Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that victims of cardiac arrest are immediately referred to the cardiac rehabilitation programme.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In December 2024, to support local systems to commission high quality cardiac rehabilitation, NHS England published the document, Commissioning standards for cardiac rehabilitation. This document is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/commissioning-standards-for-cardiovascular-rehabilitation/
These standards of care complement the British Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation’s Standards and Core Components document, published in 2023, to support the delivery of high-quality care and adherence to evidenced-based practice. More information is available at the following link:
Patients who survive cardiac arrest and their families are supported through referral to local services within the National Health Service; this will include rehabilitation such as cardiac and neurological rehabilitation and mental health services for psychological support.
There are different pathways for cardiac arrest survivors, depending on the severity of the damage caused by the cardiac arrest. For people being discharged from secondary care and those with ischemic heart disease, namely myocardial infarction, cardiac rehabilitation services are available in every region. For this reason, the Government does not currently have plans to bring forward legislative proposals on this issue.
Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
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 potential benefits of allowing paramedics to prescribe oxycodone.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department remains committed to exploring the extension of medicine responsibilities for non-medical professionals. This will support the aim that patients are cared for and treated by the most appropriate healthcare professional to meet their needs, where it is safe and appropriate to do so. Many regulated healthcare professionals have already received extended medicine responsibilities, and the Department is committed to assessing the impact that these changes have had on patient care.
Regarding the extension of paramedics’ medicine responsibilities, there is a process in place for making changes to ensure proposals are safe and beneficial for patients. Officials are carefully considering proposals relating to a range of healthcare professionals, including paramedics, as a part of wider work building on work delivered by the Chief Professions Officers’ medicines mechanisms programme.
Asked by: Kevin Bonavia (Labour - Stevenage)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to improve treatment for people with glioblastoma brain tumours.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
One of the Secretary of State’s first acts as Minister was to meet with clinicians to discuss what more we can do to diagnose and treat patients with brain tumours including glioblastoma.In September 2024, my Department announced new funding opportunities for brain tumour research to make sure promising treatments are made available to patients.