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  • Kevin Barron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kevin Barron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Barron on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to include generic medicines which are required to have a brand name by the MHRA and are already subject to market competition alongside originator medicines in the Statutory Scheme of Control the Prices of Branded Health Service Medicines.

    George Freeman

    The Department consulted on options to amend the Statutory Scheme regulations which control the prices of branded health service medicines. Both the voluntary Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme and the statutory scheme include all health service medicines with a brand name, including those required by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to have a brand name. The Department did not propose any changes to the scope of the statutory scheme in this respect and has not made an estimate of the cost of removing those branded medicines from the statutory scheme.

    The Department received responses from a range of organisations including National Health Service, independent bodies and pharmaceutical industry. The Department is currently analysing the responses from a range of organisations including NHS, independent bodies and pharmaceutical industry.

    The consultation and impact assessment can be accessed using the following link.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pricing-of-branded-health-service-medicines

    “

  • Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Kinnock on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will commission an inquiry into contaminated blood in England and Wales.

    Jane Ellison

    Given the thoroughness of Lord Penrose’s report, published in March 2015 and the fact that the report sets the events in Scotland in the wider UK context at that time, our view remains that there is no need for a further public inquiry in England. The report, together with over 5,000 documents from the period 1970-85 that have already been published by the Government, provides a comprehensive picture of events and decisions made. Another Inquiry would not be in the best interests of sufferers and their families as it would be costly and further delay action to address their concerns and significantly delay plans to reform existing payment support schemes.

    On 21 January 2016, the Government published a consultation seeking views on proposed reforms to the schemes supporting those infected with, or affected by, HIV and/or hepatitis C through NHS-supplied blood products. I would encourage all those with an interest to respond.

  • Kevin Barron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kevin Barron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Barron on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency about the requirement for some generic medicines to be given a brand name for clinical reasons; and what steps he is taking to ensure patients receive the brand name medicine specified.

    George Freeman

    The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the Executive Agency of Department of Health with overall responsibility for medicines licensing.

    The responsibility for prescribing rests with the practitioner who has clinical responsibility for their patient’s care and we would expect practitioners to take any relevant guidance into account when making their prescribing decisions.Prescribers utilise a wide range of information to inform their prescribing decisions including decision support systems and authoritative guidance such as that from the MHRA, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the British National Formulary.

    In primary care, if it is clinically appropriate for an individual patient to be maintained on a specific manufacturer’s product then the prescriber can specify this on the prescription for that product to be dispensed. Officials from the Department and MHRA liaise as required on the application of this policy.

  • Kevin Barron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kevin Barron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Barron on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the potential annual savings to the NHS through greater generic substitution compared to using their reference originator products; and what assessment he has made of the obstacles to implementing such a policy for (a) inhalers and biologics and (b) after complex products.

    George Freeman

    The Government has made no such assessments. England has one of the highest levels of generic prescribing in Europe. In 2014, the Health & Social Care Information Centre report Prescriptions Dispensed in the community: England 2004-14, shows that of all medicines dispensed in 2014, 84.1% were dispensed generically.

    Prescribers are ultimately responsible for their own prescribing decisions. We expect them to always satisfy themselves that the medicines they consider appropriate for their patients can be safely prescribed and that patients are adequately monitored.

  • Kevin Barron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Kevin Barron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevin Barron on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to substitute the prescribing of high volume branded medicine with generic equivalents.

    George Freeman

    Generic substitution has happened in secondary care for many years, but is not currently permitted in primary care. The Department consulted on introducing primary care generic substitution in 2010, but did not progress the proposals following concerns about the potential impact on patient safety.

    Most general practitioner practices and clinical commissioning groups, formerly primary care trusts, have been pursuing and supporting policies of increasing generic prescribing for 15 years or more. Generic prescribing rates are already relatively high in England at 84.1% in 2014, as reported in the Health and Social Care Information Centre report: Prescriptions dispensed in the community: England 2004-14.

  • Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Cox on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent representations he has received on regional variations on the availability of treatment for arthritis.

    Jane Ellison

    No representations have been made to Ministers in the Department on regional variations in the availability of treatment for arthritis.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how his Department (a) identified and (b) supported children of parents with mental illness.

    Alistair Burt

    We have changed the law to improve how young carers and their families including those of parents with mental illness are identified and supported. These new duties came into effect in April 2015. Changes introduced through the Children and Families Act 2014 consolidate and simplify the legislation relating to young carers’ assessments, make rights and duties clearer to both young people and practitioners, extend the right to an assessment of needs of all young carers regardless of who they care for or what type of care they provide and make it clear to local authorities that they must carry out an assessment of a young carer’s needs for support on request or on the appearance of need.

    These new provisions work alongside those in the Care Act 2014 for assessing adults to enable ‘whole family approaches’ to assessment and support. This means that when a child is identified as a young carer, the needs of everyone in the family will be considered in the first place.

    The Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Report CR164 Parents as patients: Supporting the needs of patients who are parents and their children published in January 2011 and available at

    http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/usefulresources/publications/collegereports/cr/cr164.aspx

    sets out the College’s position on how the needs of parents and children can be managed and dealt with sensitively in the case of parental mental illness.

    “

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of finance options available to doctors to cover their training costs; and if he will make a statement.

    Ben Gummer

    The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department of Health have joint responsibility for the funding of students on medical courses. For the first four years of the five or six year undergraduate degree, medical students receive the same maintenance and tuition fee loans as mainstream students under the BIS Education (Student Support) Regulations.

    In the fifth year of study funding is provided by the National Health Service Bursary Scheme and eligible medical students can receive a means tested NHS Bursary and a non-means tested grant of £1,000. The NHS will also meet the cost of their tuition, so medical students do not have to pay tuition fees in the final years of their course.

    Health Education England (HEE) has responsibility for determining the amount of funding available to students via the NHS Bursary Scheme.

    HEE also support doctors in training by funding clinical placements for undergraduate students which is paid directly to the NHS providers at an agreed national tariff price, and postgraduate training at 50% of trainee salary and a placement fee of £12,400.

    Funding support is reviewed on an annual basis.

  • Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recent Aviation Environment Federation report, Aircraft Noise and Public Health: The Evidence is Loud and Clear, published in January 2016.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government acknowledges that there has been new evidence in recent years that exposure to aircraft noise can adversely affect people’s health. It closely monitors research in this field and relevant robust evidence is incorporated into the policy appraisal process.

  • Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Paula Sherriff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paula Sherriff on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to protect community pharmacies in areas of social deprivation.

    Alistair Burt

    Section 126 of the 2006 Act places an obligation on NHS England to put arrangements in place so that drugs, medicines and listed appliances ordered via National Health Service prescriptions can be supplied to persons. Each local authority Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) must in accordance with regulations assess needs for pharmaceutical services in its area (a pharmaceutical needs assessment (PNA)). When developing the PNA, HWBs must consider the demography of its area, including whether there are areas of social deprivation as well as the pharmaceutical services provided within its area and the area of any other neighbouring HWB. It then publishes the assessment, which outlines the adequacy of provision in such areas and, where relevant, gaps in provision. NHS England uses the PNA to plan pharmaceutical services and to assess applications from persons for inclusion on a pharmaceutical list.

    In an open letter to the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) on 17 December 2015, the Government invited the PSNC to enter discussions with the Department, supported by NHS England, on changes to the community pharmacy contractual framework for 2016/17 and beyond, linked to the Spending Review. As part of the consultation, the Department is consulting on the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme, which will provide more NHS funds to certain pharmacies compared to others, considering factors such as location and the health needs of the local population.