Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-04-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 19 April 2016 to Question 33687, what new investment which is in line with the Collaborative TB Strategy for England has been made to deliver (a) TB awareness raising, (b) TB case finding and screening and (c) treatment for (i) homeless people and (ii) other under-served sectors of the population.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England has resourced a National Tuberculosis (TB) Office to support implementation of the Collaborative TB Strategy for England, including working with stakeholders on awareness raising and case finding and treatment. The National TB Office is also overseeing the work of a Task and Finish group, which is looking at how to tackle the needs of those with TB in under-served populations, including homeless people. The group will present their findings to the National TB Programme in the autumn. Currently, however, there is no new investment being specifically targeted at the homeless population.

NHS England has provided new investment, £10 million in 2015/16 and a further £10 million for 2016/17, to support latent TB infection testing and treatment which includes funding for TB awareness raising and TB case finding and treatment. The latter service is of particular relevance to the homeless population.