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 assessment he has made of the adequacy of access by disabled people to cancer screening; and what information his Department holds on such access.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is committed to improving the accessibility of the breast, bowel and cervical cancer screening programmes. Providers of NHS screening services are required to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that their services are accessible to disabled people.
The Department and NHS England are working to set out actions to improve accessibility to and uptake of screening including ensuring that Primary Care Networks are provided with primary care data analytics for population segmentation and risk stratification to allow them to understand in depth their populations’ health and care needs for screening programmes. NHS England is supporting a range of research and evaluation to assess the feasibility and acceptability of self-sampling within the NHS Cervical Screening Programme to support an improvement in the accessibility of cervical screening.
The breast screening service offers longer appointments at accessible sites to support women with physical disabilities to have a successful screen. Services make reasonable adjustments, within the constraints of equipment, to ensure that disabled people are offered the opportunity to have breast screening.
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 he is taking to ensure that cancer screening is fully accessible to those with socioeconomic disadvantage.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local NHS services have a duty to ensure that their services are as accessible as possible to their local populations and that any appropriate support is in place. NHS England is working with stakeholders to develop new initiatives to support improvements in coverage and a reduction in health inequalities.
This includes delivering the NHS breast cancer screening uptake improvement plan covering a range of initiatives including a pilot for the proactive follow-up of non-attenders and testing how invitations are sent.
We are also working with NHS England to run an evaluation to test the effectiveness of HPV self-sampling as a primary cervical screening option. The findings from this evaluation will be used to inform a UK National Screening Committee recommendation and it is expected that self-sampling could lead to an increase in uptake as it will reduce some of the barriers that prevent people from attending screening. Such as the availability of appointments, physical disability and past trauma.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2023 to Question 185884 on Cancer: Drugs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of current levels of capacity for services delivering systemic anti-cancer therapies in breast cancer on patient outcomes.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. At present, the Department has no plans to publish levels of breast cancer SACT delivery capacity as this data is not held centrally.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2023 to Question 185884 on Cancer: Drugs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of levels of demand for services delivering systemic anti-cancer therapies in breast cancer on health equality.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. At present, the Department has no plans to publish levels of breast cancer SACT delivery capacity as this data is not held centrally.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2023 to Question 185884 on Cancer: Drugs, if he will publish information on levels of delivery capacity for breast cancer systemic anti-cancer therapies services.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. At present, the Department has no plans to publish levels of breast cancer SACT delivery capacity as this data is not held centrally.
Asked by: John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the early diagnosis of cancer.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The earlier we diagnose cancer, the better the outcomes for patients.
That’s why we’re speeding up diagnosis of the most common cancers e.g., skin cancer with tele-dermatology, bowel cancer through Faecal Immunochemical Testing, and prostate cancer through multiparametric MRI; increasing targeted screening for breast cancer and lung cancer; investing in 160 new community diagnostic centres; and tackling variation in cancer waiting times around the country.
Thanks to the hard work of so many people in cancer services around the country, the NHS hit the ‘faster diagnosis standard’ for the first time in February.
And – looking ahead - we’re investing in innovations like the Galleri blood test which may be able to detect cancer before people even have symptoms.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 ensure that National Institute for Health and Care Excellence technology appraisal guidance is implemented by (a) breast cancer and (b) other services within three months of publication.
Answered by Will Quince
The National Health Service in England is legally required to make funding available for treatments recommended in National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology appraisals, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance. Funding is available through the Cancer Drugs Fund from the point of NICE’s draft guidance for cancer medicines recommended by NICE.
The 2023/24 standard contract, which applies to all contracts between NHS commissioners and providers, also stipulates that, where any service involves or may involve the prescribing of medicines, the provider must ensure that its formulary reflects all relevant positive NICE technology appraisals and must make available to service users all relevant treatments recommended in positive NICE technology appraisals.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to provide specific funding for increasing the number of staff in the breast cancer workforce who deliver systemic anti-cancer treatment.
Answered by Will Quince
In 2023/24 NHS England will fund an expansion of cancer and diagnostics specialists, including those who will deliver systemic anti-cancer treatment. This includes, additional medical training places including for clinical/medical oncology, radiology, histopathology, and gastroenterology, grants to enable over 1,000 cancer nurse specialists and chemotherapy nurses to step into these roles or support their development in-role and a wider workforce development through establishing diagnostic training academies, including breast imaging and developing cancer support worker training.
Spending plans for individual budgets for 2024/25, including for the cancer workforce, are subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and will be finalised in due course. Spending plans for subsequent years will be subject to future spending reviews.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to include (a) what measurable steps his Department will take and (b) what funding will be needed to maintain the breast oncology workforce in the NHS workforce plan.
Answered by Will Quince
To support the workforce as a whole we have commissioned NHS England to develop a Long Term Workforce Plan, including independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years. The Plan is for the whole of the National Health Service workforce, including cancer services, though it will not provide detailed workforce assessments for individual services.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 adequacy of the number of breast clinical and medical oncologists to meet patient demand.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made. The Government has committed to publishing the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. This will include independently verified forecasts for the number of healthcare professionals required in future years, taking full account of improvements in retention and productivity. This Plan is due to be published shortly.