Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many prescription errors by NHS trusts were reported to the Learn from patient safety events service in 2023; and how many and what proportion of those errors were graded as causing (a) no harm, (b) low harm, (c) moderate harm, (d) severe harm and (e) death.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We have been informed by NHS England that this data has not been validated, and cannot be provided at this time.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the impact of restructuring at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on that agency's performance in 2022-23.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department holds the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to account for their work, including their performance and the impact of any organisational changes, through regular established mechanisms including quarterly and annual accountability reviews. The minutes of the latest Annual Accountability Review with the MHRA are available at the following link:
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of sight tests that were carried out by the NHS in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Business Services Authority has published data on the numbers of National Health Service sight tests undertaken between 2020/21 and 2022/23. This data is available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/ophthalmic-data/general-ophthalmic-services-gos-activity-data
We are aware there is an error in the data published for 2022/23, and this is in the process of being corrected. We expect revised data to be available shortly. NHS Digital has published data on the number of NHS sight tests undertaken before 2020. This data is available at the following link:
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, What estimate she has made of the number and proportion of patients that waited longer than (a) one, (b) three and (c) six months between an optometry test and diagnosis.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
During 2022/23 there were 560,340 referrals from an optometrist to a first outpatient appointment with an ophthalmology consultant. It is not possible from the data captured to identify the point at which a diagnosis is made following a referral.
We recognise that there will be patients currently being referred into secondary care unnecessarily, this is why NHS England’s transformation programme is looking at how more patients can be assessed, triaged and managed in the community, freeing up capacity for those that need face to face specialist care in hospital eye services.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of patients who received an urgent GP referral for a suspected cancer in the last six months have (a) been diagnosed with cancer and (b) received confirmation that cancer has not been detected within 28 days of their referral.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the amount of people that were either informed that they had cancer, or received an all clear, in the past six months for which data is available, namely between June and November 2023, and the proportions of people that were told this within 28 days from an urgent referral:
Pathway End Reason | Total told | Told within 28 days | Percentage told outcome within 28 days |
Diagnosis of cancer | 91,369 | 46,841 | 51.3% |
Ruling out of cancer | 1,379,738 | 1,006,233 | 72.9% |
Source: NHS England
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many prescription errors were recorded by NHS trusts in 2023; and how many were recorded as causing patient harm.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information is not available in the format requested. This is because the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) is a largely voluntary system, and during 2023 some National Health Service trusts transitioned to the NRLS’s successor, the Learn from Patient Safety Events service.
In the NRLS, the number of actual or potential errors reported as occurring in 2023 at the prescribing stage of the medication process by NHS trusts was 34,388. Of these, 28,926 incidents were graded as no harm, 4,951 were graded as low harm, 463 were graded as moderate harm, 27 were graded as severe harm, and 21 were graded as deaths.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential obstacles to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency meeting its statutory licensing commitments for clinical trials for the year 2022-23.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has been transparent about its performance, and since March 2023 has published monthly data indicating the number of clinical trial applications and average timescales for applications to be assessed. All regulatory assessments for clinical trials have been completed within the statutory timescales of 30 days since September 2023.
This stabilised and improved performance reflects the significant effort MHRA made to eliminate all backlogs. Over 2,400 clinical trial applications, including amendments and initials, were assessed from mid-July 2023 to the end of September 2023.
The MHRA has now embedded improvements into standard working practice. We will continue to make enhancements with new legislative measures to make it easier and faster for applicants to gain approvals and to ensure the United Kingdom remains a prime destination for clinical trials.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of clinical trials were assessed after the statutory timeframe of 30 days in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2022/23, 693 initial clinical trial authorisation applications were assessed. Out of these, 461 or 66.52% were assessed after the 30-day statutory timeframe.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has been transparent about its performance, and since March 2023 has published monthly data indicating the number of clinical trial applications and average timescales for applications to be assessed. All regulatory assessments for clinical trials have been completed within the statutory timescales of 30 days since September 2023.
This stabilised and improved performance reflects the significant effort the MHRA made to eliminate all backlogs. Over 2,400 clinical trial applications, including amendments and initials, were assessed from mid-July 2023 to the end of September 2023.
The MHRA has now embedded improvements into standard working practice. We will continue to make enhancements with new legislative measures to make it easier and faster for applicants to gain approvals and to ensure the United Kingdom remains a prime destination for clinical trials.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s publication entitled MHRA Annual Report and Accounts 2022-2023, published on 19 July 2023, what estimate she has made of the resourcing challenges faced by the MHRA; and what steps her Department is taking to tackle these challenges.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to providing the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) the resources it needs. It is funded predominately by charging fees to industry for the services it delivers, with additional funding being provided by the Department.
At the Spring Budget last year, the Government provided an additional £10 million over the next two years to support the agency in increasing approvals of innovative medicines developed in the United Kingdom and abroad.
The MHRA’s business plan speaks to its priorities in attracting and developing talent. The agency has enhanced its talented and skilled workforce with additional expertise, bringing a wide range of new skills and experience, to build capability and capacity.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of NHS trusts have a digital prescribing system in place.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally. It is not strictly mandated that NHS Trusts use the Electronic Prescription Service.