Liz Jarvis

No assessment has been made on the adequacy of access to compression treatment or follow-up care for women with arm lymphoedema after breast cancer treatment.

Local health service commissioners – through Integrated Care Boards - determine what lymphoedema services are needed locally, based on the needs of their local population.

The NHS’ roll-out of personalised care ensures people with cancer have a holistic needs assessment, covering both their physical and psychosocial needs, and are referred to services where appropriate. Lymphoedema support is in the NHS’ Personalised Stratified Follow-Up (PSFU) handbook as a required part of PSFU pathways, however it does not cover the specifics of treatment.

We know that more should be done to support people living with and beyond cancer. The National Cancer Plan, coming later this year, will set out how we will seek to improve the experience and outcomes for people at every stage of the cancer pathway. It will look at how we can improve communication and coordination for patients, so that they feel informed and in control of their care.

We will deliver 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments per year, with integrated care boards (ICBs) asked to start making extra appointments available from April 2025. The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to ICBs across England. Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB, which includes Eastleigh constituency, is expected to deliver 30,032 additional urgent dental appointments.

The urgent appointments will be available to NHS patients experiencing painful oral health issues, such as infections, abscesses, or cracked or broken teeth. Patients can contact their usual dental practice or call NHS 111 if they do not have a regular dentist or need help out-of-hours.

It is vital that children and young people with a diagnosed or suspected eating disorder, as well as their families and carers, can access effective help quickly. Given this, NHS England is in the process of publishing updated commissioning guidance for children and young people with eating disorders and updated Access and Wait Time Standard guidance. NHS England has also recently published updated guidance on caring for children and young people in a mental health crisis.

The updated guidance will reflect NHS England's ambition to improve eating disorder services and align with the latest evidence-based care, improve outcomes and experiences of care, and focus on prevention, where possible, to reduce prevalence and re-occurrence. It supports providers in meeting the standard that 95% of children and young people referred for assessment or treatment for an eating disorder receive National Institute for Health and Care Excellence-approved treatment with a designated healthcare professional within one week for urgent cases, and four weeks for all other cases.

The National Health Service has been facing workforce shortages for a number of years and, while there has been growth in the mental health workforce over recent years, more is needed. That is why, as part of our mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future, we will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers to reduce waiting times and provide faster treatment. We recognise that bringing in the staff needed will take time. We are working with NHS England on options to deliver this expansion of the mental health workforce.

More broadly, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS. This plan will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts needed to move healthcare from hospital to the community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention. A central part of this will be our workforce and how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities.

This summer we will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade and treat patients on time again. We will ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.

We have no plans to currently do so. The 2025/26 Planning Guidance sets a requirement for integrated care boards (ICBs) to reduce the average length of stay in adult acute mental health beds, improving the availability of local beds and reducing inappropriate out of area placements. It also asks ICBs to maximise the use of crisis alternatives, including 111 mental health option, crisis resolution and home treatment teams, and community mental health services to keep people well at home.

The illegal sale and supply of human medicines is recognised as a significant challenge for regulators across the world. Buying medicines, including weight loss medicines, from illegally trading websites can be harmful to health, as the medicines received are generally unlicenced in the United Kingdom, and can contain too little, too much, or incorrect active ingredients. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) works hard with law enforcement partners and others to tackle illegal sales and prevent products from entering the UK. Offending often takes place beyond the geographical reach of UK legislation, but where offences are identified in the UK, the MHRA can investigate and, where appropriate, bring those involved to justice. In addition to taking enforcement action where possible, the MHRA operates the #FakeMeds campaign, offering safety advice and providing practical tools to help the public stay safe when buying medicines online.

On 6 January 2025, NHS England published the new Elective Reform Plan, which sets out a whole system approach to hitting the 18-week Referral-to-Treatment target by the end of this Parliament.

Part of the plan sets out funding to boost bone density DEXA scanning capacity, to support improvements in early diagnosis and bone health for conditions such as osteoporosis. This will provide an estimated 29,000 extra scans per year.

As announced in the Get Britain Working white paper, we are delivering the joint Department for Work and Pensions, Department of Health and Social Care, and NHS England Getting It Right First-Time (GIRFT) Musculoskeletal (MSK) Community Delivery Programme. With a £3.5 million funding boost, GIRFT teams will deploy their proven Further Faster model to work with integrated care board leaders to further reduce MSK community waiting times, including for those with osteoporosis, and improve data, metrics, and referral pathways to wider support services.

Clozapine is licenced by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Products are licenced by the MHRA where the benefit-risk assessment has been found to be positive in relation to quality, safety, and efficacy. Clozapine is marketed in different strengths and formulations, for the following indications.

Firstly, Clozapine is indicated in treatment-resistant schizophrenic patients and in schizophrenia patients who have severe, untreatable neurological adverse reactions to other antipsychotic agents, including atypical antipsychotics. Treatment resistance is defined as a lack of satisfactory clinical improvement despite the use of adequate doses of at least two different antipsychotic agents, including an atypical antipsychotic agent, prescribed for an adequate duration. Secondly, Clozapine is indicated in psychotic disorders occurring during the course of Parkinson's disease, in cases where standard treatment has failed. Further information is available on the MHRA’s website, which is available at the following link:

https://products.mhra.gov.uk/

The Department is not aware of any supply issues regarding the provision of this medicine. Furthermore, decisions about what medicines to prescribe are made by the doctor or healthcare professional responsible for that part of the patient’s care. Prescribers are accountable for their prescribing decisions.

It is for the responsible clinician to work with their patient and decide on the best course of treatment, with the provision of the most clinically appropriate care for the patient always being the primary consideration. Prescribers must always satisfy themselves that the medicines they consider appropriate for their patients can be safely prescribed and that they take account of appropriate national guidance on clinical effectiveness, as well as the local commissioning decisions of their respective integrated care boards (ICBs). The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has developed a Quality Standard on psychosis and schizophrenia in adults. NICE quality standards are concise sets of statements designed to drive quality improvements within a particular area of care and cover the NHS, public health, and social care. The Quality Standard recommends that adults with schizophrenia that have not responded adequately to treatment with at least two antipsychotic drugs are offered Clozapine, and provides quality measures to be used by service providers, commissioners, and healthcare professionals to assess the quality of care or service provision.

Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) are a globally recognised care model and can reduce the risk of refracture for people at risk of osteoporosis by up to 40%. We remain committed to rolling out FLS across every part of the country by 2030. That is what the Secretary of State promised before the election, and what he is delivering. In the meantime, we are investing in 14 high-tech DEXA scanners, which are expected to provide an extra 29,000 scans to ensure people with bone conditions get diagnosed earlier.

Clinicians are responsible for making prescribing decisions for their patients, taking into account best prescribing practice and the local commissioning decisions of their respective integrated care boards. They are also expected to take account of appropriate national guidance on clinical and cost effectiveness.

Pancreatic Enzyme Replacement Therapy (PERT) is used by patients with conditions such as chronic pancreatitis, type 2 diabetes, and cystic fibrosis, in addition to being recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for people with both operable and inoperable pancreatic cancer. The NICE has acknowledged that this is a priority area for quality improvement, and has included PERT in its quality standard for pancreatic cancer.

The data is not available in the format requested. The latest provisional published data for the median average time spent at emergency departments at the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust for November 2024 was 232 minutes. Information relating to December 2024 will be published on 13 February 2025, and information relating to January 2025 will be published on 13 March 2025.

Funding decisions for health services in England are made by the integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population. ICBs are expected to commission fertility services in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines. We are aware that compliance with these guidelines is variable.

The NICE is currently reviewing the fertility guideline and will consider whether the current recommendations for access to NHS-funded treatment are still appropriate. We expect this review to be published later in 2025.

The Department is working with NHS England to consider future policy options to support ICBs to provide more equitable in vitro fertilization (IVF) services. No assessment has been made of the of NHS-funded IVF treatment in the Eastleigh consistuency.

The Government is committed to improving the lives of those living with rare diseases, such as hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) and mast cell activation syndrome. The UK Rare Diseases Framework sets out four priorities, collaboratively developed with the rare disease community, which include helping patients get a final diagnosis faster and improving access to specialist care, treatments, and drugs. We remain committed to delivering under the framework and will publish an annual England action plan in 2025. With over 7,000 identified rare diseases, the framework and action plans focus on shared challenges across all rare diseases.

NHS England has a website page on hEDS and this notes the passing of information on to the National Congenital Anomaly and Rare Diseases Registration Service (NCARDRS) to help scientists look for better ways to prevent and treat this condition. NHS England’s website page is available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ehlers-danlos-syndromes/

Be Part of Research is a tool that can support people living with rare diseases in engaging with research. Currently on Be Part of Research there is a study recruiting those with hEDS to take part in research to help advance the understanding of diagnostic imaging in this condition. Further information is available at the following link:

https://bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk/trial-details/trial-detail?trialId=24730&location=&distance=

To improve awareness of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) amongst healthcare professionals, and specifically general practitioners, the Royal College of General Practitioners provides training on PoTS as part of its syncope toolkit. Further information is available at the following link:

https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=500

In addition, the NICE has produced a clinical knowledge summary on blackouts and syncope, last updated in November 2023, which outlines how clinicians should assess and diagnose PoTS. The NICE’s clinical knowledge summary is available at the following link:

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/blackouts-syncope/diagnosis/assessment/

Decisions on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service in England are taken by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), on the basis of an evaluation of a treatment’s costs and benefits. The NICE’s methods are internationally respected, and have been developed through extensive work with industry, academics, and the public, to ensure they appropriately capture the costs and benefits, and best reflect social values. These are very difficult decisions to make, and it is important that they are made independently, and on the basis of the available evidence.

We understand that despite the NICE instigating an exceptional pause in the process to allow for commercial negotiations to take place with the companies, Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca, a deal to enable patient access to this treatment on the NHS in England has not been reached.

We know that the NICE’s announcement has come as a blow to many women and their families. The NICE and NHS England have already sought to apply as much flexibility as they can in their considerations of Enhertu for HER2 LOW breast cancer, and have made it clear to the companies that their pricing of the drug remains the main obstacle to access.

Within 16 weeks of the publication of final guidance, companies can also request a rapid review to consider new patient access scheme proposals, with the aim of establishing a pricing agreement that would improve cost-effectiveness and enable patient access to high-cost medicines. The Government wants to see a deal reached to make Enhertu available. The NICE and NHS England remain open to considering an improved offer from the companies through the rapid review process, and we strongly encourage the companies to come back to the table.