Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to help ensure that Givinostat is made available in for people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy across all NHS trusts areas.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department understands the impact that Duchenne muscular dystrophy has on those living with it and their families, and the urgent need for new treatment options.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS independently based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance. NICE is currently evaluating givinostat for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and its independent Appraisal Committee will meet to consider the evidence in July 2025.
Ahead of NICE’s evaluation, ITF Pharma UK, the United Kingdom’s marketing authorisation holder for givinostat, is providing access to givinostat through a type of compassionate use scheme called an Early Access Programme (EAP). The delivery of timely and equitable access to new treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy under company-sponsored EAPs is not the responsibility of NHS England. Participation in company-led schemes is decided at an individual NHS trust level and under these programmes, the cost of the drug is free to both the patients taking part in it, and to the NHS, although NHS trusts must still cover administration costs and provide clinical resources to deliver the EAP.
NHS England has published guidance for integrated care systems (ICS) on free of charge medicines schemes, providing advice on potential financial, resourcing, and clinical risks.
ICSs should use the guidance to help determine whether to implement any free of charge scheme, including assessing suitability and any risks in the short, medium, and long term. The guidance is available at the following link:
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to introduce permanent patient registration with NHS dental practices.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has no current plans to introduce a system of patient registration for National Health Service dental practices.
Patients in England are not registered with an NHS dental practice, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly, and some dental practices may operate local waiting list arrangements. There is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend. NHS dentists are required to update their NHS website profiles at least every 90 days to ensure patients have up-to-date information on where they can access care.
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments per year. Integrated care boards have been making the extra appointments available from 1 April 2025. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to set out a timeframe for the reduction of mental health waiting times.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The long waits for mental health services are being driven by increasing demand in a system in desperate need of change.
The Government is already responding by delivering new and innovative models of care in the community. As part of this, we have launched six neighbourhood adult mental health centres that are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to bring together community, crisis, and inpatient care.
NHS England’s Planning Guidance for 2025/26 makes clear that for this year, to support reform and improvements, we expect all providers to reduce the variation in children and young people accessing services and improve productivity.
We are also improving data quality, so we can support providers to understand the demand across their areas. Since July 2023, NHS England has included waiting time metrics for referrals to urgent and community-based mental health services in its monthly mental health statistics publication, to help services to target the longest waits.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to help elderly people access affordable ear wax removal services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) have a statutory responsibility to commission cost-effective healthcare to meet the needs of their local population. This includes the arrangement of services for ear wax removal.
When ICBs exercise their functions, including commissioning healthcare services such as ear wax removal, they have a duty to reduce inequalities between people with respect to their ability to access health services and to reduce inequalities between patients with respect to their health outcomes.
Manual ear syringing is no longer advised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) due to the risks associated with it, such as trauma to their ear drum or infection, so general practitioners (GPs) will often recommend home treatment remedies to alleviate ear wax build-up.
However, in line with the NICE’s guidance, a person may require ear wax removal treatment if the build-up of earwax is linked with hearing loss. A GP could then consider referring the patient into audiology services, which ICBs are responsible for commissioning.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
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 make it easier for patients with chronic urinary tract infections to receive referrals from their GPs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidelines for the referral of patients who present with recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs), which is available at the following link:
There are specific referral criteria for women, compared to men and children. There are also guidelines in place for those who present to Pharmacy First. If the patient has had a history of UTIs, they are asked to see their general practice (GP) surgery, rather than being prescribed antibiotics by the pharmacy.
Patients with recurrent UTIs should be referred to secondary care to exclude other causes, perhaps through an ultrasound scan or a cystoscopy. Once cleared, patients may be prescribed prophylactic antibiotics.
The number of lower urinary tract symptom service clinics are locally managed and commissioned by integrated care boards, in accordance with local population need.
While there are no current plans to train GPs and urologists on recognising the symptoms of chronic UTIs, NHS England’s UTI reduction workstream was established as part of the delivery of the UK 5-year action plan for antimicrobial resistance 2019 to 2024. This workstream aims to enhance prevention, support early and accurate diagnosis, and improve the treatment of UTIs through identifying and adopting best practice, and through interventions for different population groups.
NHS England has also been working with other public bodies, including the UK Health Security Agency, to strengthen the guidance regarding the appropriate use of diagnostics, including dipsticks. GPs can request testing for chronic UTIs via several pathways, including at point-of-care, via community diagnostic centres, or via laboratories. Laboratories across England adhere to stringent quality standards, including the UK Accreditation Standard ISO 15189, and implement robust internal and external quality assurance schemes, ensuring the accuracy of the tests used.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
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 provide training for (a) GPs and (b) urologists on recognising the symptoms of chronic urinary tract infections.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidelines for the referral of patients who present with recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs), which is available at the following link:
There are specific referral criteria for women, compared to men and children. There are also guidelines in place for those who present to Pharmacy First. If the patient has had a history of UTIs, they are asked to see their general practice (GP) surgery, rather than being prescribed antibiotics by the pharmacy.
Patients with recurrent UTIs should be referred to secondary care to exclude other causes, perhaps through an ultrasound scan or a cystoscopy. Once cleared, patients may be prescribed prophylactic antibiotics.
The number of lower urinary tract symptom service clinics are locally managed and commissioned by integrated care boards, in accordance with local population need.
While there are no current plans to train GPs and urologists on recognising the symptoms of chronic UTIs, NHS England’s UTI reduction workstream was established as part of the delivery of the UK 5-year action plan for antimicrobial resistance 2019 to 2024. This workstream aims to enhance prevention, support early and accurate diagnosis, and improve the treatment of UTIs through identifying and adopting best practice, and through interventions for different population groups.
NHS England has also been working with other public bodies, including the UK Health Security Agency, to strengthen the guidance regarding the appropriate use of diagnostics, including dipsticks. GPs can request testing for chronic UTIs via several pathways, including at point-of-care, via community diagnostic centres, or via laboratories. Laboratories across England adhere to stringent quality standards, including the UK Accreditation Standard ISO 15189, and implement robust internal and external quality assurance schemes, ensuring the accuracy of the tests used.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to increase the number of lower urinary tract symptoms service clinics.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidelines for the referral of patients who present with recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs), which is available at the following link:
There are specific referral criteria for women, compared to men and children. There are also guidelines in place for those who present to Pharmacy First. If the patient has had a history of UTIs, they are asked to see their general practice (GP) surgery, rather than being prescribed antibiotics by the pharmacy.
Patients with recurrent UTIs should be referred to secondary care to exclude other causes, perhaps through an ultrasound scan or a cystoscopy. Once cleared, patients may be prescribed prophylactic antibiotics.
The number of lower urinary tract symptom service clinics are locally managed and commissioned by integrated care boards, in accordance with local population need.
While there are no current plans to train GPs and urologists on recognising the symptoms of chronic UTIs, NHS England’s UTI reduction workstream was established as part of the delivery of the UK 5-year action plan for antimicrobial resistance 2019 to 2024. This workstream aims to enhance prevention, support early and accurate diagnosis, and improve the treatment of UTIs through identifying and adopting best practice, and through interventions for different population groups.
NHS England has also been working with other public bodies, including the UK Health Security Agency, to strengthen the guidance regarding the appropriate use of diagnostics, including dipsticks. GPs can request testing for chronic UTIs via several pathways, including at point-of-care, via community diagnostic centres, or via laboratories. Laboratories across England adhere to stringent quality standards, including the UK Accreditation Standard ISO 15189, and implement robust internal and external quality assurance schemes, ensuring the accuracy of the tests used.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to ask the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to recognise chronic urinary tract infections as a distinct illness in its guidelines.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Classifying a condition as a distinct illness is outside the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) remit. The NICE has no plans to develop guidance on chronic urinary tract infections (UTIs) at this time, and the topic has not been considered by their prioritisation board. The NICE has produced a clinical guideline on antimicrobial prescribing for recurrent UTIs, which provides recommendations on treatments and self-care for the prevention of recurrent UTIs.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes to the NHS Payment Scheme on the availability of ADHD assessment services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As required by law, NHS England has assessed the impact of the proposed NHS Payment Scheme. This is available at the following link:
This impact assessment includes consideration of the impact on patient choice, as well as an assessment of the impact on patients, in line with NHS England’s public sector equality duty.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) patients will continue to benefit from the Right to Choose their provider at the point of referral. None of the proposed changes to the NHS Payment Scheme included in the consultation would change this.
Local integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for planning service provision in their local area, including for ADHD assessments. In doing so, ICBs should take account of waiting lists, considering how local funding can be deployed to best meet the needs of their local population.
Asked by: Luke Taylor (Liberal Democrat - Sutton and Cheam)
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 help tackle (a) trauma-related mental health issues among asylum seekers fleeing conflict and (b) generational trauma within those communities.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Recognising that asylum seekers may require additional mental health support including for trauma related mental health issues, the Department of Health and Social Care works together with NHS England and the Home Office to provide additional guidance and support where required.
The Mental Health Sub-Group of the National Asylum Seekers’ Health Oversight Group, which is co-chaired by the Home Office and NHS England, has published examples of national and local interventions aimed at maintaining and improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of individuals seeking asylum. These are available at the following link:
Work is currently ongoing to review and improve the Solace training, designed to provide a foundational understanding of the mental health issues that people face in the context of seeking protection in the United Kingdom, so that it can be endorsed by NHS England and placed on the NHS Learning Hub. This will allow the training to be widely promoted to practitioners to understand better trauma and improve access, experience and outcomes of service.
In parallel, NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, the UK Health Security Agency and the Home Office have been working on practical ways to re-establish an improved initial health check within a few days from arrival to the UK. This early health check will include a baselining of physical and mental health needs and identify vulnerabilities. It reflects the recommendations of the British Red Cross’s report, Delivering with dignity, published in August 2024, and is cognisant of recommendation 16 in the recent report by the Commission on the Integration of Refugees.