Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their timescale for progressing the 10-Year Cancer Plan; and whether it will include a specific focus on blood cancer.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Health Mission sets the objective of building a National Health Service fit for the future. As part of that work, and in response to Lord Darzi’s report, we have launched an extensive programme of engagement to develop a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS. The plan will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts, from hospitals to the community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.
In addition, following publication of the 10-Year Health Plan, we will develop a new national cancer plan, which will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including those with blood cancer.
We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take, and what its relationship to the 10-Year Health Plan and the Government’s wider Health Mission should be, and will provide updates on this, including on publication dates, at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to improve (1) cardiovascular disease pathways, (2) waiting lists, and (3) earlier diagnosis, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan and the Major Conditions Strategy.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to tackling deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD), of which there are far too many, and setting a goal for fewer lives being lost to the biggest killers, including CVD. The development of the Major Conditions Strategy was paused following the general election. NHS England’s 2019 Long Term Plan sets out a number of actions that aim to help prevent up to 150,000 heart attacks, strokes, and dementia cases by 2029, and progress towards this is ongoing. To deliver the National Health Service Long Term Plan priorities, a CVD programme has been established which is clinically led by national clinical directors and national specialty advisors, and supported by senior clinicians from a breadth of cardiac and stroke specialties, and primary care, as part of expert advisory groups.
Tackling waiting lists and ensuring that patients receive the care they need when they need it is a key part of our Health Mission. Funding announced in the Autumn Budget will support the delivery of an additional 2 million operations, scans, and appointments during our first year in Government, which is the equivalent to 40,000 per week, as a first step in our commitment to ensuring patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks.
The NHS Health Check programme, England’s CVD prevention programme, finds people aged 40 to 74 years old who are at risk of CVD and supports them to reduce their risk, preventing approximately 500 heart attacks or strokes each year. To improve access and engagement with the life-saving programme, we are developing a digital NHS Health Check which will be ready for testing in early 2025, and will enable people to undertake a check at home. We are also trialling the delivery of heart health checks to over 130,000 people in workplaces across the country, all of which would improve earlier diagnosis of CVD.
At the 2024 Autumn Budget, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £1.5 billion of capital funding for new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners. This will build capacity for over 30,000 additional procedures and over 1.25 million diagnostic tests, as well as new beds which will create more treatment space in emergency departments, reduce waiting times, and help shift more care into the community. We will also address the challenges in diagnostic waiting times, providing the number of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and other tests that are needed to reduce elective and cancer waits. Finally, the NHS is prioritising roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing Community Diagnostic Centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the care and treatment for heart valve disease patients.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Heart valve disease (HVD) care in the United Kingdom has made strides in addressing treatment gaps, yet challenges such as late diagnosis, health disparities, and regional variations in care persist. NHS England is driving initiatives to improve pathways, reduce inequalities, and enhance access to timely and equitable care, while also addressing broader elective care pressures.
Significant progress is being made in the care and treatment of HVD patients in the UK. NHS England has established an expert advisory group to drive targeted pathway improvement projects, aiming to reduce referral-to-treatment times for severe valvular disease in 2024/25. Referral rates for cardiac rehabilitation have improved notably, rising from 7% in 2019 to 15% in 2024. Over 80% of heart failure patients consistently receive care from specialist teams, reflecting steady progress in specialist access.
Efforts to address health inequalities are also advancing, including a review of disparities in the presentation and treatment of conditions like aortic stenosis, and updates to primary care eLearning to improve early diagnosis. These strides demonstrate our commitment to improving outcomes in HVD care.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any adverse gender disparity regarding women’s healthcare, and the consequential impact on (1) loss of working days, and (2) the economy.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Women's Health Strategy call for evidence in 2021 received nearly 100,000 responses from individuals, and over 400 written submissions from expert groups and researchers. It identified a range of issues with women’s healthcare, including women not feeling listened to by healthcare professionals, healthcare services not considering women’s needs by default, negative impacts of symptoms and conditions on women in the workplace, and under-representation of women in research.
When asked if a health condition or disability had impacted their experience in the workplace, three in five answered yes, the equivalent to 62%. The most common impact was increased stress levels, at 76%, but one in four also said that it had impacted their earnings, the equivalent to 26%, or opportunities for promotion, equivalent to 25%.
In 2023, the Department commissioned the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to undertake a Women’s Reproductive Health Survey. Findings indicate that one in 10 respondents, or 11.8%, missed, on average, three or more days of work or education due to heavy bleeding or pain during their period over the past year.
We are considering how to take forward the Women’s Health Strategy for England. The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health as we reform the National Health Service, and we will put women’s equality at the heart of our missions.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to hold integrated care boards to account to ensure that the National Framework for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care is implemented across all local areas.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Framework for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care, published by the Department in January 2016, is intended to support good practice locally, providing guidance for integrated care boards (ICBs) and local authorities on the process for assessing, deciding, and agreeing packages of care for children and young people.
ICBs are responsible for the provision and commissioning of services to meet the needs of their local populations. NHS England plans to capture children and young people’s continuing care activity data as part of the All Age Continuing Care Patient Level Dataset, due for implementation from April 2025, and is committed to supporting ICBs to implement the National Framework for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to integrate frailty assessments into cancer care pathways for older patients within the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has several mechanisms in place to monitor and evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of frailty assessments for older cancer patients. The GP contract requires all practices to take steps each year to identify any registered patient aged 65 and over who is living with moderate to severe frailty. Where a patient, including those with cancer, is identified with severe frailty, the practice must undertake a clinical review, including an annual medication review, and provide the patient with any other clinically appropriate interventions (i.e. blood tests and further examinations or referrals).
In addition, practices must ensure that each of its registered patients aged over 75 years old are assigned a named general practitioner, who is required to respond to the patient’s needs in a timely manner, including undertaking clinical reviews and ensuring that the patient receives an annual health check if requested.
Developed through collaboration between a wide range of health and social care organisations, professionals and subject matter experts, NHS England recently published Proactive care: Providing care and support for people living at home with moderate or severe frailty guidance in an online-only format for integrated care boards and provider organisations involved in the design and delivery of proactive care. The guidance aims to support a more consistent approach to proactive care across England for people living at home with moderate or severe frailty, in line with the latest evidence and best practice. A proactive care approach can improve people’s health outcomes and their experiences of healthcare by slowing the onset or progression of frailty and enabling people to live independently for longer.
This Department and NHS England are committed to improving access to community oncology services by moving towards a Neighbourhood Health Service, with more care delivered in local communities to spot problems earlier. This includes maximising the pace of roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres (CDCs) and ensuring timely implementation of new CDC locations and upgrades to existing CDCs, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what mechanisms are in place to monitor and evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of frailty assessments for older cancer patients in the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has several mechanisms in place to monitor and evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of frailty assessments for older cancer patients. The GP contract requires all practices to take steps each year to identify any registered patient aged 65 and over who is living with moderate to severe frailty. Where a patient, including those with cancer, is identified with severe frailty, the practice must undertake a clinical review, including an annual medication review, and provide the patient with any other clinically appropriate interventions (i.e. blood tests and further examinations or referrals).
In addition, practices must ensure that each of its registered patients aged over 75 years old are assigned a named general practitioner, who is required to respond to the patient’s needs in a timely manner, including undertaking clinical reviews and ensuring that the patient receives an annual health check if requested.
Developed through collaboration between a wide range of health and social care organisations, professionals and subject matter experts, NHS England recently published Proactive care: Providing care and support for people living at home with moderate or severe frailty guidance in an online-only format for integrated care boards and provider organisations involved in the design and delivery of proactive care. The guidance aims to support a more consistent approach to proactive care across England for people living at home with moderate or severe frailty, in line with the latest evidence and best practice. A proactive care approach can improve people’s health outcomes and their experiences of healthcare by slowing the onset or progression of frailty and enabling people to live independently for longer.
This Department and NHS England are committed to improving access to community oncology services by moving towards a Neighbourhood Health Service, with more care delivered in local communities to spot problems earlier. This includes maximising the pace of roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres (CDCs) and ensuring timely implementation of new CDC locations and upgrades to existing CDCs, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure there are adequate numbers of skilled professionals to meet the needs of seriously ill children and young people.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ensuring that children and young people are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it, is crucial to improving outcomes for children. This includes making sure that there are adequate numbers of skilled professionals to meet the needs of seriously ill children and young people.
We are developing a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the National Health Service. A core part of the 10-Year Health Plan will be our workforce, and how we ensure we provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to the care for all patients, including children and young people.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by the Minister of State at the Department for Health and Social Care on 31 October (HC Deb col 374WH), when they will publish their stand-alone cancer strategy.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Health Mission sets the objective of building a National Health Service fit for the future. As part of that work, and in response to the Darzi report, we have launched an extensive programme of engagement to develop a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS. The plan will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts from hospitals to the community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.
In addition, following publication of the 10-Year Health Plan, we will develop a new national cancer plan, which will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients.
We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take, and what its relationship to the 10-Year Health Plan and the Government’s wider Health Mission should be, and will provide updates on this, including on publication dates, at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve access to community oncology services for older people.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has several mechanisms in place to monitor and evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of frailty assessments for older cancer patients. The GP contract requires all practices to take steps each year to identify any registered patient aged 65 and over who is living with moderate to severe frailty. Where a patient, including those with cancer, is identified with severe frailty, the practice must undertake a clinical review, including an annual medication review, and provide the patient with any other clinically appropriate interventions (i.e. blood tests and further examinations or referrals).
In addition, practices must ensure that each of its registered patients aged over 75 years old are assigned a named general practitioner, who is required to respond to the patient’s needs in a timely manner, including undertaking clinical reviews and ensuring that the patient receives an annual health check if requested.
Developed through collaboration between a wide range of health and social care organisations, professionals and subject matter experts, NHS England recently published Proactive care: Providing care and support for people living at home with moderate or severe frailty guidance in an online-only format for integrated care boards and provider organisations involved in the design and delivery of proactive care. The guidance aims to support a more consistent approach to proactive care across England for people living at home with moderate or severe frailty, in line with the latest evidence and best practice. A proactive care approach can improve people’s health outcomes and their experiences of healthcare by slowing the onset or progression of frailty and enabling people to live independently for longer.
This Department and NHS England are committed to improving access to community oncology services by moving towards a Neighbourhood Health Service, with more care delivered in local communities to spot problems earlier. This includes maximising the pace of roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres (CDCs) and ensuring timely implementation of new CDC locations and upgrades to existing CDCs, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics.