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, whether his Department is taking steps to increase funding for preventative healthcare.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Autumn Statement makes available up to an additional £8 billion investment for the NHS and adult social care in England in 2024-25. In addition to funding confirmed at the last Spending Review, this means the NHS resource budget will receive a £38.9 billion cash increase over this Parliament. Local authorities in England receive a public health grant to support their statutory duty to improve the health of their population. At the Spending Review 2021, we considered the need for local authority public health funding and confirmed that the public health grant would increase over the settlement period. In 2022/23, the grant increased by 2.81% to £3.417 billion. This is in addition to targeted investment through local government in start for life support and drug and alcohol treatment services.
The Government recognises that preventative interventions can deliver significant health benefits for individuals and reduce the burden of preventable illness on the NHS. In each of 42 areas across England, Integrated Care Systems (ICS) bring together health and care organisations around a core purpose including improving population health and tackling health disparities. For each ICS, an integrated care strategy describes how locally assessed health needs will be met. Statutory guidance makes clear that prevention should be considered when preparing these strategies.
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, further to NICE’s recommendation to broaden access to statins for the prevention of strokes and heart attacks, what plans they have, if any, to ask NICE whether this approach could be extended to low-dose blood pressure drugs combined into a single formulation.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have no current plans to ask the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to develop any such recommendation. NICE is responsible for developing its guidelines independently in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders based on a broad remit referred to it by either the Department or NHS England.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what preventative health measures his Department is (a) taking and (b) planning in order to ease pressures on the NHS.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is pursuing a range of policies which will prevent ill health and make a difference to the demand on services for National Health Services, including policies focused on the main risk factors for preventable ill health and on preventative health services.
We are making progress in restoring services for preventable non communicable conditions such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). For example, based on the current rate of recovery, we expect NHS Health Check delivery, a core part of our CVD prevention pathway, to return to pre-pandemic levels by June 2023. We continue to explore new policies to improve the prevention of ill health, including for the detection, diagnosis and management of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Asked by: Baroness Sheehan (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, given that women and girls are disproportionately impacted by HIV and malaria, what is the role of the Global Fund within their wider objectives for women and girls.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
60% of the Global Fund's spending is specifically targeted to programmes for women and girls and around one-third of Global Fund investments directly benefits Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). Thanks to the UK's support to the Global Fund, more than 85% of pregnant women living with HIV now have access to medicine to prevent transmitting HIV to their babies, and in 2021 the Global Fund supported 12.5 million pregnant women to receive preventive therapy for malaria. Our investments in the Global Fund remain important to advance the International Development Strategy's priority to provide women and girls with the freedom they need to succeed.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
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 help (a) early diagnosis and (b) prevention of liver disease.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Alcohol identification and brief advice (IBA) is undertaken through the NHS Health Check. Where appropriate, individuals are given advice on reducing alcohol consumption or referred to specialist support. IBA is also included at new general practitioner registrations and within the standard contract for secondary care.
We are piloting community liver health checks in 12 areas to provide earlier identification of patients with liver disease. Since April 2022, NHS England has introduced a new Commissioning for Quality and Innovation indicator to incentivise testing for cirrhosis or advanced liver fibrosis for alcohol-dependent in-patients in acute and mental health services. We also have a range of approaches and interventions to address the major risk factors for liver disease, including addressing obesity and preventing hepatitis C.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to her Answer of 28 September to Question 51479, why she has not met with obesity prevention charities and organisations since her appointment.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
There have been no specific meetings due to diary commitments.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department has taken to implement a life course approach to women’s health since the publication of the Women’s Health Strategy.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
The life course approach identifies the critical stages, transitions and settings where there are opportunities to promote good health, prevent negative health outcomes and restore health and wellbeing. This has been adopted by the World Health Organization and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Our ambition is for women’s health policy and services to be developed for the needs of individual women, rather than based one specific issue or condition. We are considering the approach to implementation of the Women’s Health Strategy.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the life course approach in the Women’s Health Strategy.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
The life course approach identifies the critical stages, transitions and settings where there are opportunities to promote good health, prevent negative health outcomes and restore health and wellbeing. This has been adopted by the World Health Organization and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Our ambition is for women’s health policy and services to be developed for the needs of individual women, rather than based one specific issue or condition. We are considering the approach to implementation of the Women’s Health Strategy.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether a process has been established to evaluate future prophylactic treatments for covid-19.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The PROTECT-V clinical trial tests several treatments intended to reduce the risk of confirmed symptomatic COVID-19 infections in vulnerable renal and immunosuppressed patients and the associated risk of hospitalisation and death. The study focuses on prophylactic drugs administered over a six-month period to test the effectiveness at reducing the spread of the virus among those who may be exposed at regular hospital check-ups or dialysis appointments.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many meetings she has had with obesity prevention charities and organisations since her appointment.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
There have been no such meetings.