Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what self-care intervention sexual and reproductive health and rights services they support in the UK.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Local authorities in England are mandated to provide comprehensive open access sexual health services including sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, notification of sexual partners of infected persons and access to the full range of contraception methods free from prescription charge. It is for local authorities to decide how these services are delivered.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect that all vaccinations which were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be completed.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Routine vaccinations delivered in primary care have continued to be delivered as priority services, with the exception of shingles vaccination for those people over 70 who have been shielding. However, if patients are attending their general practitioner practice for other reasons and it is clinically appropriate to offer them the shingles vaccine, they will be given the vaccine. We expect this service to fully recommence shortly, following advice from Public Health England.
Delivery of school-age vaccination programmes has been impacted following the school closures, although programmes are delivered at different times by different providers throughout the academic year. This means there will also be local variation in restoration of the programmes. Some outstanding vaccinations will be delivered by the beginning of the next academic year, and the remainder are expected to be completed by the end of the academic year 2020/21.
All vaccinations will be delivered with appropriate social distancing and infection control procedures to protect the public. Routine immunisations continue to be offered to all eligible patients.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the main challenges in restarting routine vaccination programmes (1) during, and (2) after, the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The primary challenges in restoring routine vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic include school closures, for delivery of school-based vaccination programmes and the need to observe social distancing and provide vaccinations in line with guidance on infection prevention and control requirements. The National Health Service is continuing to assess these challenges and respond appropriately as we move into subsequent phases of the pandemic.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what recovery plans they have put in place to help routine immunisation programmes to return to normal coverage (1) during, and (2) after, the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Public Health England, NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with regional commissioners to ensure routine childhood immunisations continue to be delivered in primary care settings during the pandemic. Programmes delivered through schools are currently on hold and will be rescheduled as schools open.
People in the age group eligible for the shingles vaccine are required to take particular care to avoid a situation where they are at higher risk of acquiring COVID-19 so they are not being actively called for immunisation but if they are attending the general practitioner practice for other reasons and it is clinically appropriate to offer shingles vaccine, they will be given the vaccine.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are drawing up an immunisation recovery plan, taking into account risk assessment advice from Public Health England.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what regions have (1) the highest, and (2) the lowest, use of self-injectable contraceptives in the UK.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of GPs offer self-injectable contraceptives in the UK.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The information requested is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the percentage of women who opt for self-injectable contraceptives in the UK.
Answered by Lord Bethell
No assessment has been made. The information requested is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have been disaggregating COVID-19 cases reported to the WHO by (1) age, (2) sex, and (3) any other variables.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Public Health England (PHE) shares data with the World Health Organization (WHO) EURO on a weekly basis. Anonymised data is sent that contains age, sex, country, date of birth, laboratory confirmation, date first sample was taken, SARS-CoV-2 laboratory result, admission to hospital, date of hospital admission and underlying conditions.
PHE reports data on behalf of the devolved administrations. The level of information the devolved administrations share with PHE to share with WHO EURO may differ from what PHE reports for England.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many NHS maternity units in England provide contraception to mothers after delivery so that there is no immediate need to access such services from a GP.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Women who give birth are given information about, and offered a choice of, all contraceptive methods by their midwife within seven days of delivery and therefore have no immediate need to access such services from a general practitioner.
Asked by: Baroness Tonge (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with arms manufacturers about utilising such manufacturers' ability to produce ventilators for the NHS.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Work preparing the National Health Service has been ongoing and we have already doubled ventilator capacity. New and existing suppliers are being asked to build as many as they can. The Prime Minister has issued a call to United Kingdom industry to produce additional ventilators and the Department asked appropriate potential manufacturers on Friday 13 March to come forward with proposals for ramping up the production of existing designs or new ventilation machines. Nearly 4,000 companies have responded, including defence contractors.
Around a dozen potential prototypes have now been presented to the Department which we are currently pursuing.