Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the normal standard of pregnancy care continues during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The National Health Service has made arrangements to ensure that women are supported and cared for safely through pregnancy, birth and the period afterwards during this pandemic when there will be extra pressures on healthcare services.
Throughout the pandemic, NHS England and NHS Improvement have been guiding maternity services to prioritise maintaining safe and personalised maternity care by making adjustments to service provision only where necessitated by the local impact of COVID-19.
Wherever possible, services have been asked to reinstate a fully personalised approach to meeting the needs of individual women and their families and the level of care contacts and choice options available to women and their partners across the maternity pathway.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate has been made of the number of women who have gone through labour without a support partner present due to the ongoing covid-19 outbreak in (a) Camberwell and Peckham, (b) Southwark, (c) London and (d) England.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what restrictions are in place on visits to children and young people aged under 25 who are autistic and/or have learning disabilities and who are detained in mental health hospitals located in the (a) Bolton, (b) Greater Manchester, (c) Leicester, (d) Northampton, (Greencore only), (e) North East of England, (f) North West of England, (g) West Midlands and (h) West Yorkshire areas subject to local lockdown regulations.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
There is national guidance on arrangements for visitors on all hospital sites. The current guidance was published on the 5 June 2020 and a revised version is due for publication imminently.
The general guidance has been supplemented by a letter from the NHS England National Mental Health Director and the National Director of Learning Disability and Autism to providers of services for patients with a mental health and/or learning disability and/or autism, which was issued on the 22 September 2020. This letter reinforces the importance of enabling families to visit and stresses the need for risk assessments to be completed if by exception visiting needs to be restricted.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of people reliant on lip reading as a key form of communication in (a) Camberwell and Peckham and (b) the UK.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
We have not estimated how many people are reliant on lip reading as a key form of communication in Camberwell and Peckham or in the United Kingdom.
We know and recognise that lip reading is an important way for people with a hearing impairment in addition to people with other health conditions and disabilities to communicate with others.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support the hearing impaired community whose ability to communicate may be affected by the introduction of mandatory face masks in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Government has announced that from Friday 24 July, members of the public must wear a face covering when visiting a shop or supermarket in England. Guidance on how to wear and remove a face covering was published online on 14 July. In addition, the Government is running a major proactive communications campaign on face coverings to alert the public where they are now required to wear face coverings and educate the public on how to correctly wear one.
Legitimate reasons for not wearing a mask include if they are travelling with or providing assistance to someone who relies on lip reading to communicate or if they are not able to put on, wear or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness or impairment, or disability. People will be able to remove their face covering if speaking with people who rely on lip reading, facial expressions or clear sound to communicate.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Chief Medical Officer on the distribution of accessible, deaf-friendly face masks in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Government recognise concerns about the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), particularly face masks when it comes to people who lip read. The United Kingdom’s Government’s national PPE procurement team has been working extremely hard to source clear facemasks which comply with UK safety standards and have procured stocks of clear masks into health and social care settings, to support those who need to lip read. Distribution solutions for these are currently being confirmed.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to increase pay for social care workers.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government does not set the levels of pay for social care workers; however, we are committed to raising the profile of the social care sector. Putting social care on a sustainable footing, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect, is one of the biggest challenges that we face as a society. There are complex questions to address, which is why we have invited cross-party talks. These will take place at the earliest opportunity in light of the current circumstances. The Government will then bring forward a plan for social care for the longer term.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of social care workers using food banks.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
No such assessment had been made; the Government does not collect data on the number of food parcels distributed by food banks and there is no official data on food bank use in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Baroness Harman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that women in Camberwell and Peckham constituency have adequate access to Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT); and if he make an assessment of the adequacy of the medicine supply chain in relation to HRT.
Answered by Jo Churchill
We are aware of ongoing supply issues with some hormone replacement therapy (HRT) preparations for a variety of reasons.
The National Health Service receives updates on the supply situation and availability of HRT products, and we are continuing to engage with organisations such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare and the British Menopausal Society.
We have been working closely with all suppliers to resolve the issues as quickly as possible and maintain overall supply to patients across the United Kingdom, including those living in Camberwell and Peckham. Although some HRT products are still affected by supply issues, alternatives remain available, and the overall supply situation has been improving since February 2020 and will continue to improve over the coming months.