Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to encourage the introduction of the Prostate-Specific Antigen blood test on the NHS for men (a) a strong family history of prostate cancer and (b) under 50.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Too many cancer patients are waiting too long to be treated, and we are determined to change that through faster and earlier diagnosis. We are investing £16 million towards the Prostate Cancer UK led TRANSFORM screening trial seeking to find better methods to catch prostate cancer. NHS England is taking steps to raise awareness of the symptoms of prostate cancer, where there are opportunities to do so.
The UK National Screening Committee does not currently recommend screening for prostate cancer as the prostate-specific antigen test does not meet the required accuracy for use in a national screening programme. Current methods offer insufficient benefits in relation to harms caused by overdiagnosis, such as invasive investigative procedures and unnecessary treatment.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to recommendation 44 of the Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation, published in March 2015, what steps his Department has taken to establish a proper framework on which future investigations could be promptly established.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ensuring that all women and babies received safe, personalised, equitable, and compassionate care. We are determined to learn lessons from inquiries and investigations.
The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch became an independent investigations body known as the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) in April 2023, through the Health and Care Act 2022. Its role is to investigate incidents occurring during the provision of health care services that have, or may have, implications for patient safety. The HSSIB will conduct investigations using a no-blame approach, that is supported by a safe space which encourages participants, including patients, families, and staff, to share information in confidence. This aims to encourage the spread of a culture of learning within the National Health Service and independent sector.
As set out in the Health and Care Act 2022, the HSSIB will also provide advice, guidance, and training to NHS bodies upon request. The HSSIB has established their own processes and principles around matters such as evidence handling and access to documentation.
NHS England has created a National Independent Patient Safety Investigation Framework, which is an internally focussed approach to support the commissioning and management of independent investigations.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the investigation into maternity incidents at Gloucestershire Hospitals Foundation Trust has started.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The trust has committed to a thematic review of all neonatal and maternal deaths since 2019. This has started for neonatal deaths but not for maternal deaths, due to delays identifying an external assessor.
The trust is engaging with the NHS England South West Region to resolve this issue as soon as possible, and remains committed to publishing and sharing the findings from both reviews openly.
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: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to announce (a) whether Drug Strategy funding for drug and alcohol treatment providers will be renewed and at what levels and (b) the length of the funding cycle; and if he will take steps to ensure that local authorities have adequate notice of alcohol and drug treatment funding.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government supports investment in drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services, to ensure that those people with a substance use need get appropriate help and support. In addition to the Public Health Grant, the Department has allocated local authorities a further £267 million in 2024/25 to improve the quality and capacity of drug and alcohol treatment and recovery. This is alongside £105 million made available by the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to improve employment and housing support.
My Rt. Hon. friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced updates to the fiscal framework, and earlier this year launched the Spending Review which has now settled the 2025/26 departmental budgets. She has also made it clear that the Government will conclude a multi-year Spending Review in spring 2025. In future, we anticipate that Spending Reviews will be set every two years to cover a three-year period, including a one-year overlap with the previous Spending Review, helping build in greater certainty and stability over public finances.
Now that the Autumn Budget has been completed, the Department is working to be able to announce future funding allocations for drug and alcohol treatment and recovery systems. We will communicate with the sector about this as soon as we are able to, as we recognise the importance of this information in maintaining delivery and planning for 2025/26.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
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 11 November 2024 to Question 11938 on NHS: Employers' Contributions, whether he has made a estimate of the cost of changes to national insurance contributions announced in the Autumn Budget 2024 to (a) his Department, (b) NHSE, (c) general practices, (d) hospices, (e) charities delivering healthcare, (f) social care providers, (g) care homes, (h) air ambulance service providers, (i) each acute trust's direct costs, (j) each acute trusts indirect costs, (k) dental clinics providing NHS care, (l) opticians providing NHS appointments, (m) private healthcare providers providing NHS appointments or operations, (n) each mental health trust, (o) each ICB, (p) the cost of agency nursing staff, (q) the cost of locum doctors, (r) local pharmacies and (s) NHS suppliers and contractors.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have taken necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at Autumn Budget. This has enabled a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26. The Government is also providing at least £600 million of new grant funding for social care in 2025/26, as part of the broader estimated real-terms uplift to core local government spending power of around 3.2%.
The rise will be implemented from April 2025, and the Department will set out further details on allocation of funding for next year in due course, taking employer National Insurance contributions into account. The information requested is not available centrally, as the range of organisations and individuals being asked about have very different contractual relationships with the Department, NHS England, local integrated care boards and National Health Service providers.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Labour - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help reduce the waiting list for people seeking treatment to relieve the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that patients have been let down whilst they wait for the care they need, including within neurology services. The NHS Constitution sets out that 92% of patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment. We will deliver an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments per week, as a first step in our commitment to ensuring patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks.
At the national level, there are a number of initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with Parkinson’s disease, including the Getting It Right First Time Programme for Neurology and the RightCare Progressive Neurological Conditions Toolkit. These initiatives aim to reduce variation and deliver care more equitably across the country.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance, Parkinson’s disease: Diagnosis and management in primary and secondary care, updated in 2017, sets out best practice for clinicians in the identification and treatment of Parkinson’s, in line with the latest available evidence. The guidance states that if Parkinson's is suspected, people should be referred quickly to a specialist with expertise in the differential diagnosis of this condition.
We expect integrated care boards (ICBs) and National Health Service trusts to have due regard to relevant NICE guidelines. It is the responsibility of ICBs to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, in line with these NICE guidelines.
Once diagnosed, and with a management strategy in place, most people with Parkinson’s can be cared for through routine access to primary and secondary care. NHS England commissions the specialised elements of Parkinson’s care that patients may receive from 27 specialised neurological treatment centres across England. Within specialised centres, neurological multidisciplinary teams ensure patients can access a range of health professionals, including Parkinson’s disease nurses, psychologists, and allied health professionals such as dieticians and speech and language therapists, and that they can receive specialised treatment and support, according to their needs.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to implement a heart disease action plan.
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 disease (CVD), and stroke. That is why in our Health Mission to build a National Health Service fit for the future, we have committed to reducing deaths from heart disease and strokes by a quarter within ten years.
We are taking steps to reduce heart disease. The NHS Long Term Plan set an aim to prevent up to 150,000 heart attacks, strokes, and dementia cases by 2029, and activity is underway. The NHS Health Check programme, England’s CVD prevention programme, engages over 1.3 million people a year and prevents approximately 500 heart attacks or strokes each year. To improve access and engagement with the NHS Health Check, we are developing a new digital 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 the workplace. These checks can be completed quickly and easily by people at work across 48 local authorities until 31 March 2025.
Asked by: Josh Simons (Labour - Makerfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of support for people who experience migraines; and whether he plans to provide additional support.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guideline, Headaches: Diagnosis and management of headaches in young people and adults, updated in December 2021, sets out best practice for healthcare professionals in the care, treatment, and support of people who suffer from headaches, including migraines. It aims to improve the recognition and management of headaches and migraines.
At the national level, there are a number of initiatives supporting service improvement and better care for patients with migraines, including the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Programme for Neurology and the RightCare Headache and Migraine Toolkit. The GIRFT Programme published a National Speciality Report, which makes several recommendations in relation to improving recognition and diagnosis of migraines by general practitioners. Additionally, the RightCare Headache and Migraine Toolkit sets out key priorities for improving care for patients with migraines, which includes correct identification and diagnosis of headache disorders.
The Royal College of General Practitioners has developed two e-learning modules about migraines and cluster headaches, which aim to raise awareness amongst primary care clinicians about the different types of migraine and their associated symptoms, and how to differentiate.
Over the last four years, a new class of drugs, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors, has been made available on the National Health Service for the prevention and treatment of episodic and chronic migraines. On 15 May 2024, Atogepant became the latest CGRP inhibitor for which the NICE has published guidance. The NICE recommended Atogepant for use as a preventive medication for the treatment of migraines on the NHS in England.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the research and development of femtech solutions; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of femtech solutions on women's health outcomes.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
While no explicit discussions have been held or assessments made, supporting patients’ equitable access to innovative technologies, and empowering their decision-making in care are key priorities for the Department and NHS England. The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the research delivery arm of the Department, has funded and continues to fund research relevant to FemTech. For example, a recent study used new technology to analyse magnetic resonance images using artificial intelligence software to aid the diagnosis of endometriosis. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including FemTech solutions.