the digital infrastructure between GPs and community pharmacies. Pharmacy IT systems already generate automated emails to the patient’s GP following a consultation. We are taking this one step further for Pharmacy First. Later this year, pharmacy IT systems will send information about a Pharmacy First consultation directly into the GP’s workflow. This will be a first for the National Health Service, but will become the norm over time for other parts of the NHS, further reducing bureaucracy for GPs. Pharmacies will also have access to more parts of the patient’s GP record, and referrals will be streamlined.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is she taking to ensure the compatibility of IT systems used by GPs and pharmacies.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pharmacy First was launched on 31 January 2024. The Department and NHS England will closely monitor the service. Additionally, the National Institute for Health and Care Research has commissioned a wrap-around evaluation of Pharmacy First, with a focus on antimicrobial resistance. There are no plans to change this service, which has only recently launched, but if any changes were proposed then we would consult Community Pharmacy England, as the representative body for all pharmacy contractors in England.
General practices (GPs) and their teams already refer patients to community pharmacies for a wide range of services. Pharmacy First, for minor illnesses, is built on the existing Community Pharmacy Consultation Service. NHS England has further engaged with GP representatives during the development and launch of Pharmacy First.
The Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care announced plans to significantly improve the digital infrastructure between GPs and community pharmacies. Pharmacy IT systems already generate automated emails to the patient’s GP following a consultation. We are taking this one step further for Pharmacy First. Later this year, pharmacy IT systems will send information about a Pharmacy First consultation directly into the GP’s workflow. This will be a first for the National Health Service, but will become the norm over time for other parts of the NHS, further reducing bureaucracy for GPs. Pharmacies will also have access to more parts of the patient’s GP record, and referrals will be streamlined.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 ensure GPs are trained to engage with Pharmacy First.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pharmacy First was launched on 31 January 2024. The Department and NHS England will closely monitor the service. Additionally, the National Institute for Health and Care Research has commissioned a wrap-around evaluation of Pharmacy First, with a focus on antimicrobial resistance. There are no plans to change this service, which has only recently launched, but if any changes were proposed then we would consult Community Pharmacy England, as the representative body for all pharmacy contractors in England.
General practices (GPs) and their teams already refer patients to community pharmacies for a wide range of services. Pharmacy First, for minor illnesses, is built on the existing Community Pharmacy Consultation Service. NHS England has further engaged with GP representatives during the development and launch of Pharmacy First.
The Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care announced plans to significantly improve the digital infrastructure between GPs and community pharmacies. Pharmacy IT systems already generate automated emails to the patient’s GP following a consultation. We are taking this one step further for Pharmacy First. Later this year, pharmacy IT systems will send information about a Pharmacy First consultation directly into the GP’s workflow. This will be a first for the National Health Service, but will become the norm over time for other parts of the NHS, further reducing bureaucracy for GPs. Pharmacies will also have access to more parts of the patient’s GP record, and referrals will be streamlined.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate she has made of the number of primary care vacancies for each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is no centrally held data on the number of general practice or dentist vacancies. NHS England conducts an annual community pharmacy workforce survey, that collects data on vacancy rates across community pharmacies in England. Data for the last 12 months is not currently available, but data for 2023 is being analysed, and will be published later this year on NHS England’s Health Education England website, which is available at the following link:
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, if she will publish a strategy to (a) tackle critical medicines shortages and (b) help improve the resilience of the community pharmacy sector.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no plans to publish a strategy. There are around 14,000 medicines licensed for supply in the United Kingdom, and most are in good supply. However, the medicine supply chain is highly regulated, complex, and global, which means that there can sometimes be supply issues which affect the UK, along with other countries around the world. Medicine supply problems may be caused by several factors, including manufacturing difficulties, regulatory non-compliance, demand surges, problems with the supply of raw materials, and issues related to distribution of the product. We work with industry, NHS England, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the devolved administrations, and other stakeholders to address these issues and help ensure patients continue to have access to the treatments they need. Communications about supply issues requiring active management are issued to healthcare professionals, and guidance is provided to help them manage their patients, where necessary.
Access to community pharmacies in England is good, with 80% of the population living within 20 minutes walking distance from a pharmacy, and twice as many pharmacies in the most deprived areas. We are funding pharmacies with £2.6 billion per year, and have invested up to an additional £645 million in the sector across this and next year, for the recently launched Pharmacy First service and the expansion of the existing Blood Pressure Check Service and Pharmacy Contraception Service. The contractual arrangements and funding for 2024/25 are being currently consulted on with Community Pharmacy England.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
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 assessment of the potential merits of enabling pharmacy students to utilise the NHS learning support fund.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no immediate plans to make changes to the Learning Support Fund scheme design. The Government keeps the funding arrangements for all healthcare students under close review. At all times the Government must strike a balance between the level of support students receive, and the need to make best use of public funds to deliver value for money.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will bring forward legislative proposals that enable pharmacists to amend prescriptions when their stocks dictate their ability to prescribe the type and weight of a drug.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no plans to introduce legislative proposals to allow pharmacists to amend prescriptions. Allowing pharmacists to take local action to alter prescriptions could have adverse impacts on patients, because pharmacies will not know the reasons why a medicine has been prescribed, or in what particular way. Supplying an alternative without full oversight of supply issues could also create a knock-on shortage of the alternative, and could thereby have the potential to exacerbate rather than mitigate a supply problem.
However, in the case of certain shortages, Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) enable community pharmacists to supply a specified medicine or device in accordance with a protocol rather than a prescription, with the patient’s consent, and without needing to seek authorisation from the prescriber. SSPs are not introduced unless clinically appropriate, and unless sufficient supplies of the alternative product to be supplied in accordance with the SSP are available to support the market.
Asked by: Kate Osamor (Independent - Edmonton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason Master of Pharmacy courses are not included in the NHS Learning Support Fund.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Learning Support Fund (LSF) is available broadly to those courses which were eligible for the NHS Bursary prior to the 2017 reforms, and therefore, subjects such as pharmacy are outside of the scope of the LSF arrangements. There are no immediate plans to make changes to the LSF scheme design.
The Government keeps the funding arrangements for all healthcare students under close review. At all times the Government must strike a balance between the level of support students receive, and the need to make best use of public funds to deliver value for money.