Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when Public Health England plans to report on the consultation on drug misuse and dependence.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Public Health England (PHE) has convened an expert group, chaired by Professor John Strang, to consider the responses to the consultation on a possible update to the United Kingdom guidelines on the clinical management of drug misuse and dependence.
PHE will be providing an update on the plans of the expert group in winter 2014-15 following its initial meeting on 7 October 2014. The expert group plans to complete its advice to PHE and the devolved administrations by early 2016.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the performance of the National Cancer Peer Review Programme.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England is currently reviewing the National Cancer Peer Review programme with a view to considering how its success might be extended into other new areas of specialised commissioning. Regardless of the outcome of this review, cancer peer review will continue to play a critical part of any broader peer review programme NHS England may look to introduce.
The number of visits undertaken by the programme changes based on how many risk visits and how many comprehensive visits are carried out. The highest number of visits completed in any one year since the programme began was 535 in 2012-13, when comprehensive visits to acute oncology were carried out. Generally, between 400 and 450 visits are completed each year.
As the programme has moved to risk assessed visits only rather than comprehensive visits (as comprehensive visits to all tumour sites have been completed) the number of visits has reduced; in 2013-14 there were 424 cancer visits.
This year, between April 2014 and October 2014, 100 cancer visits and 28 major trauma centre visits have been carried out.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will request that the Care Quality Commission publishes data on trends of GP practices prescribing benzodiazepine.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.
The CQC has provided the following information:
CQC are not currently conducting a review of the prescribing of benzodiazepine.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) collect data on the prescribing of benzodiazepine but this is not collated nationally. The CQC would be alerted to any prescribing trends and outliers during discussions with the CCGs when a GP practice is inspected.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many cancer-specific reviews were completed by the National Cancer Peer Review Programme team in each financial year since the programme began; and how many cancer-specific reviews are scheduled to be conducted by the National Cancer Peer Review Programme after the current financial year.
Answered by Jane Ellison
NHS England is currently reviewing the National Cancer Peer Review programme with a view to considering how its success might be extended into other new areas of specialised commissioning. Regardless of the outcome of this review, cancer peer review will continue to play a critical part of any broader peer review programme NHS England may look to introduce.
The number of visits undertaken by the programme changes based on how many risk visits and how many comprehensive visits are carried out. The highest number of visits completed in any one year since the programme began was 535 in 2012-13, when comprehensive visits to acute oncology were carried out. Generally, between 400 and 450 visits are completed each year.
As the programme has moved to risk assessed visits only rather than comprehensive visits (as comprehensive visits to all tumour sites have been completed) the number of visits has reduced; in 2013-14 there were 424 cancer visits.
This year, between April 2014 and October 2014, 100 cancer visits and 28 major trauma centre visits have been carried out.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken since 2009 to review policy on addiction to prescription medication; and what the total identifiable costs have been of this review process.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department has been reviewing policy on addiction to prescription medicine over this period, and the Government’s Drug Strategy, published in December 2010, highlights our commitment to reduce dependence on prescription and over the counter medicines.
In 2009, the Department identified a lack of information on this important subject. The Department commissioned a literature review from the National Addiction Centre and a report from the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) which interrogated data on specialist treatment and surveyed local commissioners and specialist treatment providers. These reports were peer reviewed and published in May 2011. The cost to the Department for the National Addiction Centre literature review was £9,750 and the cost for the NTA review was £80,000.
The reports informed the discussions of roundtable meetings of expert stakeholders which were convened by the Minister for Public Health to agree action to tackle addiction to medicines. The roundtable produced a consensus statement, endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and other organisations which was published in January 2013. The only direct cost to the Department concerning the roundtables, and other meetings, was £1,928.09 in travel expenses for non-Departmental staff.
Other Departmental costs associated with reviewing policy on addiction to prescription medicine are not separately identifiable.
Public Health England (PHE) organised a seminar in February 2013 to improve the commissioning of services to treat addiction to medicine, and following the seminar, in June 2013 published a guide for the National Health Service and local authorities on commissioning treatment for dependence on prescription and over-the-counter medicines.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency published in March 2013 a learning module on benzodiazepines which includes advice for prescribers on preventing and treating dependence on these medicines.
In July 2014, with the approval of the Department and the devolved administrations, PHE launched a public consultation on whether there should be an update to the 2007 United Kingdom clinical guidelines on drug misuse and dependence. The guidelines include advice on treating dependence on benzodiazepines.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of adaptive licensing or early access schemes (a) in the UK and (b) across the EU; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The potential merits and impact of adaptive licensing and early access to medicine schemes were considered by the Expert Group on innovation in the regulation of healthcare that was established in June 2012 following the Prime Minister's 2011 Life Science Strategy. The Expert Group was composed of a range of experts from government, industry, patient and health professional stakeholders.
In their 2013 report, the group welcomed the proposal for the Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS), for highly promising unlicensed medicinal products in areas of high unmet medical need, and urged the Government to introduce it as soon as possible. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency launched the EAMS on 7 April 2014.
On adaptive licensing, the group saw opportunities for more use of the existing legal flexibilities to facilitate patient access to innovative products. The Group urged for the pilot on adaptive licensing by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to be launched at the earliest opportunity.
The EMA published its adaptive licensing pilot project on 19 March. The Government sees this pilot as a test for current licensing flexibilities and the methodology of adaptive licensing. We welcome the pilot and will continue to be actively engaged in the debate in Europe.
A copy of the report of the Expert Group on innovation in the regulation of healthcare has been placed in the Library.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether data on prescriptions dispensed in hospitals is collected centrally.
Answered by Norman Lamb
There are various sources of data on medicines in hospitals. The Health and Social Care Information Centre publishes annually the document Hospital Prescribing: England, the latest copy of which is available at:
www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB12651
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what data his Department collects on prescriptions dispensed to prisoners.
Answered by Norman Lamb
Information on the number of prisoners who are prescribed a particular medicine or class of medicine is not collected centrally, nor are data held relating to prescription items dispensed in prisons.
NHS England commissions all pharmacy services in prisons in England. It is responsible for the quality of service and for ensuring that good practice guidelines are followed in relation to the prescribing, safe use and treatment following withdrawal of psychotropic drugs treatments, including benzodiapines and Z-drugs. Where healthcare professionals have concerns about prescribing decisions in relation to psychotropic drug treatment in prisons, they should record these as medication safety incidents and report them to the local medicines management committee for possible further investigation. NHS England commissioners also require healthcare providers to report these incidents in patient safety contract monitoring.
Prison pharmacy services currently follow guidelines set out in A Pharmacy Service for Prisoners, issued by the Department in 2003. NHS England is currently reviewing this guidance, and updated guidance will be published in due course. A copy of the current guidance has already been placed in the Library.
Detailed guidance on benzodiazepine detoxification for prisoners is included in Clinical Management of Drug Dependence in the Adult Prison Setting, published by the Department in 2006. A copy has already been placed in the Library. Clinicians are expected to follow this and other relevant guidance such as that published by the Royal College of General Practitioners' Secure Environments Group on Safer Prescribing in Prisons.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which protocols are used in hospitals for withdrawal treatment following long and short-term use of benzodiaepines and Z-drugs.
Answered by Norman Lamb
NHS England works with system partners, including training agencies, professional bodies and professional regulators to urge that staff, including those working in hospitals, are appropriately trained, supervised and appraised to monitor practice. In mental health, NHS England is exploring how to modernise the electronic care records system so that it is easier for appropriate prescribing and monitoring to be undertaken.
The Secretary of State and NHS England would also expect hospitals to take account of relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department takes to prevent to over-prescribing of psychotropic drugs in hospitals.
Answered by Norman Lamb
NHS England works with system partners, including training agencies, professional bodies and professional regulators to urge that staff, including those working in hospitals, are appropriately trained, supervised and appraised to monitor practice. In mental health, NHS England is exploring how to modernise the electronic care records system so that it is easier for appropriate prescribing and monitoring to be undertaken.
The Secretary of State and NHS England would also expect hospitals to take account of relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance.