Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the availability of pancreatic cancer drugs.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is aware of ongoing intermittent supply issues with pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) used in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. We have been continuously assessing the availability of all PERT presentations for the duration of the supply disruption and implementing mitigation measures where there are any supply gaps. The Department is continuing to work with all suppliers of PERT to help resolve the supply issues in the short and longer term. Through these discussions we have managed to secure additional volumes for 2025 for the United Kingdom, and we are in regular communication with suppliers on expected volumes for 2026.
The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market. We have widely disseminated comprehensive guidance to healthcare professionals, including National Health Service trusts, general practices, and pharmacies, about these supply issues, which provide advice on how to manage patients whilst there is disruption to supply. The Department will continue to work closely with the manufacturers to resolve the issues as soon as possible, to ensure patients have continuous access to medicines.
The Department is also aware of a supply issue with mitomycin 10 milligram and 40 milligram powder for solution injection vials, a type of chemotherapy which may be used in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, which are out of stock until mid-January 2026. Alternative treatments have been sourced, and guidance has been issued to health care professionals with management advice until this issue is resolved.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce regional inequalities in access to eye care services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards, as commissioners of primary and secondary eye care services, are required to work with local authorities to assess the current and future health, care, and wellbeing needs of their local populations. They will then set out, in joint local health and wellbeing strategies, how they will meet those needs, and this could include addressing any identified inequalities in accessing services.
Understanding patient demographics is an essential step in identifying and tackling health inequalities. The Elective Reform Plan included a commitment to publish waiting list information broken down by demographics to allow for greater visibility of potential health inequalities. Further information on the Elective Reform Plan is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/reforming-elective-care-for-patients/
This enables local health services to understand the demographics of the patients on their waiting list to better tailor services to their needs. Data on the demographics of the elective waiting list for week ending 28 September 2025 is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/wlmds/
This data shows referral to treatment waiting times from the Waiting List Minimum Data Set for ophthalmology split by age, sex, deprivation, and ethnicity.
The Public Health Outcomes Framework Eye Health Indicator also continues to track the rate of sight loss for age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy. This information is available to commissioners and can be used to drive improved local outcomes and interventions.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 improve the diagnosis of arthritis in young people.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Healthcare in Northern Ireland is devolved, and is therefore a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive. In England, to support health and care professionals in the early diagnosis and management of arthritis, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published expert guidance for both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, which are available, respectively, at the following two links:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng100
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng226
The Royal College of General Practitioners also has a range of e-learning materials to support general practitioners and other primary care professionals in the diagnosis and management of arthritis, including a rheumatoid arthritis hub and an osteoarthritis hub, which are both available, respectively, at the following two links:
https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=496
https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=580
We are working to deliver the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Musculoskeletal Community Delivery Programme. GIRFT teams are working with integrated care board leaders to further reduce MSK community waiting times, including for young people with arthritis, and improve data and metrics, and referral pathways to wider support services.
NHS England Specialised Commissioning has a Clinical Reference Group for specialised paediatric rheumatology, which has produced a service specification for these services. This service specification names juvenile idiopathic arthritis as one of the conditions that should be managed by a specialist paediatric rheumatology team. It also sets out that specialised paediatric rheumatology teams will provide transitional care to facilitate transfer and ongoing care in adult rheumatology. Transitional care planning will involve paediatric rheumatology teams, adult rheumatology teams and local hospitals under a shared care arrangement. Specialised paediatric rheumatology services are expected to be commissioned in line with this service specification.
Our recently published 10-Year Health Plan outlines the three big shifts our National Health Service needs to be fit for the future: from hospital to community; from analogue to digital; and from sickness to prevention. All of these are relevant to improving arthritis care for young people in all parts of the country. More tests and scans delivered in the community, better joint working between services, and greater use of apps and wearable technology will all support young people, and their families to manage their long-term conditions, including arthritis, closer to home.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many sick notes have been issued by GPs in the last 12 months.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The sick note was replaced by the fit note in 2010. Since 2022, fit notes can be issued by doctors, registered nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacists, and physiotherapists.
The latest data published by NHS England shows that out of the 10,974,495 fit notes issued electronically in primary care in England between January and December 2024, 9,898,344 were issued by general practitioners (GPs). This means that GPs issued 90.2% of these fit notes.
Data is only available for fit notes issued electronically within primary care in England, meaning that paper fit notes or fit notes issued in hospitals are not included in these figures. The published statistics can be found at the following link:
Updated figures will be published by NHS England on 23 October and will provide fit note data up to June 2025.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people who are out of work due to chronic arthritic pain.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the effect that poor health can have on economic inactivity and that the economy relies on a healthy population.
The 10-Year Health Plan will support people with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions like arthritis to better manage their condition and access services and support through the three shifts: from hospital to community; from analogue to digital; and from sickness to prevention. For example, the shift from hospital to community will enable people with MSK conditions to access a range of additional services to support the management of their condition and treatment closer to home.
In line with this shift, the Government has funded NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme to deploy their proven Further Faster model for MSK community services. The programme has been designed to reduce waiting times for community MSK appointments and to enhance access to quality treatment, working with integrated care board leaders to improve data and metrics and referral pathways to wider support services.
We are working together to further develop the approach to better enable integrated care systems to commission the delivery of high quality MSK services in the community, which will benefit patients now and into the future.
Additionally, the Further Faster 20 scheme, which is an extension of the existing Further Faster Programme, is designed to help reduce waiting lists across multiple specialities at 20 targeted hospital trusts located in areas with the highest levels of economic inactivity.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to increase funding for primary eye care services as part of his Department's plan to shift care from hospitals to the community.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Over the course of the 10-Year Health Plan, the share of expenditure on hospital care will fall and there will be proportionally greater investment in out of-hospital care as local areas build and expand their neighbourhood health services.
The detail of Spending Review budget allocations within departments is still being determined and we are working to provide the detail and certainty needed on future funding and spending plans.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to take steps with the primary eye care sector to help prevent avoidable sight loss.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for assessing the health needs of their local population and commissioning primary and secondary eye care services to meet them.
ICBs already commission National Health Service sight testing services through high street optical practices. Regular sight tests play a crucial role in the early detection of a range of eye conditions and can help prevent avoidable sight loss.
ICBs can also commission enhanced eye care services from high street optical practices, including minor and urgent eye care services and glaucoma referral refinement services. These services further support the identification and management of eye conditions to prevent avoidable sight loss.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how he plans to integrate the 10-Year Plan with the National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out how we will fight cancer on all fronts, from prevention to diagnosis to treatment, to improve survival and reduce the lives lost to one of the biggest killers. The National Cancer Plan for England will take forward this work and build on the shifts set out in the 10-Year Health Plan to improve the experiences and outcomes for people with cancer.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people aged between 18 and 25 have epilepsy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held in the format requested. However, the following table shows a count of finished admission episodes (FAEs) and distinct patients where there is a primary diagnosis, or any diagnosis, of epilepsy, where the patient was aged 18 to 25 years old on admission, in 2024/25, in English National Health Service hospitals:
| Primary diagnosis | Any diagnosis | ||
Year | Admissions | Patients | Admissions | Patients |
2024/25 | 3,717 | 2,708 | 18,409 | 9,839 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS England
Notes:
Please be aware that this data does not represent the total number of people aged between 18 and 25 years old who have a diagnosis of epilepsy. This data only represents the number of patients aged between 18 and 25 years old with epilepsy who required hospital admission in 2024/25. The data presented here will, therefore, only represent a small proportion of the total number of people aged between 18 and 25 years old who have a diagnosis of epilepsy.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to raise awareness of sarcoma.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England runs Help Us Help You campaigns in England to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and to address the barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms, as well as encouraging body awareness, to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers, including sarcoma, at an earlier point.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how the Department will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment. Having consulted with key stakeholders and patient groups, the plan will be published early in the new year. It will ensure that patients have access to the latest treatments and technology. The plan will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care, to improve the experiences and outcomes for people with cancer, including sarcoma.