Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has provided guidance to NICE on the evidence used to inform the criteria updates to its Highly Specialised Technology processes.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has not issued any such guidance. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is responsible for the methods and processes that it uses in the development of its guidance, including the criteria used to determine whether topics should be routed to the technology appraisal or highly specialised technologies programmes. NICE made changes to its health technology evaluation manual in January 2022 following a comprehensive review of its methods and processes, including public consultation. As part of these changes, the eligibility criteria for the highly specialised technologies programme were clarified to make them clearer and more predictable.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 ensure that NICE’s Topic Selection Oversight Panel considers (a) clinical and (b) patient expert insights in its decision-making processes.
Answered by Will Quince
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is responsible for the decision-making processes that it operates.
NICE’s Topic Selection Oversight Panel (TSOP) is responsible for the selection of topics for guidance development in the Centre for Health Technology Evaluation. The group considers the available evidence as well as clinical and patient insights to apply the medicines and highly specialised technologies criteria and decide whether to route medicines to the technology appraisal or highly specialised technologies programmes, or to deselect the topic. The TSOP’s membership includes lay members to provide the perspective of patients, people who use services and carers in the selection and routing of topics. It also includes members with responsibility for providing clinical insights and expertise.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential (a) merits and (b) implications for his Department's policies of the Joint Replacement Support Package created by Versus Arthritis.
Answered by Will Quince
The recommendations made in Versus Arthritis’s Joint Replacement Support Package have been factored into NHS England’s planning for the care and support needed by people with arthritis waiting for treatment.
NHS England has also embedded Versus Arthritis’s ‘Let’s Move for Surgery’ toolkit on the My Planned Care website, which helps people waiting for surgery, and includes appropriate physical activity, help with managing pain and mental health support. The toolkit is available at the following link:
https://www.myplannedcare.nhs.uk/care-support/
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department plans to require the NHS Business Service Authority to provide reminders to patients whose prepayment certificates are due to expire.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There are no plans for such a requirement.
It is the responsibility of the prescription prepayment certificate (PPC) holder to ensure that it is valid each time it is used. For annual certificates where a postal or email address is available, NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) issue reminders to the address or email provided by the PPC holder when their PPC is about to expire.
Currently NHS BSA do not issue reminders for 3-month certificates if it requires a physical letter to be sent due to postal and paper costs. In the Terms and Conditions, applicants are reminded to notify NHS BSA of any changes to their name, address or email, to buy a new PPC in good time and of the possibility of receiving a penalty charge if they claim they have a valid PPC when they do not. No communication is sent to the PPC holder when the PPC has already expired.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 (a) Leeds Hospital Charity and (b) Rob Burrow on the creation of the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No discussions have taken place with Leeds Hospital Charity and Rob Burrow on the creation of the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 the support (a) his Department and (b) the NHS provides to people diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and their families.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. Individuals with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) will receive access to a range of NHS services. NHS England commissions the specialised care and treatment that patients with MND may receive from the 24 specialised neurology centres across England. NHS England has published a service specification setting out national standards for organisations that provide specialised neurological care. This sets out that the service should improve quality of life and experience of services for patients and their carers.
NHS England has also established a Neurosciences Service Transformation Programme, a multi-year, clinically-led programme to develop a new model of integrated care for neurology services, including MND.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department issues to NHS dentists on whether they are required to give patients notice before they are removed from their register.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Unlike general practitioners' patients, dental patients are not registered to a particular practice. A dental practice can accept a patient for a course of treatment if they have capacity to deliver that treatment. Many practices have maintained a list of NHS patients they offer to recall but no registration or maintaining an NHS patient list is a requirement of an NHS dentist.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 (a) merits of reducing the recommended 12-week interval for receiving a second covid-19 vaccination for people under the age of 18 and not in a high risk group and (b) impact of that reduction on the level of availability of the second vaccination for other people awaiting their second dose before 30 June 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government is guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on vaccine provision at a population level, including the interval period for COVID-19 vaccination doses for the under 18s.
The JCVI carefully considers and assesses the emerging evidence around the risks and benefits of vaccination to younger people before advising of the appropriate dosing schedule. For under 18s who are not in a high-risk group, a 12-week interval has been recommended by the JCVI.
There remains sufficient capacity to meet current demand for first and second dose COVID vaccination and we would encourage all those aged 5 years and over who have not yet received their first or second dose to come forward for a vaccination before the offer ends on 30 June 2023.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 ensure that people with (a) hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and (b) Hypermobility spectrum disorders are able to access treatment.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients suspected of having Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) are assessed and diagnosed in United Kingdom regional clinical genetics clinics and various other secondary and tertiary specialty clinics such as dermatology, rheumatology, paediatrics, vascular surgery, gastroenterology and neurology. Patients with EDS may be looked after by their general practitioners (GPs), within community services, in secondary care and in tertiary care.
Integrated care boards commission secondary care services for patients who have EDS and NHS England commissions some specialist services for patients with EDS. A service for patients who have complex EDS is delivered by two centres in England, London North West University Healthcare Trust and Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. The Complex EDS service provides diagnosis and advice to referrers on treatment and management of complex cases.
NHS England does not hold information centrally on Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders. Integrated care systems commission services to meet the needs of their local population, this includes commissioning services for Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders, usually via local physiotherapy services.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
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 ensure that people are able to access menopause services at their GP practice.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The menopause is a priority area within the Women’s Health Strategy. The NHS England national menopause improvement programme is working to improve clinical care for menopause.
Menopause is a core competency for qualified general practitioners (GPs). The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has a holistic curriculum of training that all GPs must cover before they are able to pass the examination to become a member of the RCGP and work independently as a GP. There is a specific section on women’s health, including the menopause.
We have reduced the cost of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prescriptions through a bespoke HRT prescription pre-payment certificate. From 1 April 2023, women can pay a one-off charge equivalent to two single prescription charges (£19.30) for all their HRT prescriptions for a year.