Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the diagnosis rate of cancer at stages one and two in adults aged between 18 and 50.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service (NHS) is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway. These pathways will also support the NHS to meet the new Faster Diagnosis Standard which will ensure that all patients who are referred for the investigation of suspected cancer find out whether they have cancer or not within 28 days.
To encourage people to get in touch with their general practitioner if they notice or are worried about symptoms that could be cancer, NHS England is running the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign, which seeks to address the barriers that are deterring patients from accessing the NHS.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has taken recent steps to help increase awareness amongst GPs of cancer symptoms in patients aged between 18 and 50.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In April 2020, NHS England introduced the ‘Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service – Early Cancer Diagnosis Guidance’ for Primary Care Networks, which 99% of general practitioners practices are signed up to. This is designed to support improvements in rates of early cancer diagnosis by requiring Primary Care Networks to review the quality of their practices’ referrals for suspected cancer and take steps to improve this.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps with the UKHSA to improve national monitoring and data collection on eligibility for, and uptake of PrEP.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) works with sexual health services in England to support the reporting and improve the quality of data on eligibility and uptake of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The UKHSA has developed a monitoring and evaluation framework to support local authorities and other stakeholders with the delivery of PrEP. The framework is based on the World Health Organization’s implementation tool for PrEP and aims to inform continuous service improvement in commissioning and delivery using existing data sources to identify and reduce potential health inequalities. The framework is available at the following link:
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he will implement a national PrEP Action Plan as part of the HIV Action Plan.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Through the implementation of the HIV Action Plan, we are considering how to improve equitable access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for all population groups and in settings outside of specialist sexual health services. We are currently gathering evidence to understand why some population groups who would benefit from PrEP are under-represented and to identify potential barriers to access. The evidence will be considered by the PrEP Access and Equity Task and Finish group and will inform the development of a plan to improve PrEP access and equity in due course.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
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 amend PrEP eligibility criteria to enable that drug to be more widely available to people at risk of contracting HIV.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
There are no current plans to amend eligibility criteria for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Access to PrEP is based on existing clinical guidelines which allows clinicians to prescribe following a consideration of the patient’s risks and assessing the benefits and potential harms of provision. Clinical guidelines published by the British HIV Association and the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV are accredited by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and are available at the following link:
https://www.bhiva.org/file/5b729cd592060/2018-PrEP-Guidelines.pdf
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide resources to sexual health services to help relieve potential capacity issues, including targeting additional funding and support to local authorities in regions which are reporting longer waiting lists.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In 2022/23, we have allocated more than £3.4 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including sexual health services, through the Public Health Grant and provided funding for the mpox response, including medicines and vaccinations.
Local authorities are responsible for commissioning comprehensive, open access sexual health services to meet local demand, including monitoring and acting if required to reduce waiting times for services. Individual local authorities determine spending priorities based on an assessment of local need for sexual health services, including targeted outreach programmes.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will provide further funding to sexual health commissioners to support more targeted outreach programmes.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In 2022/23, we have allocated more than £3.4 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including sexual health services, through the Public Health Grant and provided funding for the mpox response, including medicines and vaccinations.
Local authorities are responsible for commissioning comprehensive, open access sexual health services to meet local demand, including monitoring and acting if required to reduce waiting times for services. Individual local authorities determine spending priorities based on an assessment of local need for sexual health services, including targeted outreach programmes.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide funding to review the cases of people recently diagnosed with HIV in order to identify any opportunities which may have been missed to prescribe PrEP.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The HIV Action Plan commits to improve uptake and access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), including maintaining £23 million through the Public Health Grant and increasing innovation in the delivery of and equity of access to PrEP for population groups. In 2022/23, we have allocated more than £3.4 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services through the Public Health Grant, including sexual health services. Local authorities are responsible for commissioning comprehensive, open access sexual health services to meet local demand, including HIV testing and access to PrEP.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made to halve the rate of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths in England by 2025 to date.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government’s Maternity Safety Ambition is to halve the 2010 rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths and brain injuries in babies occurring during or soon after birth. Since 2010, the rate of stillbirths has reduced by 19.3%, the rate of neonatal mortality for babies born over 24 weeks gestational age of viability has reduced by 36% and maternal mortality has reduced by 17%.
Asked by: Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the pregnancy loss certificate will be introduced in England; and whether this certificate will be offered retrospectively to parents who have experienced a loss before 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
The pregnancy loss certificates are currently being developed with NHS Business Services Authority and we hope to confirm a date for introduction in due course. The pregnancy loss certificates will be offered retrospectively to parents who have experienced a pre-24 weeks pregnancy loss. The introduction of pregnancy loss certificates in England will allow a non-statutory, voluntary scheme to enable parents who have experienced a pre-24 weeks pregnancy loss to record and receive a certificate to provide recognition of their baby’s potential life.