The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2016 to Question 28048, when the Equality Impact Assessment will be published.
Ben Gummer
We expect to publish the Equality Impact Assessment shortly after Easter.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made on the likely incidence of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis in the event that the (a) quadrivalent vaccine is maintained for UK HPV vaccination programme for girls and (b) bivalent vaccine is introduced for the UK HPV vaccination programme for girls.
Jane Ellison
The Department has not estimated the impact on the incidence of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis if the bivalent vaccine replaces the quadrivalent vaccine in the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme for girls.
Warwick University is carrying out some limited analysis, in the context of its modelling work on the impact and cost effectiveness of extending HPV vaccination to boys, but the results are academically and commercially confidential, and subject to review by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, the independent expert body that advises Ministers on immunisation matters.
Estimates of the potential impact of the HPV vaccination programme on cancer and warts, including the incidence of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, have been previously published by Public Health England in the British Medical Journal in 2011:
http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d5775
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ben Bradshaw on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made on the emotional and psychological effect of acquiring genital warts on an individual.
Jane Ellison
The Department has not made a specific assessment of the emotional and psychological effects of acquiring genital warts.
However, it has made use of broader cost-effectiveness analysis, which includes both the physical and mental effects of genital warts, when assessing the human papillomavirus vaccination programme.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to ensure the availability of sufficient long-term funding for the delivery of the commitments in NHS England’s Transforming Care programme.
Alistair Burt
In the national service model and Building the right support published in October 2015 NHS England, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services set out how areas would be supported to deliver lasting change to people with a learning disability and/or autism who display behaviour that challenges.
To develop community capacity, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), local authorities and NHS England’s specialised commissioners have formed 48 transforming care partnerships (TCPs) to plan for the future. TCPs have been asked to use the total sum of money they spend as a whole system on people with a learning disability and/or autism to deliver care in a different way to achieve better results. This includes shifting money from some services (such as inpatient care) into others (such as community health services including mental health services or individual packages of support). The costs of the future model of care will therefore be met from the total current envelope of spend on health and social care services for people with a learning disability and/or autism.
During a phase of transition, commissioners will need to invest in new community support before closing inpatient provision. To support them to do this NHS England will make available up to £30 million of transformation funding over three years, to be matched by CCGs, and £15 million in capital funding. This funding is in addition to the £10 million made available to six fast track areas in 2015/16.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps NHS England is taking to ensure that patients have accelerated access to healthcare technologies.
George Freeman
The Government is actively supporting a number of initiatives to accelerate access to innovative treatments. These include the Early Access to Medicines Schemes which supports access in the United Kingdom to unlicensed or off-label medicines and represents a significant advance in treatment in areas of unmet medical need and the Accelerated Access Review, which aims to speed up access to innovative drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital products for National Health Service patients, and to make the UK the best place to develop these innovations.
NHS England supports the invention and adoption of transformative healthcare technologies. This includes existing technologies, where the benefits are already proven but wider adoption is critical to benefit all patients, and new technologies, which require larger scale trials to test out their impact individually and in combination. Current initiatives include the sponsorship of 15 Academic Health Science Networks (£48 million core funding in 2015-16), the Small Business Research Initiative (£20 million in 2015-16), and the Test Bed programme which is providing funding for frontline health and care workers to evaluate the use of novel combinations of interconnected devices such as wearable monitors, data analysis and new ways of working.
NHS England has been tasked under section 7.1 of the NHS Mandate to “Implement the agreed recommendations of the Accelerated Access Review including developing ambition and trajectory on NHS uptake of affordable and cost-effective new innovations”.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to increase the availability and uptake of innovative technology available to patients on the NHS; and if he will make a statement.
George Freeman
The Government is actively supporting a number of initiatives to accelerate access to innovative treatments. These include the Early Access to Medicines Schemes which supports access in the United Kingdom to unlicensed or off-label medicines and represents a significant advance in treatment in areas of unmet medical need and the Accelerated Access Review, which aims to speed up access to innovative drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital products for National Health Service patients, and to make the UK the best place to develop these innovations.
NHS England supports the invention and adoption of transformative healthcare technologies. This includes existing technologies, where the benefits are already proven but wider adoption is critical to benefit all patients, and new technologies, which require larger scale trials to test out their impact individually and in combination. Current initiatives include the sponsorship of 15 Academic Health Science Networks (£48 million core funding in 2015-16), the Small Business Research Initiative (£20 million in 2015-16), and the Test Bed programme which is providing funding for frontline health and care workers to evaluate the use of novel combinations of interconnected devices such as wearable monitors, data analysis and new ways of working.
NHS England has been tasked under section 7.1 of the NHS Mandate to “Implement the agreed recommendations of the Accelerated Access Review including developing ambition and trajectory on NHS uptake of affordable and cost-effective new innovations”.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the average length of time taken to be diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease.
Jane Ellison
Information concerning the average length of time taken to be diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease is not collected.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to develop a long-term workforce strategy for learning disabilities.
Ben Gummer
Health Education England (HEE) was established to deliver a better healthcare workforce for England and using all available data is accountable for ensuring that we have a National Health Service workforce in the right numbers, with the right skills, values and behaviours to respond to the current and future needs of patients.
HEE has been working with Skills for Care, Skills for Health and national transforming care partners to deliver a comprehensive workforce strategy to transform services for people with a learning disability, autism and/or behaviour that challenges to make a significant and lasting improvement to their care and lives.
HEE has developed and made available a number of enabling tools and resources that can be utilised throughout Transforming Care Partnership including:
– a Learning Disability Skills and Competency Framework which adopts a competency based approach to workforce planning and development;
– a series of role templates to support the development of community and enhanced community teams; and
– HEE Learning Disability Expert Reference Group Chaired by Baroness Hollins is exploring the career framework opportunities within health and social care for the development of new roles and education and training pathway.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much funding was allocated to Heathwatch England in each of the last three years; and how much such funding will be allocated in 2016-17 in cash terms and real terms.
Ben Gummer
Healthwatch England was allocated £4.083 million in 2013/14, £4.157 million in 2014/15, and £4.5 million in 2015/16. The figures are a combination of funding for core running costs and additional non-recurrent funding.
A final allocation for 2016/17 is yet to be finalised.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2016-03-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has issued guidance to GP practices on waiting times for patients seeking telephone consultation appointments.
Alistair Burt
There is no central guidance to general practitioner (GP) practices on waiting times for telephone consultations.
GPs can conduct telephone consultations with patients if they feel it is appropriate to do so. This could remove the need for the patient to go on to have a face to face consultation, however, it is for the GP to use his or her clinical judgement to decide if and when a face to face consultation should take place, and for the patient to decide if they wish to attend.
This Government is committed to improving access to GP consultations and the Prime Minister’s GP Access Fund encourages practices in the schemes to use innovative methods to provide appointments to patients.