Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to allow pharmacies to sell vitamin B12 injections.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To make a medicinal product available for sale in a pharmacy without a prescription, the product must be reclassified to pharmacy only status, also known as [P] medicines, by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
This process is triggered by an application submitted to the MHRA by a company which holds a licence for the particular product. The MHRA will consider all submitted applications, with a decision to reclassify a medicine reached following a robust evaluation of the relevant data, including evidence of the safe use and supply of the product without a prescription. The company must also demonstrate in their application that the criteria specified in relevant legislation, such as the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, have been met.
In accordance with the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, regulation 62(3), Prescription-Only Medicine status will apply where: a direct or indirect danger exists to human health, even when used correctly, if used without medical supervision; there is frequently incorrect use, which could lead to direct or indirect danger to human health; further investigation of the activity or side-effects is required; or the product is normally prescribed for parenteral administration, via injection.
Currently, United Kingdom law specifies that all products administered by injection must be subject to a prescription. The MHRA is therefore unable to reclassify the status of injections, including Vitamin B12, to [P] medicines, as this would not be consistent with the legislation.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department has taken to support GPs with increases in workloads; and what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of this support.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, published by NHS England in May 2023, sets out actions to cut bureaucracy and workload, which includes reducing demands of general practice (GP) time from unnecessary or low-value asks, improving the interface between primary and secondary care, and significantly streamlining the Impact and Investment Fund by reducing the number of indicators from 36 to five in 2023/24.
We are working with NHS England to increase the GP workforce in England. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice. NHS England has made available a number of recruitment and retention schemes to boost the GP workforce. This includes the National GP Induction and Refresher scheme, the Return to Practice programme, and the International Induction Programme.
Through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), Primary Care Networks and practices have recruited over 36,000 additional staff including nursing associates, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and social prescribing link workers, hitting the Government's target to recruit 26,000 a year, ahead of the March 2024 deadline. The expanded primary care teams funded through the ARRS not only add extra clinical capacity, helping to reduce the burden on GPs, but also form the basis for multi-disciplinary teams to work on improving the care offered to patients.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve levels of GP retention.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, published by NHS England in May 2023, sets out actions to cut bureaucracy and workload, which includes reducing demands of general practice (GP) time from unnecessary or low-value asks, improving the interface between primary and secondary care, and significantly streamlining the Impact and Investment Fund by reducing the number of indicators from 36 to five in 2023/24.
We are working with NHS England to increase the GP workforce in England. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice. NHS England has made available a number of recruitment and retention schemes to boost the GP workforce. This includes the National GP Induction and Refresher scheme, the Return to Practice programme, and the International Induction Programme.
Through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), Primary Care Networks and practices have recruited over 36,000 additional staff including nursing associates, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and social prescribing link workers, hitting the Government's target to recruit 26,000 a year, ahead of the March 2024 deadline. The expanded primary care teams funded through the ARRS not only add extra clinical capacity, helping to reduce the burden on GPs, but also form the basis for multi-disciplinary teams to work on improving the care offered to patients.