Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the recommendations of the British Society for Echocardiography made in its report entitled The UK Echocardiography Workforce published in June 2023, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure that the NHS retains a sufficient number of experienced echocardiographers to train new recruits.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England has developed a new fast-track echocardiography training scheme, which has led to 150 additional echocardiographers with further support being available in 2023/24.
More generally, the NHS People Plan and the People Promise set out a comprehensive range of actions to improve staff retention. They provide a strong focus on creating a more modern, compassionate and inclusive culture in the National Health Service by strengthening health and wellbeing, equality and diversity, culture and leadership and flexible working.
NHS priorities and operational planning guidance 23/24 has asked systems to refresh their 2022/23 whole system workforce plans to improve staff retention through a systematic focus on all elements of the NHS People Promise. Staff wellbeing should be strategically aligned with elective recovery plans, including workforce demand and capacity planning. In addition, the NHS Retention Programme is continuously seeking to understand why staff leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst keeping them well.
The Long Term Workforce Plan builds on the People Plan and sets out how to improve culture and leadership to ensure that up to 130,000 fewer staff leave the NHS over the next 15 years. This includes: implementing actions from the NHS People Plan that have been shown to be successful; and implementing plans to improve flexible opportunities for prospective retirees and delivering the actions needed to modernise the NHS pension scheme.
These interventions apply across staff groups, including echocardiographers.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to devolve any aspect of radiotherapy commissioning to integrated care boards in (a) Crawley constituency and (b) England; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England’s National Moderation Panel will determine how many integrated care boards (ICBs) will take on responsibility for specialised commissioning in October 2023. Following this moderation process, recommendations will be taken to the NHS England Board for final decisions in December 2023, before new arrangements go live from April 2024.
This process will consider the delegation of radiotherapy commissioning for ICBs across England including across the Crawley constituency.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many radiotherapy LINAC machines will be over the recommended 10-year lifespan by the end of (a) 2023, (b) 2024, and (c) 2025 in Crawley constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
Data on radiotherapy linear accelerator (LINAC) machines is not held at constituency level. Since April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines sits with local systems. This is supported by the 2021 Spending Review, which set aside £12 billion in operational capital for the National Health Service between 2022 and 2025.
Recent Capital Planning Guidance sets out the expectation that the majority of radiotherapy equipment, particularly LINAC machines, will need to be replaced at ten years of age, to make progress on Long Term Plan priorities. The guidance states that integrated care systems (ICSs) need to develop replacement plans as part of their multi-year capital plans, in partnership with specialised commissioners, Cancer Alliances and Radiotherapy Operational Delivery Networks, based on an assessment of equipment age, capacity and demand, opportunities to improve access, and service risk.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 fiscal impact of increasing the number of Automated External Defibrillators available to the public on healthcare services.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) that expands the number and accessibility of publicly supported access to defibrillators.
Applicants will be asked to demonstrate that defibrillators will be placed in areas where they are most needed, such as places with high footfall, longer emergency medical response times and deprived areas
No assessment has been made of the potential fiscal impact of increasing the number of AEDs available to the public on healthcare services. The number of instances of sudden cardiac arrest that have occurred outside of hospitals in the last five years is not available centrally.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 help reduce economic barriers to accessing defibrillators.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) that expands the number and accessibility of publicly supported access to defibrillators.
Applicants will be asked to demonstrate that defibrillators will be placed in areas where they are most needed, such as places with high footfall, longer emergency medical response times and deprived areas
No assessment has been made of the potential fiscal impact of increasing the number of AEDs available to the public on healthcare services. The number of instances of sudden cardiac arrest that have occurred outside of hospitals in the last five years is not available centrally.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many instances of sudden cardiac arrest have occurred outside of hospitals in the last five years.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) that expands the number and accessibility of publicly supported access to defibrillators.
Applicants will be asked to demonstrate that defibrillators will be placed in areas where they are most needed, such as places with high footfall, longer emergency medical response times and deprived areas
No assessment has been made of the potential fiscal impact of increasing the number of AEDs available to the public on healthcare services. The number of instances of sudden cardiac arrest that have occurred outside of hospitals in the last five years is not available centrally.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made recent representations made to (a) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) NHS England on investment in the clinical (i) radiology and (ii) oncology workforce.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care meets regularly with other Cabinet colleagues and with NHS England to discuss issues relating to the National Health Service workforce.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
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 potential merits of reviewing the way the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and NHS England evaluate and adopt Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products as technologies with the potential to deliver significant health gains over long periods of time.
Answered by Will Quince
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently carried out a comprehensive review of its methods and processes for health technology evaluation to ensure that they were appropriate to emerging new technologies such as advanced therapeutic medicinal products (ATMPs). NICE published its updated health technology evaluation manual in January 2022 and has introduced a number of changes that ensure that its appraisal processes are suitable for emerging new medicines, including a broader severity modifier and changes to better respond to uncertainty. There are no plans for a further assessment of NICE’s processes for evaluating ATMPs.
NICE’s methods and processes have been proven to be suitable for ATMPs where companies are willing to price their products in a way that represents value to the taxpayer. NICE has recommended 80% of the ATMPs it has evaluated for use by the National Health Service and they are now available for the treatment of NHS patients, including through the Cancer Drugs Fund and managed access agreements negotiated between the NHS and the manufacturer.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential support for UK leadership in the adoption of cell and gene therapies of the recommendations of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult’s National Cell and Gene Therapy Vision for the UK, published in March 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department recognises that advanced cell and gene therapies will be an important part of the future of healthcare and the life sciences industry. We have been considering the recommendations of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult’s ‘National Cell and Gene Therapy Vision for the UK’, a report published by the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult in March 2022 and the UK Strategic Stem Cell Forum’s latest report ‘A 10-year vision for stem cell transplantation and cellular therapies’ published in July 2022.
As part of this, we have been conducting stakeholder engagement to further understand the challenges raised and whether there is a role for the Department in coordinating activity in this area.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to support UK businesses that supply the NHS with medical devices, medical equipment and services impacted by additional costs in relating to (a) production, (b) distribution and (c) energy.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department and NHS Supply Chain (NHSSC) recognise challenges faced by suppliers relating to the economic environment and global inflationary pressures. The Government and NHSSC remain committed to working with suppliers within the bounds of contractual agreements, to secure value for money for taxpayers and maintain availability.
With specific reference to energy costs, the Government is dedicated to supporting businesses via the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which provides a discount on the wholesale element of gas and electricity bills to ensure that eligible non-domestic customers are protected from excessively high energy costs over the winter period. Following an HM Treasury led review, the new Energy Bill Discount Scheme will run from April until March 2024 and continue to provide a discount to eligible non-domestic customers.