Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps through the forthcoming Major Conditions Strategy to help improve the diagnosis and management of axial spondyloarthritis.
Answered by Will Quince
On 24 January 2023, we announced our plan to publish the Major Conditions Strategy. This strategy will explore how we can tackle the key drivers of ill-health in England, reduce pressure on the National Health Service and reduce ill-health-related labour market inactivity.
The Strategy will focus on six major groups of conditions, including musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders. MSK conditions affect people across the life course and cover a range of conditions, including inflammatory conditions such as axial spondyloarthritis.
We have now published our initial report ‘Major Conditions Strategy: Case for change and our strategic framework’. It sets out what we have learned so far, and shares what we plan to focus on next to develop the final strategy.
For MSK conditions, it sets out that we will look to: improve secondary prevention and the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions, embedding a biopsychosocial and personalised approach and building upon the progress made through the NHS Long Term Plan; advocate the use of population health management methodologies to target the right kind of support based on individual circumstances and need to those who need it most; and aim to improve services where medical treatment is necessary.
Following publication of the strategic framework, we will continue to develop the strategy, informed by the Call for Evidence and ongoing engagement with stakeholders.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the document entitled An improvement framework to reduce community musculoskeletal waits while delivering best outcomes and experience published by NHS England in January 2023, what plans his Department has to implement that framework to reduce community musculoskeletal waiting times.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Integrated care systems are responsible for commissioning musculoskeletal services for their local populations.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the level of risk to human health of antimicrobial-resistant superbugs originating from industrial farms.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Resistant bacteria and/or resistance genes can transfer between people and animals in both directions. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate conducts two surveillance schemes for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in animals, including regular monitoring of AMR in major food-producing species such as pigs and poultry. The results of these surveillance schemes are published annually in the ‘UK Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance and Sales and Surveillance Report’ which can be found at the following link:
Since 2014, the United Kingdom has reduced sales of veterinary antibiotics by 55%, and over this same period the UK has seen an overall trend of decreasing AMR in bacteria from animals. The UK has a cross-Government contingency plan to mitigate the risk to public health of resistant bacteria found in animals, a copy of which can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the context of appointments published by NHS Digital as part of its Appointments in General Practice data, how many recorded GP appointments are in-person appointments following up on triage appointments.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
This data is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Appointments in General Practice report published in December 2022, how many of the GP appointments recorded were first contact triage appointments.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
In NHS Digital’s December 2022 Appointments in General Practice data publication, the number of general practice appointments recorded with the category “clinical triage” was 3.50 million, in November 2022. New data was published on the 26 January 2023 showing that 3.23 million appointments were recorded with the category “clinical triage” in December 2022. This will include first contact triage appointments, but data is not available for exclusively first contact triage appointments.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
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 progress made in carrying out the October 2021 Plan for Improving Access to GP appointments.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)
The plan announced by the Government and NHS England in October 2021 set out a package of measures to support general practice (GP) over the winter period and in the longer term. This included making £250 million available for a Winter Access Fund to increase capacity, a short term telephony solution for GP practices, expanding the Community Pharmacist Consultation Service and NHS England’s Access Improvement Programme and a £5 million fund to facilitate essential upgrades to practice security measures.
Examples of how the Winter Access Fund was used include the creation of additional hubs and helplines, expanding home visiting capacity, funding additional sessions from staff.
NHS England’s short term telephony solution is already helping practices to free up lines for incoming calls and from this month, January 2023, NHS England is accelerating work to support all GP practices to procure cloud-based telephony systems.
In the 12 months up to December 2022, there were on average 1.32 million GP appointments per working day, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations. Compared to the 12 months up to December 2021, which was 1.23 million, this is an increase of 7%.
We recognise that some people are still struggling to access general practice services in a timely way. We will soon be publishing our Recovery Plan for primary care.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase provision of paediatric neurology treatment in Nottinghamshire.
Answered by Will Quince
The majority of paediatric neurology services are recognised as specialised or ‘tertiary level’. Paediatric neurology services in Nottinghamshire are provided by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, with clinics delivered across several sites. To assist with increased activity and meet the requirement of its service specification for tertiary centres, NHS England has awarded additional funding to the Nottingham paediatric neurology service to recruit a full complement of multi-disciplinary staff. This funding will support increased activity and reduce wating times for new and follow-up appointments.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
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 for the implications of his policy on the commitment in the Life Sciences Vision to have an ambitious National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Methods Review.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As reflected in the Life Sciences Vision, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is introducing a number of changes to ensure that its methods and processes are fairer, more consistent and accelerate the introduction of emerging technologies.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
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 proposed changes to NICE’s Methods and Process on patients with very rare diseases.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
A number of changes adopted by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) following its updated methods and processes manual for health technology assessments, will support access to innovative medicines for patients with rare diseases. NICE has introduced a new modifier to consider the severity of the disease or condition under consideration when making recommendations. As many rare conditions are also severe, its committees can give additional weight to the treatment benefits for these conditions.
Where there is uncertain evidence in relation to a medicine, which can affect patients with rare diseases where the population is small, NICE will now adopt a more flexible and proportional attitude towards evidence uncertainty within its decision making.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
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 on end of life patients of NICE’s proposed severity modifier being introduced in a opportunity cost neutral package.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Analysis carried out by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the development of the modifier indicates that the vast majority of medicines previously eligible for the end of life modifier, will also be eligible for a weighting under the severity modifier.
A severity modifier reflects evidence that society values health benefits for severe conditions more highly and will apply to a broad range of conditions, including end of life.