Oral Answers to Questions

Jane Ellison Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)]

8. What effect the implementation of the Keogh urgent and emergency care review will have on type 1 A&E departments in England.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jane Ellison)]

The Keogh review is all about responding to the long-term challenges facing the NHS, many of which we have already discussed in this Question Time. The implementation of the recommendations of the Keogh review will improve urgent and emergency care services and ensure patients get the right care in the right place.

[Andy Slaughter]

The “Shaping a healthier future” programme in north-west London, which is seen as a prototype for Keogh in closing or downgrading A&Es, is causing great concern, from the tragic death of Guy Bessant reported yesterday to the more than £20 million spent on external consultants last year. Eleven west London MPs would like to meet the Secretary of State and, I hope, the Under-Secretary, to discuss those concerns. Will they agree to meet us?

[Jane Ellison]

I read of the tragic death of that gentleman, who was a Wandsworth resident. Our hearts go out to his family.

As the hon. Gentleman knows, “Shaping a healthier future” is a clinically led programme supported by all eight clinical commissioning groups in the area and all nine medical directors of the trusts involved. There are no plans to make changes to A&E services at Ealing hospital, contrary to what was put about during the election, but I recognise that this is the subject of ongoing concern. All the recommendations of the Keogh review are entirely driven by one thing, which is putting patients and patient safety first, but I am happy to meet him and his colleagues to discuss it.

[Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con)]

In implementing the Keogh review, will the Minister also consider the impact on our community hospital minor injuries units, given the difficulties they are facing in staff recruitment? Will she meet me to discuss the difficulties facing Dartmouth community hospital? There are wider implications for the rest of the country.

[Jane Ellison]

I think I have some sense of the difficulties my hon. Friend describes from previous meetings, but I am of course happy to talk to her about that. All these things are important, but as I say, the driving principles behind the Keogh review are patient safety and making sure that people get the best and most appropriate urgent and emergency care.

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

9. What proportion of their funding hospices in England receive from the NHS.

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[Suella Fernandes (Fareham) (Con)]

10. What steps he plans to take to improve the treatment of diabetes.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jane Ellison)]

I welcome my hon. Friend to her place. Building on the national diabetes prevention programme, we are developing a comprehensive action plan to improve the outcomes of people with and at risk of diabetes.

[Suella Fernandes]

I thank my hon. Friend for her excellent response. As she will know, diabetes can often lead to the amputation of a limb. Fareham, my constituency, has one of the highest rates of limb amputations in the country. Can my hon. Friend please explain how the NHS diabetes prevention programme will address this issue?

[Jane Ellison]

My hon. Friend raises an extremely important issue. I welcome the fact that she has so quickly got to grips with some of the key local health facts in her area. Hon. Members across the House can look at how their clinical commissioning group is performing in the national context. My hon. Friend is right to say that her CCG performs poorly when it comes to amputations. There is a huge opportunity for improving the outcomes for people if we can get the worst-performing CCGs in that context up to the standard of the best. The national diabetes prevention programme is very much about preventing people getting to the stage where those complications can cause such terrible problems.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

13. May I join the Minister in congratulating the hon. Member for Fareham (Suella Fernandes) on her place in this House? She was a worthy opponent of mine in 2005 and I am glad she managed to get elected. On the national diabetes prevention programme, for those of us who have diabetes the issue is what is corporate Britain doing to work with the Government in order to reduce the amount of sugar and fat in food and drink? Unless we do that, we cannot tackle the diabetes crisis that we will face.

[Jane Ellison]

The right hon. Gentleman is quite right. Tackling obesity is one the great public health challenges of our age. Right across the developed world we are looking at all the things that are going on around the world—the new science and the new research. The right hon. Gentleman is right to say that industry has a role to play, as has every part of Government—national Government and local government—as well as families, GPs and the NHS. This will be a whole-nation approach to tackling obesity. We are working on our plans, which I look forward to discussing with him in due course.

[Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)]

Type 2 diabetes is costing our NHS £9 billion a year, and obesity, as we have heard, is the major risk factor. Does the Minister agree with the previous Chair of the Health Committee, the hon. Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston), who said the other week that

“Just taking a passive approach to”—

obesity—

“is not going to work…we have to go further than we’ve gone up to now in the responsibility deal”?

Does the Minister agree and what more is she going to do about it?

[Jane Ellison]

I welcome the hon. Lady back to her place. It is good to see her back in that job and not on the Government Benches. It is far from the case that we took a passive approach—far from it. Some important things were learned from the way we have worked with industry and we are looking to build on those, but as I have said, there is no silver bullet. There is not a single academic study in the world that says that the way to respond to obesity in the developed world is through a single mechanism. We have to look at a whole-system approach, and that is what we are doing.

[Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab)]

12. What estimate he has made of the anticipated levels of deficits in hospital trusts for the current financial year.

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[Andrea Jenkyns (Morley and Outwood) (Con)]

14. What the NHS’s criteria are for dispensing eculizumab.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jane Ellison)]

May I give my hon. Friend a particularly warm welcome to her place? NHS England routinely commissions eculizumab for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria, or PNH, and atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome, or aHUS, as the drug is proven to be safe and effective in treating these conditions.

[Andrea Jenkyns]

I very much welcome the statement last week from the Prime Minister in which he requests NHS England to look into the case of my constituent, 12-year-old Abi Longfellow. I am sure that gives great hope to Abi’s family. Abi has a rarer form of DDD—dense deposit disease—involving the alternative complement pathway, and there is evidence that eculizumab helps. Will my hon. Friend ensure that NHS England looks at this rare form and gathers evidence not just from the UK but from countries such as the US, China and Canada which have research and trials in this area?

[Jane Ellison]

This is a particularly difficult and tragic case. My hon. Friend is right to champion the case of her young constituent. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister asked NHS England to make further contact with the Longfellow family to fully explain the decision, and I can confirm that the clinical director for specialised services at NHS England North has spoken to the family twice in the past few days. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is reviewing, as a priority, the evidence on the use of eculizumab in treating this condition.

[Andrew Stephenson (Pendle) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

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[John Pugh (Southport) (LD)]

T10. May I invite Ministers to comment on the recent statement by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges that the Government’s anti-obesity strategy is“failing to have a significant impact”and that there is a“huge crisis waiting to happen”?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jane Ellison)]

The Government is quite clear, as was the coalition Government, that tackling obesity is one of the great challenges of our time for the whole of the developed world, not just this country. We are looking at a comprehensive strategy right across all aspects of Government, including local government and so on. We will address that and rise to the challenge. Everyone has a part to play, including, as has been said during this Question Time, industry and, of course, families themselves.

[Julian Knight (Solihull) (Con)]

T9. My constituent Daniela Tassa has lost her hair while being treated for secondary breast cancer. Sadly, Miss Tassa has been turned down by Solihull clinical commissioning group for a hair replacement treatment called intralace. Is there any guidance that Ministers can offer CCGs when it comes to the sanctioning of such hair replacement treatments?

[Jane Ellison]

I welcome my hon. Friend to his place. I am very sorry to hear of his constituent’s diagnosis of secondary breast cancer. It is of course vital that the NHS supports all patients in the best way possible, but clinical commissioning groups need to make decisions on whether to commission a particular hair-replacement service for patients based on their clinical benefit and cost-effectiveness. I very much hope his CCG will be looking carefully at that.

[Tulip Siddiq (Hampstead and Kilburn) (Lab)]

The planned closure of a GP surgery in my constituency means that more than 1,000 patients will have to go elsewhere to seek basic primary care needs. Local doctors are particularly concerned about the impact this will have on the A&E department at the Royal Free hospital. Will the Minister agree to meet me and local doctors to address those concerns and to ensure that the future of GP surgeries in my constituency is protected?

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

The all-party group on cancer has long campaigned on the importance of holding clinical commissioning groups accountable for their one-year cancer survival rates as a means of promoting earlier diagnosis. That will be part of the delivery dashboard from April onwards. What steps will the Government take to ensure that underperforming CCGs take corrective action?

[Jane Ellison]

My hon. Friend has long championed this issue and I look forward to debating it with him further. He is right to say that the CCG scorecard is currently being developed. Academic experts are looking at a range of indicators, including the one-year cancer survival data which he has brought to the House so often, for inclusion in the scorecard. It is likely to be published this summer. I will of course look carefully at the points he makes ahead of that.

[Norman Lamb (North Norfolk) (LD)]

With your permission, Mr Speaker, may I join others in marking the tragic death of Charles Kennedy? He was one of the most able politicians of his generation, and was loved and admired across the political spectrum. He was a brave and principled man, and he will be missed enormously.

May I raise with the Secretary of State my passion for mental health? He will be very much aware of my absolute determination to achieve equality for those who suffer from mental ill health. Will he guarantee that he will do everything to ensure that people with mental ill health get the same timely access to evidence-based treatment as everyone else?

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[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

With almost 82,000 people living with diabetes in Northern Ireland over the age of 17, does the Minister agree that this ticking time bomb needs more research into better treatments? One way of doing that would be to ensure that there is sufficient funding for Queen’s University in Belfast, in the hope of providing a superior treatment for the many who are affected and living with that disease.

[Jane Ellison]

The hon. Gentleman is right to draw attention to the important role of research. We will leave no stone unturned in looking at all aspects of the treatment or prevention of diabetes. The issue of research is something I recently discussed with the chief medical officer. I will draw to her attention the point he makes. As he knows, although health is a devolved matter we always make a point of sharing all research right across our United Kingdom.

[Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con)]

May I invite the new Minister with responsibility for GPs to meet me and a couple of excellent GP surgeries that want to expand their services for the local community but are being prevented by the local clinical commissioning group?