Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has taken steps to amend NICE guidelines relating to potentially painful and unnecessary hysteroscopies for people requiring diagnostic testing for cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for making decisions independently on whether its guidelines should be updated in light of new evidence or emerging issues not in the scope of the original guideline.
The NICE has published a number of guidelines that relate to the diagnosis of cancer or hysteroscopies, and is currently updating its guideline on the assessment of treatment of fertility problems. The NICE currently expects to publish final updated guidance in May 2025.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve NHS care for people with migraines; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) increasing the availability of headache specialists in the NHS, (b) improving the provision of (i) training and resources for GPs and (ii) guidance for other health professionals on migraines and (c) increasing the role of pharmacies for providing primary care for people with migraines.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
To ensure that there are sufficient staffing levels right across the National Health Service, NHS England published the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) in June 2023. The LTWP sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. It will put the workforce on a sustainable footing for the long term. The LTWP is a high-level plan to support the NHS workforce as a whole and is designed to identify the right supply of staff across all clinical pathways and specialisms rather than workforce plans for specific services.
General practitioners are responsible for ensuring that their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date, and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills relevant to their role as generalist community-based doctors. This includes understanding how to recognise migraine and headache disorders and instigate appropriate treatment.
Individual employers are responsible for investing in post-registration training, ensuring that staff are trained and competent to carry out their role and are adequately supported throughout their training. All training undertaken by post-registration qualified staff should be in line with national and local guidelines covering the training being undertaken.
In England, all community pharmacies delivering NHS services must provide support for self-care, for example giving people advice and support, and where appropriate, the sale of appropriate over the counter (OTC) medicines. Advice and OTC migraine treatments are part of a well-established pathway in this context, and pharmacy teams are able to advise patients of their options.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population. The RightCare Headache and Migraines Toolkit should be used by ICBs to ensure that people suffering from migraines are supported effectively. The toolkit sets out the key priorities for improvement, including correct identification and diagnosis of headache disorders, and long-term management of patients in primary or community care. The toolkit also provides an opportunity for commissioners to self-assess and benchmark current systems’ service delivery and to explore opportunities for improvement.
The toolkit is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/rightcare/products/pathways/headache-and-migraine-toolkit/
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that integrated care boards make an assessment of the adequacy of their (a) workforce planning and (b) other services for meeting the needs of their populations who are affected by migraines.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
To ensure that there are sufficient staffing levels right across the National Health Service, NHS England published the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) in June 2023. The LTWP sets out the steps the NHS and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. It will put the workforce on a sustainable footing for the long term. The LTWP is a high-level plan to support the NHS workforce as a whole and is designed to identify the right supply of staff across all clinical pathways and specialisms rather than workforce plans for specific services.
General practitioners are responsible for ensuring that their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date, and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills relevant to their role as generalist community-based doctors. This includes understanding how to recognise migraine and headache disorders and instigate appropriate treatment.
Individual employers are responsible for investing in post-registration training, ensuring that staff are trained and competent to carry out their role and are adequately supported throughout their training. All training undertaken by post-registration qualified staff should be in line with national and local guidelines covering the training being undertaken.
In England, all community pharmacies delivering NHS services must provide support for self-care, for example giving people advice and support, and where appropriate, the sale of appropriate over the counter (OTC) medicines. Advice and OTC migraine treatments are part of a well-established pathway in this context, and pharmacy teams are able to advise patients of their options.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population. The RightCare Headache and Migraines Toolkit should be used by ICBs to ensure that people suffering from migraines are supported effectively. The toolkit sets out the key priorities for improvement, including correct identification and diagnosis of headache disorders, and long-term management of patients in primary or community care. The toolkit also provides an opportunity for commissioners to self-assess and benchmark current systems’ service delivery and to explore opportunities for improvement.
The toolkit is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/rightcare/products/pathways/headache-and-migraine-toolkit/
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that families are supported in the event of a stillborn child.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
In 2023/24, NHS England is investing £5.9 million to support the delivery of daily bereavement care services for women and families who suffer pregnancy or baby loss and is growing the number of staff trained in bereavement care.
We are also looking to improve access to and the quality of perinatal mental health care for mothers and their partners. There are now 35 Maternal Mental Health Services across England which provide psychological therapy for women experiencing mental health difficulties related to their maternity experience including resulting from loss. Services are due to be implemented in every area of the country by March 2024.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that patients affected by closures of NHS dental practices have adequate access to dental care.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
NHS England and integrated care boards across England work together to ensure that patients who are affected by closure of National Health Service dental practices will continue to have access to the dental care they need. This includes an assessment to identify potential gaps in NHS dental service provision and to consider what actions may be required.
NHS dentists are required to keep their NHS.UK profiles up to date so that patients can find a dentist more easily. This includes information on whether they are accepting new patients.
In circumstances where patients are unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through an NHS dental practice, they should contact NHS 111.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to provide access to psilocybin for the treatment of (a) severe depression and (b) other health conditions.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), who have invested £1.1 million in a randomised controlled trial to examine if it is feasible, safe and effective to use psilocybin to treat people with treatment-resistant depression. The NIHR is supporting psilocybin research via the NIHR King’s Clinical Research Facility and the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, where researchers are developing and evaluating the efficacy and safety of psilocybin therapy for use in the National Health Service and other healthcare settings. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including the use of psilocybin in the treatment of severe depression and other chronic conditions.
Before any new medicine can be used to treat patients, it must go through a strictly monitored development process. Manufacturers of medicines are expected to conduct research and clinical trials, and medicines must undergo scrutiny by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency which will assess the safety, quality and efficacy of a product before a marketing authorisation (licence) may be granted. For a licence to be granted for a medicine the MHRA must receive a full marketing application from the applicant. In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) evaluates all new medicines for clinical and cost effectiveness and makes recommendations about routine funding and use on the NHS. This is the foundation of NHS decisions about routine access and funding of medicines.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to increase the availability of NHS dental appointments in County Durham.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
In July 2022 we announced a package of reforms to improve access to National Health Service dentistry, which outlined the steps we are taking to meet oral health need and increase access to dental care, including in County Durham. The changes that have been implemented include improvements to ensure dentists are remunerated more fairly for more complex work and the introduction of a minimum Units of Dental Activity value.
From 1 April 2023, responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. ICBs are responsible for having local processes in place to identify areas of need and determine the priorities for investment.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. These include a 40% increase to dentistry undergraduate training places by 2031/32.
But we know we need to do more, and that there are some areas where access is particularly problematic. We are working on our Dentistry Recovery Plan which will address how we continue to improve access, particularly for new patients; and how we make NHS work more attractive to ensure NHS dentists are incentivised to deliver more NHS care.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects the independent review into the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) to be completed; if he will publish the report of that review; and what steps he plans to take to help ensure that the standard of service provided by NEAS improves as quickly as possible.
Answered by James Morris
NHS England is establishing governance arrangements for an independent review to formally commence as soon as is practicable. The families and staff affected will have an opportunity to contribute to the review’s Terms of Reference in due course. Once the review is completed, its report will be published independently of the National Health Service. Local commissioners and the NHS will support the implementation of any recommendations to improve the culture within and the quality of service provided by the North East Ambulance Service as soon as possible. Further details will be available shortly.
NHS England advises that the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust has measures in place to improve the standards of service it provides. An investment of £38 million has been agreed for 2022/23 to improve clinical care, recover ambulance response times, increase the operational and Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) workforce and the establishment of an additional EOC in the south of the Trust’s area.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the context of the forthcoming Women's Health Strategy, what steps his Department plans to take to help ensure adherence to NICE guidelines for (a) diagnosing and (b) treating endometriosis.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
As set out in the Women’s Health Strategy, we will work with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on its five-year strategy to ensure that guidelines can be implemented and accessible to healthcare professionals and commissioners of local services. NICE’s guidelines describe best practice which healthcare professionals are expected to take fully into account in the care and treatment of patients. However, these guidelines are not mandatory and do not override a clinician’s responsibility to make appropriate decisions for individual patients.
NICE reviewed its endometriosis guideline in 2021, which was amended to highlight that those with endometriosis outside the pelvic cavity should be referred to a specialist endometriosis centre. NICE has begun a review of its guidelines on endometriosis to consider whether it should be updated.
Asked by: Dehenna Davison (Conservative - Bishop Auckland)
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 maximise NHS capacity.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Department continues to focus on recovery of services, as we have throughout the pandemic. The NHS and the Department have sought to maximise availability of capacity by all practical means, including virtual wards, the use of independent sector capacity, a focus on maximising safe discharge, coupled with investment in up to 160 community diagnostic centres, innovation in surgical hubs, and through growing our NHS workforce.