Oral Answers to Questions

Paul Burstow Excerpts

Tuesday 12th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

5. What recent progress he has made on the evaluation of the thalidomide grant pilot scheme.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Paul Burstow)]

The thalidomide grant is a three-year pilot, running from April 2010 until March 2013, to explore how the health needs of thalidomide survivors can best be met in the longer term and how such a scheme might be applied to other small groups of geographically dispersed patients with specialised needs. Officials have discussed the evaluation of the first year of the pilot with members of the Thalidomide Trust and its national advisory council and we await the evaluation of the second year.

[Mr Cunningham]

The thalidomide grant was introduced by my right hon. Friend the shadow Secretary of State under the previous Labour Government and has been going on for many years. Can the Minister assure me that it will continue until a decision is taken on whether to carry on with the scheme beyond the pilot stage or to do something else?

[Paul Burstow]

I can certainly assure the hon. Gentleman that we are in earnest in making sure that we learn the lessons from this evaluation and work actively with the Thalidomide Trust to ensure that we implement the lessons in future schemes.

[Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) (Con)]

My constituent Mr Joseph Bannon of Cleveleys, who is a thalidomide patient, has made clear to me the great importance of continuing the scheme. They are a declining group of people with increasing needs and any failure by the state to meet those needs would be absolutely unconscionable. Will the Minister reassure me that there is no prospect of that occurring under this Government?

[Paul Burstow]

What I can reassure the hon. Gentleman about is that the Government are carrying on with the evaluation. We are waiting for the evaluation of the second year to see how the scheme is working. The grant is not intended to meet all the additional costs that thalidomiders face. Aside from the grant, there are other sources of public funding and, of course, the funds that the Thalidomide Trust administers on behalf of those survivors of this catastrophe.

[Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con)]

6. What improvements in health outcomes relating to cancer he anticipates by the end of the decade.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Paul Burstow)]

Our cancer outcomes strategy sets out the ambition to save an additional 5,000 lives every year by 2014-15, which would halve the gap in survival rates between England and the best in Europe. Looking further ahead, our aim is to have survival rates among the best. To realise our goal, we are acting across a broad front: raising public awareness of the symptoms of cancers and supporting GPs; extending screening and the introduction of flexible sigmoidoscopy; improving access to diagnostic tests; expanding radiotherapy; reducing variation in treatment; and improving quality of life for cancer survivors.

[Mr Spencer]

Given the importance of early detection, does my hon. Friend share my concern that young women under the age of 25 in Sherwood are currently being refused smear tests?

[Paul Burstow]

The important point about the extension of any screening programme is that it is based on evidence. The most recent review of cervical smear and screening campaigns took place in 2009, and on the basis of all the available evidence at the time the Government’s advisory committee on cervical screening concluded that it would do more harm than good to extend screening below that age, but it is a standing item on the committee’s agenda. It looks at any new evidence and will continue to do so.

[Dr William McCrea (South Antrim) (DUP)]

Pancreatic cancer is greatly feared by many of our constituents. What funds are going to be made available to assist in its research, and how will the Minister measure improvements in that field?

[Paul Burstow]

I am afraid that I did not entirely hear the hon. Gentleman’s question, but it was about research, and the Government are certainly committed to substantial investment, working with partners to ensure that we have among the best research in the world so that we have access to treatments at the earliest opportunity.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

Does the Minister agree with the recent report by the all-party group on cancer, which found that, if we are to drive improvements and outcomes consistently throughout the NHS, both the one-year and five-year cancer survival rates should be included in the NHS outcomes framework and in the commissioning outcomes framework?

[Paul Burstow]

My hon. Friend, who chairs that all-party group, met me recently to make those points, and as a consequence of that meeting and his excellent note of it I undertook to write to him in greater detail. He will understand that some of those issues go to the heart of data collection and to the quality of the data currently available throughout all cancer sites, and that is the reason why we may not be able to do quite what he wants at the pace that he wants.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Why do the tests for bowel cancer and breast cancer have an age cut-off? Just when people are more likely to have either condition, they are not regularly tested. Why is that the case in many parts of our country?

[Paul Burstow]

On the day that the Government have confirmed that from October there will be a complete ban on age discrimination within the national health service, except when it can be objectively justified, the answer to the hon. Gentleman’s question is that the evidence used to determine who is eligible for a screening programme is the basis on which recommendations are made to the Government, and they will be extended in future.

[Robert Flello (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)]

7. What assessment he has made of the potential effect of regional pay on recruitment in the NHS.

--- Later in debate ---

[Steve Brine (Winchester) (Con)]

15. What progress his Department has made in introducing fully digital breast screening; and if he will make a statement.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Paul Burstow)]

As at 1 May 2012, 74 out of 80 local breast screening services had at least one digital X-ray set, and 53 were fully digital. All services must have at least one digital X-ray set in order to enter the breast screening randomisation project and extend screening to women aged 47 to 73.

[Steve Brine]

I thank the Minister for his reply, but may I press him on making digital happen in my constituency? Where is funding responsibility in the new NHS for investment in new digital equipment and for making the switch? Does it fall 100% with the foundation trust wishing to be commissioned to provide the service, or with the body wanting to commission it, or—dare I say?—is there a third way?

[Paul Burstow]

There are three aspects to that question. The first is that we need to ensure that providers can purchase equipment at the lowest possible price. That is why NHS Supply Chain is making arrangements to ensure that digital mammography is available at the lowest possible price to providers through the various initiatives it is taking. The primary responsibility sits with the provider to provide the equipment against which they have been commissioned to provide services. Of course, in the specification it makes for the service, the commissioner will make it clear that digital is required.

[Mark Lancaster (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

--- Later in debate ---

[Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

Last evening, I attended the launch of UKCK—a group of charities coming together to raise funds to purchase advanced radiotherapy equipment. Will the Minister explain why, despite his previous assurances, regions like the north-east are having to turn to charities to raise funds to buy this potentially life-saving equipment?

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Paul Burstow)]

If the hon. Gentleman would like to supply me with the details of regions that are having to do that, I will certainly write to him on the matter. What we are doing is making an extra £750 million available to the NHS during this spending period to support the investment in radiotherapy services. I will certainly come back to the hon. Gentleman on his particular point.

[Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) (LD)]

In an Adjournment debate last year on the safe and sustainable review, the Minister of State, Department of Health, the right hon. Member for Chelmsford (Mr Burns) confirmed the minimum number of operations at 400 a year, saying that it was based on the level of activity needed to provide good quality care around the clock. Does he share my astonishment that the chairman of the joint committee of PCTs has said that he can give no assurance that that will be included in the final review? Does that not undermine this unhappy process?