Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the potential impact of benzodiazepine use on (a) dementia risk, (b) brain health and (c) cancer risk.
Answered by Will Quince
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for ensuring that medicines, medical devices and blood components for transfusion meet applicable standards of safety, quality and efficacy. The MHRA rigorously assess the available data and, where appropriate, seeks the advice of the Commission on Human Medicines, the MHRA’s independent advisory committee, to inform decisions. All data relating to the safety of a medicine must be held by the Marketing Authorisation Holder and the MHRA notified about any data which impacts the safety of their products.
The MHRA holds information that has been reported through the Yellow Card scheme regarding suspected adverse reactions, which may include dementia, neurological disorders or cancers, and details of the suspected adverse reactions reported are available on the MHRA website. Published literature on the impact on dementia risk, brain health and cancer risk is not specifically held by the MHRA but can be accessed to support safety evaluations.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many prosecutions of pharmaceutical companies withholding information from the Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency have occurred in the last twenty years.
Answered by Will Quince
While the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) records dating back to 2003 are incomplete, it is unable to identify any prosecutions that have occurred as a result of a pharmaceutical company withholding information.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report by NHS England entitled Optimising personalised care for adults prescribed medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: framework for action for integrated care boards and primary care, published in March 2023, what plans he has to assess the effectiveness of that framework for action.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department does not collect data on levels of dependence on and treatment for dependence on prescribed drugs. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a range of evidence-based guidance that includes recommendations for the National Health Service on the use of benzodiazepines, z drugs and anti-depressants based on an assessment of their benefits and longer-term health impacts. The guidance ‘Medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: safe prescribing and withdrawal management for adults’ which is available at the following link:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng215
The Department has no current plans to assess the publication’s effectiveness of ‘Optimising personalised care for adults prescribed medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: Framework for action for integrated care boards (ICBs) and primary care’.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
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 potential long-term health impacts of (a) benzodiazepines, (b) z drugs and (c) antidepressants on people that take those drugs.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department does not collect data on levels of dependence on and treatment for dependence on prescribed drugs. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a range of evidence-based guidance that includes recommendations for the National Health Service on the use of benzodiazepines, z drugs and anti-depressants based on an assessment of their benefits and longer-term health impacts. The guidance ‘Medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: safe prescribing and withdrawal management for adults’ which is available at the following link:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng215
The Department has no current plans to assess the publication’s effectiveness of ‘Optimising personalised care for adults prescribed medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: Framework for action for integrated care boards (ICBs) and primary care’.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department collects on levels of (a) dependence on and (b) treatment for dependence on prescribed drugs.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department does not collect data on levels of dependence on and treatment for dependence on prescribed drugs. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a range of evidence-based guidance that includes recommendations for the National Health Service on the use of benzodiazepines, z drugs and anti-depressants based on an assessment of their benefits and longer-term health impacts. The guidance ‘Medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: safe prescribing and withdrawal management for adults’ which is available at the following link:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng215
The Department has no current plans to assess the publication’s effectiveness of ‘Optimising personalised care for adults prescribed medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: Framework for action for integrated care boards (ICBs) and primary care’.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to NHS England's publication entitled Implementing patient initiated follow-up: Guidance for local health and care systems, published on 17 May 2022, on what evidential basis NHS England decided that outpatient follow ups should be reduced by a minimum of 25 per cent against 2019-20 activity levels by March 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England’s 2023/24 Planning Guidance makes clear that whilst the national ambition is to reduce outpatient follow-ups by 25%, the opportunity to do so will differ by trust and specialty, and local planning should inform how the ambition will be delivered across the system. The 25% reduction only applies to follow-ups where a procedure does not take place and excludes specific services like maternity and mental health.
These appointments are often termed as reviews, and some patients and clinicians will argue that these are often of low value and that patients should only attend reviews when they are clinically necessary.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
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 potential impact of the settlement decision of NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board not to grant additional funding to hospices on (a) patient care and (b) the financial sustainability of those hospices.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. The Government and NHS England recognises the importance of palliative and end of life care for patients and those important to them. Palliative and end of life care, including hospice care, is commissioned locally by integrated care boards (ICBs) in response to the needs of their local population. Any assessment would therefore be made at a local level.
With increasing costs and pressures and operational planning requirements from NHS England to reduce overspends, Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB has had to prioritise and focus funding on maintaining core services in the National Health Service.
As part of this review of spending, a decision has been made to not financially uplift the funding to voluntary sector contracts in Lancashire and South Cumbria, and this includes hospices. The ICB has not cut its funding to the hospices and recognises the essential work they do to support local communities. However, the ICB has not at this stage in the year been able to allocate any inflationary uplift to the contracts.
Discussions are ongoing and there are plans for the ICB to meet with the Lancashire and South Cumbria hospice leaders to discuss further.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will increase funding for outpatient (a) services and (b) staff training.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not currently have plans to increase funding specifically for outpatient services or staff training. Outpatient transformation and recovery is supported by the existing elective recovery funding package and we are working closely with NHS England to establish how best to support the National Health Service to transform the way they provide outpatient care.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the target in NHS England's publication entitled Implementing patient initiated follow-up: Guidance for local health and care systems, published on 17 May 2022, that outpatient follow ups should be reduced by a minimum of 25 per cent against 2019-20 activity levels by March 2023, what steps he is taking to ensure that an adequate level of care is provided to (a) patients with chronic illnesses and (b) other patients who receive reduced levels of outpatient follow ups.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The decision to follow-up with a patient will always be driven by clinical need and appropriateness. NHS England has produced guidance to support systems and providers to take a risk-based approach to reducing follow-ups, including the Clinically-led Specialty Outpatient Guidance, published in April 2023, which provides practical, condition-specific advice for services to focus on which are safe and clinically appropriate for specialities with the highest number of long waits.
NHS England’s guidance for Patient initiated follow-up (PIFU) is clear that people with long term conditions who are placed on a PIFU should still have a periodic review in line with clinical guidance for the specialty.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
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 affected by neurological conditions have access to appropriate (a) treatment and (b) support.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the NHS England Roadmap for integrating specialised services within integrated care systems, integrated care boards (ICBs) have, from April 2023, delegated responsibility for the commissioning of specialised neurosciences services. Integrating the commissioning of neurosciences services with ICBs will allow local systems to simplify and strengthen care pathways with other services through effective local partnerships, ensuring continuity for patients and improved health outcomes.
NHS England has also established the Neuroscience Transformation Programme, a multi-year, clinically-led programme aimed at improving specialised adult neuroscience services in England and developing a new model of integrated care for neurology services.
To support systems to understand the priorities in neurology care and improve service quality, NHS England has developed the RightCare Progressive Neurological Conditions Toolkit. The Toolkit supports improvements to pathways for progressive neurological patients, ensuring that commissioners focus on quicker and more accurate diagnoses and increasing the availability of neurorehabilitation, reablement, and psychosocial support.