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 his Department will take steps to encourage local authorities to increase their engagement with veterans charities to help inform local authority suicide prevention action plans.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We continue to work with local authorities to ensure that suicide prevention action plans remain effective and include at-risk groups, such as veterans.
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, pursuant to the answer of 18th July 2022 to Question 26734 on Heart Diseases: Screening, whether he is taking steps to reduce waiting times for echocardiography.
Answered by Will Quince
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out how the National Health Service will recover and expand elective services over the next three years, including in echocardiography. To increase diagnostic activity and reduce patient waiting times, the Department has committed £2.3 billion for up to 160 community diagnostic centres (CDCs). As of 23 October 2022, CDCs have now completed 54,759 additional echocardiography checks since 13 July 2021.
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 the 10-Year Cancer Plan includes specific strategies to improve access to radiotherapy cancer treatments.
Answered by Will Quince
Following a call for evidence for a new cancer plan held earlier this year, we received approximately 5,000 responses. Further information will be available in due course.
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 plans to extend the availability of Evusheld as a covid-19 prophylactic treatment through clinical trials for immunocompromised individuals.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Department’s clinical advisors have recommended that a clinical trial of Evusheld should be considered to understand the connection between in vitro tests and clinical outcomes for current and future variants and evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a dose of 600 milligrams, which was not tested in randomised controlled trials. We are currently exploring options for such a trial.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 9 December 2021 to Question 85238 on Diagnosis, when he plans to publish NHS England’s evaluation report on Rapid Diagnostic Centres.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The National Health Service cancer programme commissioned an external evaluation of the faster diagnosis programme, including rapid diagnostic centres, for the period until March 2024. The final report will be considered for publication in 2024.
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 provision the 10 Year Cancer Plan will make for expanding system infrastructure to deliver radioligand therapy and other innovative cancer treatment.
Answered by James Morris
I refer the hon. Members to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for St Albans (Daisy Cooper MP) on 19 July 2022 to Question 33937.
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 his Department has made of the adequacy of the availability of shielded rooms in the context of the likely increase in the availability of (a) radioligand therapy and (b) other nuclear medicines to treat certain cancers.
Answered by James Morris
No specific assessment has been made. Further work is required on the safe delivery of the service with an appropriate number of providers to balance patient access with available specialist expertise and infrastructure.
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 impact of community diagnostic centres on waiting times for echocardiography.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No formal assessment has been made. However, as of 12 June 2022, community diagnostic centres have completed 29,153 additional echocardiography scans.
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 timeframe UKHSA are working to in order to assess the effectiveness of Evusheld against the Omicron variant of covid-19.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The UK Health Security Agency continues to undertake further testing on Evusheld’s effectiveness against the Omicron variants. However, we are currently unable to confirm a timeframe for this process.
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 immunocompromised people have (a) been hospitalised with and (b) died from covid-19 since the MHRA authorised Evusheld for use in the UK.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The information requested is not held centrally.
On 17 March 2022, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency granted a conditional marketing authorisation for Evusheld. However, this authorisation outlined uncertainties for the treatment, including the length of protection and the dose required for efficacy against the Omicron variant.