Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
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 support people in rural and farming communities to see their GP when they develop cancer symptoms.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Increasing the diagnostic rates of cancer is a priority for the Government, and general practices (GPs) are key in achieving this goal. To encourage a wide range of groups, including people in rural and farming communities, to see their GP, NHS England runs Help Us Help You campaigns to increase the knowledge of cancer symptoms and address barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their GP. 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 at an earlier point.
The Government is also increasing capacity in GPs, so patients have better access to GPs. We will recruit over 1,000 newly qualified GPs through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which will increase the number of appointments delivered in GPs, secure the future supply of GPs and appointments, and take pressure off those currently working in the system. We will also bring back the family doctor by incentivising continuity of care so patients can see the same doctor at each appointment, which is key to managing ongoing conditions.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will commission research on potential steps to improve outcomes for cancer patients in rural areas.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing unwarranted variation in cancer treatment and outcomes is a strategic priority for the NHS Cancer Programme. NHS England commissioned the Royal College of Surgeons to deliver 10 cancer clinical audits. Outcomes from the audits will support the National Health Service to increase the consistency of access to treatments and help guide quality improvement initiatives. Officials within the Department and NHS England are in the process of considering the audit’s findings and next steps.
Furthermore, the Department supports statutory integrated care systems (ICSs) in delivering NHS services across England. ICSs are partnerships of organisations which come together to plan and deliver joined up health and care services, to improve the lives of the people who live and work in their area. This includes considering adequate healthcare provision for populations in towns and rural areas and working collaboratively to plan for population change.
The organisations within an ICS include the NHS, local government, social care providers, charities, and other organisations working together to provide more joined up care for people, and to improve the outcomes for their populations.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what measures are in place to support an (a) ageing and (b) isolated population in (i) remote and (ii) rural areas to attend hospital appointments for cancer (A) diagnosis and (B) treatment.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for ensuring healthcare needs of local communities are met. These responsibilities include considering adequate healthcare provision, care, and wider support for local populations, including in remote and rural areas, and for those in the community who have needs linked to ageing and isolation.
There are two National Health Service schemes in England which provide assistance for travel to hospital or other NHS premises for specialist NHS treatment or diagnostics tests, as set out below.
The NHS Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme provides financial assistance to patients in England who do not have a medical need for transport, but who require assistance with the costs of travelling to receive certain NHS services. The NHS Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services provide funded transport where a medical condition means that a patient would struggle to safely attend their treatment independently.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report published by his Department entitled Tackling antimicrobial resistance 2019–2024: the UK's 5-year national action plan, published on 24 January 2019, whether his Department is taking steps to (a) tackle the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance and (b) embed support for antimicrobial stewardship in his Department's work.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The United Kingdom’s antimicrobial national action plan aims to reduce the need for and unintentional exposure to antimicrobials by lowering the burden of infection; optimise the use of antimicrobials; and invest in innovation, supply and access of new diagnostics, therapies and vaccines.
Diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship leads have been appointed in NHS England regional teams and national toolkits, decision aids and guidelines to support the appropriate use of antimicrobials have been developed and published. Commissioning for Quality and Innovation schemes for management of urinary tract infection and reducing antimicrobial use in secondary care have also been implemented.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the 2016 Review on Antimicrobial Resistance: Lord O’Neill’s independent review of antimicrobial resistance in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, which recommended that all antibiotic prescribing should be informed by rapid diagnostics, what steps he is taking to ensure that primary care settings are equipped with point of care multiplex testing technology.
Answered by Maggie Throup
As part of the United Kingdom’s national action plan for antimicrobial (AMR) resistance, NHS England and NHS Improvement’s AMR programme is examining the adoption of innovations in diagnostics, improving clinical best practice and applying point-of-care testing for urinary tract infections, respiratory tract infections, surgical site infections and acute deterioration, including sepsis.
This aims to identify any gaps in diagnostic pathways and practices with a focus on improving patient outcomes and antimicrobial stewardship in National Health Service and community care settings. Optimising the potential use of point-of-care multiplex testing in primary care is also being considered. NHS England and NHS Improvement supports the appointment of diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship leads in each regional team in England. Additionally, national guidelines and national toolkits such as TARGET in primary care and ‘Start SMART then focus’ in secondary care, support antimicrobial stewardship, including the appropriate use of diagnostic tests and tools.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
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 on the effectiveness of rapid point of care diagnostics across the NHS in helping the UK to be a world-leader in the delivery of antimicrobial stewardship programmes.
Answered by Maggie Throup
As part of the United Kingdom’s national action plan for antimicrobial (AMR) resistance, NHS England and NHS Improvement’s AMR programme is examining the adoption of innovations in diagnostics, improving clinical best practice and applying point-of-care testing for urinary tract infections, respiratory tract infections, surgical site infections and acute deterioration, including sepsis.
This aims to identify any gaps in diagnostic pathways and practices with a focus on improving patient outcomes and antimicrobial stewardship in National Health Service and community care settings. Optimising the potential use of point-of-care multiplex testing in primary care is also being considered. NHS England and NHS Improvement supports the appointment of diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship leads in each regional team in England. Additionally, national guidelines and national toolkits such as TARGET in primary care and ‘Start SMART then focus’ in secondary care, support antimicrobial stewardship, including the appropriate use of diagnostic tests and tools.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
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 the potential merits of increasing adoption of rapid point of care diagnostics to support antimicrobial stewardship objectives within (a) primary and (b) community care settings across the NHS.
Answered by Maggie Throup
As part of the United Kingdom’s national action plan for antimicrobial (AMR) resistance, NHS England and NHS Improvement’s AMR programme is examining the adoption of innovations in diagnostics, improving clinical best practice and applying point-of-care testing for urinary tract infections, respiratory tract infections, surgical site infections and acute deterioration, including sepsis.
This aims to identify any gaps in diagnostic pathways and practices with a focus on improving patient outcomes and antimicrobial stewardship in National Health Service and community care settings. Optimising the potential use of point-of-care multiplex testing in primary care is also being considered. NHS England and NHS Improvement supports the appointment of diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship leads in each regional team in England. Additionally, national guidelines and national toolkits such as TARGET in primary care and ‘Start SMART then focus’ in secondary care, support antimicrobial stewardship, including the appropriate use of diagnostic tests and tools.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how data on urinary tract infection instance in clinical settings is being collated at a national level, following the suspension of the National Safety Thermometer and the move to data collection at Trust level.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
NHS England requires English hospital providers through the National Health Service Standard Contract to submit data detailing hospital activity relating to NHS-provided or NHS funded care. This data is collated and published by NHS Digital. It includes hospital admissions where the patient was diagnosed with urinary tract infection. This can be found in the annual Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care (APC) dataset at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-admitted-patient-care-activity
Separately, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency undertakes surveillance of bloodstream infections in hospital and community settings, including information on the infection source through NHS acute trusts reporting infection cases.
NHS safety thermometer data collection was stopped in March 2020 due to emerging evidence that the data collected was incomplete and not being used as intended to support safety improvement and in part to support the COVID-19 response by freeing up nursing time.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data on urinary tract infection instance in clinical settings is being centrally collated by (a) NHS England, (b) his Department and (c) the UK Health Security Agency, given that this data is now primarily gathered at a local level.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
NHS England requires English hospital providers through the National Health Service Standard Contract to submit data detailing hospital activity relating to NHS-provided or NHS funded care. This data is collated and published by NHS Digital. It includes hospital admissions where the patient was diagnosed with urinary tract infection. This can be found in the annual Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Admitted Patient Care (APC) dataset at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-admitted-patient-care-activity
Separately, the United Kingdom Health Security Agency undertakes surveillance of bloodstream infections in hospital and community settings, including information on the infection source through NHS acute trusts reporting infection cases.
NHS safety thermometer data collection was stopped in March 2020 due to emerging evidence that the data collected was incomplete and not being used as intended to support safety improvement and in part to support the COVID-19 response by freeing up nursing time.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
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 provide health facilities for people who experience long-term effects of covid-19 in (a) Thirsk and Malton constituency and (b) North Yorkshire.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England has provided £10 million to fund over 40 pioneering ‘long COVID-19’ specialist clinics including seven in the North East and Yorkshire region. The plans for these clinics were published on 15 November and commissioning guidance was made available on 6 November.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have committed to ensuring clinics will be available from early December 2020. In response, each integrated care system is working towards the provision of at least one such service, although the exact location for each is yet to be provided.
A number of these clinics are already established, and new clinics will start to accept patients at the end of November. More details will be made available shortly.