Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which documents set out the triage policy in relation to a pandemic for (1) hospitals, and (2) care homes, as of January 2020.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Re-configuring service delivery to ensure sufficient National Health Service capacity was central to our preparedness for a pandemic and the COVID-19 response. However, the Department does not have - and did not have in January 2020 - a pandemic triage policy for hospitals and care homes, as this is a clinical matter. In the event that patient triage becomes necessary, clinical guidance would be produced to support decision-making.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which 10 UK hospitals have the highest financial deficit, including debts carried over from previous years.
Answered by Lord Bethell
During the last year, the government agreed a number of measures to improve the finances in the NHS provider sector in England. These included writing off £13.4 billion of NHS debt, as part of a major financial reset for NHS providers; temporary arrangements that saw trusts receive block payments to fund their spending through the pandemic, supported by c£18bn of additional funding to support the NHS response to COVID. As a result, the amount and levels of deficits across in the NHS provider sector fell significantly.
Work is ongoing to support the minority of trusts who ended 2020/21 in a deficit position and to develop solutions to secure future financial sustainability.
Final deficit figures for 2020-21 will be published as part of the NHS’s final accounts in due course.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have been tested for COVID-19 in Nottinghamshire since the announcement of mass testing in November 2020.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The total number of people tested for COVID-19 in Nottinghamshire between 29 October 2020 and 27 January 2021 is 329,057.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have been employed to assist in the roll out of mass COVID-19 testing in Nottinghamshire since lateral flow tests became available in the UK.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We do not publish data in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have been tested for COVID-19 in Nottinghamshire since the announcement of mass COVID-19 testing in that county.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We do not publish data in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have determined that retired (1) nurses, (2) GPs and (3) anaesthetists, are incapable of safely administering COVID-19 vaccinations; and if so, what criteria were used to make any such determination.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Retired clinicians can support the National Health Service COVID-19 vaccination team via the Bringing Back Staff programme. A comprehensive training package has been put together by NHS England and NHS Improvement with professional groups and Public Health England. New vaccinators will have undergone both a comprehensive training programme and competency assessment to ensure they can safely administer vaccines to patients under the clinical supervision of an experienced health care professional.
Asked by: Lord Mann (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 requirement or otherwise for DBS checks to be made on volunteers to assist with car parking and people movement in any forthcoming programme of mass vaccinations for COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Non-clinical stewarding roles at vaccination centres will be filled by volunteers allocated through the Royal Voluntary Service, working with the National Health Service. The only role which requires a Disclosure and Barring Service check is a patient transport role.