Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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 assessment of the potential merits of extending eligibility for the NHS Learning Support Fund to people studying pharmaceutical science at (a) undergraduate and (b) postgraduate level.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Government keeps the funding arrangements for all healthcare students under close review. At all times the Government must strike a balance between the level of support students receive and the need to make best use of public funds to deliver value for money. There are no immediate plans to change the scheme design.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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 increase public awareness of minimally invasive cancer therapies.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department and NHS do not normally undertake public awareness campaigns on treatments and therapies. This is because cancer patients will often have a range of treatment choices available to them and it is important that informed decisions are taken by each patient, in consultation with their treating clinician, following the advice of multi-disciplinary teams that are experts in the management of cancer.
Instead, the Department and the NHS’s focus is on early diagnosis, including raising awareness of cancer symptoms and encouraging people to come forward through public awareness campaigns such as ‘Help us, help you’. By encouraging earlier diagnosis, cancer patients will have a wider range of treatment options available to consider, including minimally invasive therapies where appropriate.
The adoption of new treatments, including minimally invasive cancer treatments, into the NHS in England is generally the result of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance and/or commissioner decisions. For treatments that form part of a prescribed specialised or highly specialised service, NHS England’s specialised commissioning function is responsible for putting in place access. For treatments that are not part of a prescribed specialised service, the responsibility sits with integrated care boards (ICBs). Both NHS England and ICBs are required to put in place access for any treatment that carries a positive recommendation from the Technology Appraisal programme, operated by NICE. Pharmaceutical companies are also able to accelerate access to new treatments and technologies through schemes like the Early Access to Medicines Scheme, Project Orbis or The Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway, enabling patients to benefit from innovative treatments quickly.
Looking ahead, from April 2024, ICBs will become the responsible commissioner for a number of specialised services and will want to work with and through local Cancer Alliances to plan and organise access to care that meets national standards. By integrating the commissioning of specialised and non-specialised services, ICBs will be able to join-up care around patient needs and invest in resources where they can have best effect on outcomes.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will create a National Plastic Health Impact Research Fund.
Answered by Will Quince
Since 2018, the Government has committed over £100 million for research and innovation support to tackle the broad range of issues that arise from plastic waste. This includes funding research on the health impacts of plastic through UK Research and Innovation and the National Institute for Health and Care Research. Whilst it is not typical to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions, both funders welcome funding applications for research into the health impacts of plastic.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Mental Health Bill, whether he plans to include a statutory duty to provide early intervention strategies to detect and address mental health issues for children and young people within primary and secondary schools; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The draft Mental Health Bill, published in June 2022, is intended to modernise the Mental Health Act and work better for people with serious mental illness. The draft Bill has completed its pre-legislative scrutiny and the Joint Committee published its report on 19 January 2023 on the Draft Mental Health Bill. The Department will consider the Committee’s recommendations carefully and we will introduce the Bill when parliamentary time allows.
Separate to the provisions in the draft Bill, there are currently 287 mental health support teams in place in around 4,700 schools and colleges across the country, offering support to children experiencing anxiety, depression and other common mental health issue. These
teams now cover 26% of pupils, a year earlier than originally planned and this will increase to 399 teams, covering around 35% of pupils by April 2023 with over 500 planned to be deployed by 2024.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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 (a) the number of patients affected by Essential Tremor in Liverpool and (b) how many of those patients will receive magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound treatment for that condition in financial year 2022-23.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
No specific assessment has been made regarding the number of patients with essential tremor in Liverpool. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust provide this treatment in England and meet patient demand. There are no current plans to expand the number of providers.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to support the improvement of eye care services in Liverpool, Riverside constituency.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
We have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available in 2021/2022 to increase elective activity, including for eye care services in Liverpool. NHS England is working with partners to support outpatient ophthalmology services closer to home and in the community through the use of technology and workforce skills in primary and secondary care.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if is her policy to continue the development of the 10 year mental health plan on which the Government consulted in April 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
In response to the mental health and wellbeing call for evidence earlier this year, we received 5,273 submissions from a range of stakeholders in England. We are currently considering these responses and further information will be available in due course.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the call for evidence for the Mental health and wellbeing plan, published by her Department on 12 April 2022, whether it is still her Department's policy to publish a 10-year mental health plan.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
In response to the mental health and wellbeing call for evidence, we received 5,273 submissions from a range of stakeholders in England. We are currently considering these responses and further information will be available in due course.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
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 (a) podiatry vacancy rates in the NHS in Liverpool Riverside constituency and (b) the impact these vacancies will have on patient treatment for diabetic foot complications.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not hold information on podiatry vacancies at a constituency level and therefore no specific assessment of the rate or its impact on services has been made.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of the reported covid-19 vaccine deaths to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency Yellow Card Scheme have (a) been investigated and (b) been found to be related to the vaccines.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) investigates all reports of fatal or serious adverse drug reactions (ADRs) related to the COVID-19 vaccines as a priority.
However, an ADR report associated with a fatal outcome does not determine that the vaccine was the cause of death. The MHRA assesses information received through the Yellow Card scheme to determine the likelihood of an association between the vaccine and any suspected ADR. This involves consideration of the overall pattern of reports and whether more events than would normally be expected have occurred in the general population. However, the MHRA does not assess whether an individual’s death was directly caused by a vaccine.