Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
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 (a) effectiveness and (b) availability of the drug Trikafta for people with cystic fibrosis.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has made no such assessment. Elexacaftor, tezacaftor and ivacaftor combination therapy (or triple therapy, marketed in the United States as Trikafta) does not yet have a marketing authorisation for use in the United Kingdom and the dates for licensing have not yet been confirmed.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinical and cost effective use of NHS resources. It is a condition of the agreement reached between NHS England, NHS Improvement and Vertex that the company will submit its full portfolio of cystic fibrosis medicines, including its new triple therapy to NICE for appraisal.
NICE has begun work for the appraisal and further information is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/proposed/gid-ta10566
NICE will invite the company to provide an evidence submission immediately after the triple therapy has been formally referred to its work programme, expected in February.
Subject to licensing, in order to recommend the triple therapy for routine NHS funding, NICE will need to be assured that Vertex have priced it at a level that is fair to both the NHS and UK taxpayer. In the period leading up that, NICE will work extensively with the company and other stakeholders on putting the best possible evidence submission to its independent advisory committee.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much each clinical commissioning group has spent on child and adolescent mental health services in each year since 2013.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Information on spend on mental health provision for children and young people aged 0-25, by clinical commissioning group is not available prior to 2016/17. Details of spend for 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 is set out in the attached table. This includes spend on eating disorders but excludes spend on learning disabilities.
This information is included in the Mental Health Five Year Forward View Dashboard, published by NHS England, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/taskforce/imp/mh-dashboard/ |
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
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 children and adolescents with mental health problems who required treatment in each year since 2013; and what assessment he has made of the levels of severity of those problems.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Information on the overall prevalence of mental health conditions in children and young people is available in ‘Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2017’, published in November 2018 and available at the following link:
https://files.digital.nhs.uk/A6/EA7D58/MHCYP%202017%20Summary.pdf
NHS Digital has also published experimental statistics covering the number of children and young people accessing National Health Service-funded community mental health services in England. These show that 377,866 children and young people were in contact with NHS-funded community services in 2018/19 and received two clinically meaningful contacts, a proxy for receiving treatment. These are available at the following link:
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
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 increase the number of community pharmacies.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is not actively looking to increase the number of community pharmacies in England.
Applications to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services continue to be determined by NHS England and NHS Improvement, informed by the local pharmaceutical needs assessment, which outlines the level of NHS pharmaceutical services provision in a given area, including if there are any gaps or unmet needs.
In England, access to NHS pharmaceutical services is good. There are over 11,500 community pharmacies, which is 12% more than a decade ago. This coverage means that 80% of the population live within 20 minutes walking distance of a community pharmacy, with more pharmacies in the most deprived areas.
Maintaining access to NHS pharmaceutical services remains an important priority for the Government. We will continue to maintain the good level of access we have in England through the Pharmacy Access Scheme, which provides additional financial support to pharmacies in areas where there are fewer pharmacies.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GPs have been recruited through the international GP recruitment programme in each of the last five years; and which countries those GPs were recruited from.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The International GP Recruitment (IGPR) Programme was announced in August 2017 and recruitment began from April 2018. Prior to this, four pilot schemes were established between May 2016 and November 2017. Data on the number of general practitioners (GPs) who accepted a place on the IGPR programme and the pilot schemes and which countries they were recruited from for the years 2016/17 - 2019/20 could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Staff involved in the IGPR Programme are undertaking wider workforce retention activities and the spend on international recruitment is therefore not separately identifiable. A number of staff roles are shared across general practice workforce initiatives to ensure maximum use of the available resource.
NHS England, Health Education England, and partner organisations continue to review the effectiveness of all measures in place to increase the GP workforce, including international GP recruitment, as part of the wider development of a sustainable general practice workforce.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
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 cost-effectiveness of the international GP recruitment programme compared to other processes for recruiting more GPs.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The International GP Recruitment (IGPR) Programme was announced in August 2017 and recruitment began from April 2018. Prior to this, four pilot schemes were established between May 2016 and November 2017. Data on the number of general practitioners (GPs) who accepted a place on the IGPR programme and the pilot schemes and which countries they were recruited from for the years 2016/17 - 2019/20 could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Staff involved in the IGPR Programme are undertaking wider workforce retention activities and the spend on international recruitment is therefore not separately identifiable. A number of staff roles are shared across general practice workforce initiatives to ensure maximum use of the available resource.
NHS England, Health Education England, and partner organisations continue to review the effectiveness of all measures in place to increase the GP workforce, including international GP recruitment, as part of the wider development of a sustainable general practice workforce.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much has been spend on the international GP recruitment programme in each of the last five years.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The International GP Recruitment (IGPR) Programme was announced in August 2017 and recruitment began from April 2018. Prior to this, four pilot schemes were established between May 2016 and November 2017. Data on the number of general practitioners (GPs) who accepted a place on the IGPR programme and the pilot schemes and which countries they were recruited from for the years 2016/17 - 2019/20 could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Staff involved in the IGPR Programme are undertaking wider workforce retention activities and the spend on international recruitment is therefore not separately identifiable. A number of staff roles are shared across general practice workforce initiatives to ensure maximum use of the available resource.
NHS England, Health Education England, and partner organisations continue to review the effectiveness of all measures in place to increase the GP workforce, including international GP recruitment, as part of the wider development of a sustainable general practice workforce.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
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 make immunoglobulin therapy available for the treatment of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Immunoglobulins are not currently licensed for the treatment of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). However, immunoglobulin therapy may be used ‘off-label’, if there are no other alternative licensed products available and the physician considers that immunoglobin therapy is appropriate to address the clinical need in order to manage a patient with MCAS. This decision, under the full responsibility of the physician, will need to be made following discussion between the physician and the patient.
In order to gain a licence for the use of immunoglobulin therapy for the treatment of MCAS, a Marketing Authorisation Holder would have to submit a variation to their Marketing Authorisation to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) with a dossier compiled of safety and efficacy data. Specialist assessors would review the dossier and a variation to the Marketing Authorisation would only be granted if it is determined that the benefits of the product outweigh any potential risks of using the product in its proposed indication.
The MHRA provides a scientific advice service to Marketing Authorisation Holders regarding their submissions should they request it.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with NICE on its appraised criteria to facilitate progress towards a Managed Access Arrangement for Spinraza.
Answered by Steve Brine
Departmental officials have had a number of discussions with colleagues in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to enquire about progress of the ongoing appraisal of nusinersen (Spinraza) for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy. Discussions between NHS England, NICE and Biogen (the company that manufactures nusinersen) are ongoing to seek to agree a commercial agreement that would enable NICE to recommend use of nusinersen as a clinically and cost effective use of National Health Service resources.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made on the provision of Focused Laser Ablation treatment for prostate cancer available on the NHS.
Answered by Steve Brine
Focused Laser Ablation treatment for prostate cancer is not within the scope of services commissioned by NHS England. We continue to encourage clinical commissioning groups and providers to offer services in line with the latest National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance.