Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
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 which NHS Trusts (a) were and (b) were not on track to meet their 18 month targets in the elective recovery plan as of 1 July 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
Thanks to the work of National Health Service staff, we have now virtually eliminated waits of over 18 months, in line with the targets set out in the elective recovery plan.
The most recently published NHS England management information showed that on 2 July there were 7,363 patients waiting over 18 months, a reduction of over 94% from the peak of 125,000 in September 2021.
As of 2 July, 31 trusts have no patients waiting 18 months or more, whilst 114 of the 136 trusts have less than 100 remaining.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made in implementing the recommendations of the Commercial clinical trials in the UK: the Lord O’Shaughnessy review, published 25 May 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
On 26 May the Government published its initial response to the Lord O’Shaughnessy review into commercial clinical trials in the United Kingdom. This welcomed all recommendations in principle and made five headline commitments. A fuller response on all the recommendations and an implementation update and longer-term plan will be published in the autumn.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken recent steps to help increase (a) public and (b) private research into treatments for (i) arthritis and (ii) musculoskeletal conditions.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), has awarded more than £100 million in funding and support for musculoskeletal conditions and arthritis research in the last five years.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including research into musculoskeletal conditions and arthritis. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. Therefore, future spend on arthritis and musculoskeletal research is undetermined.
In 2021/22 alone, NIHR infrastructure has supported over 900 studies and trials into musculoskeletal conditions. Six of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) have musculoskeletal disorders as a research theme. For example, the Leeds BRC aims to improve treatment for osteoarthritis and to prevent disease and disability in immune-mediated diseases; this includes a work stream on non-surgical treatments for osteoarthritis. NIHR, in collaboration with Versus Arthritis, also funds a dedicated UK Musculoskeletal Translational Research Collaboration (UK MSK TRC). The UK MSK TRC aligns investment in musculoskeletal translational research, creating a United Kingdom-wide ambition and focus to drive cutting-edge translational research, in order to improve outcomes for patients.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the National Heart Failure Audit published in June 2023, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of reducing the prescription of disease modifying drugs for heart failure in 2021-22 on public health.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
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 implications for his policies regional variations in the uptake of the bowel cancer screening programme.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The national service specifications aim to ensure local providers support their community to take part in the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme and are monitored by local commissioners. Providers must have systems in place to address inequalities and ensure equity of access for people with protected characteristics if they have a registered general practitioner and identifies and supports people who are considered under-served to access screening.
Regionally and nationally several initiatives have been implemented, from targeting bowel cancer screening awareness campaigns on communities with lower uptake to ensuring information is available in easy read formats, British Sign Language and other languages.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much government funding was allocated to dementia research in each of the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
Government responsibility for delivering dementia research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), mainly by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The following table shows the amount spent on dementia research by these funders for the last five years.
£ million | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
NIHR | 43 | 31.6 | 29 | 21.9 | 31.3 |
MRC | 34.9 | 56.5 | 44 | 46.9 | 41.6 |
ESRC | 4 | 7.4 | 5.9 | 8 | 7.4 |
Total | 81.9 | 95.5 | 78.9 | 76.8 | 80.3 |
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to consult on the future of the Quality and Outcomes Framework.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In response to feedback from practice teams, General Practice Committee England and the Health and Care Select Committee on the Future of Primary Care, the profession and representative patient groups will be consulted on the Quality and Outcomes Framework and its future form in Summer 2023.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to assess the accuracy of expiration dates on (a) oxygen masks, (b) blood bottles and (c) plastic pipes during procurement processes.
Answered by Will Quince
The expiry date of a medical device is required in regulation and is particularly important where a device has a safety-related characteristic or performance is likely to deteriorate over time. Expiry dates of medical devices are determined through risk analysis of key safety characteristics during the regulatory certification process. This is established from data gathered during the device’s development, demonstrating the time limit for which the device is safe to use.
Contracting authorities are responsible for ensuring a procured product complies with relevant regulatory standards and is supplied with sufficient remaining shelf life, as stated on product labelling.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure transparency in public procurement in relation to the pharmaceutical industry.
Answered by Will Quince
All procurements including those from the pharmaceutical industry must follow strict laws and guidelines. The Public Contract Regulations 2015 set out how public procurements should be conducted in order to be compliant, open, fair and transparent. The Procurement Policy Note, PPN 01/23, is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-0123-requirements-to-publish-on-contracts-finder
It clearly illustrates how the openness, fairness and transparency requirements must be followed from prior to the procurement starting to after it is concluded.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
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 a recent assessment of the potential merits of offering unused and safe equipment with arbitrary expiry dates to the health departments of developing countries.
Answered by Will Quince
In line with humanitarian best practice, the Department does not donate medical supplies which are close to, or past expiry.