Correspondence Apr. 17 2024
Committee: Women and Equalities CommitteeFound: In 2018 a specific systematic approach called BARD (Breast screening After Radiotherapy Dataset) was
Apr. 17 2024
Source Page: Immigration Rules archive: 11 March 2024 to 3 April 2024Found: 2213 Pharmacists – all jobs Yes Yes Yes Yes 2217 Medical radiographers – all jobs (including radiotherapy
Mentions:
1: Andrew Western (Lab - Stretford and Urmston) As the National Cancer Institute said, chemotherapy and radiotherapy can cause dental side effects, with - Speech Link
2: Preet Kaur Gill (LAB - Birmingham, Edgbaston) Radiotherapy can cause acute complications for teeth and gums through tissue damage. - Speech Link
Apr. 12 2024
Source Page: Non-technical summaries granted in 2024Found: whose team will work under this PPL - has developed policy guidelines for the refinement of drug and radiotherapy
Asked by: Lord Wills (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, in each of the past five years, of the economic costs of the effects of post-operative cancer treatments.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working jointly with NHS England and Cancer Alliances to ensure every person receives personalised care and support from cancer diagnosis onwards, including post-treatment. As outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan for cancer, where appropriate, every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information and support. After treatment, the person will move to a follow-up pathway that suits their needs, and ensures they can get rapid access to clinical support, where they are worried that their cancer may have recurred.
Post-operative cancer treatments encompass a wide variety of care, depending on the type and stage of cancer, the treatment the patient has had, and the patient’s needs. Follow-up care often includes regular check-ups, blood tests, scans, and procedures. It may also involve further treatments to deal with late and long-term side effects, including chemotherapy or radiotherapy to reduce the risk of cancer coming back. These highly individualised treatments have varying economic costs.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Medical Research Council, and the UK Research and Innovation work together collaboratively to ensure progress on funding brain tumour research.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department invests over £1 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £121.8 million in 2022/23, and the NIHR spends more on cancer than any other disease group.
In May 2018 the Government announced £40 million for brain tumour research as part of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, through the NIHR. Since this announcement, the NIHR has committed £11.3 million across 17 projects, with the Medical Research Council (MRC) awarding £10.4 million. There is still funding available from the original £40 million, and we expect to spend more as new research progresses.
The Department is taking steps to ensure that funders work closely together to coordinate work along the translational pathway, from the discovery and early translational science typically supported by the MRC, feeding through to the applied health and care research funded by the NIHR. These steps include convening a brain cancer research roundtable in May 2024, to bring together research experts and funders, to determine how to accelerate research efforts in this area.
As an example of coordination, the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Programme is a partnership between the MRC and the NIHR, supporting research in the mechanisms of diseases, and treatments which have the potential to make a step-change in the promotion of health, treatment of disease, and improvement of rehabilitation or long-term care. The EME’s portfolio includes a £1.5 million clinical trial testing the effectiveness of a targeted form of proton beam radiotherapy for a type of brain cancer called oligodendroglioma. The NIHR also coordinates with the MRC to complement their investments, such as a £2 million investment supporting researchers to understand and treat cancers with exceptionally poor survival rates, including cancer of the brain, lung, and oesophagus.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 ensure that (a) medical physicists and (b) clinical engineers have adequate access to advanced (a) radiotherapy and (b) other relevant equipment in hospitals.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government and NHS England work closely together to ensure that staff have access to appropriate equipment, to ensure that cancer patients can receive high quality radiotherapy treatment across England. This includes supporting advances in radiotherapy, using cutting-edge imaging and technology to help target radiation doses at cancer cells more precisely.
The Government has invested in the latest technology in radiotherapy, ensuring that every radiotherapy provider had access to modern, cutting-edge radiotherapy equipment, enabling the rollout of new techniques like stereotactic ablative radiotherapy. The total central investment made between 2016 and 2021 was £162 million, and enabled the replacement or upgrade of approximately 100 radiotherapy treatment machines. Since April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines has sat with local systems. This is supported by the 2021 Spending Review, which set aside £12 billion in operational capital for the National Health Service from 2022 to 2025.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will undertake an audit of NHS equipment used in radiotherapy treatments.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines has sat with local systems. Consequently, the Department has no plans to audit National Health Service equipment used in radiotherapy treatments.
Oral Evidence Mar. 25 2024
Committee: Health and Social Care Committee (Department: Department of Health and Social Care)Found: To recap, there is a historic issue that women who received radiotherapy above the waist to treat Hodgkin
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 impact of recent advances in clinical (a) technology and (b) other equipment on the number of (i) medical physicists and (ii) clinical engineers that are required in the NHS.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not plan to make specific assessments of the impacts, but advances in clinical technology and equipment are crucial to the work of NHS England. For example, the Government has invested in the latest technology in radiotherapy, ensuring that every radiotherapy provider had access to modern, cutting-edge radiotherapy equipment, enabling the rollout of new techniques like stereotactic ablative radiotherapy. The total central investment made between 2016 and 2021 was £162 million, and enabled the replacement or upgrade of approximately 100 radiotherapy treatment machines.
The Department does not plan to make specific assessments of the number of medical physicists and clinical engineers required in the National Health Service, but is backing the NHS’s Long-Term Workforce Plan with over £2.4 billion of funding over the next five years, to ensure additional education and training places. We are also working with NHS England to reform and modernise the way staff work and harness new technology and innovations to double NHS labour productivity, and to make sure staff can spend more time with patients. Finally, NHS England is also growing the cancer workforce, with 50% more staff in the cancer workforce when compared to 2010.