Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to provide dental treatment for older people (1) in receipt of pension credit, and (2) who are unable to afford dental treatment by private sector providers.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Dentistry is a universal NHS service available to all who are entitled to use NHS services. There are no age restrictions. If anyone of any age is having difficulty finding a National Health Service dentist they should contact NHS 111 for advice on locating a practice able to offer care. There have been no reports that NHS England and NHS Improvement are aware of that older people have more difficulty than younger people in finding an NHS dentist.
Information is not held on the number of practices in England covered by an NHS contract. Information is held on the number of treatment locations there are in England where NHS dentistry is provided. This information is not held for 1990 or 2000 or 2015. As of 1 March 2020, the NHS Business Services Authority advises there were approximately 7,400 treatment locations in England providing some NHS care. Information is not held on which of these saw patients over the age of 65. NHS dentists are expected to treat patients of all ages and it would be very exceptional if a practice happened to have no patients in this age group.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many NHS dental practices there were in England in (1) 1990, (2) 2000, (3) 2015, and (4) 2020; how many NHS dental practices in each of those years accepted people over the age of 65 as NHS patients; and how many towns of more than 10,000 people have no NHS dental facilities for older people.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Dentistry is a universal NHS service available to all who are entitled to use NHS services. There are no age restrictions. If anyone of any age is having difficulty finding a National Health Service dentist they should contact NHS 111 for advice on locating a practice able to offer care. There have been no reports that NHS England and NHS Improvement are aware of that older people have more difficulty than younger people in finding an NHS dentist.
Information is not held on the number of practices in England covered by an NHS contract. Information is held on the number of treatment locations there are in England where NHS dentistry is provided. This information is not held for 1990 or 2000 or 2015. As of 1 March 2020, the NHS Business Services Authority advises there were approximately 7,400 treatment locations in England providing some NHS care. Information is not held on which of these saw patients over the age of 65. NHS dentists are expected to treat patients of all ages and it would be very exceptional if a practice happened to have no patients in this age group.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what the role is in the COVID-19 testing, tracing and isolating system of local authority Environmental Health Departments and their staff who are ordinarily engaged in such work, particularly in District Councils in two-tier areas.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Following a request from NHS Test and Trace, local authorities have produced Local Outbreak Plans that detail how they will manage an outbreak in their area. We would expect that those plans would include the role that Environmental Health Departments take already in outbreak management. Environmental Health Departments also have a role in supporting the need for surge capacity.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the role of local authority Public Health Directors and Departments in the COVID-19 testing, tracing and isolating system in (1) drawing up plans, (2) data sharing of positive cases, and (3) tracing contacts (a) in Lancashire, and (b) generally.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the daily targets for the number of COVID-19 tests of 100,000 from 1 May, or of 200,000 from 1 June, apply to (1) each day, (2) a majority of days, or (3) an average of the days in each month.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what role they have given to Lord Deighton in the provision of personal protective equipment for the NHS; to whom is he responsible; whether he is being remunerated for this work; if so, on what basis; and what actions he has so far taken.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Lord Deighton has been appointed by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care as an unpaid adviser to the Government to secure sufficient critical personal protective equipment (PPE) and ensure this gets to where it is needed. As part of this, he will drive forward coordination of the end-to-end process design and manufacture of new domestic PPE supplies, including streamlining the approvals and procurement process to ensure new domestic PPE supplies are rapidly approved and get to where they are needed.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of the COVID-19 testing kits that have been so far sent out in the post have been returned; and of those, what proportion have been (1) positive, (2) negative, (3) not indicative either way, (4) not able to be processed, (5) returned unused, and (6) not returned within the time period allotted.
Answered by Lord Bethell
As of 25 May 2020, 61% of COVID-19 home test kits distributed by the National Testing Programme had been returned.
Of those COVID-19 home test kits that have been returned as of 25 May 2020:
- 3.6% of home test kits received a positive result;
- 91.6% of home test kits received a negative result; and
- 4.8% of home test kits received a void result. This could be because the sample was not able to be processed, was returned unused, or not returned quickly enough.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the daily figures for the numbers of people tested for the COVID-19 include the 100,000 people who are being tested by post in a random survey led by Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and carried out by Ipsos MORI.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The number of tests undertaken through the survey led by Ipsos Mori and Imperial College London is reported in the daily testing figures under Pillar 4. These tests do not contribute to the number of people tested, as through these studies people are often tested repeatedly in order to better understand how the virus is changing in the population over time.