Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the provision of psychological support for adults with muscular dystrophy and neuromuscular conditions.
Answered by Steve Brine
No specific assessment has been made. Guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has been published for a number of neuromuscular disorders, and where appropriate, the guidance makes recommendations about access to psychological and counselling support for patients. In addition, NHS England has also set out that specialised care for patients with neuromuscular disorders, such as muscular dystrophy, should provide access to psychologists and/or counsellors.
NHS England is also working with the Neurological Alliance in support of the new national Neurology Advisory Group, which is considering ways to reduce variation and drive improvement in neurological care. This includes looking at issues such as psychological support, which were recently raised in the report Parity of esteem for people affected by neurological conditions: meeting the emotional, cognitive & mental health needs of neurology patients, published by the Neurological Alliance on 5 July 2017.
Finally, as set out in Implementing the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published in July 2016, the expansion of psychological therapies services will require building skills and capacity in the workforce. This includes: top-up training in new competencies for long-term conditions (relevant to people with neuromuscular disorders and other long term health problems) and medically unexplained symptoms for current staff; targeted training in working with older people; and training new staff to increase overall capacity – such as the 3,000 additional mental health therapists located in primary care.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to increase GP training to improve the detection of bowel cancer.
Answered by Steve Brine
The standard of medical training is the responsibility of the General Medical Council (GMC), which is an independent statutory body. The GMC has the general function of promoting high standards of education and co-ordinating all stages of education to ensure that medical students and newly qualified doctors are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes essential for professional practice. Continuing professional and personal development for registered professionals employed in the National Health Service is a matter for employers and those individuals.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department takes to monitor adherence to waiting-time standards for suspected bowel cancer.
Answered by Steve Brine
Maintaining and improving patient access standards, including the eight cancer waiting times standards is a key objective of the Mandate to NHS England in 2017/18. NHS England has set out their approach to meeting and improving patient access standards in the ‘Next steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View’ which was produced in partnership with organisations including NHS Improvement.
The Department uses performance data published on a monthly basis by NHS England to monitor compliance with the cancer waiting times standards and there are robust processes in place to hold NHS England and NHS Improvement to account for performance and ensure compliance with the cancer standard is discussed in the course of this process.
The latest data for September 2017 showed that the National Health Service is meeting seven out of the eight cancer waiting times standards. The data can be accessed at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to promote awareness and early diagnosis of bowel cancer.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England’s (PHE) Be Clear on Cancer campaigns raise the public’s awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer, and are an important step in diagnosing cancers earlier. The Be Clear on Cancer Abdominal Symptoms pilot campaign aimed to raise awareness of a range of abdominal symptoms that can indicate a number of cancers, including bowel, and encouraged people to visit their doctor promptly. The first pilot ran earlier this year in the East and West Midlands and PHE is working with NHS England on timings and location for the second pilot phase.
Earlier this year, PHE also collaborated with Cancer Research UK to deliver a pilot Be Clear on Cancer campaign in the North West of England to promote uptake of bowel screening; the campaign is currently being evaluated to assess its impact on uptake.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve the identification and management of Lynch syndrome.
Answered by Steve Brine
Testing for Lynch syndrome in people with colorectal cancer is targeted using criteria based on family history and age of cancer onset to determine those at highest risk. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance recommends extending this offer to all people with colorectal cancer when they are first diagnosed.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to promote awareness and early diagnosis of bowel cancer.
Answered by Steve Brine
Public Health England’s (PHE) Be Clear on Cancer campaigns raise the public’s awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer, and are an important step in diagnosing cancers earlier. The Be Clear on Cancer Abdominal Symptoms pilot campaign aimed to raise awareness of a range of abdominal symptoms that can indicate a number of cancers, including bowel, and encouraged people to visit their doctor promptly. The first pilot ran earlier this year in the East and West Midlands and PHE is working with NHS England on timings and location for the second pilot phase.
Earlier this year, PHE also collaborated with Cancer Research UK to deliver a pilot Be Clear on Cancer campaign in the North West of England to promote uptake of bowel screening; the campaign is currently being evaluated to assess its impact on uptake.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve the identification and management of Lynch syndrome.
Answered by Steve Brine
Testing for Lynch syndrome in people with colorectal cancer is targeted using criteria based on family history and age of cancer onset to determine those at highest risk. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance recommends extending this offer to all people with colorectal cancer when they are first diagnosed.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of funding for research on cervical cancer in the last five years.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Department funds research into all aspects of human health, including cancer, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) at the level of £1 billion per year. NIHR cancer research expenditure has risen from £101 million in 2010/11 to £137 million in 2016/17.
As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. The level of research spend in a particular area, such as cervical cancer, is driven by factors including scientific potential and the number and scale of successful funding applications.
Nineteen major funders of cancer research in the United Kingdom work together as the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI). These funders include the Department, the Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK. Through coordinating their research, NCRI partners maximise the impact of research for cancer patients and the public.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to increase cervical cancer screening uptakes among women in the 25 to 29 age group.
Answered by Steve Brine
A range of work is being undertaken by Public Health England (PHE) to understand the reasons for the decline in uptake and to support the National Health Service and local authorities to address them. They include access to timely and useful data for benchmarking, evidence on best practices to increase uptake among women who wish to be screened, using governance levers to advice NHS and local authorities and working in partnership with commissioners, providers and charities.
NHS England closely monitors the coverage rates for cervical screening in all age groups. Local NHS England commissioners analyse coverage rates within their area and work with general practices to improve coverage by sharing best practice. Work done to increase uptake includes sharing and implementing best practice such as cervical screening guides for general practitioner (GP) practices or targeting practices with low coverage rates, where relevant this includes working to retain delivery via the genitourinary medicine clinics, further roll out of GP-endorsed text reminder services, and supporting non NHS England research project for self-testing pilot for cervical screening.
At a national level, NHS England is working with PHE to make evidence-based improvements such as improving invitation letters to patients to encourage more to attend their cervical screening appointment.
NHS England is working in partnership with Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support on the Accelerate, Coordinate, Evaluate (ACE) Programme aiming to generate knowledge about effective approaches to achieve earlier diagnosis. A number of ACE test sites are evaluating approaches to increase screening rates in a range of groups, including black and ethnic minority women, women with learning disabilities and women from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to address the downward trend in cervical cancer screening rates among women.
Answered by Steve Brine
A range of work is being undertaken by Public Health England (PHE) to understand the reasons for the decline in uptake and to support the National Health Service and local authorities to address them. They include access to timely and useful data for benchmarking, evidence on best practices to increase uptake among women who wish to be screened, using governance levers to advice NHS and local authorities and working in partnership with commissioners, providers and charities.
NHS England closely monitors the coverage rates for cervical screening in all age groups. Local NHS England commissioners analyse coverage rates within their area and work with general practices to improve coverage by sharing best practice. Work done to increase uptake includes sharing and implementing best practice such as cervical screening guides for general practitioner (GP) practices or targeting practices with low coverage rates, where relevant this includes working to retain delivery via the genitourinary medicine clinics, further roll out of GP-endorsed text reminder services, and supporting non NHS England research project for self-testing pilot for cervical screening.
At a national level, NHS England is working with PHE to make evidence-based improvements such as improving invitation letters to patients to encourage more to attend their cervical screening appointment.
NHS England is working in partnership with Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support on the Accelerate, Coordinate, Evaluate (ACE) Programme aiming to generate knowledge about effective approaches to achieve earlier diagnosis. A number of ACE test sites are evaluating approaches to increase screening rates in a range of groups, including black and ethnic minority women, women with learning disabilities and women from disadvantaged backgrounds.