Asked by: Nicola Richards (Conservative - West Bromwich East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 23 February 2023 to Question 147435 on HIV Infection: Screening, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of opt-out blood-borne virus testing in ambulance and emergency departments in areas with a high prevalence of HIV in London.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
NHS England has committed £20 million between 2022 and 2025 to fund the expansion of HIV opt-out testing in accident and emergency (A&E) departments in areas with extremely high HIV prevalence. To further maximise the opportunity afforded by the funding for HIV opt-out testing, NHS England decided to implement a combined blood borne viruses (BBV) approach to include Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C testing alongside HIV. The NHS England London region took a decision to include all A&E departments in London the project, some of which were high HIV prevalence areas.
Data from NHS England indicates that this BBV opt-out testing initiative has helped find more than 900 people unaware they are living with HIV, or not accessing HIV care and over 2500 people living with, or not accessing care for Hepatitis B and over 1000 people living with or not accessing care for Hepatitis C during the first 18 months of the programme.
On 9 November 2023, the UK Health Security Agency published an evaluation of the first year of the BBV opt-out testing in A&E departments in local areas with extremely high HIV prevalence. Findings show that the programme has made a significant contribution to BBV testing in England with more than half the number of tests done in the programme compared to BBV tests in other settings.
After careful consideration of the available evidence, the Government has now also committed £20 million to fund new research, commissioned through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), that will involve an expansion and evaluation of BBV opt out testing in a further 47 emergency departments, in high prevalence HIV areas across England (2 or more HIV cases per 1,000 residents). Funding will support 12 months of testing for each emergency department, to begin during the next financial year.
Asked by: Nicola Richards (Conservative - West Bromwich East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Action 7 of the HIV Action Plan, what barriers his Department has identified to retention in care for people living with HIV; and what steps his Department is taking to tackle those barriers.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
The HIV Action Plan is the cornerstone of our approach to drive forward progress and achieve our ambitions to end new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmissions, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030. The Plan is driven forward by an Implementation Steering Group (ISG) comprised by key delivery partners, including the voluntary and community sector. To help fulfil our commitments to optimise rapid access to treatment and retention in care, we are in the process of setting up a retention and re-engagement in care task and finish (T&F) group as a subgroup of the ISG. The T&F group is chaired by NHS England and will provide advice to the ISG on actions needed to increase the number of people retained and re-engaged in care and receiving effective treatment, including addressing barriers which prevent people from accessing services. The recommendations will be considered by the ISG who will agree how best to take it forward.
Asked by: Nicola Richards (Conservative - West Bromwich East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide a breakdown of the number of people with HIV are not retained in care by (a) NHS region, (b) Integrated Care System, (c) NHS Trust, and (d) local authority.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
This information is not held in the format requested.
The number of people not retained in care is included in the HIV Action Plan monitoring and evaluation framework published on 1 December 2022 which is available at the following link:
The following table shows the number of people not attending care for at least 15 months in 2019 to 2021.
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | |
Number of people not attending care for at least 15 months | 2,519 | 4,980 | 4,444 |
Among the 94,695 people seen for human immunodeficiency virus care between 1 October 2019 and 30 September 2020, 4,444 people were not retained in care, that is were not seen for care again for at least 15 months, by the end of 2021.
Asked by: Nicola Richards (Conservative - West Bromwich East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the answer of 23 February to Question 147435 on HIV Infection: Screening, what criteria he will be using to assess whether his department will further expand opt-out HIV testing in areas with a high HIV prevalence.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
When examining the feasibility of further expanding human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) opt-out testing to areas of high prevalence, we will assess its contribution to finding cases of undiagnosed or untreated HIV and preventing further HIV transmissions in the areas it is currently being rolled out. This will be considered alongside data on progress towards our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions, acquired immune deficiency syndrome and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030, including the estimated number of people living with undiagnosed HIV, published regularly by the United Kingdom Health and Security Agency through the HIV Action Plan Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.
Asked by: Nicola Richards (Conservative - West Bromwich East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence entitled HIV testing: increasing uptake among people who may have undiagnosed HIV, published on 1 December 2016, whether his Department plans to provide funding for opt-out HIV testing in emergency departments in (a) West Bromwich East constituency, (b) Sandwell and (c) other areas with a high prevalence of HIV.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
As part of the Government’s ‘Towards Zero: the HIV Action Plan for England - 2022 to 2025’, NHS England has expanded opt-out human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing in accident and emergency departments in areas of extremely high diagnosed HIV prevalence (over five cases per 1,000 people), a proven effective way to identify new HIV cases in line with the guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. NHS England is investing £20 million over three years from 2022 to 2025 to support this activity.
We will be considering the full evidence from the first year of opt-out testing, alongside the data on progress towards our ambition of ending new HIV transmissions in England by 2030, to decide whether we further expand this programme to areas with high HIV prevalence (two to five cases per 1,000 people). We will also share the findings from the opt-out testing programme with local health systems to inform local decisions on expansion.
Asked by: Nicola Richards (Conservative - West Bromwich East)
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 the NHS Long Term Plan ambition to diagnose 75 per cent of cancers at an early stage by 2028.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
NHS Digital’s latest available data shows that 55% of stageable cancers were diagnosed in stage 1 or 2 in the 2019 calendar year.
Asked by: Nicola Richards (Conservative - West Bromwich East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much additional funding his Department will allocate to the expansion of the cancer and diagnostic workforce in (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25.
Answered by Will Quince
In 2022/23 Health Education England is investing £50 million on the priorities identified in the cancer workforce plan phase 1. Spending plans for 2023/24 to 2024/25 inclusive are subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and will be finalised in due course.
Asked by: Nicola Richards (Conservative - West Bromwich East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendation to introduce a targeted lung cancer screening programme.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
We are considering this recommendation with NHS England.
Asked by: Nicola Richards (Conservative - West Bromwich East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish the next stage of the NHS People Plan.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The NHS People Plan is a shared programme of work to grow the workforce, support new ways of working and develop a compassionate and inclusive workplace culture in order to deliver the NHS Long Term Plan.
We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement, Health Education England and with systems and employers to determine our workforce and people priorities beyond April 2021 to support the recovery of National Health Service staff and services.
Asked by: Nicola Richards (Conservative - West Bromwich East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department is providing to elderly residents in (a) West Bromwich East constituency and (b) the wider West Midlands who live alone in assisted living accommodation.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
We have published national guidance for the public, which includes advice for older people and will be relevant for those who live alone in assisted living accommodation in West Bromwich East and the wider West Midlands. The guidance can be found at the following link:
In addition, the NHS Volunteers Responders Programme is a national scheme which provides companionship and support to those who may be isolated from contact with others, including through the check in and chat service. The Programme will continue to be available until at least March 2021.