Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
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 adding cystic fibrosis to the list of medical conditions for which a medical exemption certificate for free NHS prescriptions may be issued.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the Government’s policy remains that there are no plans to review the list of medical conditions that entitle someone to apply for a medical exemption certificate, there are extensive arrangements currently in place in England to ensure that prescriptions are affordable for everyone.
Around 89% of prescription items are dispensed free of charge in the community in England, and there are a wide range of exemptions from prescription charges already in place, for which those with cystic fibrosis may be eligible. Eligibility depends on the patient’s age, whether they are in qualifying full-time education, whether they are pregnant or have recently given birth, or whether they are in receipt of certain benefits or a war pension.
People on low incomes can apply for help with their health costs through the NHS Low Income Scheme. The scheme provides income related help to people who are not automatically exempt from charges, but who may be entitled to full or partial help if they have a low income and savings below a defined limit.
To support those with greatest need, who do not qualify for an exemption or the NHS Low Income Scheme, prescription prepayment certificates (PPCs) are available. PPCs allow people to claim as many prescriptions as they need, for a set cost.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
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 help ensure adequate levels of supply of medications prescribed for epilepsy.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are around 14,000 medicines licensed for supply in the United Kingdom, and while most are in good supply, there can sometimes be supply issues with a limited number of medicines. The medicine supply chain is highly regulated, complex, and global. Supply disruption is an issue which affects the UK, as well as the other countries around the world.
The Department has been working intensively to address issues with the supply of some epilepsy medications. Guidance has been issued to healthcare professionals on how to manage patients requiring affected medicines while supply is disrupted.
We will continue to work closely with industry, the National Health Service, and others to help ensure patients continue to have access to an alternative treatment until their usual product is back in stock. The Department has been engaging with the Epilepsy Society, and we will continue to keep them updated on any developments.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of her Department's funding for (a) hospices in the North West and (b) Wigan & Leigh Hospice.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for determining the level of locally available, National Health Service-funded palliative and end of life care, including hospice care. ICBs are responsible for ensuring that the services they commission meet the needs of their local population.
The majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by NHS staff and services. However, we also recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, play in providing support to people at end of life, and their families. Most hospices, including Wigan and Leigh Hospice, and many other hospices in the North West and the rest of England, are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding hospices receive is dependent on many factors, including what other statutory services are available within the ICB footprint. Charitable hospices provide a range of services which go beyond that which statutory services are legally required to provide. Consequently, the funding arrangements reflect this.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to improve the (a) diagnosis rate, (b) co-ordination of care and (c) access to specialist (i) care, (ii) treatment and (iii) support for individuals with cystic fibrosis.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions 47 specialised cystic fibrosis centres for adults and children across England, in addition to supporting the optimal monitoring of patients with cystic fibrosis at home, and supporting best practice in remote consultations. Service specifications published by NHS England clearly define the standards of services, care, and outcomes that people can expect from these centres. Service specifications aim to deliver improvements to life expectancy and quality of life for adults and children with cystic fibrosis.
Since 2019, thousands of people with cystic fibrosis have been able to benefit from licensed treatments, firstly Orkambi and Symkeviand and then Kaftrio, following its marketing authorisation in 2020. Access to these treatments is provided under the terms of a commercial agreement reached between the manufacturer, Vertex, and NHS England, with the full support of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
The company supplying cystic fibrosis treatments is prepared to proceed to commercial discussions with NHS England to secure access to disease-modifying treatments for future patients at a price that represents value to the National Health Service. Existing patients, and new patients who are started on these treatments while the NICE evaluation is ongoing, will continue to have access to the treatments after the NICE has issued its final recommendations, irrespective of the outcome.
Cystic fibrosis is now mainly detected in newborn babies as part of the heel prick test, which is offered to all newborn babies. Otherwise, it is normally diagnosed by a combination of gene sequencing from blood tests and a sweat test, which is performed at specialist centres.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
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 increase awareness of pulmonary fibrosis among (a) health professionals and (b) the public.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including pulmonary fibrosis, although it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
In order to increase awareness of pulmonary fibrosis, NHS England has established 13 Respiratory Clinical Networks across the country. These have been vital in providing clinical leadership for respiratory services and supporting services in primary care, including restoring spirometry, which is one of the tests used to diagnose pulmonary fibrosis.
Furthermore, community diagnostic centres are also being established to deliver additional, digitally connected, diagnostic capacity in England, providing patients with co-ordinated diagnostic tests in the community, on a range of clinical pathways, including pulmonary fibrosis. With the aim of raising the standard of care that people with this idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis receive, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence also publishes quality standards that define best practice, and areas in need of improvement.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
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 research into pulmonary fibrosis.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including pulmonary fibrosis, although it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
In order to increase awareness of pulmonary fibrosis, NHS England has established 13 Respiratory Clinical Networks across the country. These have been vital in providing clinical leadership for respiratory services and supporting services in primary care, including restoring spirometry, which is one of the tests used to diagnose pulmonary fibrosis.
Furthermore, community diagnostic centres are also being established to deliver additional, digitally connected, diagnostic capacity in England, providing patients with co-ordinated diagnostic tests in the community, on a range of clinical pathways, including pulmonary fibrosis. With the aim of raising the standard of care that people with this idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis receive, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence also publishes quality standards that define best practice, and areas in need of improvement.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
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 help improve access to defibrillators.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease is a priority for the Government. We want people to have the best chance of survival from cardiac arrest, and rapid intervention is central to improving outcomes. Therefore, the Government wants to increase the number of publicly accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs).
This is why the Government has announced The Community Automated External Defibrillators Fund, with a £1 million investment that will increase the number of AEDs within England. We want to ensure AEDs are located where they are needed most. Applications that are submitted for funding are assessed to ensure that each AED is installed in areas where there is a clear need for the device, such as high footfall areas or rural locations with extended ambulance response times. Priority will also be given to applications that are considered a cardiac health hotspot, with high levels of deprivation and low numbers of AEDs within the local area.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
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 reduce waiting times for (a) diagnosis, (b) treatment and (c) care for people living with pulmonary fibrosis; and if she will make an assessment of the impact of waiting times on patient care.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including pulmonary fibrosis, although it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
In order to increase awareness of pulmonary fibrosis, NHS England has established 13 Respiratory Clinical Networks across the country. These have been vital in providing clinical leadership for respiratory services and supporting services in primary care, including restoring spirometry, which is one of the tests used to diagnose pulmonary fibrosis.
Furthermore, community diagnostic centres are also being established to deliver additional, digitally connected, diagnostic capacity in England, providing patients with co-ordinated diagnostic tests in the community, on a range of clinical pathways, including pulmonary fibrosis. With the aim of raising the standard of care that people with this idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis receive, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence also publishes quality standards that define best practice, and areas in need of improvement.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
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 the number of qualified neurologists in England.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Health Education England created five additional training posts for neurology for 2023, with NHS England having created a further 10 additional posts for neurology for 2024. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) published by NHS England in June 2023 sets out an aim to double the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 places a year by 2031/32, and to work towards this expansion by increasing places by a third, to 10,000 a year, by 2028/29.
The LTWP commits to an adequate growth in foundation placement capacity, as those taking up these new places begin to graduate, and a commensurate increase in specialty training places that meets the demands of the National Health Service in the future. This will substantially increase the potential pipeline for the neurology workforce.
As of November 2023, there are 1,788 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the specialty of neurology working in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England which is an increase of 741 or 70.7% compared to 2010. This includes 932 FTE consultants which is 396 or 73.9% more than in 2010.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to improve the (a) diagnosis rate, (b) co-ordination of care and (c) access to specialist (i) care, (ii) treatment and (iii) support for hereditary spastic paraplegia.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In January 2021, the Government published the UK Rare Diseases Framework providing a national vision for how to improve the lives of those living with rare diseases such as hereditary spastic paraplegia. The framework lists four priorities collaboratively developed with the rare disease community: helping patients get a final diagnosis faster, increasing awareness of rare diseases among healthcare professionals, better coordination of care, improving access to specialist care, treatments and drugs.
Each year since 2021 we have published an England Rare Diseases Action Plan. On 29 February 2024, we published the third England Rare Diseases Action Plan, which is working to address these priorities across all rare diseases. Increasing awareness among healthcare professionals contributes to improved care, treatment and support for those living with rare conditions. NHS England has developed a digital resource “GeNotes” to support healthcare professionals, which includes information on hereditary spastic paraplegia.