Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
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 help improve (a) research into treatments for and (b) (i) emotional and (ii) financial support for people living with pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department invests £1.3 billion per year in health research, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £121.8 million in 2022/23, and the NIHR spends more on cancer than any other disease group.
The NIHR funded nine research projects on pancreatic cancer since 2018/19, with a committed funding value of £4.3 million. The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including pancreatic cancer. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition.
The NIHR also supports delivery of research into pancreatic cancer in the health and care system, funded by research funding partners in the charity and public sectors. Since 2018/19 the NIHR supported 73 clinical research studies through the Clinical Research Network.
Additionally, NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRC) and NIHR Clinical Research Facilities spent a further £6.5 million between 2018/19 and 2022/23, supporting an annual portfolio of approximately 85 early clinical studies into pancreatic cancer. NIHR BRCs are collaborations between world-leading universities and National Health Service organisations, that bring together academics and clinicians to translate discoveries from basic or discovery science into clinical research.
For emotional and financial support, patient feedback is monitored through the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey, with the latest results showing an overall experience of 8.88 out of 10. In areas such as support for health and wellbeing, and information on financial help, results were positive but showed room for improvement. NHS England continues to support trusts to take action to improve cancer patient support.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of offering breast cancer screening to women going through early menopause.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) currently recommends that all women aged 50 to 71 years old are invited for a breast screening every three years. The AgeX trial is looking at the impact of increasing or decreasing the screening age for breast screening, and the UK NSC will review its findings when they are available.
The UK NSC can be alerted to any new published peer reviewed evidence which may suggest the case for a new screening programme, or changes to an existing one. Proposals can be submitted via the UK NSC’s annual call in July 2024, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure the space needed for the Urgent Treatment Centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton be returned to a drop in as well as bookable centre.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of local National Health Service commissioners and providers to engage with their stakeholders and make decisions on the provision of services locally to best meet the needs of their patients and population.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether officials in her Department have had recent discussions with the Care Quality Commission on antibiotic underdosing.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Officials from the Department have not had any recent discussions with the Care Quality Commission on antibiotic underdosing. General guidance on prescribing and the use of medicines is published online by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and is available at the following link:
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has had discussions with stakeholders on antibiotic line flushing.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Officials from the Department have not had any recent discussions with stakeholders on antibiotic line flushing. Good clinical practice is to flush an intravenous line with saline after a medicine has been administered, to ensure the full dose is delivered to the patient. This is not unique to antibiotics.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps her Department has taken to improve (a) services for children who require end of life care, (b) services for children with life threatening conditions and (c) services for children with life limiting conditions.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for determining the level of National Health Service funded palliative and end of life care for children locally, and they are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population.
At a national level, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England has provided approximately £12 million of match-funding to participating ICBs, and formerly CCGs, between 2020/21 and 2023/24. This was committed to invest in children and young people’s palliative and end of life care, giving a total investment of £24 million. In addition, NHS England supports palliative and end of life care for children and young people through the Children and Young People’s Hospice Grant. NHS England has confirmed that it will be renewing the funding for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million of funding for children’s hospices using the same prevalence-based allocation approach as in 2022/23 and 2023/24. This prevalence-based approach ensures funding matches local need.
The Department is in ongoing discussions with NHS England to explore improving oversight and accountability of all-age NHS palliative and end of life care commissioning. Additionally, The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, is investing £3 million in a new Palliative and End of Life Care Policy Research Unit. This will help build the evidence base on all-age palliative and end of life care to inform policy making in this vital area.
NHS England’s palliative and end of life care team has recently engaged with 24 ICBs to understand how to better support commissioners, and has also reviewed all 42 ICB Joint Forward Plans for their inclusion of palliative and end of life care.
From April 2024, NHS England will include palliative and end of life care in the list of topics for regular performance discussions between national and regional leads. Additionally, NHS England has commissioned the development of a palliative and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative and end of life care needs of their local population, including children, enabling ICBs to put plans in place to address and track the improvement of health inequalities.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the safety of Philips CPAP machines in the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Heathcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued a National Patient Safety Alert to hospital trusts in response to two Field Safety Notices issued by Philips Respironics, regarding the risk of patient harm from Philips Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machines in June 2021.
This was due to degradation of the sound abatement foam in the CPAP Dreamstation devices. This led to a subsequent repair and replacement programme for all affected devices and their accessories. The progress of this programme is being monitored by the MHRA.
The MHRA conducted a risk benefit analysis to determine whether these CPAP devices should continue to be used while awaiting repair or replacement. The conclusion of this analysis was that, except for patients with specific risk factors, the known risks of the sudden discontinuation of treatment were higher than the potential risks posed by the degradation issue. The Patient Safety Alert advises that patients should continue using the affected machines unless advised otherwise by their patient care provider.
We would encourage patients to report any evidence of foam degradation, for example black marks or residue in their devices, directly via MHRA’s yellow card scheme.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many adverse events were registered with covid-19 vaccines from batch number 4120Z001 via the yellow card scheme; and whether more serious adverse events were registered with covid-19 vaccines from batch number 4120Z001 via the yellow card scheme than other batches of the Oxford-Astra Zeneca covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) continuously monitors the safety of vaccines through a variety of pharmacovigilance approaches including the Yellow Card scheme. As part of our signal detection processes all adverse reaction reports received by the Yellow Card scheme are assessed and cumulative information reviewed at regular intervals. Our analysis of the Yellow Card reports accounts for product batch number.
The MHRA has received 7112 spontaneous suspected adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports in the United Kingdom relating to the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine with batch number 4120Z001 up to and including 17 January 2024. Our analysis of the Yellow Card reports including review of serious adverse reactions reported has not resulted in any safety concerns with the batch number 4120Z001 for the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine.
Not all batches of the COVID-19 vaccines are the same size, and some batches may have had more wastage than other batches or be distributed more widely outside of the UK. Therefore, we would not expect the number of ADR reports for all batches to be the same as they have been administered to different numbers of patients. Furthermore, different batches would have been used at different stages of the vaccination campaign, and in different patient groups, which could also impact reporting rates.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps her Department have taken to (a) improve and (b) expand research into (i) the causes of and (ii) potential treatment for long COVID.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
For long COVID, research and scientific evidence is pivotal in shaping our understanding of causes and effects for individuals and the population. Over £50 million has already been invested in long COVID research projects to improve our understanding of the diagnosis and underlying mechanisms of the disease and the effectiveness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies and interventions, as well as to evaluate clinical care.
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including long COVID. The Medical Research Council also funds research into long COVID. 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 based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the number of measles cases in (a) London, (b) Wandsworth borough and (c) Putney constituency.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency publishes routine data on laboratory confirmed measles cases by age and region monthly, which is available at the following link:
This routine report does not include a breakdown of cases by local authority, due to the small numbers and the risk of deductive disclosure. Data can be enhanced retrospectively and analysed over longer periods to describe inequalities in the burden of disease. This was most recently published in 2019, and is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-and-rubella-elimination-uk-strategy