Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
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 facilitate patient access to off-patent drugs.
Answered by Steve Brine
Off patent drugs are widely used every day in the National Health Service, and there are no barriers to their use.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the £50 million committed to long-term mental and physical health checks and treatment for people affected by the Grenfell Tower will include the emergency service personnel who responded to that disaster.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England announced on 9 October 2018 that up to £50 million will be available over five years to ensure that adequate and ongoing physical and mental health services are available for those affected by the Grenfell fire. This includes the victims, the bereaved, neighbouring residents, the wider local population and the first responders.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what responsibility clinical commissioning groups have for funding family history clinics for people with a family history of breast cancer.
Answered by Steve Brine
As set out in the Manual for Prescribed Specialised Services 2018/19, NHS England commissions inherited cancer services. This includes genetic testing for inherited cancer through the Genomic Laboratory Hubs and the genetic clinical service through the Regional Clinical Genetics Services.
NHS England does not hold data on access to family history clinics for people with a family history of breast cancer across England.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the accessibility of family history clinics for people with a family history of breast cancer across England.
Answered by Steve Brine
As set out in the Manual for Prescribed Specialised Services 2018/19, NHS England commissions inherited cancer services. This includes genetic testing for inherited cancer through the Genomic Laboratory Hubs and the genetic clinical service through the Regional Clinical Genetics Services.
NHS England does not hold data on access to family history clinics for people with a family history of breast cancer across England.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will allocate funding for new Clinical Nurse Specialist posts to support secondary breast cancer patients in Hospital Trusts that do not have that post.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England is committed to ensuring that more patients have access to a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) or other specialist from diagnosis onwards to guide them through treatment options and ensure they receive appropriate information and support. 91% of patients reported having access to a CNS in the 2017 Cancer Patient Experience Survey.
In December 2017, Health Education England published its first ever cancer workforce plan which commits to the expansion of CNSs so that every patient has access to a CNS or other support worker by 2021. They will do this by developing national competencies and a clear route into training, with a more detailed report on nursing and cancer in the light of new census data in spring 2018.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
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 the adequacy of the supply of Choline C-11 injection to meet the demand for PET scans for people with prostate cancer.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England intends to review access to tracers that have a short half-life, such as 11C Choline, following the conclusion of the national Phase II Positron Emission Tomography- Computed Tomography procurement. It is expected that this work will be undertaken in early 2019.
The clinical commissioning policy statement can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to tackle the fire risk to (a) vulnerable adults and (b) young children in hospitals.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Guidance on fire safety, including patients with specific dependencies such as vulnerable adults and young children, is provided to National Health Service organisations in the Health Technical Memorandum 05 publications, generally referred to as Firecode. All Firecode guidance will be reviewed in the light of the recommendations of the Grenfell Inquiry.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to tackle the fire risk to (a) vulnerable adults and (b) young children in hospitals.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Guidance on fire safety, including patients with specific dependencies such as vulnerable adults and young children, is provided to National Health Service organisations in the Health Technical Memorandum 05 publications, generally referred to as Firecode. All Firecode guidance will be reviewed in the light of the recommendations of the Grenfell Inquiry.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the rate of (a) age-standardised premature mortality from breast cancer and (b) uptake of screening for that cancer was in each clinical commissioning group area in the last period for which figures are available.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Office for National Statistics has published data on the number of deaths and age-standardised mortality rates where breast cancer (ICD-10 code: C50) was the underlying cause of death, in those aged 0 to 74 years, by sex, England and Wales, 2012 to 2016 at the following link:
Data on the uptake of breast cancer screening are not available by clinical commissioning group level. Figures for uptake for screening during 2016/17 (screening year of 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017) are published by NHS Digital. The information for each area is provided at a breast screening service level is attached.
Asked by: Karen Lee (Labour - Lincoln)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his Department's policies of the findings and recommendations of CLIC Sargent’s report, Are we nearly there yet?, published in September 2018.
Answered by Steve Brine
I will consider the recommendations of this report carefully. As part of the Recovery Package, the holistic needs assessment and care plan includes a focus on financial concerns that patients may have. The holistic needs assessment questions can be adapted for teenagers and young people specifically. The Recovery Package also recognises the needs of parents/carers of children living with and beyond cancer such as their circumstances to ensure that the right support is in place. More generally, last year through our NHS Low Income Scheme, the Department helped over 337,000 applicants on a low income to pay for health costs, including the cost of travelling to receive National Health Service treatment.