Andrew Stephenson: Health Education England created five additional training posts for neurology for 2023, with NHS England having created a further 10 additional posts for neurology for 2024. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) published by NHS England in June 2023 sets out an aim to double the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 places a year by 2031/32, and to work towards this expansion...
Andrew Stephenson: The Department holds the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to account for their work, including their performance and the impact of any organisational changes, through regular established mechanisms including quarterly and annual accountability reviews. The minutes of the latest Annual Accountability Review with the MHRA are available at the following link:...
Andrew Stephenson: The Department was notified of supply issues with Tegretol 200 milligram and 400 milligram prolonged release tablets in December 2023. We took swift action, working with industry to help resolve them. As a result, supplies of both strengths are now available from the manufacturer and we are working with them to ensure these are distributed to wholesalers, as quickly as possible. We issued...
Andrew Stephenson: It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Hollobone. I start by paying tribute to the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) for securing an important debate on an important topic. I know that both as an MP and as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group she has long been a champion for those living with eating disorders. She has worked with the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam...
Andrew Stephenson: The New Hospital Programme (NHP) is currently working towards a 92% bed occupancy assumption for schemes that use our standardised approach to building new hospitals, Hospital 2.0. The NHP is working jointly with all National Health Service trusts in the programme to develop and design the right sized hospitals based on robust assumptions appropriate for local population’s health needs and...
Andrew Stephenson: The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) published by NHS England on 30 June 2023 sets out the aim of doubling the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 a year by 2031/32, and to work towards this expansion by increasing places by a third, to 10,000 a year, by 2028/29. In October 2023, the Office for Students (OfS) was asked by myself and the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships...
Andrew Stephenson: Cutting National Health Service waiting lists, including for echocardiography, is one of the Government’s top priorities. £2.3 billion was awarded at the Spending Review 2021 to transform diagnostic services over the next three years. Most of this will help increase the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, expanding and protecting elective planned...
Andrew Stephenson: In NHS England, there are 51 staff who have equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT and race in their job titles. This covers a wide range of roles both supporting NHS England as an employer, and facing the wider National Health Service system.
Andrew Stephenson: No meetings have taken place between Vertex and Department ministers within this timeframe.
Andrew Stephenson: Standard care for type 1 diabetes involves regularly measuring blood glucose levels by self-monitoring, blood testing, or by using a continuous glucose monitor, real-time or intermittently scanned. The NHS Long Term Plan committed that 20% of people with type 1 diabetes would benefit from life changing flash glucose monitors. Data to quarter three of 2022/23 shows that 73% of people with type...
Andrew Stephenson: The Department does not collect or hold the requested information.
Andrew Stephenson: The Delivery Plan for Tackling the COVID-19 Backlog of Elective Care outlines how the National Health Service will bring down waiting times across all elective services. The plan does not prioritise specialties, but the NHS continues to focus on reducing the longest waits, providing high levels of support and scrutiny, targeted at the trusts which have the highest number of patients waiting...
Andrew Stephenson: A response for this correspondence was issued on 28 February 2024.
Andrew Stephenson: The Department has been working with manufacturers of medicines used for the management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to ensure that action is taken to address the supply issues as quickly as possible. As a result of our continued work with the pharmaceutical industry, some issues have now been resolved, including with guanfacine. However, we know that there continue to be...
Andrew Stephenson: The Delivery Plan for Tackling the COVID-19 Backlog of Elective Care outlines how the National Health Service will bring down waiting times across all elective services. The plan does not prioritise specialties or certain interventions, but the NHS continues to focus on reducing the longest waiting times and providing high levels of support and scrutiny, targeted at the trusts which have the...
Andrew Stephenson: Based on the latest data available from Hospital Episode Statistics, the median length of stay for finished consultant episodes where a knee replacement was the main procedure, was two days.
Andrew Stephenson: NHS England sends communications and invitations to patients using a digital first approach, for environmental reasons and to efficiently reduce costs. If an individual has provided a mobile phone number and email address through their general practice, NHS England will, in the first instance, send most invitations for appointments via mobile phone text and email. Letters are typically sent...
Andrew Stephenson: The Government wants National Health Service patients to benefit from effective treatments, in a way that represents value, and is fair to all parties. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations on whether medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS, based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. The NICE develops its recommendations...
Lord Markham: My Hon. Friend Minister of State (Minister for Health and Secondary Care) (Andrew Stephenson) has made the the following Written Statement: The government has published England’s third Rare Diseases Action Plan on GOV.UK today, on international Rare Disease Day. Rare diseases are those affecting less than 1 in 2000 in the population. Although rare diseases are individually rare, they are...
Andrew Stephenson: The government has published England’s third Rare Diseases Action Plan on GOV.UK today, on international Rare Disease Day. Rare diseases are those affecting less than 1 in 2000 in the population. Although rare diseases are individually rare, they are collectively common with 1 in 17 people being affected by a rare disease at some point in their lifetime. Approximately 3.5 million people in...