Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 home tests they have (1) delivered to care homes, and (2) processed, each day since they began to distribute such tests.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Public Health England’s Health Protection Teams have, from the outset, been testing residents when an outbreak is reported at a particular care home. More than 41,000 residents have been tested through this route. On 15 April, the Government extended testing to essential workers, including symptomatic care home staff. Since then, the Care Quality Commission has referred over 34,000 care workers for testing. We are now prioritising up to 30,000 tests per day for staff and residents at care homes in England that look after over 65s.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that COVID-19 related fatalities of (1) NHS staff, (2) social workers, and (3) care workers, are accurately reported.
Answered by Lord Bethell
On 29 April 2020 the Government introduced a new daily death reporting protocol which includes deaths that have occurred in all settings where there has been a positive COVID-19 test such as hospitals, care homes and the wider community.
The number of deaths of National Health Service healthcare workers is verified from direct reports from NHS employing and non-NHS organisations. This information is investigated and triangulated by NHS England to give a high level of confidence of validity.
The Office for National Statistics also publishes statistics on deaths involving COVID-19 by occupation, including rates and counts of deaths of social workers and care workers.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to publish finer-resolution data on hospital admissions statistics, to assist with understanding the optimal admission, treatment, and resource allocation strategies.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Data on Hospital Episodes Statistics is published by NHS Digital and the latest available data is for 2018/19. Annual data for 2019/20 is due to be published in October 2020.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish the R number, the reproduction index for the COVID-19 virus, for each region of the UK. [T]
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government Office for Science currently publishes the latest estimate of the United Kingdom-wide range for R on a weekly basis. The current range is estimated to be 0.7-1.0 and is based on the latest data available to determine infection and transmission rates.
The Government is committed to publishing the scientific evidence that has informed the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) advice. These papers are being published in batches. The latest batches were released on 20 May and 22 May and the next batch will be published in due course. The full list of papers reviewed to date is available in an online only format on the GOV.UK page, ‘The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE): Coronavirus (COVID-19) response’. This list will be updated to reflect papers considered at recent and future meetings.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which stockpiles of personal protective equipment were replaced by 'just in time' supply arrangements over the past ten years.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department’s advisory Committee for New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) makes recommendations to the Government on what medicines and clinical consumables should be stockpiled for pandemic influenza preparedness including relevant scientific information that is used for estimating target stock levels. No assessment has been made of variance in the spend on personal protective equipment (PPE) over the past 10 years, therefore we are unable to estimate the financial savings made as a result.
A small portion of the required FFP3 respirators and gloves have ‘just in time’ arrangements in place. The majority of the stockholding for these products and all other PPE is held in the stockpile on a ‘just in case’ basis.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the UK's stockpile of personal protective equipment has decreased over the last ten years and, if so, what financial saving was made as a result.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department’s advisory Committee for New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) makes recommendations to the Government on what medicines and clinical consumables should be stockpiled for pandemic influenza preparedness including relevant scientific information that is used for estimating target stock levels. No assessment has been made of variance in the spend on personal protective equipment (PPE) over the past 10 years, therefore we are unable to estimate the financial savings made as a result.
A small portion of the required FFP3 respirators and gloves have ‘just in time’ arrangements in place. The majority of the stockholding for these products and all other PPE is held in the stockpile on a ‘just in case’ basis.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 home tests returned to them were not viable owing to difficulties in collecting a sample of the virus when self-swabbing.
Answered by Lord Bethell
International peer reviewed evidence, as well as the National Testing Programme’s experience, is that void rates for self-administered tests are of a similar level to clinician-administered tests. The best international evidence, as well as the Programme’s internal data, are kept under constant review, and significant resource has been deployed to ensuring that the instructions for self-administration are clear and easy to follow.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the plans developed by NHS England to improve pandemic response planning as a result of Exercise Cygnus.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS England is a key partner in the ongoing cross-Government work to develop the United Kingdom’s pandemic preparedness. This Department continues to work across Government and with key stakeholders, including NHS England, to develop coordinated multi-sector response plans for a future influenza pandemic.
The lessons from Exercise Cygnus, along with expert scientific, clinical and operational advice, have informed the UK’s preparedness to ensure that the country remains well prepared for infectious disease outbreaks. This includes work such as development of draft legislation support to the health system response to a future influenza pandemic and strengthening plans to surge and flex beyond normal operations, as demonstrated by the considerable increase in critical care capacity as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether part-time students on (1) physiotherapy, and (2) other courses, will be eligible to receive the £5,000 maintenance grant each year whilst studying.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Students who are enrolled on eligible physiotherapy courses or any other eligible courses and who are studying on a part-time basis will receive a pro-rata payment. Further details will be made available in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the (1) financial, (2) operational, and (3) security, implications of missing the January 2020 deadline to migrate all computers used by the National Health Service to Windows 10.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The whole of the National Health Service estate is covered by extended support for Windows 7 until January 2021. This means that the NHS will continue to receive security patches for the next year. This was included at no additional cost within the NHS Windows 10 Agreement.
Government is supporting the roll out of Windows 10 across the NHS estate. This process is on track and all NHS organisations have agreed to migrate to Windows 10 by no later than December 2020.
NHS trusts additionally benefit from access to Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), which provides real time detection and protection against potential threats by identifying suspicious behaviour on devices indicative of a cyber-attack. ATP can be deployed on Windows 7 and Windows 10 machines and gives NHS Digital and local organisations enhanced capability to respond to threats in real time. Through ATP, NHS Digital can also see where every organisation is in relation to the deployment of Windows 10.