Asked by: Sadik Al-Hassan (Labour - North Somerset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) hospitalisations and (b) deaths that have been prevented by RSV vaccines administered through the early adopter community pharmacy sites.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
People are eligible for the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination if they are pregnant, from 28 weeks onwards, or if they are aged 75 to 79 years old.
Some people aged 75 to 79 years old have been able to receive the RSV vaccine from a small number of community pharmacy pilot sites in the East of England. Approximately 8,000 individuals received their RSV vaccine in these community pharmacies between October and November 2024. The majority of the programme was delivered in general practice.
Overall, the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) findings indicate that there were 30% fewer hospital admissions in 75 to 79 year olds, who are eligible for the vaccine under the new programme, than there would have been without vaccination. This was seen after approximately 40% of eligible older people took up the vaccine this winter, and the impact is expected to increase with further vaccine uptake.
A UKHSA-led evaluation of the expansion of the community pharmacy RSV vaccination pilot is underway, covering a further 200 sites.
Asked by: Sadik Al-Hassan (Labour - North Somerset)
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 ensure a sufficient number of Designated Prescribing Practitioners to mentor all new non-medical prescribers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is investing in training for independent prescribers, as well as initiatives to support the development and safe practice of designated prescribing practitioners (DPPs) and educational supervisors. A DPP is a healthcare professional with legal independent prescribing rights who will mentor and supervise the pharmacist during the period of learning in practice. This will ensure the National Health Service is ready to support and mentor foundation trainee pharmacists from the 2025/26 academic year, alongside training existing pharmacists that are learning to be independent prescribers.
Reforms to pharmacist education and training will allow for the development of prescriber pharmacists from the point of registration from 2026. This will enable a career-long focus on prescriber services and an associated expansion of the DPP workforce, to support multi-professional teams and the expansion of cross-sector prescribing services.
NHS England has funded 3,000 training places for existing pharmacists to become independent prescribers, and is training 1,000 DPP and educational supervisors to support the training of pharmacist independent prescribers.
Asked by: Sadik Al-Hassan (Labour - North Somerset)
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 adequacy of care for bladder cancer in each region; and if he will hold discussions with NICE guidelines on the time taken to update its guidelines on bladder cancer care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to improving cancer care in all regions of England, including for bladder cancer patients. The National Health Service has exceeded their pledge to deliver an extra two million appointments, having now delivered over three million more appointments as the first step to ensuring earlier and faster access to diagnosis and treatment.
The National Cancer Plan, due for publication later this year, will include further details on how the NHS will improve care for bladder cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and access to treatment. Furthermore, it will ensure that patients have access to the latest treatments and technology. These actions will help bring this country’s cancer survival rates back up to the standards of the best in the world.
Reducing inequalities and variation in cancer diagnosis and treatment is a priority for the Government and will be included as a key area of focus in the plan.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is in the process of updating its guideline on the diagnosis and management of bladder cancer, following the NICE prioritisation board’s decision that this work should proceed. The NICE’s current guideline on the diagnosis and management of bladder cancer is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng2
This work will be a partial update of the guideline, to include the recommendations on treating non-muscle invasive bladder cancer and muscle-invasive bladder cancer, and on managing locally advanced or metastatic muscle-invasive bladder cancer. NICE also plans to update the section of the guideline on diagnosing and staging.
NICE will set a provisional timeline for the update in due course and will share updates on its website as the update progresses.
Asked by: Sadik Al-Hassan (Labour - North Somerset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to his Answer of 16 May 2025 to Question 51728, what steps he is taking to ensure that patients (a) improve and (b) protect their own health.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst it is too early to say exactly what the 10-Year Health Plan will look like, what is certain is that delivering on prevention remains a priority as part of the plan’s three shifts, to get the health service and the nation’s health thriving once again. Through the 10-Year Health Plan, we want to take action to reduce the causes of the biggest killers and ensure the National Health Service uses its relationship with patients to help patients improve and protect their own health.
We have already taken action. For example, the landmark Tobacco and Vapes Bill will gradually end the sale of tobacco products across the country and will ban vapes and other nicotine products from being deliberately branded and advertised to children.
The NHS Health Check aims to detect people at risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and kidney disease, as well as providing advice on reducing cardiovascular disease risk and referring people for support and treatment to improve their health. It is offered to eligible people aged between 40 and 74 years old once every five years. To improve access and engagement, we are developing a new online service that people can use at home to understand and act on their cardiovascular disease risk.
We already have one of the most extensive vaccination programmes in the world, with vaccine confidence and uptake rates among the highest globally. The Department is working with the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England to take steps to promote uptake by providing diverse delivery methods to make getting vaccinated easier, increasing outreach efforts to under-served groups, and raising awareness of the dangers of vaccine preventable diseases.
Asked by: Sadik Al-Hassan (Labour - North Somerset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many commercial agreements NHS England has made with manufacturers of medicines which have r resulted in indication-specific pricing between January 2020 and March 2025; and what therapeutic area these have been for.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information provided by NHS England shows that there have been 74 commercial agreements involving indication-specific pricing arrangements between January 2020 and March 2025. The following table shows the split by therapeutic areas:
Cancer | 62 |
Haematology | 5 |
Other | 7 |
Note: therapeutic areas with fewer than five commercial agreements have been grouped under Other to avoid identification of specific commercial deals.
Asked by: Sadik Al-Hassan (Labour - North Somerset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of school nurses have received specialist training in (a) allergy and (b) anaphylaxis management.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data is not held centrally on the number of school nurses who have received specialist training in allergy and anaphylaxis management. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) sets the standards for education preparation for school nurses, who are registered nurses that undertake a post-graduate Specialist Public Health Nurse qualification with an NMC-approved university. School nurses will then also undertake any mandatory training required by their employer, as appropriate to their role.
Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on schools to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions. Schools should ensure they are aware of any pupils with medical conditions, and should have policies and processes in place to ensure that these can be well managed, including for allergies. The policy should also set out how staff will be supported in carrying out their role to support pupils, including how training needs are assessed and how training is commissioned and provided. Any member of school staff providing support to a pupil with medical needs should have received suitable training. NHS England has also produced the Health School Child e-learning programme, which is available at the following link:
https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/healthy-school-child/
This is designed for healthcare professionals, including school nurses, working with children aged five to 12 years old. Module 5 of the e-learning programme includes sessions on asthma, eczema, and other allergies.
Asked by: Sadik Al-Hassan (Labour - North Somerset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to prevent spoke pharmacies from charging patients for additional services which are delivered by an outsourced hub partner.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For medicines prescribed as part of National Health Service primary care, patients either pay the standard NHS prescription charge or receive their prescriptions free of charge, depending on eligibility. Pharmacies are responsible for collecting these charges on behalf of the NHS and are not permitted to charge patients more than the set fee, even if the medicines have been assembled at the hub pharmacy.
Pharmacies can offer private services to patients and charge additional fees to those who choose these services, for example, to have medicines delivered to their homes. Distance selling pharmacies are contractually required to deliver medicines to patients free of charge and this requirement will not be affected if a distance selling pharmacy engages a hub.
Asked by: Sadik Al-Hassan (Labour - North Somerset)
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 potential impact of NHS England’s criterion for eligibility for indication-specific pricing to demonstrate revenue loss on the UK’s international competitiveness in life sciences.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is taking decisive steps to secure the future of life sciences research in the United Kingdom and to ensure we remain internationally competitive. The upcoming Life Sciences Sector Plan sets out a bold vision to strengthen our world-class research and development, attract global investment, and accelerate healthcare innovation.
The National Health Service seeks the best value in its commercial deals for patients and taxpayers. The recent NHS Commercial Framework consultation clarified the circumstances in which indication specific pricing will be considered in England. The framework now provides further guidance relating to the time period over which revenue loss is considered and the components included in its calculation, referencing the potential to include future indications where there is a high degree of confidence of regulatory approval, a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommendation, and forecast volumes and prices. This will help companies better understand the circumstances in which indication specific pricing may be available to support patient access to new medicines.
Asked by: Sadik Al-Hassan (Labour - North Somerset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to include policies on self-care within the forthcoming 10-year Health Plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan will describe a shared vision for the health and care system in 2035, drawing directly from the extensive engagement that has been undertaken with the public, patients, and staff. The plan will set out how care models and pathways will need to change or evolve to better meet their needs, and the cultural and behavioural changes we want to see. The plan’s shift from sickness to prevention will help ensure the National Health Service uses its relationship with patients to help patients improve and protect their own health.
Asked by: Sadik Al-Hassan (Labour - North Somerset)
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 adequacy of regulation of access to controlled drugs in care homes in North Somerset.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Enhanced health in care homes framework, every care home must be aligned to a primary care network (PCN) and must have established protocols between the PCN, the care home, and system partners, such as local general practices and pharmacies, for information sharing, shared care planning, use of shared care records, and clear clinical governance.
Pharmacies are expected to maintain a reasonable stock holding to meet their legal obligations to dispense all prescriptions, including to patients in care homes, with reasonable promptness, recognising that it is not feasible for a pharmacy to maintain stock of every medicine. The Pharmacy Quality Scheme rewards community pharmacy contractors that deliver quality criteria, one of which is the Palliative and End of Life Care scheme. Participating pharmacy contractors must declare if they intend to routinely stock 16 critical end of life medicines, including controlled drugs such as morphine and midazolam and/or parenteral haloperidol, and must have an action plan in place to support local access. This enables palliative medicines to be quickly sourced when prescribed.
Most care homes with nursing can hold stocks of controlled drugs and will not require a licence to access medicines containing controlled drugs for patients who need them. This is because care homes run by public authorities or charities are exempt from the need for a Home Office controlled drug licence. Care homes without nursing cannot store controlled drugs unless they are prescribed for individual residents.