Asked by: Baroness Rawlings (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 15 March (HL6625), why antiviral treatments for COVID-19 can only be prescribed by a clinician within a COVID Medicine Delivery Unit and cannot be prescribed by private physicians.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
The supply of COVID-19 oral antivirals is not yet commercially available, with the current United Kingdom stocks held by the Government. As there is no commercial supply of antivirals, private physicians are not able to prescribe antivirals to non-hospitalised patients.
Asked by: Baroness Rawlings (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 15 March (HL6625), why antiviral treatments for COVID-19 can only be prescribed by a clinician within a COVID Medicine Delivery Unit and are not available for general practice prescribing and purchase directly from pharmacies.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
Eligibility for treatments for non-hospitalised patients at highest risk following infection with COVID-19 is set out in a United Kingdom-wide clinical access policy agreed by the Government’s Chief Medical Officer. This policy provides four treatment options; an intravenous monoclonal antibody; an intravenous antiviral; and two oral antiviral options. The decision on the choice of treatment is led by the prescribing clinician who will consider the relative effectiveness of the medicines and the suitability for the individual patient. The intravenous treatments are typically provided in a hospital clinic setting and the oral treatments can usually be sent to the patient’s home or collected on the patient’s behalf from a named pharmacy.
Due to the current range of treatment options available, the targeted cohort of patients receiving treatment - many of whom will be managing health conditions with the support of hospital specialists - and the need to carefully manage available supply, approximately 100 COVID Medicine Delivery Units in England offer an integrated triage and treatment service. COVID-19 treatments within the UK are only available to eligible patients following a clinical assessment and are provided free of charge. These treatments cannot currently be purchased as an over-the-counter medicine. Any decisions on the longer-term deployment of COVID-19 treatments beyond the highest risk groups will be subject to the outcomes of the PANORAMIC study on the effectiveness of antivirals in the UK population.
Asked by: Baroness Rawlings (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 3 March (HL6393), why pharmacists are unable to (1) stock, and (2) sell, COVID-19 treatments including (a) molnupiravir, and (b) Paxlovid.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
Community pharmacies dispense prescriptions issued by general practice. COVID-19 treatments, including the oral antiviral treatments molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid), are not currently available for general practice prescribing. In England, these treatments are prescribed by a clinician within a COVID Medicine Delivery Unit. Where an oral antiviral treatment is prescribed, this can be collected from a named pharmacy usually in a hospital, or alternatively sent directly to the patient’s home.
Asked by: Baroness Rawlings (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 9 February (HL6141), whether pharmacists are able to (1) stock, and (2) sell, the antiviral medications (a) molnupiravir, and (b) Paxlovid.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
Community pharmacies are not able to stock and sell COVID-19 treatments, including molnupiravir or PF-07321332+ritonavir, co-packaged as Paxlovid. Updates on accessing these medications will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Rawlings (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Kamall on 31 January (HL Deb cols 621–3), whether the antiviral pills molnupiravir and Paxlovid will be available for free on the National Health Service; and if not, how people will be able to get hold of them.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
Molnupiravir and PF-07321332+ritonavir (co-packaged as Paxlovid) are currently available for eligible National Health Service patients through COVID Medicines Delivery Units (CMDUs). Eligible patients who receive a positive COVID-19 test result will be contacted by a clinician from a CMDU to discuss what treatments could be suitable for them.
For those patients not already exempt from prescription charges, we have announced that antiviral medicines prescribed via CMDUs will be supplied free of charge until 31 March 2022. This is supported by Regulation 13 of The National Health Service (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) Regulations 2015.
Asked by: Baroness Rawlings (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what constitutes a COVID-19 (1) pilot scheme, (2) event research programme, (3) trial; and how many there have been of each of these in the last two years.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
A pilot scheme tests a policy before it becomes operational to identify any delivery challenges and how these can be overcome ahead of wider deployment. A pilot is limited in its delivery by time period, volume, context or geography, or any combination of these. Within NHS Test and Trace there have been 158 pilot schemes.
The Events Research Programme (ERP) is a single cross-Government programme which ran a number of event pilots. It aims to examine the risk of transmission of COVID-19 from attendance at events to enable people to attend a range of events safely. The programme is exploring how a combination of testing and non-pharmaceutical interventions or actions that people can take to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, can inform decisions on safely lifting restrictions at events. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is currently leading the ERP, which has conducted 42 pilot events within the programme.
Trials are put in place to identify solutions to a specific research question. They are run within formal research governance and are listed on an open science platform, available to the scientific community. The outcomes of trials are prepared for peer-reviewed publications. Information on the number of all such COVID-19 trials is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Rawlings (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which civil servants are exempt from COVID-19 rules related to (1) travelling, and (2) mixing with groups of other people; and for what reasons they are exempt.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Crown servants and Government contractors, which includes civil servants must quarantine in a managed facility or in their own accommodation, depending on the ‘traffic light’ allocation of the country they departed from or transited through in the 10 days before arrival in the United Kingdom. This applies unless a relevant Government department has certified that they are not required to do so and the traveller is:
- a Crown servant or Government contractor travelling to the UK for essential Government work or returning from such work outside the UK; or
- returning from conducting essential state business outside of the UK; or
- returning to the UK where this is necessary to facilitate the functioning of a diplomatic mission or consular post of Her Majesty or of a military/other official posting on behalf of Her Majesty.
Civil servants meeting the first two of these eligibility criteria may also be exempt from the mandatory post-arrival testing requirements. Some civil servants who are conducting essential border work or essential defence activities are also exempt from the requirement to complete a Passenger Locator Form, as well as quarantine and travel testing requirements. While all social distancing restrictions are no longer mandated, the legal duty to self-isolate when notified by NHS Test and Trace remains in place applies to civil servants as to the wider public.