Asked by: Steve Yemm (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of NHS (a) operations, (b) appointments and (c) tests that took place in Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust between July and November in (i) 2023 and (ii) 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of additional elective appointments at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the period July to November 2023, and the corresponding period in 2024:
Time period | Elective operations | Outpatient appointments | Diagnostic tests | Total |
July to November 2023 | 18,383 | 84,742 | 47,987 | 151,112 |
July to November 2023, adjusted for working days | 18,553 | 85,527 | 48,431 | 152,511 |
July to November 2024 | 21,444 | 105,003 | 55,379 | 181,826 |
Additional appointments | 2,891 | 19,476 | 6,948 | 29,315 |
Source: NHS England
Note: These data are consistent with the publication of additional elective appointments on 16 February which includes those scope of the Value Weighted Activity metric with the key diagnostic times from diagnostic waiting times statistics. It excludes outpatient appointments without procedure and elective admissions for endoscopies to avoid double-counting of diagnostics. The scope of this data is limited to elective services consistent with consultant-led referral to treatment waiting times. It excludes emergency care, maternity and mental health services.
Asked by: Steve Yemm (Labour - Mansfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the length of appraisals conducted by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) under its cost-comparison appraisal process; and whether he has plans for NICE to align the timing of the outcomes of such appraisals with that of granting of marketing authorisations by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) aims, wherever possible, to issue recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines should be routinely funded around the time of licensing, to support rapid patient access to clinically and cost-effective new medicines.
The NICE has introduced the cost-comparison process for the appraisal of lower risk treatments where a lighter-touch approach is considered appropriate. The cost-comparison process enables the NICE to make recommendations on medicines within 100 working days compared with 195 days for a standard appraisal, freeing up resources for more complex appraisals. In 2024, the NICE carried out appraisals through its cost-comparison process on average 83 days faster than its standard process.
Asked by: Steve Yemm (Labour - Mansfield)
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 effectiveness of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for reducing waiting times for medicines assessed though the cost-comparison approach.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) aims, wherever possible, to issue recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines should be routinely funded around the time of licensing, to support rapid patient access to clinically and cost-effective new medicines.
The NICE has introduced the cost-comparison process for the appraisal of lower risk treatments where a lighter-touch approach is considered appropriate. The cost-comparison process enables the NICE to make recommendations on medicines within 100 working days compared with 195 days for a standard appraisal, freeing up resources for more complex appraisals. In 2024, the NICE carried out appraisals through its cost-comparison process on average 83 days faster than its standard process.