Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Northern Ireland Executive on supporting smokers in Northern Ireland to quit.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The landmark Tobacco and Vapes Bill was introduced into Parliament on 5 November 2024 and will be the single biggest public health intervention since the Government banned smoking in indoor public spaces.
This bill goes further than ever before. It will create the first smoke-free generation, gradually phasing out the sale of tobacco products across the country, enable the Government to strengthen the existing ban on smoking in public places, to reduce the harms of passive smoking in certain outdoor settings, ban vapes and nicotine products from being promoted and advertised to children, and introduce tougher enforcement measures, including through providing powers to introduce a retail licensing scheme for tobacco and vapes.
The bill has been developed in partnership with the Northern Ireland Executive, the Scottish Government, and the Welsh Government. The Department has engaged extensively with all the devolved administrations throughout the process of drafting the bill. I also have liaised directly with Minister Nesbitt and his department's officials on the bill’s contents and progress, and will continue to do so..
Stop smoking services and support for smokers to quit are devolved matters, and support for smokers to quit in Northern Ireland is for the Northern Ireland Executive to determine.
Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
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 implications for his policies of AirPods Pro 2's Hearing Aid feature.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware of the new features on the AirPods Pro 2. As part of the 10-Year Health Plan, we will consider the potential of technologies, including wearable technologies, to support the shift in healthcare from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.
Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
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 with his Northern Irish counterpart to ensure that radioisotopes are distributed to areas most in need.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has been working hard with industry to help resolve the shortages of radioisotopes, which are affecting the United Kingdom and other countries around the world. The affected radioisotopes are mainly used for diagnosing cancers, including prostate and breast cancer, and are also used for the imaging of organ function in scans, including for the heart. Despite efforts to limit the impact, there will be delays for some patients accessing services which rely on this affected radioisotope, with potential cancellations. In the most urgent cases patients will be prioritised for care while supplies are limited. Patients may also be offered the necessary treatment at another hospital.
The Department is working in close partnership with National Health Service specialists from across the UK, suppliers, the British Nuclear Medicine Society, UK Radiopharmacy Group, and the devolved administrations, including Northern Ireland, to ensure that critical patients are prioritised and the limited supply is shared equitably between hospitals and trusts across the UK.
The Department has worked with specialist clinicians to develop comprehensive management advice for NHS clinicians across the UK on how to manage and prioritise patients affected by these shortages. The guidance covers actions for health boards in the devolved nations, including on the coordination of mutual aid arrangements and escalation routes where issues are identified.
Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to introduce the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024, we committed to introducing the Tobacco and Vapes Bill in this parliamentary session. The bill will create the first smoke-free generation, gradually ending the sale of tobacco products as well as stopping vapes and other nicotine products from being branded and advertised to appeal to children. The bill will be the biggest public health intervention in a generation and pave the way for a smoke-free United Kingdom. It will be introduced to Parliament in due course.
Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will have discussions with the Northern Ireland Health Minister on access to Enhertu in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has no plans to speak to the Minister of Health for Northern Ireland about the specific issue of access to the medicine Enhertu in Northern Ireland. Decisions on the availability of individual treatments to National Health Service patients in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are for the devolved administrations.
Decisions on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS in England are taken by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on the basis of an evaluation of a treatment’s costs and benefits. The NICE’s methods are internationally respected, and have been developed through extensive work with industry, academics, and the public to ensure they appropriately capture the costs and benefits, and best reflect social values. These are very difficult decisions to make, and it is important that they are made independently and on the basis of the available evidence.
Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the NHS geographic availability is of Palforzia as of September 2024; and if he will publish a regional breakdown the number of people that received Palforzia on the NHS since 2022.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palforzia is a peanut immunotherapy drug that helps reduce the severity of children's allergic reactions that may occur with exposure to peanuts. Data on the number and geographical location of children that have had access to Palforzia in England is not held by the Department.
The adoption of new treatments into the National Health Service in England is generally the result of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance and commissioner decisions. NHS England and integrated care boards are required to put access in place for any treatment that carries a positive recommendation from the Technology Appraisal programme, operated by the NICE.
Where treatments are approved by the NICE through the Technology Appraisal programme, the NHS is required to make them available within agreed timescales. Implementation of any NICE approvals should be supported by a service readiness assessment, and the development of additional capacity where necessary.
Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) blood cancer clinical nurses employed and (b) vacant blood cancer clinical nurse specialist posts there are in the NHS; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of developing of a new blood cancer support role.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information on the number of blood cancer clinical nurse specialists employed in the National Health Service, and the number of vacant posts, is not held centrally.
The NHS has been facing chronic workforce shortages for years, and we have to be honest that bringing in the staff we need will take time. We are committed to training the staff we need to get patients seen on time. To achieve this, we will reform the NHS to deliver more care in the community and more preventative care.
As we fix the NHS, we will deliver the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, so patients, including blood cancer patients, are always cared for by the relevant, qualified healthcare professionals.
Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps with NHS England to develop (a) modelling of the blood cancer care workforce and (b) national standards for staffing and facilities.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Information on the number of blood cancer clinical nurse specialists employed in the National Health Service, and the number of vacant posts, is not held centrally.
The NHS has been facing chronic workforce shortages for years, and we have to be honest that bringing in the staff we need will take time. We are committed to training the staff we need to get patients seen on time. To achieve this, we will reform the NHS to deliver more care in the community and more preventative care.
As we fix the NHS, we will deliver the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, so patients, including blood cancer patients, are always cared for by the relevant, qualified healthcare professionals.
Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to support (a) investigator-led and (b) commercially-sponsored clinical trials in blood cancer research.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department-funded National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) funds research and research infrastructure which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research, including clinical research on blood cancer.
NIHR infrastructure provides world-class research expertise, specialist facilities, a research delivery workforce, and support services, which all help to support and deliver research across the National Health Service and the wider health and care system.
The Department is committed to implementing the recommendations of Lord O'Shaughnessy’s review into commercial clinical trials, making sure the United Kingdom is one of the best places in the world to conduct cutting-edge clinical research, including research into cancer.
The Department spends £1.5 billion per year on research through the NIHR. NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was over £121.8 million for 2022/23, with more spent on cancer than any other disease group.
Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to hold discussions with his counterparts in the devolved Administrations on co-ordinating national cancer registries in their (a) collection, (b) analysis and (c) reporting of blood cancer data.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to hold discussions with the devolved administrations on co-ordinating national cancer registries. The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS), which includes the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service, is a member of the United Kingdom and Ireland Association of Cancer Registries (UKIACR). The UKIACR has interests in all aspects of cancer registration, both in its methodology and in its application, to the collection, analysis, and publication of population-based data on the incidence, mortality, and survivability from cancer, and in the use of this data for research aimed at controlling cancer in the population. More details are available at the following link:
https://ukiacr.org/about/ukiacr-constitution
Staff from the NDRS attend quarterly UKIACR executive meetings, where collaboration and standardisation, where possible, of the collection and reporting of cancer data is discussed. NDRS analysts also attend quarterly meetings with UKIACR analysts, where detailed discussions are held to ascertain any differences in the reporting of cancer data, and how these can be made analogous. Annual performance indicators, including key performance indicators for haematology, are available at the following link:
England and Wales use the same cancer registration information and communication technology environment, and contracts are held between England, Wales, and Scotland, respectively, to provide the mechanisms to collect and store radiotherapy data.