Now Matt Hancock’s predecessor has written a letter to James Lennertz, boss of BioMarin Europe, exclusively seen by the Express.
Mr Hunt, chairman of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, said: “For far too long people have been denied the normal life most of us take for granted.
“Now we hope and pray 2021 will be not just the year we defeat Covid, but the year many families can get back their lives by accessing this vital drug.
“But the manufacturer BioMarin needs to be flexible on price.
“What is the point in medical breakthroughs if most people can’t afford to benefit from them?”
It comes as the college continues with its campaign to see a director of midwifery on every trust board alongside a director of nursing.
In its latest moves, the RCM is in the process of carrying out a stocktake of the number of directors of midwifery currently in post in the UK and will then begin tracking progress towards increasing that figure.
Giving evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday, Gill Adgie, the RCM’s north of England regional head, said it was vital that directors of midwifery were the ones reporting directly to trust boards on safety issues in maternity, and not directors of nursing.
The NMC has been rolling out a new approach to FtP since 2018 after a public consultation showed support for change.
Among the aims of the reform was to ensure concerns about registrants could be resolved earlier and for remediation to be encouraged, Ms Sutcliffe told the committee meeting today.
She said the regulator wanted to “move away from the adversarial process which causes harm for our registrants, but also has a real deep impact on those women and families going through the process”.
As part of this, she said the NMC was concentrating on “helping employers to focus on what they can do better at a local level” when concerns about staff came to the fore.
Coventry demonstrated true leadership where the government had failed : MP Taiwo Owatemi looks back on 2020
Coventry North West MP Taiwo Owatemi said the pandemic has revealed real people power
Taiwo Owatemi won Coventry North West in the December 2019 General Election
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It s been a year like no other.
England s third lockdown has sparked an unprecedented crisis in mental health, top experts have warned.
Charities and politicians have urged No10 to provide much-needed funding to prop up services, and ensure all patients receive treatment.
Mind says its pandemic support page has seen its highest number of visitors since April when the country was in the grips of the first wave.
And former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt warned there is a real risk self-isolation becomes a tipping point leading to an epidemic of severe mental illness .
Experts claim the mental health crisis has been fuelled by the UK s huge death toll, mass unemployment caused by the lockdowns and the social effects of stay at home orders.