Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will have discussions with NICE on developing (a) national guidelines and (b) quality standards for the management of severe eczema in adults.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department regularly holds discussions with colleagues in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) about its guidelines programme. NICE has reviewed its guideline portfolio to identify topics that it thinks will add the most value to the health and care system, considering key factors such as clinical benefit, cost effectiveness, the potential to increase productivity and support workforce issues and the potential to address health inequalities.
Atopic dermatitis (eczema) in young people and adults is one of the topics on which NICE will stop work for the time being to allow them to focus on key priorities. Topics that have been stopped will be reconsidered by NICE’s prioritisation board which is being established in Spring 2024 by its chief medical officer.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of implementing NHS England’s Referral optimisation for people with skin conditions on (i) the cost of treatment and (ii) number of referrals for people with skin conditions in (a) England, (b) Cheshire and Merseyside integrated care system and (c) Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cutting waiting lists is one of the Government’s top priorities. We are making good progress on tackling the longest waits, to ensure that patients get the care they need when they need it.
We are taking action to recover elective services, including for patients waiting for National Health Service dermatology services, by working towards the targets set out in the Elective Recovery Plan and providing the NHS with record levels of staffing and funding. To facilitate this across the NHS in England, we are: increasing activity, with plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25; expanding capacity though creating a new network of community diagnostic centres; and maximising all available independent sector capacity. We are managing demand through specialised advice in primary care and giving patients more control over where they receive their care, and we are increasing productivity through transforming outpatient services, developing new surgical hubs to increase theatre productivity and working actively with trusts to support and challenge on their performance.
No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of implementing NHS England’s referral optimisation for people with skin conditions on the cost of treatment and the number of referrals for people with skin conditions in England, Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System or Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
The aim of referral optimisation is to triage referrals using electronic means, so that those with less serious problems can be offered rapid advice by their general practitioner (GP). This has the potential to create efficiencies by offering people with disabling skin problems rapid treatment to get them back to work and functioning at home quickly. Ensuring only those patients with the most serious conditions are sent to hospital will help to reduce waiting lists and ensure NHS hospital resources are used for those most likely to benefit most.
It is important that integrated care systems work with both GPs and hospitals to monitor referral numbers and ensure that the benefits of electronic triage are not outweighed by increased demand.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the time taken for patients with inflammatory skin conditions to be referred for specialist care on the cost of treatment for such conditions.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cutting waiting lists is one of the Government’s top priorities. We are making good progress on tackling the longest waits, to ensure that patients get the care they need when they need it.
We are taking action to recover elective services, including for patients waiting for National Health Service dermatology services, by working towards the targets set out in the Elective Recovery Plan and providing the NHS with record levels of staffing and funding. To facilitate this across the NHS in England, we are: increasing activity, with plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25; expanding capacity though creating a new network of community diagnostic centres; and maximising all available independent sector capacity. We are managing demand through specialised advice in primary care and giving patients more control over where they receive their care, and we are increasing productivity through transforming outpatient services, developing new surgical hubs to increase theatre productivity and working actively with trusts to support and challenge on their performance.
No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of implementing NHS England’s referral optimisation for people with skin conditions on the cost of treatment and the number of referrals for people with skin conditions in England, Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System or Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
The aim of referral optimisation is to triage referrals using electronic means, so that those with less serious problems can be offered rapid advice by their general practitioner (GP). This has the potential to create efficiencies by offering people with disabling skin problems rapid treatment to get them back to work and functioning at home quickly. Ensuring only those patients with the most serious conditions are sent to hospital will help to reduce waiting lists and ensure NHS hospital resources are used for those most likely to benefit most.
It is important that integrated care systems work with both GPs and hospitals to monitor referral numbers and ensure that the benefits of electronic triage are not outweighed by increased demand.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the time taken for patients with inflammatory skin conditions to access (a) specialist care and support and (b) treatment.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Cutting waiting lists is one of the Government’s top priorities. We are making good progress on tackling the longest waits, to ensure that patients get the care they need when they need it.
We are taking action to recover elective services, including for patients waiting for National Health Service dermatology services, by working towards the targets set out in the Elective Recovery Plan and providing the NHS with record levels of staffing and funding. To facilitate this across the NHS in England, we are: increasing activity, with plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25; expanding capacity though creating a new network of community diagnostic centres; and maximising all available independent sector capacity. We are managing demand through specialised advice in primary care and giving patients more control over where they receive their care, and we are increasing productivity through transforming outpatient services, developing new surgical hubs to increase theatre productivity and working actively with trusts to support and challenge on their performance.
No specific assessment has been made of the potential impact of implementing NHS England’s referral optimisation for people with skin conditions on the cost of treatment and the number of referrals for people with skin conditions in England, Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System or Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
The aim of referral optimisation is to triage referrals using electronic means, so that those with less serious problems can be offered rapid advice by their general practitioner (GP). This has the potential to create efficiencies by offering people with disabling skin problems rapid treatment to get them back to work and functioning at home quickly. Ensuring only those patients with the most serious conditions are sent to hospital will help to reduce waiting lists and ensure NHS hospital resources are used for those most likely to benefit most.
It is important that integrated care systems work with both GPs and hospitals to monitor referral numbers and ensure that the benefits of electronic triage are not outweighed by increased demand.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 85 of the Getting it Right First Time report on Dermatology, published by the NHS in August 2021, how many and what proportion of trusts are required to wait for commissioner approval before prescribing (a) NICE-approved biologics for psoriasis and (b) other NICE-approved drugs.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As advised in the Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) national report on dermatology, published in August 2021, 56% of trusts reported that they had to wait for commissioner approval before prescribing drugs approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and 12% of trusts said they had been told by clinical commissioning groups that they could not prescribe certain NICE-approved biologics for psoriasis at the time of NHS England’s data questionnaire in 2018/19.
During GIRFT’s subsequent deep dives into the 110 trusts with significant dermatology activity, it became apparent that there was ongoing variation in the way trusts adopt NICE guidelines. While some allow clinicians to prescribe drugs as soon as they are NICE approved, others have processes in place which can produce delays of more than a year in some cases.
GIRFT is aiming to publish trust- and system-level data for dermatology on the Model Health System in early 2024, enabling dermatology clinicians and managers to monitor their variation in provision of care, services, and treatments for skin disorders. Specific metrics for inflammatory skin disorders, including biologic prescribing for psoriasis and eczema, will be included. The aim is to use this data to inform the dermatology element of GIRFT’s Further Faster programme to help target unwarranted variation in care provision for inflammatory skin disease. The Further Faster programme supports providers to deliver rapid clinical transformation to reduce 52-week waits.
There are no plans to introduce specific targets to adopt the NHS England guidance on Referral Optimisation for people with skin conditions. The Outpatient Recovery & Transformation Programme in NHS England will continue to promote the guidance through NHS England regional teams, integrated care boards and directly to provider organisations.
In addition, specific engagement events, such as the webinar delivered on 21 November 2023, will continue to reinforce the need for appropriate and timely referral optimisation across skin care pathways. The programme is working closely with GIRFT and the Further Faster teams to ensure that referral optimisation is seen as a valuable tool to effectively manage the skin care pathway. Through this effort to engage the system combined with the publication of consistent guidance and evidence across the whole skin care pathway, it is hoped that variation can be reduced, across pathway implementation.
It should be recognised that there may be appropriate clinical reasons for some regional or local variation, so it is important to ensure that all patients who need specialist skincare have equal access. The programme will look to review data over the course of the year to understand the impact and consider relevant next steps.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to monitor the effectiveness of NHS England’s guidance on Referral optimisation for people with skin conditions.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As advised in the Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) national report on dermatology, published in August 2021, 56% of trusts reported that they had to wait for commissioner approval before prescribing drugs approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and 12% of trusts said they had been told by clinical commissioning groups that they could not prescribe certain NICE-approved biologics for psoriasis at the time of NHS England’s data questionnaire in 2018/19.
During GIRFT’s subsequent deep dives into the 110 trusts with significant dermatology activity, it became apparent that there was ongoing variation in the way trusts adopt NICE guidelines. While some allow clinicians to prescribe drugs as soon as they are NICE approved, others have processes in place which can produce delays of more than a year in some cases.
GIRFT is aiming to publish trust- and system-level data for dermatology on the Model Health System in early 2024, enabling dermatology clinicians and managers to monitor their variation in provision of care, services, and treatments for skin disorders. Specific metrics for inflammatory skin disorders, including biologic prescribing for psoriasis and eczema, will be included. The aim is to use this data to inform the dermatology element of GIRFT’s Further Faster programme to help target unwarranted variation in care provision for inflammatory skin disease. The Further Faster programme supports providers to deliver rapid clinical transformation to reduce 52-week waits.
There are no plans to introduce specific targets to adopt the NHS England guidance on Referral Optimisation for people with skin conditions. The Outpatient Recovery & Transformation Programme in NHS England will continue to promote the guidance through NHS England regional teams, integrated care boards and directly to provider organisations.
In addition, specific engagement events, such as the webinar delivered on 21 November 2023, will continue to reinforce the need for appropriate and timely referral optimisation across skin care pathways. The programme is working closely with GIRFT and the Further Faster teams to ensure that referral optimisation is seen as a valuable tool to effectively manage the skin care pathway. Through this effort to engage the system combined with the publication of consistent guidance and evidence across the whole skin care pathway, it is hoped that variation can be reduced, across pathway implementation.
It should be recognised that there may be appropriate clinical reasons for some regional or local variation, so it is important to ensure that all patients who need specialist skincare have equal access. The programme will look to review data over the course of the year to understand the impact and consider relevant next steps.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will set a target for the number of trusts to adopt the NHS England guidance on Referral optimisation for people with skin conditions.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As advised in the Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) national report on dermatology, published in August 2021, 56% of trusts reported that they had to wait for commissioner approval before prescribing drugs approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and 12% of trusts said they had been told by clinical commissioning groups that they could not prescribe certain NICE-approved biologics for psoriasis at the time of NHS England’s data questionnaire in 2018/19.
During GIRFT’s subsequent deep dives into the 110 trusts with significant dermatology activity, it became apparent that there was ongoing variation in the way trusts adopt NICE guidelines. While some allow clinicians to prescribe drugs as soon as they are NICE approved, others have processes in place which can produce delays of more than a year in some cases.
GIRFT is aiming to publish trust- and system-level data for dermatology on the Model Health System in early 2024, enabling dermatology clinicians and managers to monitor their variation in provision of care, services, and treatments for skin disorders. Specific metrics for inflammatory skin disorders, including biologic prescribing for psoriasis and eczema, will be included. The aim is to use this data to inform the dermatology element of GIRFT’s Further Faster programme to help target unwarranted variation in care provision for inflammatory skin disease. The Further Faster programme supports providers to deliver rapid clinical transformation to reduce 52-week waits.
There are no plans to introduce specific targets to adopt the NHS England guidance on Referral Optimisation for people with skin conditions. The Outpatient Recovery & Transformation Programme in NHS England will continue to promote the guidance through NHS England regional teams, integrated care boards and directly to provider organisations.
In addition, specific engagement events, such as the webinar delivered on 21 November 2023, will continue to reinforce the need for appropriate and timely referral optimisation across skin care pathways. The programme is working closely with GIRFT and the Further Faster teams to ensure that referral optimisation is seen as a valuable tool to effectively manage the skin care pathway. Through this effort to engage the system combined with the publication of consistent guidance and evidence across the whole skin care pathway, it is hoped that variation can be reduced, across pathway implementation.
It should be recognised that there may be appropriate clinical reasons for some regional or local variation, so it is important to ensure that all patients who need specialist skincare have equal access. The programme will look to review data over the course of the year to understand the impact and consider relevant next steps.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department is taking steps to assess the level of regional variation in access to (a) care, (b) services and (c) treatment for patients with inflammatory skin conditions.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As advised in the Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) national report on dermatology, published in August 2021, 56% of trusts reported that they had to wait for commissioner approval before prescribing drugs approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and 12% of trusts said they had been told by clinical commissioning groups that they could not prescribe certain NICE-approved biologics for psoriasis at the time of NHS England’s data questionnaire in 2018/19.
During GIRFT’s subsequent deep dives into the 110 trusts with significant dermatology activity, it became apparent that there was ongoing variation in the way trusts adopt NICE guidelines. While some allow clinicians to prescribe drugs as soon as they are NICE approved, others have processes in place which can produce delays of more than a year in some cases.
GIRFT is aiming to publish trust- and system-level data for dermatology on the Model Health System in early 2024, enabling dermatology clinicians and managers to monitor their variation in provision of care, services, and treatments for skin disorders. Specific metrics for inflammatory skin disorders, including biologic prescribing for psoriasis and eczema, will be included. The aim is to use this data to inform the dermatology element of GIRFT’s Further Faster programme to help target unwarranted variation in care provision for inflammatory skin disease. The Further Faster programme supports providers to deliver rapid clinical transformation to reduce 52-week waits.
There are no plans to introduce specific targets to adopt the NHS England guidance on Referral Optimisation for people with skin conditions. The Outpatient Recovery & Transformation Programme in NHS England will continue to promote the guidance through NHS England regional teams, integrated care boards and directly to provider organisations.
In addition, specific engagement events, such as the webinar delivered on 21 November 2023, will continue to reinforce the need for appropriate and timely referral optimisation across skin care pathways. The programme is working closely with GIRFT and the Further Faster teams to ensure that referral optimisation is seen as a valuable tool to effectively manage the skin care pathway. Through this effort to engage the system combined with the publication of consistent guidance and evidence across the whole skin care pathway, it is hoped that variation can be reduced, across pathway implementation.
It should be recognised that there may be appropriate clinical reasons for some regional or local variation, so it is important to ensure that all patients who need specialist skincare have equal access. The programme will look to review data over the course of the year to understand the impact and consider relevant next steps.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of publishing quarterly updates on data that helps illustrate the levels of utilisation of her Department's access initiatives including the (a) Innovative Medicines Fund, (b) Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway and (c) Early Access to Medicines Scheme.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency already publishes updates on the use of the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway and the Early Access to Medicines Scheme. NHS England plans to publish similar quarterly updates for the Innovative Medicine Fund as are published for the Cancer Drugs Fund.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of publishing quarterly reports on progress made against the commitments set out in her Department's England Rare Diseases Action Plan 2023, last updated on 10 July 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While there are no plans to publish quarterly reports on progress made against the commitments of England’s second Rare Diseases Action Plan 2023. We have committed to publishing action plans annually and England’s third Rare Diseases Action Plan will detail progress made in the past year. In addition, minutes of the eight weekly England Rare Diseases Framework Delivery Group meetings, where progress is monitored, are published to the UK Rare Disease Forum on-line platform and the UK Rare Diseases Forum receives updates on progress across the four nations at its quarterly meetings.