Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to reinstate the Covid Medicines Delivery Unit to provide access to antiviral drugs for people with covid-19 infections who are clinically vulnerable.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for arranging access to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) recommended treatments, therefore it is not driven by the Department. It is up to ICBs to determine the best model of access for their eligible population.
Antiviral treatments for COVID-19 are now routinely available for National Health Service patients at highest risk of serious illness from COVID-19, in line with the approach to the rollout set out in the NICE’s guidance published last year.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 merits of including a dedicated Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation section in the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the potential merits of including a dedicated section on congenital disorders of glycosylation in the UK Rare Diseases Framework. The framework was published in 2021, and provides a national vision for how to improve the lives of those living with rare diseases by addressing shared challenges, and does not focus on specific rare conditions.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 merits of establishing a national patient register for Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the potential merits of establishing a national patient register for congenital disorders of glycosylation. There are no plans in England for a specific registry for this condition. Metabolic patients are included in the National Disease Registration Service, which is now part of NHS England.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will retain the previous Government's commitment to release funds to West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for the purpose of commencing construction of the new hospital at Watford General before the end of 2026.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service is broken, and the Government is determined to fix it. We recognise the need for investment in NHS estates across the country, including at Watford General Hospital. We will provide the investment and reform needed to get patients the care they deserve.
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has asked for an urgent report on the degree to which the New Hospital Programme is funded, and a realistic timetable for delivery. He will consider this carefully then report back to patients, clinicians, and local communities to confirm any possible revisions to the schedule.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will visit West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust within his first 100 days to be briefed on plans for the construction of the new hospital at Watford General.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service is broken, and the Government is determined to fix it. We recognise the need for investment in NHS estates across the country, including at Watford General Hospital. We will provide the investment and reform needed to get patients the care they deserve.
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has asked for an urgent report on the degree to which the New Hospital Programme is funded, and a realistic timetable for delivery. He will consider this carefully then report back to patients, clinicians, and local communities to confirm any possible revisions to the schedule.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 entitled Regulating healthcare professionals, protecting the public, consultation response: analysis, published on 17 February 2023, if he will make it his policy to remove the five-year rule in relation to regulators being able to consider fitness to practise concerns.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will consider this issue as part of wider policy work on regulations for healthcare professionals.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many disabled adults have been waiting for an NHS wheelchair from AJM Healthcare for longer than (a) 6 months, (b) 12 months, (c) two years and (d) three years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchairs services. It is therefore the responsibility of ICBs to review and assess the quality of the provision of their commissioned National Health Service wheelchair services.
As such, we do not currently have any plans to assess the adequacy of the provision of NHS wheelchair services provided by AJM Healthcare. NHS England is taking steps to support ICBs to make improvements and commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services.
Data on waiting times for wheelchairs provided by AJM Healthcare is not held centrally. NHS England collects quarterly data from the ICBs through the National Wheelchair Data Collection, which is available through the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/national-wheelchair/
This data supports the drive for improvements in wheelchair services, although it is ICB level data that does not include specific data on individual services. Individual service data would need to be requested from ICBs.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 adequacy of the provision of NHS wheelchair services by AJM Healthcare.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchairs services. It is therefore the responsibility of ICBs to review and assess the quality of the provision of their commissioned National Health Service wheelchair services.
As such, we do not currently have any plans to assess the adequacy of the provision of NHS wheelchair services provided by AJM Healthcare. NHS England is taking steps to support ICBs to make improvements and commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services.
Data on waiting times for wheelchairs provided by AJM Healthcare is not held centrally. NHS England collects quarterly data from the ICBs through the National Wheelchair Data Collection, which is available through the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/national-wheelchair/
This data supports the drive for improvements in wheelchair services, although it is ICB level data that does not include specific data on individual services. Individual service data would need to be requested from ICBs.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on what date her Department expects to receive the final business case studies from hospital trusts that are part of the New Hospital Programme.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the press notice entitled Major agreement to deliver new cancer vaccine trials, published on 5 July 2023, whether brain cancer patients will be given access to the treatments and therapies made available through that programme.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Government’s partnership with BioNTech aims to provide up to 10,000 United Kingdom patients with personalised immunotherapies by 2030. As well as cancer vaccines, BioNTech has several other classes of cancer therapy under development, such as engineered cell therapies and antibodies. We are not able to comment at this stage on the exact pipeline of clinical trials that BioNTech will go on to launch in the UK, over the coming years.