Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
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 increase the number of clinical endoscopists working in the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
To support the workforce as a whole we have commissioned NHS England to develop a Long Term Workforce Plan, which will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years. The Plan is for the whole of the National Health Service workforce. It will not provide detailed workforce assessments for individual services or for every staff group.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps (a) his Department and (b) NHS England have taken to tackle increases in respiratory health conditions in the context of recent changes to GP contracts.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
General Practices (GPs) are required to provide services, termed ‘essential services’, to meet the reasonable needs of their registered and temporary patients. This includes providing consultations, referrals and ongoing treatment and care as necessary and appropriate.
Some GP practices may opt into providing additional services over and above this. The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is a voluntary reward and incentive scheme to help improve the quality of care across GPs. This incentivises practices to undertake specific activities in order to improve prevention and long-term condition management, including tackling respiratory health conditions. In the 2023/24 GP contract, nine QOF indicators (16%) will target tackling respiratory health conditions.
Vaccination against COVID-19 and flu can also support a reduction in cases of respiratory virus during the winter, both amongst the general public and the healthcare workforce. Over 17.4 million doses of an autumn COVID-19 booster were delivered in England over winter 2022/23 and as of 28 February, more than 21.1 million people in England have had their flu jabs.
The vaccine programmes provide necessary protection to those at higher risk of severe illness and are keeping more people out of hospital. The Government encourages all of those who are eligible for vaccinations to come forward.
The Department continues to work with tripartite partners to deliver improvements to vaccinations, including acquiring data to allow for timely and targeted action, and to identify and provide advice on reducing disparities in vaccination coverage.
The tripartite is committed to improving childhood and adult immunisation programmes, driving maximum uptake, and working hard towards re-gaining the United Kingdom’s measles elimination status, and sustaining our rubella and polio status.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the key emerging data is from the emergency department opt out testing for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C; and how that data will inform the future development of the scheme.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In the first 100 days of opt out testing over 250,000 HIV tests and over 100,000 hepatitis C virus antibody tests were delivered from April to July 2022. This testing resulted in identification of more than 500 people with a previously unknown (unrecognised or undiagnosed) blood borne virus. The full report can be found at the following link:
NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency will publish reports evaluating the impact of the first year of opt-out HIV and blood borne virus testing in 2023. We will consider all the evidence from the first year of opt-out testing alongside the data on progress towards our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions and AIDS- and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030 when examining the feasibility for further expansion of this programme.
We will be sharing evidence as it emerges to support other areas to make the case locally for implementing the same approach in other areas of the country.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to expand opt out testing for blood borne viruses in emergency departments in high prevalence areas.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We are considering all the evidence from the first year of opt-out HIV and blood borne testing in emergency departments, alongside the data on progress towards our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions and AIDS- and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030, when examining the feasibility for further expansion of this programme.
We will be sharing evidence as it emerges to support other areas of the country to make the case for implementing the same approach locally.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
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 expand the opt out testing for blood borne viruses in emergency departments in areas of high prevalence.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We are considering all the evidence from the first year of opt-out HIV and blood borne testing in emergency departments, alongside the data on progress towards our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions and AIDS- and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030, when examining the feasibility for further expansion of this programme.
We will be sharing evidence as it emerges to support other areas of the country to make the case for implementing the same approach locally.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to ensure that (a) asthma, (b) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and (c) other respiratory health diseases are priorities of the forthcoming Major Conditions and Disease Strategy.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Work on the Major Conditions Strategy is ongoing and we are committed to ensuring that the Strategy’s approach is rooted in the best understanding of the evidence to tackle the major conditions which contribute to the burden of disease in England, including respiratory conditions. This includes seeking the views of and working closely with stakeholders, citizens and the National Health Service.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Major Conditions and Disease Strategy will help ensure that the availability of essential inhalers for certain respiratory health diseases.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Work on the Major Conditions Strategy is ongoing and we are committed to ensuring that the Strategy’s approach is rooted in the best understanding of the evidence to tackle the major conditions which contribute to the burden of disease in England, including respiratory conditions. This includes seeking the views of and working closely with stakeholders, citizens and the National Health Service.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the debate on Liver Disease and Liver Cancer: Diagnosis on 11 October 2022, Official Report, column 71WH, what his planned timetable is for concluding the review of adult liver services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
During the debate on Liver Disease and Liver Cancer: Diagnosis held on 11 October 2022, an error was made on the NHS England Review of Adult Liver Services, in which it was said that such a review “is taking place in 2022-23, and there should be a report after that”.
NHS England have since confirmed that there is currently no review of adult Liver Services being undertaken by NHS England.
NHS England Clinical Reference Group has only recently concluded and discussions about future work programmes are currently in progress.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
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 rising liver disease deaths in deprived coastal areas.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We are taking steps to identify those who are drinking at a level that places them at risk of alcohol-related liver disease, to increase the earlier detection of liver disease in those at risk. During NHS Health Checks information on alcohol consumption and body mass index is used to support people to make healthier choices which can help to prevent liver disease.
Additional treatment and recovery funding, made available through the new drug strategy, can be used to increase capacity for screening for liver fibrosis in treatment settings and to establish effective referral pathways with hepatology. This includes a number of deprived coastal areas that were allocated the extra funding in the first phase of a three-year investment programme as areas of highest need.
In the National Health Service the earlier detection of alcohol-related liver disease in secondary care settings is currently being incentivised through a Commissioning for Quality and Innovation indicator applicable to acute and mental health trusts across England. In addition, the National Cancer Programme is working to detect more hepatocellular carcinomas at an early stage as part of the NHS Long Term Plan ambition to diagnose 75% cancers at an early stage by 2028.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential geographic variation in access to innovative liver cancer treatments such as selective internal radiation therapy.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are 10 National Health Service trusts currently commissioned to provide selective internal radiation therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer. Following the publication of ‘Selective internal radiation therapies for treating hepatocellular carcinoma’ by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence, seven of the 10 trusts confirmed an interest in also treating hepatocellular carcinoma. We expect the number of trusts to increase to approximately 15, following completion of a market engagement and prior information notice process.