Tag: Virendra Sharma

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to support calorific labelling on alcoholic drinks.

Jane Ellison

Energy labelling of alcoholic drinks is regulated by the European Union. The EU Food Information for Consumers Regulation allows voluntary energy labelling for alcoholic drinks pending a European Commission report on nutrition labelling and ingredient listing on alcoholic drinks, which we expect later this year. The Government supports mandatory energy declarations, and we will continue to press for this to be included in any new legislative proposals.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of potential links between alcohol and obesity.

Jane Ellison

The Government’s “Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A call to action on obesity in England”, October 2011, states that alcoholic drinks can be high in calories and contribute to the energy imbalance that can lead to being overweight and obesity. A copy of the document has already been placed in the Library.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 10 Febraury 2015 to Question 223094, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings by the Pernicious Anaemia Society members’ survey, published in the British Journal of Nursing in April 2014, that over 60 per cent of people with pernicious anaemia are unhappy with their treatment and that many such people self-medicate to reduce their pain; and if he will consider the potential merits of revising the relevant guidelines to recommend more regular treatment.

Norman Lamb

The treatment of pernicious anaemia, the result of a vitamin B12 (cobalamin) deficiency, is well established and reported in the British Committee for Standards in Haematology (BCSH) document, Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of Cobalamin and Folate disorders, which was updated in May 2014. The BCSH operates independently of the Department and NHS England.

Current clinical practice within the United Kingdom is to treat pernicious anaemia with Vitamin B12 intramuscular injections. The BCSH produces evidence based guidelines for both clinical and laboratory haematologists on the diagnosis and treatment of haematological disease, drawing on the advice of expert consultants and clinical scientists practicing in the United Kingdom. The guidelines can be found via the BCSH website at the following link:

www.bcshguidelines.com

Any patient with pernicious anaemia who has concerns about their treatment should discuss this matter with their general practitioner.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps NHS North West London took to consult residents of Ealing local authority area whose first language is not English when drawing up its Shaping a Healthier Future plan.

Jane Ellison

We are advised by NHS England, that NHS in North West London, through its programme Shaping a Healthier Future, undertook a number of activities (particularly in the summer of 2012) to ensure effective consultation with residents across the area, including in Ealing, whose first language is not English.

The engagement was conducted by a post holder who speaks Urdu and Punjabi, two of Ealing’s most common non-English languages and included: working through existing voluntary and community networks within the area, such as the voluntary services councils, health and wellbeing boards, refugee/Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups and others; developing links with individual groups and communities interested and possibly affected by the proposed changes; using local authority forums and existing meetings to engage groups and communities; and engagement through commissioning organisations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2015-02-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Mayor of London on the level of violent crime in London.

Lynne Featherstone

Home Office Ministers have regular meetings with Ministerial colleagues and others as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous administrations, it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of all such meetings.

According to the latest crime figures published by the Office for National Statistics, the Crime Survey for England and Wales shows violent crime is down by 23% under this Government, and this is supported by NHS data on hospital admissions for assault which also indicates violence is falling.

The number of violence offences recorded by the police in the year to September 2014 rose by 16% compared with the previous year, with the Metropolitan Police one of the forces seeing a rise. The Office for National Statistics noted that the increase in police recorded violence is partly due to improved reporting and recording of violence and particularly of domestic abuse. This improvement follows Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s inspection of crime recording in every police force in England and Wales, which the Home Secretary commissioned in 2013, and which found significant under-recording of crime. The data shows that forces are acting on the findings.

We also know that some violent crimes like domestic and sexual violence are under-reported. We welcome more people reporting them to the police and we want to see more cases being brought to justice.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to address the effect of the time taken to obtain continence products on the quality of life of patients with continence problems.

George Freeman

We have made no such assessment and are not aware of reported delays in patients obtaining the appliances prescribed for them, including continence and ostomy products. There are no licensing requirements to open a private dispensing appliance contractor business. NHS England is responsible for determining whether a dispensing appliance contractor should be granted the right to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services. Such determinations can generally be appealed to the Family Health Services Appeal Unit of the NHS Litigation Authority.

The Department keeps the operation of the relevant NHS regulations governing the right to provide NHS pharmaceutical services under regular review with NHS England, the NHS Litigation Authority and contractors’ representatives as appropriate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what data his Department gathers on the number of patients with diabetes who are admitted to hospital each month as a result of a hypoglycaemic episode; and what estimate has been made of the overall cost of hypoglycaemia to the NHS.

Jane Ellison

Providers of NHS services in England are required to supply information on activity to the Secondary Uses Services (SUS) database via commissioning datasets. Each month an extract from the SUS database is taken and populated into the Hospital Episode Statistics database which is then made available for analysis.

Diseases are classified using the World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases. Codes to identify diabetes and hypoglycaemia exist, so it is possible to report activity on admissions to hospital for patients with a primary diagnosis of hypoglycaemia and a secondary diagnosis of diabetes.

NHS England has not made an estimate of the overall cost of hypoglycaemia to the National Health Service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the NHS budget allocated to (a) diabetes, (b) cancer, (c) dementia and (d) cardiovascular disease.

Jane Ellison

NHS England allocates funding to clinical commissioning groups, which are responsible for distributing that funding in line with local clinical need. Funding is not generally allocated by disease area.

However, the following table shows the most recent figures collated by NHS England on Primary Care Trust (PCT) expenditure in 2012-13 on diabetes, cancer, organic mental health disorders (including dementia) and problems of circulation (including cardiovascular disease). These figures exclude strategic health authority and arm’s length body expenditure.

	Expenditure (£ billion)	Expenditure (% of overall PCT expenditure)
Diabetes	£1.54 billion	1.6%
Cancer	£5.68 billion	6.0%
Organic Mental Health Disorders (including Dementia)	£1.52 billion	1.6%
Problems of Circulation	£6.90 billion	7.3%

NHS England has also identified around £90 million annually that is available nationally to the National Health Service to support timely diagnosis of dementia and to ensure that by 2015, two-thirds of people with dementia have a diagnosis and receive appropriate support following diagnosis.

Notes on interpretation:

Expenditure data included here is taken from the 2012-13 programme budgeting returns. Programme budgeting returns are based on a subset of PCT accounts data and represent a subset of overall NHS expenditure data.

Calculating programme budgeting data is complex and not all healthcare activity or services can be classified directly to a programme budgeting category or care setting. When it is not possible to reasonably estimate a programme budgeting category, expenditure is classified as “Other”. Expenditure on General Medical Services and Personal Medical Services cannot be reasonably estimated at disease specific level, and is separately identified as a subcategory of “Other” expenditure.

The allocation of expenditure to programme budgeting subcategories is not always straightforward, and subcategory level data should therefore be used with caution.

Estimates of expenditure are calculated using price paid for specific activities and services purchased form healthcare providers. PCTs follow standard guidance, procedures and mappings when calculating programme budgeting data.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the proportion of deaths from (a) liver disease and (b) viral hepatitis which were preventable in the last year for which figures are available.

Jane Ellison

Liver disease registered as the underlying cause of death, accounts for 2% of all deaths in England and 3% if all mentions are counted. Viral liver disease is registered for less than 0.1% of all deaths.

The main liver viral hepatitides are; A, B, C, D, E. Occasionally, other viruses cause hepatitis. Most people with hepatitis clear the virus after an acute infection. Death from acute viral hepatitis is very rare, a very small number of patients will be referred for liver transplantation. A proportion of deaths from chronic hepatitis B maybe preventable by vaccination and treatment. A proportion of deaths from chronic hepatitis C may be preventable by antiviral therapies. A significant proportion of hepatitis B and C is acquired outside the United Kingdom and therefore it is important to identify people carrying the viruses and offer treatment and vaccination to the close contacts of people with chronic hepatitis as appropriate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he discussed liver disease with his Department’s Chief Medical Officer in the last 12 months; what the content of those discussions was; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison

A wide variety of issues, including liver disease, are discussed at regular meetings between the Chief Medical Officer and my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State. As these meetings are not routinely minuted it is not possible to specify at which meetings liver disease was discussed, or the specific contents of individual meetings. There have been no meetings specifically focused on liver disease between the Chief Medical Officer and the Secretary of State within the last 12 months.