Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure local authorities can finance the delivery of essential medical (a) devices and (b) services.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under their public health responsibilities, local authorities in England commission or provide a range of health services for their local populations. Some of these services are likely to involve the use of medical devices.
Public health funding to local authorities has increased each year over the Spending Review period. In 2024/25 the total Public Health Grant to local authorities will be £3.603 billion. In addition, we have provided additional targeted investment to local authorities in England for drug and alcohol addiction treatment and recovery, and services that support the best start in life, and from April 2024 we will double current investment in local authority stop smoking services, in support of our commitment to deliver a smoke-free generation.
This overall funding package will deliver a real-terms increase of more than 4% over the two years 2023/24 and 2024/25 in departmental funding allocated for local authority public health functions.
Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
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 of the effectiveness of diagnostic hubs in diagnosing dementia in West Yorkshire.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) offer a variety of tests, including several recommended for use in diagnosing of dementia. CDCs are an essential part of our plans to separate urgent and elective care and thereby reduce waits for diagnosis.
NHS England continues to monitor the monthly dementia diagnosis rate and analyse trends at national, regional and integrated care board (ICB) level. It has commissioned the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities to investigate the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates, including by rurality, ethnicity, and age. This work will provide context for variation and enable targeted investigation and provision of support at local level, and is available via the FutureNHS collaboration platform.
Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of GP appointments were held face-to-face in West Yorkshire in (a) 2019 and (b) 2023.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2019, 79.7% of all general practitioner (GP) appointments were face-to-face across England. 84.5% were face-to-face in the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) in the same period. In 2023, 72.2% of appointments were face-to-face in November 2023 in the West Yorkshire ICB and 67.9% were face-to-face nationally. GP appointment data for December 2023 has not yet been published, thus we are unable to provide a figure for all of 2023.
The National Health Service is clear that GPs must provide face-to-face appointments, alongside remote consultations, and patients’ input into consultation type should be sought and their preferences for face-to-face care respected, unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.
Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
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 of the adequacy of the availability of support for people with diabetes in (a) Dewsbury constituency and (b) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board has a dedicated diabetes programme and system wide diabetes leadership team which includes representation from National Health Service organisations, including acute trusts and primary and community care, and local authorities. The West Yorkshire diabetes programme team is working together to deliver national diabetes programmes to prevent the onset of and improve the lives of people living with diabetes across West Yorkshire, including Dewsbury.
Kirklees Health and Care Partnership completed a full review of diabetes services across Kirklees in 2023. Extensive engagement with the Kirklees communities took place via a community champions project. Kirklees Health and Care Partnership invested £155,000 to support the community champion engagement and, in voluntary organisations, to develop new services for communities to access help to both prevent the onset of diabetes and support self-management.
Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
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 adequacy of mental health care provision in (a) Dewsbury constituency and (b) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
No such assessment has been made. We are investing at least £2.3 billion of additional funding a year by March 2024 compared to 2018/19 to expand and transform mental health services in England so that two million more people can get the mental health support that they need including in Dewsbury constituency and West Yorkshire.
Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
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 effectiveness of support available to people affected by strokes in West Yorkshire.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board have a dedicated team who are working to implement the National Stroke Service Model. This outlines best practice for stroke care for the National Health Service.
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Integrated Stroke Delivery Network (ISDN) is currently collaborating with all community stroke teams in the area to transform and improve their services. This work has identified gaps in the current workforce provision and differences across the network that will need resolving so it can deliver the recommended national model by NHS England.
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate ISDN is working with all community stroke teams to develop a long-term strategy to:
- address the shortage of qualified staff;
- reconfigure existing services to continually improve;
- achieve efficiency savings; and
- promote and spread innovative practice throughout the network.
Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
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 estimate of the average time taken to diagnose ovarian cancer (a) in West Yorkshire and (b) nationally.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The most recent data for the diagnosis of ovarian cancer in West Yorkshire shows a 23-day average from an urgent referral for suspected cancer to diagnosis. This data is based on median values, taken across a twelve-month period from November 2022 to October 2023 inclusive.
Patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer can be diagnosed via other routes, such as when presenting as an emergency case in an unplanned care setting, or as an incidental finding when referred for another elective condition or suspected abnormality, either urgently or non-urgently. Data for these alternative presentation routes in the format requested is not held.
Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress her Department has made on consulting on proposed amendments to Part IX of the Drug Tariff; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed amendments on (a) the medical technology ecosystem, (b) innovation relating to the the Life Sciences Vision and (c) the wider UK economy.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A targeted consultation on Medical Devices in Primary Care: Proposals for updating Part IX of the Drug Tariff-medical devices available for prescribing in primary care was issued on 6 October 2023.
The consultation on Part IX of the Drug Tariff sets out a series of proposals to modernise Part IX of the Drug Tariff. The objectives of the proposals are to ensure Part IX consistently includes devices that are of good quality and effectiveness; ensure that the Tariff product list is refreshed going forward and existing and new products are only adopted or continued to be used if able to demonstrate value to the National Health Service and patients; and update processes on Part IX applications to support the adoption of innovation that can improve patient outcomes and the quality of life for patients.
The consultation was fully closed for responses at 4 January 2024. The Department is considering all the responses before finalising any proposed amendments to Part IX of the Drug Tariff. Therefore, the Department will share a response to the consultation and an updated assessment of the impacts in due course.
In forming the proposals, that have been consulted on, the department has had extensive engagement with industry, the health and care sector, NHS commissioners and patient representative groups. There will be further engagement with these stakeholders for any amendments to Part IX that are taken forward.
Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on implementing its proposals to Part IX of the Drug Tariff; and what steps he is taking to engage the health and care sector on this work.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A targeted consultation on Medical Devices in Primary Care: Proposals for updating Part IX of the Drug Tariff-medical devices available for prescribing in primary care was issued on 6 October 2023.
The consultation on Part IX of the Drug Tariff sets out a series of proposals to modernise Part IX of the Drug Tariff. The objectives of the proposals are to ensure Part IX consistently includes devices that are of good quality and effectiveness; ensure that the Tariff product list is refreshed going forward and existing and new products are only adopted or continued to be used if able to demonstrate value to the National Health Service and patients; and update processes on Part IX applications to support the adoption of innovation that can improve patient outcomes and the quality of life for patients.
The consultation was fully closed for responses at 4 January 2024. The Department is considering all the responses before finalising any proposed amendments to Part IX of the Drug Tariff. Therefore, the Department will share a response to the consultation and an updated assessment of the impacts in due course.
In forming the proposals, that have been consulted on, the department has had extensive engagement with industry, the health and care sector, NHS commissioners and patient representative groups. There will be further engagement with these stakeholders for any amendments to Part IX that are taken forward.
Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answers of 16 October 2023 to Questions 200120, 200121, 200122 and 200123 on Medial Treatments: Innovation, which criteria within the MedTech Strategy Programme governance structures will be used to assess the range of initiatives.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A key criterion is clear, meaningful metrics that directly align to the core priorities of the Strategy. We are working with system partners, industry and patient groups and other key stakeholders to develop meaningful metrics for each initiative and for the overall robust evaluation of the strategy.
Our previous answer, which you reference in your question, outlined the range of different initiatives we are progressing. Each initiative is at a different stage of progress and will work up individual, appropriate criteria with their key delivery partners. These will be reported to programme governance structures as they become available.