Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to introduce a national leadership role for inherited cardiac conditions.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are not aware of plans to introduce a national leadership role for inherited cardiac conditions. However, NHS England, through the National Genomics Education Team, also deliver and advise on learning and development opportunities that prepare current and future National Health Service professionals to make the best use of genomics in their practice.
Furthermore, the National Genomic Test Directory sets out the eligibility criteria for patients to access testing as well as the genomic targets to be tested, the method that should be used, and the healthcare professional that can request the test, including when a general practice can request testing.
This includes the development of resources to support the workforce across the entire care continuum, for example, in the case of familial hypercholesterolaemia this would include the whole multi-professional team, inclusive of primary care. Furthermore, the Genomic Training
Academy will begin offering education and training through virtual and in person learning for the specialist genomics workforce, including laboratory and clinical staff.
NHS Clinical Genomic Services deliver a comprehensive clinical genomic and counselling service that directs the diagnosis, risk assessment and lifelong clinical management of patients of all ages including families who have, or are at risk of having, a rare genetic or genomic condition. The Department does not have any direct plans to introduce self-referral forms for family members of people with genetic cardiac conditions.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential economic benefits of reducing the prevalence of sight loss.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The benefits of reducing sight loss for both the economy and an individual’s quality of life are clear. That is why prevention, early detection, and timely treatment are essential. In England, over 12 million free National Health Service sight tests are provided annually. Diabetic retinopathy screening is also offered annually to individuals aged 12 years old or over, with diabetes. The Government also has well established programmes on reducing smoking and obesity, both long terms risk factors for sight loss.
NHS England’s transformation programme is considering how eye care services should be commissioned for the future, to improve access to care and patient outcomes. The National Institute for Health and Care Research also continues to invest to support research into the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of eye conditions.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of enabling appropriately qualified optometrists to issue certificates of vision impairment.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that the Certificate of Visual Impairment is an important step in enabling individuals with sight loss to access appropriate support. In England, that certification is currently undertaken by ophthalmologists, who are specialists in eye conditions. No assessment has yet been made of the potential merits of enabling appropriate qualified optometrists to issue certificates of visual impairment.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve public awareness of eye health.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS.uk website sets out the importance of regular sight tests whilst also providing information about entitlement to free sight tests in the National Health Service. The Department also seeks opportunities to promote the importance of eye health, such as during National Eye Health Week.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) appointing a hepatitis B virus (HBV) elimination programme national clinical lead and (b) establishing a national register for monitoring HBV diagnoses and treatment uptake.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Management of care for patients with Hepatitis B (HBV) is the responsibility of integrated care boards. Therefore, NHS England Specialised Commissioning does not have plans to appoint a national clinical lead for Hepatitis B elimination specifically. At a national level, the UK Health Security Agency is prioritising a programme of work to reduce the harmful impact of Hepatitis B to health.
NHS England is identifying opportunities to build on the successful programme to eliminate Hepatitis C. This includes ensuring that the Emergency Department opt-out testing programme includes testing for Hepatitis B, as well as HIV and Hepatitis C.
As England has signed up as a pilot country for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to assess progress to HBV elimination, monitoring of HBV in England aligns to WHO programme targets. These include increasing the proportion of people living with HBV who are diagnosed and aware of their infection, and increasing the proportion of people living with HBV who are receiving treatment.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to increase survival rates for people with liver cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is supporting the National Health Service to increase survival rates for all cancers including for liver cancer in England by taking steps to diagnosing and treating cancers at an early stage. The NHS is working towards the NHS Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage 1 and 2 by 2028, meaning 55,000 more people each year will survive their cancer at least five years after diagnosis. To deliver this, the Department is driving faster roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, establishing 135 community diagnostic centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer.
NHS cancer standards have been reformed with the support of clinicians to speed up diagnosis for patients which means people will receive a diagnosis or have cancer ruled out within 28 days from urgent cancer referral from their general practitioner (GP). In addition, the NHS-Galleri Trial is looking into the use of a new blood test to see if it can help the NHS to detect cancer early when used alongside existing cancer screening, including liver cancers.
The Government is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity.
The Department has also committed support to the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce, which targets cancers with stubbornly poor survival rates. This partnership focuses on liver, pancreas, lung, brain, oesophagus, and stomach cancers, raising awareness of these less survivable cancers so more people understand their symptoms and go to see their GP if they have concerns.
In addition to the immediate action to support cancer services, the Government announced on 24 January 2023 that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy. The Strategy will tackle conditions that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England, including cancer.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to utilise the domestic life science sector to help end global levels of tuberculosis by 2030.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department fully supports United Kingdom commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals as set out in the Global Health Framework and the International Development White Paper. Through our Official Development Assistance (ODA)-funded Research and Development programmes, we are building on UK scientific expertise and investing in research through open competition, working with partners in low and middle income countries to tackle global health threats such as emerging pathogens and antimicrobial resistance, strengthen health systems resilience, and address the changing burden of disease.
Since 2017, through the ODA-funded Global Health Research programme, delivered through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Department has invested over £25 million in collaborative research projects between UK researchers and partners in low and middle income countries, which include elements relating to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 (a) support cancer services and (b) reduce waiting times for access to cancer treatment.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is taking steps to reduce cancer treatment waiting times across England, including the time between an urgent GP referral and the commencement of treatment for cancer for patients. The Government is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care, and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity.
In the 2023/24 Operational Planning Guidance, NHS England announced it is providing over £390 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances in each of the next two years to support delivery of the strategy and the operational priorities for cancer which includes increasing and prioritising diagnostic and treatment capacity for cancer.
Additionally, the Government recently published the Major Conditions Strategy Case for Change and Our Strategic Framework on 14 August 2023 which sets out our approach to making the choices over the next five years that will deliver the most value in facing the health challenges of today and of the decades ahead, including for cancer. This is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/major-conditions-strategy-case-for-change-and-our-strategic-framework
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance her Department has issued to NHS England on the number of showers that should be installed per hospital bed.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not provide guidance to NHS England in relation to the number of showers, or the number of clinical handwashing taps, that should be installed per hospital bed.
The guidance relating to the number of clinical handwashing taps that should be installed per hospital bed is provided by NHS England in Health Building Notification (HBN 00-09): Infection control in the built environment.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance her Department has issued to NHS England on the number of clinical handwashing taps that should be installed per hospital bed.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not provide guidance to NHS England in relation to the number of showers, or the number of clinical handwashing taps, that should be installed per hospital bed.
The guidance relating to the number of clinical handwashing taps that should be installed per hospital bed is provided by NHS England in Health Building Notification (HBN 00-09): Infection control in the built environment.