Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
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 help ensure that memory assessment services offer culturally appropriate support.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
NHS England commissioned Leeds Beckett University to develop a guide to supporting continuous development, improvement and innovation in memory services. The guide highlights considerations to address in the provision of personalised, culturally appropriate services including communication/language, testing and assessments. The guide was published March 2022 and is available at the following link: https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/-/media/files/research/dementia/taking-memory-assessment-services-into-future-web.pdf
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
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 provide dedicated community link workers to help improve (a) awareness and understanding of dementia and (b) access to dementia services in ethnic minority communities.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for services and support for people with dementia, including the provision of community link workers. NHS England expects ICBs to commission services which take into account relevant guidance, including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines and the Dementia Care Pathway, to improve the delivery and quality of care and support.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
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 accurate data is collected on the number of Black, Asian, and minority ethnic people who are diagnosed with dementia.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The monthly Recorded Dementia Diagnoses data includes counts of patients with a diagnosis of dementia on their general practitioner patient record by sub-integrated care board location, which also records ethnicity. Monthly data releases are available at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/recorded-dementia-diagnoses
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the US FDA's withdrawal of authorisation for the use of Sotrovimab for treatment of covid-19 on 5 April 2022, what steps he is taking to ensure the (a) stringency and (b) consistency of his Department's reviews of (i) Evusheld and (ii) other covid-19 treatments.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Antivirals and Therapeutics Taskforce engages with other nations to share learning on the use, deployment and evaluation of COVID-19 therapeutics and antivirals which may inform policy. The UK Health Security Agency is monitoring the effectiveness of all COVID-19 therapeutics, including sotrovimab. The RAPID C-19 collaborative, the National Health Service and other relevant experts provide advice to the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers on whether treatments should be recommended for deployment, taking account of all available evidence.
The Department is currently reviewing prophylaxis and the efficacy of Evusheld. The Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel provides advice on the appropriate patient cohorts for potential new COVID-19 therapies, including preventative treatments. Final clinical policies and eligibility would be proposed by the NHS and agreed by the UK Chief Medical Officers.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the MHRA press release on Evusheld approved to prevent covid-19 in people whose immune response is poor, published on 17 March 2022, whether the NHS (a) has made and (b) plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of trialling Evusheld in real-world evidence studies prior to its potential full rollout.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The National Health Service and experts are evaluating all available evidence to inform decisions on Evusheld, including whether real world evaluation could improve our understanding of efficacy against new variants. In addition, the Antivirals and Therapeutics Taskforce is engaging with countries using Evusheld to understand any plans for assessing real world evidence as it becomes available.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what monitoring and data systems are in place to evaluate the effectiveness of emergency treatments administered to patients vulnerable to covid-19.
Answered by Maggie Throup
NHS England and NHS Improvement collect data on treatments for eligible patients hospitalised due to COVID-19, hospital-onset COVID-19 and non-hospitalised patients treated through COVID Medicines Delivery Units. Data is collected on the numbers of treatments prescribed and administered and published weekly at the following link:
Data is also collected on hospitalisation rates for treated and untreated patients. NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to work with the research community to monitor this observational data and understand the impact of treatments on patient outcomes.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answet of 31 May 2022 to Question 6744 on dementia diagnosis, what assessment he has made of the impact the £17 million in funding to clinical commissioning groups on dementia diagnosis rates in England.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No formal assessment has been made as the full impact of the funding cannot yet be determined. NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to monitor the monthly diagnosis rate and are analysing trends at regional and sustainability and transformation partnership level to aid targeted recovery efforts. Work to improve dementia diagnosis rates will continue in 2022/23. We will set out plans for dementia in England for the next 10 years later this year, including on diagnosis, risk reduction and prevention and research.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
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 enable primary care services to diagnose people living with dementia.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In 2021/22, we provided £17 million to clinical commissioning groups to address the needs of those waiting for diagnosis and increase the number of diagnoses. A proportion of this funding was directed towards improving access to personalised pre- and post-diagnostic and carer support, through partnership working between memory assessment services and primary care and Primary Care Network social prescribing and care coordination teams.
In 2022/23, NHS England will provide funding to support general practitioners in specific areas to pilot approaches to address the dementia diagnosis rate and access to post diagnostic support.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
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 support memory assessment services in diagnosing people living with dementia.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In 2021/22, we allocated £17 million to specifically address dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses. NHS England and NHS Improvement are using this funding to aid the recovery of referrals to and increase workforce capacity within memory assessment services. We will set out plans for dementia in England for the next 10 years later this year, which will include a focus on dementia diagnosis.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the letter from the Minister of State for Care and Mental Health to the Rt hon. Member for South West Surrey of 20 April 2022, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals on early intervention and school and community-based measures for the mental health support of children and young people.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We have made no specific assessment. On 12 April 2022, we published a call for evidence to seek views on a range of issues from prevention to acute mental health care, which closes on 7 July 2022. This will support the development of a new 10-year cross-Government plan for mental health and wellbeing.
In addition, we have accelerated the deployment of mental health support teams to schools and colleges to support approximately 35% of pupils by 2023. We are working with the Department for Education to provide early intervention and mental wellbeing support in education settings.