Nov. 25 2024
Source Page: Over 1 million change.nhs.uk visits as NHS debate hits SomersetNov. 25 2024
Source Page: Lords to consider landmark reforms to mental health careAsked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 potential merits of providing funding for research into the early detection of sepsis.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including sepsis diagnosis. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients, and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
In the last five years, the NIHR has invested over £9.2 million into 10 research projects to improve the diagnosis of sepsis. In addition, the NIHR Research Delivery Network, which helps patients, the public, and health and care organisations to participate in high quality research, has supported 19 studies on sepsis diagnosis.
The NIHR’s investment into sepsis diagnosis includes research into the application of novel point-of-care diagnostic tests for sepsis, predicting those most at-risk of developing sepsis, and evaluating the accuracy of pre-existing measures to identify patients with suspected sepsis.
For example, the NIHR funded the Prehospital early warning scores for adults with suspected sepsis (PHEWS) study, which aimed to determine the impact and accuracy of early warning scores to identify sepsis requiring urgent treatment. In 2024, the PHEWS study found that the National Early Warning score, a standardized early warning system based on simple measurements used to identify acutely ill patients, including those with sepsis, was as good as or better than all the other scores to prioritize people with suspected sepsis, and avoided missing patients with sepsis. This finding supports the early diagnosis of sepsis in patients, therefore reducing treatment delay, and consequentially deaths caused by sepsis.
The UK Health Security Agency is conducting ongoing work to explore the development of two diagnostic tests to bridge gaps in early detection and disease confirmation, and inform detection and ongoing management.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
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 (a) prevent heart disease and stroke, (b) prioritise timely NHS heart care and (c) accelerate research into future treatments and cures.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to ensuring that fewer lives are lost to the biggest killers, such as heart disease, which includes cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and stroke.
The NHS Health Check, England’s flagship CVD prevention programme, engages over 1.3 million people each year and prevents approximately 500 heart attacks or strokes. To improve access and engagement to this life saving check, we are developing a digital NHS Health Check, a service which people can use at home to understand and act on their CVD risk, providing people with a more flexible, accessible, and convenient service. We are also piloting a new programme to deliver more than 130,000 lifesaving heart health checks in workplaces across the country.
The NHS Long Term Plan (NHS LTP) is committed to improving the care and outcomes for people with CVD through enhanced diagnostic support in the community, better personalised planning, and increased access to disease-specific rehabilitation. NHS England’s stroke priorities include rapid diagnosis and increased access to time-dependent acute stroke care, as well as facilitating ambulance service use of pre-hospital telemedicine, and supporting access to the use of artificial intelligence decision support tools for brain imaging.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish real world evidence on the effectiveness of the respiratory syncytial virus vaccine in the 75-80 cohort; how much such evidence has been collected; and whether such evidence from other countries has been taken into account in consideration of extending eligibility for that vaccine.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency is working on vaccine effectiveness analysis within the 75 to 80-year-old age group for this winter season 2024 to 2025. We are collating data on respitatory syncytial virus (RSV) hospitalisations in England and general practice consultations in a sentinel network.
Data is required from across the entire RSV season to give an accurate estimate of effectiveness. Analyses are therefore likely to take place around the end of the winter season 2024-2025. Publication is expected to follow in due course.
Evidence of effectiveness in all age groups in all countries where data has been made available is being used to inform eligibility considerations. Emerging real-world evidence will be reviewed by the Joint Committee on Vaccination & Immunisation as part of its considerations for a potential extension to the older adults RSV immunisation programme, currently aimed at people aged between 75 and 80 years old, to include people over 80 years old and risk groups.