Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of stem cell transplant patients on the Shielded Patients List.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No estimate has been made. People who have had stem cell transplants are not separately identifiable on the Shielded Patients List.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance he plans to issue to employers on their responsibilities to support individuals who are advised to continue shielding by their healthcare teams beyond 1 August 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Employers have a legal duty to make sure the workplace is safe for their employees, including employees with disabilities and those who are clinically vulnerable or clinically extremely vulnerable.
Guidance on working safely during the COVID-19 outbreak has been issued to help employers in England make their workplaces COVID-19-safe for their employees, visitors and customers. This is available at the following link:
www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19
We are continuing to work across Government to ensure that clinically extremely vulnerable people can return to work safely. Further guidance will be issued on 1 August 2020.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
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 ensure that (a) people who have been advised by their healthcare teams to shield beyond 1 August 2020 and (b) other people on the Shielded Patients List are able to access healthcare up to and after that date.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
From 1 August the Government will be advising that shielding will be paused, unless local measures are in place. From this date, the Government is advising the clinically extremely vulnerable to adopt strict social distancing rather than full shielding measures. Strict social distancing means you may wish to go out to more places and see more people but you should take particular care to minimise contact with others outside your household or support bubble.
The core support offer, which will continue to be available to the end of July, covers the following three areas of assistance:
- Essential supplies – a free, standardised weekly parcel of food and household essentials;
- Medicines – arrangements to have medicines delivered to people’s homes by local community pharmacies or their dispensing doctor; and
- Social contact and basic needs – for example, emotional or social support such as people to talk to on the phone or via a computer.
After 1 August, NHS Volunteers will continue to help with transport to a medical appointment, medicines deliveries and provide peer support and companionship to people who are shielding as they transition to the new guidance.
The Government will continue to engage extensively with partners and the healthcare system throughout this process to help ensure they are meeting the needs of those who are clinically extremely vulnerable.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to ensure that the target set out in the NHS long term plan that 50 per cent of teenagers and young adults with cancer will be able to take part in clinical trials by 2025.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is working with NHS England, cancer charities, teenage and young adult cancer patients, and clinicians towards meeting this NHS Long Term Plan commitment.
The NIHR Clinical Research Network has held two summits. The first summit, held in 2017, developed a clear strategy. The second summit, held in April this year, focused on ensuring that the strategy’s objectives were still fit for purpose, and that the right stakeholders were engaged to ensure successful delivery. The NIHR Clinical Research Network is now funding a dedicated teenage and young adult cancer research nurse in each of its 15 Local Clinical Research Networks, with posts made available from 1 April 2019.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of findings from Teenage Cancer Trust and Public Health England which show significant variation in the incidence and survival rate of cancer among 13 to 24 year olds based on geography and deprivation.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
As part of the work undertaken to review national service specifications for Teenagers and Young Adult (TYA) cancer services, NHS England worked closely with Public Health England and the Teenage Cancer Trust to review current public health data, this included the data underpinning the following report:
A public consultation will commence shortly over NHS England’s proposals to drive improvement in TYA cancer services. These include empowering local TYA Cancer Principal Treatment Centres to drive network-wide service improvement in both outcomes and experience and working in close partnership with TYA Designated Hospitals as part of a network. This approach will allow local flexibility to put in place solutions that are tailored to local needs. Further detail will be available on publication of the consultation guide.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Sir Mike Richards’ review of current cancer screening programmes and diagnostic capacity will consider the level of access to breast cancer screening for high risk groups.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England asked Sir Mike Richards to lead a review to improve the delivery of the screening programmes, increase uptake, learn the lessons from the recent issues around breast and cervical screening, and modernise and expand diagnostic capacity in England.
The independent review of cancer screening will include a ‘call for evidence’, however we understand from NHS England that there are no plans for a full public consultation.
The review will take account of views from partner organisations including charities and patient representative groups. Patients are also invited to engage with the review and patient groups will be consulted through engagement with partner organisations including charities and patient representative groups as part the ‘call for evidence’.
The review will assess current strengths and weaknesses in the current commissioning and delivery arrangements for the national cancer screening programmes, including breast cancer screening, in England and how best to maximise uptake across geographies and population groups.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to consult patients as part of Sir Mike Richards’ review of cancer screening programmes and diagnostic capacity.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England asked Sir Mike Richards to lead a review to improve the delivery of the screening programmes, increase uptake, learn the lessons from the recent issues around breast and cervical screening, and modernise and expand diagnostic capacity in England.
The independent review of cancer screening will include a ‘call for evidence’, however we understand from NHS England that there are no plans for a full public consultation.
The review will take account of views from partner organisations including charities and patient representative groups. Patients are also invited to engage with the review and patient groups will be consulted through engagement with partner organisations including charities and patient representative groups as part the ‘call for evidence’.
The review will assess current strengths and weaknesses in the current commissioning and delivery arrangements for the national cancer screening programmes, including breast cancer screening, in England and how best to maximise uptake across geographies and population groups.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if there will be a full public consultation as part of Sir Mike Richards’ review of current cancer screening programmes and diagnostic capacity.
Answered by Steve Brine
NHS England asked Sir Mike Richards to lead a review to improve the delivery of the screening programmes, increase uptake, learn the lessons from the recent issues around breast and cervical screening, and modernise and expand diagnostic capacity in England.
The independent review of cancer screening will include a ‘call for evidence’, however we understand from NHS England that there are no plans for a full public consultation.
The review will take account of views from partner organisations including charities and patient representative groups. Patients are also invited to engage with the review and patient groups will be consulted through engagement with partner organisations including charities and patient representative groups as part the ‘call for evidence’.
The review will assess current strengths and weaknesses in the current commissioning and delivery arrangements for the national cancer screening programmes, including breast cancer screening, in England and how best to maximise uptake across geographies and population groups.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the rare disease medicines that do not meet the Highly Specialised Technology Criteria have been approved for access by NICE.
Answered by Steve Brine
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has advised that it has published 48 technology appraisals of orphan medicines for rare diseases, of which it has recommended 75% for some or all of the eligible patient population.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Scottish Medicines Consortium’s announcement on 8 October 2018 of the introduction of a revised definition for an ultra-orphan medicine, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of adopting the same definition.
Answered by Steve Brine
The Department has made no such assessment. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service in England on the use of most new medicines through its technology appraisal programme and also operates a separate highly specialised technologies programme for the evaluation of very high cost drugs for the treatment of very small numbers of patients. NICE operates a topic selection process that includes consideration of individual topics against published criteria and engagement with stakeholders to determine whether topics are suitable for assessment by NICE and, if so, which programme is most appropriate.