Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many applications for products not yet on the market were made to NICE in each year from 2016 to 2018; and how many of those applications were granted.
Answered by Steve Brine
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations on whether specific drugs and other treatments represent a clinically and cost-effective use of National Health Service resources through its technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies programmes. Topics are identified through an established topic selection process and formally referred to NICE by Ministers. Companies do not apply to NICE for an assessment and NICE does not grant applications. NICE aims to issue recommendations on new drugs referred to it within a few months of licensing and therefore normally begins its appraisal process before the drug receives a marketing authorisation.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the cost to the NHS of diabetes drugs prescriptions by CCG from 2018 to date.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS Digital oversees the publication of ‘Prescribing for Diabetes’ which reports on and examines prescribing trends on medicines prescribed in primary care in England for the treatment and monitoring of diabetes. Data for the year 2018/19 will be published in November 2019 and the report for 2017/18 can be accessed at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/prescribing-for-diabetes
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the cost to the NHS is of each FreeStyle Libre flash glucose monitoring device.
Answered by Steve Brine
The cost of 1 FreeStyle Libre sensor, 1 sensor applicator, and 1 wipe is £35 as listed in the February 2019 Drug Tariff.
Net Ingredient Cost is the basic price of a drug as stated in Part II Clause 8 of the Drug Tariff.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what representations his Department has made to the pharmaceutical company Abbott on the availability of FreeStyle Libre being issued to people with Type 1 diabetes from April 2019.
Answered by Steve Brine
On 14 November 2018, it was announced that flash glucose monitors will be available on prescription for every patient who qualifies for them, in line with National Health Service clinical guidelines.
The Department has not made any representations to Abbott since.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning diabetes services. In doing so, CCGs need to ensure that the services they provide are fit for purpose, reflect the needs of the local population, are based on the available evidence, and take into account national guidelines. This should include consideration of access to diabetes technologies such as FreeStyle Libre.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Abbott FreeStyle Libre flash glucose monitoring devices and sensors local clinical commissioning groups prescribed in (a) 2017-18 (b) 2018-19 to date.
Answered by Steve Brine
The NHS Business Services Authority does not hold data for FreeStyle Libre flash glucose monitoring devices. However, prescription data for FreeStyle Libre Sensors prescribed in clinical commissioning groups in the financial years 2017/18 and 2018/19 to date can be found in the attached table.
This data refers to FreeStyle Libre Sensor packs that include one sensor, one sensor applicator, and one wipe.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average length of time taken is for the FreeStyle Libre sensors to be issued to people with diabetes through the NHS.
Answered by Steve Brine
The information requested is not centrally held.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of nurses and non-clinical staff paid under £30,000 per annum who will be able to continue to work in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The United Kingdom’s future immigration system is set out in the Government’s Immigration White Paper, which was published on 19 December 2018. At the time of publication, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department announced that the salary threshold would be the subject of further engagement. The Government is continuing to work with employers, representative bodies and charities in the health and social care sector to help contribute to the discussion on an appropriate threshold.
European Union nationals currently working in the health and social care sectors can apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to secure their long-term status in the UK. The scheme is now open and, further to the Prime Minister’s announcement on 21 January 2019, from 30 March 2019 onwards, EU nationals will not have to pay for their application. Any application made before that date, including those that have already been made, will be reimbursed.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of patients that used the NHS personalised care model in (a) 2016, (b) 2017 and (c) 2018.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The comprehensive model for personalised care is made up of six key components:
- Patient Choice;
- Patient Activation;
- Social Prescribing;
- Shared decision making;
- Personalised care and support planning; and
- Personal health budgets.
This is a new model which was developed through the Integrated Personal Commissioning and Empowering People and Communities programmes. The components were tested in 2017/18 across 21 demonstrator sites, who reported 180,000 personalised care interventions for 2017/18. Sites are now rolling out the model and in Q2 2018/19 reported 280,000 personalised care interventions.
The intention, as set in the NHS Long Term Plan, is to roll out beyond demonstrator sites to reach 2.5 million people by 2023/24.
There is a national data collection for personal health budgets. The number of people with a personal health budget was:
- 15,811 in 2016/17;
- 28,040 in 2017/18; and
- 32,341 in 2018/19 (latest figure from Q2).
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase the social care packages for elderly people.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
All councils have statutory duties to meet the social care needs of elderly, disabled and vulnerable people in their area, and it is for councils to decide how to meet those needs.
The Government has given councils access to up to £3.6 billion more dedicated funding for adult social care in 2018-19 and up to £3.9 billion for 2019-20.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
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 as part of the NHS Long Term Plan to ensure that there is an adequate number of staff to provide treatment for elderly people.
Answered by Stephen Hammond
The NHS Long Term Plan, published 7 January 2019, sets out a vital strategic framework to ensure that over the next 10 years the National Health Service will have the staff it needs so that nurses and doctors have the time they need to care for all patients, including elderly people.
Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has commissioned Baroness Dido Harding, working closely with Sir David Behan, to lead a number of programmes to engage with key NHS interests to develop a detailed workforce implementation plan. These programmes will consider detailed proposals to grow the workforce, including consideration of additional staff and skills required, build a supportive working culture in the NHS and ensure first rate leadership for NHS staff. This will include work to ensure doctors are trained with the generalist skills needed to meet the needs of an ageing population, alongside the development of specialist knowledge and skills and expanding multi-professional credentialing to enable clinicians to develop new capabilities in issues such as an ageing population.
The workforce required to provide treatment for elderly people comprises a range of healthcare professionals, including doctors and nurses.
We are already increasing nurse training places by 25% - that is 5,000 additional nurse training places available every year from September 2018. In 2018 up to 5,000 Nursing Associates commenced training through the apprentice route and the Department has a commitment to train up to a further 7,500 in 2019.
We have also made a commitment to have 5,000 additional doctors in general practice and we have started to roll out an extra 1,500 medical school places for domestic students, with the first 630 places taken up in September 2018.
Furthermore, the NHS has seen the emergence and increased use of new professional roles within multi-disciplinary teams, such as physician associates (PAs), as part of a continuing drive to provide safe, accessible and high-quality care for patients. There will be 1,000 more PAs available in primary care by 2020 as part of a wider commitment to make available 10,000 health care professionals in primary care within this timeframe.