Asked by: James Daly (Conservative - Bury North)
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 reduce isolation of elderly people in local communities.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is working with partners to support local areas to share and learn from best practice examples. This includes working with the Local Government Association to provide guidance on how local councils can tackle loneliness and providing a space for organisations to share resources on the Tackling Loneliness Hub.
The Levelling Up White Paper set out ambitions to improve wellbeing and pride in place across the country. We know that connected communities that provide people with opportunities to develop strong social relationships are an important part of delivering those ambitions.
In addition, social prescribing is a key component of the National Health Service Universal Personalised Care and is a way for general practitioners or local agencies to refer people to a link worker. Link workers connect people to community groups and statutory services for practical and emotional support. Social prescribing can work well for those who are socially isolated or whose wellbeing is being impacted by non-medical issues.
Asked by: James Daly (Conservative - Bury North)
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 improvements in outcomes for the less survivable cancers, including cancers of the brain, stomach, lungs, pancreas, oesophagus and liver over the last 20 years.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made.
Asked by: James Daly (Conservative - Bury North)
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 will include targeted action to improve outcomes for the less survivable cancers including cancers of the brain, stomach, lungs, pancreas, oesophagus and liver.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the call for evidence for a 10 year cancer plan earlier this year, we received more than 5,000 submissions. We are currently reviewing these responses.
Asked by: James Daly (Conservative - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Statute of Limitation of three years will apply to people who are considering approaching NHS Resolution Pathway for medical negligence claims as a result of the IMMDS Review, particularly Transvaginal Mesh Injury.
Answered by James Morris
Time limits for personal injury cases are governed by the Limitation Act 1980. The standard period for bringing a personal injury claim is three years from the date on which the cause of action accrued or three years from the injured person’s date of knowledge, if later. Under section 33 of the Act, the court has discretion to extend this period if it considers it would be equitable to do so, having regard to the various factors listed in this section. NHS Resolution will review claims received in the light of the factors listed in section 33 of the Act.
Asked by: James Daly (Conservative - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on making pectus surgery available as a treatment on the NHS.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
There are a range of surgical and non-surgical treatments available through the National Health Service in England to manage pectus deformity and individuals may be referred to a thoracic surgical clinic for advice. Treatment options are determined by an assessment of the type of pectus deformity, degree of deformity, simple versus mixed deformity and whether the deformity is isolated or part of a syndrome.
In most cases, while surgery can correct the chest wall deformity, surgical intervention does not take place. The majority of people experience only mild physical or psychological symptoms associated with having a pectus deformity. In these cases, non-surgical options include posture, exercise programmes, bracing and psychological support.
Asked by: James Daly (Conservative - Bury North)
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 ensure that women with incurable breast cancer have access to the drug, Trodelvy.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Trodelvy was licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for the treatment of metastatic triple negative breast cancer in August 2021. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is appraising Trodelvy, within its marketing authorisation, to determine its clinical and cost-effectiveness for use in the National Health Service. Following discussion with the manufacturer of Trodelvy, NICE has accelerated its appraisal and expects to issue guidance in June 2022, with draft guidance expected in spring 2022.
NHS England and NHS Improvement and NICE have agreed a set of principles to allow potential interim access to medicines ahead of NICE’s guidance and are working with the manufacturer to explore options for interim access to Trodelvy.
Asked by: James Daly (Conservative - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support is available for teenage cancer patients.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
NHS England and NHS Improvement have established a task and finish group to review psychosocial support for people affected by cancer, including young people. NHS England and NHS Improvement are also preparing a toolkit of existing good practice and guidelines to help systems to improve psychological support and mental health care.
Asked by: James Daly (Conservative - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on supporting areas experiencing an increase in covid-19 infection rates.
Answered by Matt Hancock
We continue to strengthen our partnership between local and national public health experts, local government and the National Health Service and employers to coordinate our response to the virus and share resources and intelligence to increase our impact. NHS Test and Trace initiated a programme to pilot additional interventions to improve compliance with self-isolation and encourage people to come forward for testing, particularly in areas of enduring transmission and variant of concern outbreaks.
Asked by: James Daly (Conservative - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what financial support is available to local authorities and CCG’s to assist families affected by suicide.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Under the NHS Long Term Plan, we have set out our plans to invest £57 million to support local suicide prevention plans and establish suicide bereavement support services in all areas of England by 2023/24. We have committed that all local systems will have suicide bereavement support services providing timely and appropriate support to families and staff by 2023/24 and have provided funding to 40% of local systems in 2020/21 for them to establish and deliver such services.