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 level of availability of treatments for patients diagnosed with Ascher's Syndrome.

Individuals with Ascher’s syndrome will access a range of locally and nationally commissioned services according to their specific clinical needs. For example, genetic services would be able to offer advice on inheritance and, in some patients, plastic surgery to lip and eyelid might be offered.

NHS England monitors the quality of all specialised services it commissions via its Quality Surveillance Team (QST). The QST produce annual profiles of services based on self-assessment against core requirements of the service specification, clinical outcomes and external monitoring such as Care Quality Commission assessments, undertaking peer review processes as required. Specialised paediatric craniofacial services are regularly monitored via this process.

Whilst a specific review has not been undertaken from the unique perspective of patients with Ascher’s Syndrome, NHS England has been a key partner in the development and delivery of the UK Strategy for Rare Diseases which responds to the feedback and needs of the approximately 3.5 million rare diseases patients in the United Kingdom.