Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has write to healthcare professionals to remind them of the NICE guidelines for menopause care and the ability to prescribe twelve months supply on one prescription; and what his timetable is for doing that.

The Department is in discussions with the Royal College of General Practitioners and other stakeholders on communications to healthcare professionals on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines for menopause care.

NICE’s guideline recommends that each treatment for short-term menopausal symptoms should be reviewed at three months to assess efficacy and tolerability and annually thereafter, unless there are clinical indications for an earlier review. NICE does not make recommendations on length of prescription as this is a clinical decision. However, NHS England and NHS Improvement advise that general practitioners can prescribe up to 12 month’s supply, where clinically appropriate.