Health Data: Research and Analysis
Debate between Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford and Lord Evans of Rainow
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
The noble Lord raises an important point, backing up the concerns of the noble Lord, Lord Davies. He is exactly right: the Government are moving at pace. I reassure him that I will take his request back to the department.
Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)
My Lords, one particular recommendation in the report should also be prioritised: addressing the problem of 160 trusts and 6,500 GPs all acting as separate data controllers, and doing this either through a national organisation acting as a data controller or through a TRE. This would obviously improve the flow of data and the availability of it for direct care and research. Can the Minister please take this matter away and act as swiftly as possible, as this has been on the desks of successive Ministers for some years now?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I am grateful to my noble friend. I hear what she says, and I will certainly take that back to the department.
Lung Cancer Medicines
Debate between Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford and Lord Evans of Rainow
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I thank the noble Baroness for that question. As I have outlined in my previous answers, to the best of my knowledge, the existing drug will be allowed but some of the newer ones will be introduced and available. If the noble Baroness knows of specific trusts that do not make this available, I ask her to please let me know and I will look into it.
Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)
I declare my interest as chair of Genomics England and a board member at BioNTech. Access to therapeutics is critical, but the earliest possible diagnosis is crucial for survivability. Although the new lung cancer screening programme is welcome, I draw the Minister’s attention to a paper published in the Lancet this month which said that, although it does have favourable participation and will improve lung cancer outcomes overall, it is still showing inequalities by smoking, deprivation and ethnicity. What steps are the Government are taking to address this?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I am grateful to my noble friend, but am not familiar with the paper to which she refers. On her specific question, the Government are focusing on areas of social deprivation. She mentions that this is preventable; the Prime Minister has made it one of his key tasks to stop the next generation of smokers even becoming smokers. We can all do more with our personal health: giving up smoking is an obvious one, but we could also be eating better and staying fitter. There is more to be done, particularly in areas of social deprivation.
Primary Care: Inequality
Debate between Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford and Lord Evans of Rainow
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
It is a proven case with primary healthcare provision at local level. The noble Lord mentioned local people: it is a combination of charities, friends, neighbours and, indeed, the local parish church, working together to help local people. It is not just a case of turning up at the GP practice; there is an awful lot of work that can be done before it gets to the GP.
Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)
My Lords, social prescribing is an important part of community health, because it acts directly on the social determinants of health. The long-term plan committed to 1,000 new social prescribing link workers in place by 2021, with the goal that at least 900,000 people will be referred to social prescribing by this year. Can the Minister update us on progress so far?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
We know that the general practice services are still under huge pressure. I am grateful to the GPs and teams who are working incredibly hard to provide high-quality care in their communities. Our Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care, published on 9 May, has shown a significant ability to increase appointments. In the 12 months up to April 2023, an estimated 346 million appointments were booked across all general practices in England, which was an increase of 38 million compared with the 12 months to April 2019. About 550,000 more appointments were delivered per working day in April 2023 than in April 2022 and 150,000 more per working day compared with April 2019. These figures show that we are making progress.
Health: Economic Inactivity
Debate between Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford and Lord Evans of Rainow
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
My Lords, the Prime Minister tasked my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to look at workforce participation working across government. The Government are focused on supporting those groups where inactivity levels are higher and so employment support is most needed, including the long-term sick, the disabled, welfare recipients, people aged over 50 and parents. To tackle rising economic inactivity due to long-term sickness, a wide-ranging package was announced in the Spring Budget to support disabled people and those with health conditions to work. New investment broadens access to additional work coach support for disabled people and those with health conditions, introduces a new supported employment programme and focuses on providing faster access to joined up work and health support.
Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)
My Lords, I welcome the Government’s incentives for occupational health in SMEs and the health and disability White Paper. Are the Government considering embedding occupational therapists within GP practices for those who are self-employed?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
The health and disability White Paper published in March sets out plans to transform the future system to support more disabled people to start, stay and succeed in work. We will reform the benefits system so that it focuses on what people can do. But, on the noble Baroness’s specific points, to my knowledge, GP practices are innovating and introducing such measures—but this needs to be expanded further.
Brain Tumours
Debate between Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford and Lord Evans of Rainow
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
There is already a significant investment in people and facilities for cancer research. The research infrastructure supports brain tumour research studies, mainly in the NHS. This infrastructure is instrumental in the delivery of research funded by the NIHR, charities and others, so it is important in supporting and building the research community. However, resources are significant, and it is difficult to disaggregate brain tumour spending and add to the £10.7 million that we have already allocated.
Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)
My Lords, it is very impressive to see the Minister at the Dispatch Box after his efforts in the marathon.
All of us all in this House want to see progress in responding to this hard-to-treat cancer. However, the Minister’s answers on this topic are not that dissimilar to those that I would have had to give when I was responding back in 2019. Can he go back to the Question from the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, go back to the department and challenge civil servants on whether they are giving the right feedback to researchers on how they can improve their research proposals so that we can start taking research forward and get the solutions for cancer patients who really deserve progress on that research?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I thank my noble friend, who is absolutely right to point this out. Perhaps we can discuss this further at the round table next month. Prior to these questions, I had a meeting and pressed the government department officials on this to ensure that the money is there. I am reassured that the money is indeed available if we get a sufficient number of projects that will have a significant impact on curing this terrible disease.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus Immunisation
Debate between Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford and Lord Evans of Rainow
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I am grateful to the noble Lord, whose figures are entirely correct. There are currently no specific treatments for RSV once contracted, and management of infection is purely supportive. Cancellation of surgery such as that for heart disorders, a common consequence of paediatric intensive care pressures from RSV, is a very big issue for the NHS because it adds pressure during the winter. The noble Lord is exactly right to highlight that, and we are doing all we can to relieve this. As I said to the noble Baroness, we hope to have some good news later in the year.
Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)
My Lords, I welcome the £277 million announced today by the Government for innovative life sciences manufacturing, which includes vaccines. Can the Minister update us on the implementation of other steps in the life sciences vision, including more rapid uptake of innovative therapeutics in the NHS?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
My noble friend is clearly up to date. She is absolutely right that the NHS constantly looks for innovations. For RSV, the offer in place for 2023-24 is for the specialised commissioning for NHS purchases of monoclonal antibodies directly from the manufacturers. The NHS delegates price and delivery with the manufacturers. For national immunisation programmes, the UK Health Security Agency procures immunisation products centrally, but I reassure the House that the NHS does all it can to make sure that it is aware of new developments to incorporate in the vaccination programmes.
Cancer Therapies Access
Debate between Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford and Lord Evans of Rainow
Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)
My Lords, I declare my interest as chair of Genomics England. Will the Minister join me in welcoming the announcement of the UK cancer vaccine launchpad? It aims to rapidly identify large numbers of cancer patients who could be eligible for trials and to explore the potential of cancer vaccines among multiple types of cancer. This is vital research if we want to have any hope of identifying and tackling the challenges mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Patel.
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
My noble friend raises a very good point. One in two of us will develop cancer in the future, so we need to explore all therapies or vaccines wherever possible.