Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they have provided to (1) employers, and (2) key workers, with (a) type 1, and (b) type 2, diabetes about self-isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Public Health England (PHE) has published guidance on social distancing for the United Kingdom population, including those with diabetes type 1 and 2. Those with diabetes are at an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and so must be particularly stringent in following social distancing measures.
PHE has also published stay at home guidance which is applicable to anyone with diabetes, type 1 or 2. A copy of the guidance is attached.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of people providing informal social care who are paid in cash; and what assessment they have made of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on (1) the provision of such care, and (2) the livelihoods of such carers.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department does not hold the data on the number of people providing informal social care who are paid in cash.
To support those who have personal budgets during COVID-19, the Department is developing guidance on Direct Payments, along with question and answer guidance for those who hold budgets, which will be published at the earliest opportunity.
We have announced £1.6 billion funding for local authorities to help support adult social care providers and staff to respond to COVID-19, and, are developing guidance for employers around redeployment of staff and the use of volunteers to help maintain the services that some of the most vulnerable in our society rely on.
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 advances made by open sourcing research in relation to testing vaccines and treatments for COVID-19; what steps they have taken to ensure cooperation with scientific and research institutions in real time; with which countries such cooperation occurs; and in particular, whether they cooperate with such institutions in (1) South Korea, (2) Israel, (3) China, and (4) other G20 members.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Public Health England and other United Kingdom scientists and clinicians are members of several World Health Organization (WHO) working groups that cover new therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics and sero-epidemiology. There is excellent collaboration across many countries, including those in the G20.
Data and presentations have been shared at these working groups by many countries including China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, the Netherlands, France, Canada, the UK and the United States of America. There are publicly available outputs from these groups on the WHO Blueprint Research and Development website, one of which is the draft landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the availability of Ventolin; and what consideration they have given to enabling patients with symptoms of COVID-19 to purchase Ventolin without a prescription.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department has no current plans to enable salbutamol (for example, Ventolin by GSK) to be purchased over the counter without a prescription. The sale, supply and administration of prescription-only medicines, like Ventolin, are restricted by the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 which are designed to protect the public. The main route by which a pharmacist is able to sell or supply a prescription-only medicine is under the authority of a prescription.
The country is well prepared to deal with the impacts of COVID-19 and we have stockpiles of certain medicines, including salbutamol, in the event of any supply issues or significant increases in demand.
Asked by: Lord Mann (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the all-party Parliamentary group on Parkinsons' report entitled, Mental health matters too.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The guideline on Parkinson’s disease published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in July 2017 includes recommendations on managing depression in Parkinson’s in line with its own best practice guidance on depression in people with chronic health problems.
In addition, NHS England commissions the specialised neurological care that people with Parkinson’s disease may need, and it has set out that such specialised care should include access to psychologists to manage symptoms like anxiety and depression.