Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is taking steps to approve Enhertu for use in the treatment of cancers other than breast cancer.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently in the early stages of developing technology appraisal guidance on treatments for non-small-cell lung cancer, including Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) and held a scoping workshop focusing on this topic on 24 April 2023.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that children and young people with dyspraxia have access to (a) occupational therapy, (b) physiotherapy and (c) speech and language therapy services.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and Alternative Provision Green Paper set out our proposal to commission analysis to ensure that the health needs of children and young people with SEND, including those with dyspraxia, are supported through effective workforce planning. We propose to work with Health Education England, NHS England and the Department for Education to build on existing evidence and assess demand for support for children and young people with SEND from the therapy and diagnostic workforce.
The number of therapists working in the National Health Service in England has increased in recent years, but we recognise the need to improve access to therapies. It is the responsibility of individual employers, including schools and hospitals, to plan their staffing levels in line with their local service priorities. To support the supply of more speech and language therapists to the NHS, since September 2020 all eligible students have been able to apply for a non-repayable training grant of a minimum of £5,000 per academic year, with further financial support available for childcare, accommodation and travel costs.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) the voices of neurodiverse individuals are heard and (b) their needs and perspectives are taken into account, in policy formation and decision making processes.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department ensures that the voices of neurodiverse individuals are included in the formation of policy and decision-making processes by including Experts by Experience in our governance and delivery arrangements. This includes our Autism Strategy Implementation Group, the Independent Care (Education) and Treatment Reviews Oversight Panel, the Building the Right Support Advisory Group and Delivery Board and the work on Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training.
NHS England’s national autism and learning disability programme employs people with lived experience as well as working in partnership with people, families and carers to co-produce and co-design policy and guidance for national implementation.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that there are an adequate number of radiologists in clinics and hospitals in the Solihull Borough available to scan women at risk of breast cancer.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Warwickshire Solihull and Coventry Breast Screening service has received funding from NHS England and NHS Improvement to increase its mammography, radiography and radiology staffing capacity. Further to this locally targeted action, regional partners including Health Education England and NHS England and NHS Improvement have undertaken a workforce review of breast screening to tackle current shortages of trained staff. This will support all breast screening services, including the Warwickshire Solihull and Coventry service to have sufficient and sustainable staffing into the future.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve the provision of breast cancer screening in the Solihull Borough after the four-month closure of the Warwickshire Solihull and Coventry Breast Cancer Screening Service as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Warwickshire Solihull and Coventry Breast Cancer Screening Service is working to screen all women who have missed an appointment by 31 March 2022, with NHS England and NHS Improvement monitoring progress.
The service has been able to gradually increase its capacity through the offer of open invitations rather than fixed time appointments and increasing the levels of permanent, third party and trainee staff, allowing the service to offer screening at additional times.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists's report, Building back better: Speech and language therapy services after covid-19, published 16 March 2021, what steps he is taking to ensure that speech and language therapy services in the most deprived areas are adequately resourced to support children and young people who have developed a higher level of need as a result of delays in identification and reduced support during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of COVID-19 recovery plan we are looking carefully at how we can support disabled children and their families, including those with speech and language needs, across the country, including in the most deprived areas. We are working with the Department for Education and NHS England and NHS Improvement to improve the provision of health and care services to disabled children.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden)
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 its counterpart in Italy in respect of British tourists' entry to Italy whose covid-19 vaccine was manufactured at Serum Institute in India.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Serum Institute of India (SII) manufactures both Vaxzevria and Covishield vaccines and both branded vaccines are exactly the same COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine. All SII-made doses approved by the United Kingdom (UK) regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and administered in the UK were branded as the ’COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca’ which is now known commercially as ‘Vaxzevria’.
The government continues to liaise with counterparts in Italy and we are seeking Italian confirmation that they will recognise all AstraZeneca doses administered in the UK. We will ensure that Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Travel Advice is kept up to date following any developments.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review entitled First Do No Harm published in July 2020, what recent steps he has taken to progress implementation of the recommendation for a redress agency for people harmed by medicines and medical devices.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government response to the Report of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review was published on 21 July. The Government stated that it did not accept recommendation three to establish a redress agency as set out in the report. The Government and others have previously established redress schemes without the need for an additional agency.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review report entitled First Do No Harm, published in July 2020, what recent steps he has taken to progress implementation of the recommendation that a register of the General Medical Council should be expanded to include a list of financial and non-pecuniary interests for all doctors, as well as doctors’ clinical interests and specialisms.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government agrees that doctors’ financial and non-pecuniary interests should be available publicly. However, we do not think that the General Medical Council’s register is the best place to hold this information. We have engaged with healthcare professional regulators, to ensure it is a requirement that all registered healthcare professionals declare their interests and that this information is published locally by healthcare providers.
We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement and the Independent Healthcare Providers Network to ensure this approach is consistently applied across the National Health Service and independent sector. We have worked with the Care Quality Commission to ensure that implementation is monitored. Our response has been informed by participants in a patient reference group and we have worked closely with the devolved administrations to ensure a consistent, United Kingdom-wide approach.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review report entitled First Do No Harm, published in July 2020, what recent steps he has taken to progress implementation of recommendation seven of that report on establishing a central patient-identifiable database.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS Digital has put together a programme of work to establish an information system to collect information on surgical implants and devices from healthcare providers in England, currently focussed on pelvic floor, or mesh and related procedures, as a priority.
This will be followed by the development of a United Kingdom-wide Medical Device Information System (MDIS) with regulations being made under section 19 of the Medicines and Medical Devices Act 2021. This system will mean that in future, subject to regulations, we can routinely collect medical device, procedure and outcome data from public and private provider organisations across the UK and data submitted directly from patients. Formal public consultation on the MDIS regulations will begin later this year with the aim of laying the regulations in due course.