Asked by: Ian Swales (Liberal Democrat - Redcar)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much of the Cancer Drugs Fund was spent on pancreatic cancer drugs in each year since 2010.
Answered by George Freeman
NHS England has advised that there is currently one anti-cancer therapy available through the Cancer Drugs Fund that is used in pancreatic cancers. This is Abraxane (albumin bound paclitaxel).
NHS England has estimated that, since Abraxane was added to the national Cancer Drugs Fund list in March 2014, the estimated spend in that financial year was approximately £13,000.
Based on current application rates for this drug, NHS England estimates that approximately £4.09 million will be spent on this drug in 2014-15.
Prior to April 2013, information on the indication for which a cancer drug was provided through the Fund was not collected.
Asked by: Ian Swales (Liberal Democrat - Redcar)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many nurses have been recruited by the NHS in England from (a) the UK, (b) other EU member states and (c) outside the EU in each of the last five years.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The Department does not hold information on the number of nurses recruited by the National Health Service in England from the United Kingdom and other EU member states and outside the European Union in each of the last five years.
It is the responsibility of each NHS organisation to determine how many nurses it employs and from where these nurses are recruited.
The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), holds data on the nationality of staff working in the NHS as at 30 September 2013, the latest published data available. September data for the years 2009 to 2014 inclusive will be published, for the first time, by the HSCIC on 23 January.
The information as at September 2013 is set out in the table below:
Hospital and Community Health services: Qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff, by nationality | |
|
|
England | Headcount |
British | 269,390 |
Other EU | 12,347 |
Rest of the World | 27,792 |
Unknown | 38,415 |
Total | 347,944 |
Notes:
These statistics relate to the contracted positions within English NHS organisations and may include those where the person assigned to the position is temporarily absent, for example on maternity leave.
Data Quality:
It should be noted that well over 100,000 staff do not have a specified nationality in the whole data set which included all staff so the figures above do not show the exact numbers of each nationality, but rather an indication of the numbers with known nationalities.
Source: Health and Social Care Information Centre, Provisional NHS Hospital and Community Health Service (HCHS) monthly workforce statistics.
Asked by: Ian Swales (Liberal Democrat - Redcar)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many nurses are being trained by the NHS.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The number of pre-registration nursing places (degree and diploma courses) that were filled as at 31 March 2014 was 17,568.
In December 2014, Health Education England published their Workforce Plan for England which includes their planned Education and Training Commissions for 2015/16.
Asked by: Ian Swales (Liberal Democrat - Redcar)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that off-patent bisphosphonate drugs are made routinely available for the new indication of preventing breast cancer spreading to the bone.
Answered by George Freeman
Research led by the University of Sheffield on the effects of bisphosphonate treatment on recurrence and cause-specific mortality in women with early breast cancer was presented in 2013. We understand that NHS England’s Breast Cancer Clinical Reference Group plans to incorporate this research into guidance it will be publishing in 2015.
Asked by: Ian Swales (Liberal Democrat - Redcar)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what rationale lies behind NICE's advice that end-of-life criteria should only apply to medicines that extend life by at least three months.
Answered by George Freeman
In January 2009, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued supplementary advice to its appraisal committees on appraising treatments which may be life-extending for patients, with short life expectancy, and which are licensed for indications affecting small numbers of patients with incurable illnesses.
This sets out the following three criteria that must all be satisfied for this supplementary advice to be applied:
- the treatment is indicated for patients with a short life expectancy, normally less than 24 months;
- there is sufficient evidence to indicate that the treatment offers an extension to life, normally of at least an additional three months, compared to current NHS treatment; and
- the treatment is licensed or otherwise indicated, for small patient populations.
These criteria were developed following public consultation and set out the circumstances when NICE considers it is appropriate for its appraisal committees to apply greater flexibility in their appraisal of these treatments.
The advice has now been incorporated chapter 6 of Guide to the methods of technology appraisal 2013 which can be found at:
www.nice.org.uk/article/pmg9/chapter/6-the-appraisal-of-the-evidence-and-structured-decision-making
Asked by: Ian Swales (Liberal Democrat - Redcar)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department has issued to health technology appraisal committees on application of NICE's end of life criteria when appraising treatments for patients with terminal illness.
Answered by George Freeman
The Department has not issued any such guidance. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is an independent body and is responsible for the development of its methods and processes.
Asked by: Ian Swales (Liberal Democrat - Redcar)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many drugs were approved by the Cancer Drugs Fund and subsequently rejected by NICE in the last 12 months.
Answered by George Freeman
Since 1 September 2013, no cancer drugs have been added to the national list of approved cohort policies for drugs available through the Cancer Drugs Fund and subsequently not been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in final technology appraisal guidance.
Asked by: Ian Swales (Liberal Democrat - Redcar)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will assess the effect of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's three-month end-of-life threshold on the number of treatments for advanced pancreatic cancer.
Answered by George Freeman
Since the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued its supplementary advice to its appraisal committees on the appraisal of life extending, end-of-life treatments in January 2009, NICE has not published final technology appraisal guidance on any treatments for advanced pancreatic cancer.
NICE is currently developing technology appraisal guidance on two treatments for pancreatic cancer:
- Abraxane (paclitaxel) in combination with gemcitabine for treating previously untreated metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas (final guidance is expected in January 2015); and
- Theraloc (nimotuzumab) for the first line treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer (final guidance is expected in August 2015).