Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending provision of genetic testing to all people diagnosed with breast cancer.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The NHS Long Term Plan sets out the ambition to extend the use of molecular diagnostics and, over the next 10 years, to routinely offer genomic testing to all people with cancer for whom it would be of clinical benefit.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North 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 replicate European Health Insurance Card reciprocal arrangements after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government has proposed to all European Union Member States that when we leave, we should maintain the existing healthcare arrangements including the European Healthcare Insurance Card (EHIC) Scheme until 31 December 2020, with the aim of minimising disruption to healthcare provision for United Kingdom nationals and EU citizens. This is subject to negotiations, which are ongoing.
In the event that we cannot reach an agreement with EU Member States, EHICs may no longer be valid after exit day. It is not possible for the UK Government to guarantee access unilaterally to healthcare abroad, as this depends on decisions by Member States.
The Government has always advised UK nationals to take out comprehensive travel insurance when going overseas, both to EU and non-EU destinations. This will remain our advice in all circumstances.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North 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 ensure that UK participation in European Reference Networks continues after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The United Kingdom will be leaving the European Union on 31 October whatever the circumstances. We would prefer to leave with a deal and we will work in an energetic and determined way to get that better deal. The details of this partnership, including participation in the European Reference Networks, will be a matter for negotiation with the EU after we leave. We are preparing for that negotiation and will work with a wide range of partners to ensure a successful outcome for UK business and citizens.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
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 effect of the UK leaving the EU without a deal on the regulatory processes for new medicines for rare conditions.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Medicines and Healthcare products regulatory Agency (MHRA), as with all of Government has been working hard to ensure that the United Kingdom is fully prepared for European Union exit under any circumstance. The potential effect that the UK leaving the EU without a deal will have on the regulatory processes for new medicines for rare conditions is being mitigated with clear guidance and close engagement with industry to ensure plans are relevant and fit for purpose.
Following a public consultation last year, the MHRA has legislated to ensure a smooth transition to national provisions for human medicines, including those for rare diseases. Indeed, for medicines for rare diseases the UK will offer incentives, some fees will be waived, with others fully or partially refunded, to encourage the development and marketing of such medicines.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
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 capacity requirements for the Medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has assessed the capacity that will be required in both a deal and a ‘no deal’ European Union exit scenario. This is based on scrutiny of resource and careful assessment of the Agency’s ability to support the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.
Any gaps in resource have been identified by the agency, and sufficiently addressed. In the case of a ‘no deal’ scenario, the Agency has developed and is prepared to implement a new IT system that will sufficiently support industry to continue to operate in a smooth transition. The Agency continues to engage industry to ensure any concerns are addressed and that appropriate transparency is maintained.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
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 correlation between falling rates of vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella and the increased incidence of those conditions.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
There has been an increase in cases of measles since the end of 2017 with close to 1,000 cases reported in 2018. However, the majority of these cases (628/966, 65%) are in individuals aged less than one year old and over 15 years i.e. those not in recently vaccinated age cohorts. Data is available at the following link:
An increase in mumps activity was observed in England in the first quarter (Q1) of 2019 with 795 laboratory confirmed mumps infections. Almost half (352/795, 44%) of the cases in Q1 were in unvaccinated individuals. This data can be viewed at the following link:
The World Health Organization confirmed that the United Kingdom had eliminated rubella in 2015. Between 2013-18 there were only 10 laboratory confirmed cases in England. This data can be viewed at the following link:
Nearly all these cases have been in individuals born abroad and were not eligible to receive rubella containing vaccine in United Kingdom.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of children's hospices in England; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of support for hospices provided by his Department.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Information on the number of hospices which have closed in England since 2010 is not held.
There are currently around 223 registered independent hospices, and a very small number of public hospices run internally by National Health Service trusts. Around a quarter of these are children’s hospices. The vast majority of hospices are primarily charity-funded but receive some statutory funding from clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and the Government for providing local services. CCGs are responsible for determining the level of NHS-funded hospice care locally and they are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population.
As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England committed to increase its investment in children’s palliative care over the next five years by match funding CCGs who commit to increase their investment in local children’s palliative and end of life care services.
Subject to CCGs increasing investment, NHS England will match this by up to £7 million a year by 2023/24. This increase is in addition to the Children’s Hospice Grant, which provides an annual contribution of £11 million. NHS England is currently establishing financial reporting systems to monitor the baseline investment of CCG in children’s palliative and end of life care services. This will enable match funding payments to be made to CCGs where the investments are increased above the investment baseline in the previous year. As baselining will be ongoing through 2019/20, and therefore match funding will not be available in this year, NHS England will be increasing the children’s hospice grant to £12 million for this period.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children's hospices have closed in England in each year since 2010; and in which regions of England were those hospices located.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Information on the number of hospices which have closed in England since 2010 is not held.
There are currently around 223 registered independent hospices, and a very small number of public hospices run internally by National Health Service trusts. Around a quarter of these are children’s hospices. The vast majority of hospices are primarily charity-funded but receive some statutory funding from clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and the Government for providing local services. CCGs are responsible for determining the level of NHS-funded hospice care locally and they are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population.
As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England committed to increase its investment in children’s palliative care over the next five years by match funding CCGs who commit to increase their investment in local children’s palliative and end of life care services.
Subject to CCGs increasing investment, NHS England will match this by up to £7 million a year by 2023/24. This increase is in addition to the Children’s Hospice Grant, which provides an annual contribution of £11 million. NHS England is currently establishing financial reporting systems to monitor the baseline investment of CCG in children’s palliative and end of life care services. This will enable match funding payments to be made to CCGs where the investments are increased above the investment baseline in the previous year. As baselining will be ongoing through 2019/20, and therefore match funding will not be available in this year, NHS England will be increasing the children’s hospice grant to £12 million for this period.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the rate of suicide among men in Wolverhampton; and what steps he is taking to improve mental health services in the West Midlands.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The latest update on suicide prevention from the health scrutiny panel at City of Wolverhampton Council (June 2019), shows that 66 deaths were registered as suicides for the period of 2015-17 and 54 of these (82%) were male.
In ‘Making Wolverhampton a Suicide Safer Community: Wolverhampton Suicide Prevention Strategy 2016–2020’, City of Wolverhampton Council has set the following aims to reduce suicides:
- provide a multi-agency approach to suicide prevention across Wolverhampton;
- raise awareness of suicide, compelling organisations and the community to take positive action;
- upskill workforces through information and knowledge enabling them to better understand and respond to poor mental wellbeing and suicide ideation;
- influence services and policies so that suicide prevention is robustly considered and embedded in routine business; and
- provide a coordinated suicide support offer which can be accessed by services and communities.
Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North 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 ensure each hospital diabetes team includes a mental health professional.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
It is for individual clinical commissioning groups to commission treatment and services for people with diabetes and they are best placed to identify what is needed in their local areas.
On 21 March 2018 NHS England and NHS Improvement along with the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health published ‘The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Pathway for People with Long-term Physical Health Conditions and Medically Unexplained Symptoms’ which is available at the following link:
IAPT services provide evidence based treatments for people with anxiety and depression and the services are co-located in existing primary and secondary care physical health pathways. IAPT services will target the needs of people with depression and anxiety disorders who also have long term conditions such as diabetes.
In addition, a project working group has been established involving NHS England, Diabetes UK and other stakeholders which aims to develop a care pathway which, when adopted locally, would help improve access to emotional and psychological support for people with diabetes.