Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that rheumatology teams involved in homecare medicines services are consulted about possible changes to the delivery, monitoring and standards that define homecare medicines services made as part of NHS England’s desktop review.

Homecare medicines are used by a wide range of clinical services and patients. NHS England has been carrying out an internal review of homecare medicines services to understand the issues affecting these groups in more detail. Representatives from the rheumatology sector have been involved in this work.

The next steps are to bring together data from this review with the House of Lords inquiry report recommendations to shape a programme of work on homecare medicines. Engagement with relevant key stakeholders will continue throughout this process.

The Department is carefully considering all the conclusions and recommendations made in the report and will respond to the House of Lords Public Services Committee in January 2024.