Asked by: Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
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 five-year survival rates for (a) acute myeloid leukaemia and (b) other leukaemias.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The age-standardised, one-year net survival for adults, those aged 15 to 99 years old, diagnosed with leukaemia between 2016 and 2020 in England was 74.4%, and the five-year survival rate was 55.9%.
NHS England has implemented non symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms or combinations thereof, that can indicate several different cancers. This includes leukaemia, which can present non-specific symptoms, such as unexpected weight loss and night sweats. The national evaluation showed that blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.
Raising awareness, delivering more research, including into new treatments, and improving early diagnosis of cancers, which includes blood related cancers such as leukaemia, are crucial for improving cancer survival.
Cancer patients are being failed, waiting too long for a diagnosis and treatment. We will bring down waits for cancer appointments with the Fit For the Future fund, doubling the number of state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography in the National Health Service to ensure early diagnosis and faster treatment.
Asked by: Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to implement a cancer strategy over the course of this Parliament.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Professor Lord Darzi is currently undertaking an independent investigation into the state of the National Health Service, the findings of which will feed into the Government’s 10-year plan to build a health service that is fit for the future. The Government will set out any further priorities on cancer and health in due course.
The NHS Long-Term Plan, published in January 2019, sets out the NHS’s key ambitions on cancer. The plan sets out the ambition to increase the number of cancers diagnosed at stage one and two to 75% by 2028, and to increase the number of people surviving cancer for five years by 55,000 as a result.
Asked by: Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the evaluation of non-specific pathways will include granular blood cancer data.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Raising awareness, delivering more research, including into new treatments, and improving early diagnosis of cancers, which includes blood related cancers such as leukaemia, are crucial for improving cancer survival.
NHS England has implemented non-symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms, or combinations thereof, that can indicate several different cancers. This includes leukaemia, which can present non-specific symptoms, such as unexpected weight loss and night sweats. Using its national evaluation, NHS England has determined that blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.
Asked by: Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of leukaemia patients were offered a holistic needs assessment in the last 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed to ensuring that all cancer patients have access to a Holistic Needs Assessment, ensuring care is focused on what matters most to each person.
The 2023 England National Cancer Patient Experience Survey indicates the proportion of people with Leukaemia who reported having had a discussion with a member of the team looking after them, before their treatment started, about their needs or concerns was 72.6%. For people with Leukaemia, a further 24.5% said they had the discussion to some extent, and a total of 97.1% reported having had a discussion.
Asked by: Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to develop a best practice pathway for (a) leukaemia and (b) other blood cancers.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has implemented non-symptom specific pathways for patients who present with symptoms that can indicate several different cancers, including leukaemia. An NHS England national evaluation showed blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.
Asked by: Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
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 ensure consistent publication of data on waiting times for (a) leukaemia and (b) other cancer treatments.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cancer waiting time data is collected by NHS England according to three performance standards: the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), which aims to ensure patients have cancer diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days of referral from a general practice or screening service; the 31-day wait from a decision to treat to first or subsequent treatment of cancer combined standard; and the 62-day referral to first definitive treatment for cancer combined standard.
Data can then be broken down by cancer type. For the FDS, data regarding leukaemia and its sub-types is collected using the following two categories, suspected acute leukaemia and suspected haematological malignancies, excluding acute leukaemia. The latter category includes non-acute leukaemia when there is a suspicion. These statistics are published monthly and are available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/
Asked by: Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) full and (b) part time NHS Supply Chain employees were of what (i) grade and (ii) salary band in the last financial year.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
NHS Supply Chain is managed by Supply Chain Coordination Limited (SCCL) and was established in 2018 under the Department of Health and Social Care Procurement Transformation Programme. NHS Supply Chain includes both employees of SCCL and services providers including those undertaking Procurement Services, Logistics Services and IT Services. For the purposes of this response we have included SCCL employees rather than those of the wider supply chain.
The basic salary costs for the financial year 2022/23 for SCCL employees was £25,643,751.68. The headcount for the years 2020/21 to 2022/23 is as follows:
- 2020/21: 394;
- 2021/22: 449; and
- 2022/23: 682
During the period from 2021 to 2024, several organisational changes led to subsequent changes in responsibility within NHS Supply Chain and growth in those employed directly by SCCL. The increase in headcount in 2022/23 is due to the transfer of colleagues from former services providers of procurement services. These were phased across the financial year, in July, October and February, and therefore the reported total headcount for 2022/23 relates to the outturn number of staff. Previous increases were due to the replacement of day rate contractors with full time employees and investment in roles to strengthen the resilience of the supply chain, in response to the findings of the Boardman Review. SCCL staff are not part of Agenda for Change and, as such, our grading does not match those in other parts of the National Health Service. The following table shows the employees of SCCL in 2022/23, of which 645 were full time and 37 were part time, broken down by salary band:
Salary band | Number of employees |
£0.00 - £25,000 | 38 |
£25,001 - £50,000 | 362 |
£50,001 - £75,000 | 180 |
£75,001 - £100,000 | 43 |
£100,001 - £125,000 | 18 |
£125,001 - £150,000 | 6 |
£150,001 - £175,000 | 1 |
£175,001 - £200,000 | 2 |
As of March 2023, prior to the transfer of procurement teams into SCCL, the total headcount in SCCL plus external procurement service providers was 1272. As of the end of March 2024 this will be 1149 on a like for like basis.
Asked by: Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time staff were employed by NHS Supply Chain in the (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22 and (c) 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
NHS Supply Chain is managed by Supply Chain Coordination Limited (SCCL) and was established in 2018 under the Department of Health and Social Care Procurement Transformation Programme. NHS Supply Chain includes both employees of SCCL and services providers including those undertaking Procurement Services, Logistics Services and IT Services. For the purposes of this response we have included SCCL employees rather than those of the wider supply chain.
The basic salary costs for the financial year 2022/23 for SCCL employees was £25,643,751.68. The headcount for the years 2020/21 to 2022/23 is as follows:
- 2020/21: 394;
- 2021/22: 449; and
- 2022/23: 682
During the period from 2021 to 2024, several organisational changes led to subsequent changes in responsibility within NHS Supply Chain and growth in those employed directly by SCCL. The increase in headcount in 2022/23 is due to the transfer of colleagues from former services providers of procurement services. These were phased across the financial year, in July, October and February, and therefore the reported total headcount for 2022/23 relates to the outturn number of staff. Previous increases were due to the replacement of day rate contractors with full time employees and investment in roles to strengthen the resilience of the supply chain, in response to the findings of the Boardman Review. SCCL staff are not part of Agenda for Change and, as such, our grading does not match those in other parts of the National Health Service. The following table shows the employees of SCCL in 2022/23, of which 645 were full time and 37 were part time, broken down by salary band:
Salary band | Number of employees |
£0.00 - £25,000 | 38 |
£25,001 - £50,000 | 362 |
£50,001 - £75,000 | 180 |
£75,001 - £100,000 | 43 |
£100,001 - £125,000 | 18 |
£125,001 - £150,000 | 6 |
£150,001 - £175,000 | 1 |
£175,001 - £200,000 | 2 |
As of March 2023, prior to the transfer of procurement teams into SCCL, the total headcount in SCCL plus external procurement service providers was 1272. As of the end of March 2024 this will be 1149 on a like for like basis.
Asked by: Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total salary cost was of NHS Supply Chain employees in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
NHS Supply Chain is managed by Supply Chain Coordination Limited (SCCL) and was established in 2018 under the Department of Health and Social Care Procurement Transformation Programme. NHS Supply Chain includes both employees of SCCL and services providers including those undertaking Procurement Services, Logistics Services and IT Services. For the purposes of this response we have included SCCL employees rather than those of the wider supply chain.
The basic salary costs for the financial year 2022/23 for SCCL employees was £25,643,751.68. The headcount for the years 2020/21 to 2022/23 is as follows:
- 2020/21: 394;
- 2021/22: 449; and
- 2022/23: 682
During the period from 2021 to 2024, several organisational changes led to subsequent changes in responsibility within NHS Supply Chain and growth in those employed directly by SCCL. The increase in headcount in 2022/23 is due to the transfer of colleagues from former services providers of procurement services. These were phased across the financial year, in July, October and February, and therefore the reported total headcount for 2022/23 relates to the outturn number of staff. Previous increases were due to the replacement of day rate contractors with full time employees and investment in roles to strengthen the resilience of the supply chain, in response to the findings of the Boardman Review. SCCL staff are not part of Agenda for Change and, as such, our grading does not match those in other parts of the National Health Service. The following table shows the employees of SCCL in 2022/23, of which 645 were full time and 37 were part time, broken down by salary band:
Salary band | Number of employees |
£0.00 - £25,000 | 38 |
£25,001 - £50,000 | 362 |
£50,001 - £75,000 | 180 |
£75,001 - £100,000 | 43 |
£100,001 - £125,000 | 18 |
£125,001 - £150,000 | 6 |
£150,001 - £175,000 | 1 |
£175,001 - £200,000 | 2 |
As of March 2023, prior to the transfer of procurement teams into SCCL, the total headcount in SCCL plus external procurement service providers was 1272. As of the end of March 2024 this will be 1149 on a like for like basis.
Asked by: Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which IT supplier provides the principal IT system utilised by NHS Supply Chain.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
NHS Supply Chain uses technology currently maintained and supported by DXC Technology. DXC Technology were appointed in 2019 following a transition from the former service provider.