Asked by: Baroness Wheatcroft (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Ministerial Directions have been issued in the Department of Health and Social Care since October 2020; and what matters they related to.
Answered by Lord Kamall
No Ministerial Directions have been issued in the Department of Health and Social Care since October 2020.
Asked by: Baroness Wheatcroft (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the provision of vaccines against COVID-19 for (1) elderly, or (2) vulnerable, patients hospitalised for other conditions.
Answered by Lord Bethell
By mid-February we successfully offered a first vaccine dose to everyone in the top four priority groups identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation as follows:
- all residents in a care home for older adults and their carers;
- all those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers;
- all those 75 years of age and over; and
- all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals.
The latest NHS England data dated 4 March shows that 7,300,964 individuals aged 70 years old or over have been vaccinated with at least one dose and 1,961,501 clinically extremely vulnerable patients have been vaccinated with at least one dose. This means 88.3% of the population identified as clinically extremely vulnerable have received at least one dose. We do not hold figures for vulnerable patients hospitalised for other conditions, but hospital hubs will typically vaccinate eligible inpatients where clinically appropriate.
Asked by: Baroness Wheatcroft (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the annual cost to the National Health Service of the customer satisfaction surveys conducted by text message; and to what use the results of such surveys are put.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
A range of surveys are conducted to understand the views and experience of those using NHS services. The National Health Survey patient experience survey programme uses a postal methodology and does not currently involve text messaging.
The NHS Friends and Family Test (FFT) is not a traditional customer satisfaction survey, but provides continuous opportunities for near real-time feedback from patients about their experience of care and treatment. Healthcare providers can provide a feedback collection method that suits them. Most use low-cost paper feedback forms and collection boxes but some use text messaging. NHS England does not gather information on the cost of this.
FFT provides a rich source of patient views that has proved valuable in making improvements to local services.