Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many EU nationals work in the NHS in England.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Health and Social Care Information Centre collects data on the number of staff working in National Health Service hospital and community health services in England.
Nationality is a self-reported field within the NHS electronic staff record system. Of those individuals who declared their nationality, 1,050,034 (93.5%) are European Union nationals (this includes 994,693 British nationals and 55,341 other EU nationals). There are a further 73,681 (6.5%) non United Kingdom and non EU nationals.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of evidence from many parts of the world, what evaluation has been carried out of the potential cost savings from centralising NHS procurement of common generic drugs.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
As I said in my previous answer on 4 January to Question HL4657, on behalf of National Health Service secondary care establishments (hospitals) in England the Department’s Commercial Medicines Unit undertakes a long established centralised tender programme for framework agreements for generic medicines. This is in compliance with European Union procurement regulations.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what evaluation they have carried out of the potential cost savings from centralised procurement of common generic drugs in the light of evidence from other countries using high volume contracts.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
On behalf of National Health Service secondary care establishments (hospitals) in England the Department’s Commercial Medicines Unit undertakes a long established centralised tender programme for framework agreements for generic medicines. This is in compliance with European Union procurement regulations.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much NHS England pays for paracetamol, and how much paracetamol it procures annually.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
NHS England has advised that it does not procure paracetamol. This is done by dispensing contractors in primary care and by hospital trusts in secondary care.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the likelihood of the aerosol transmission of the ebola virus.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Ebola is spread through body fluid secretions directly and as stated in the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens guidance, United Kingdom experts agree there is no circumstantial or epidemiological evidence of an aerosol transmission risk.
The Public Health England document Guidance Ebola: origins, reservoirs, transmission, guidelines clarifies this in more detail:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ebola-origins-reservoirs-transmission-and-guidelines
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether an independent audit has been carried out of the isolation procedures and practical skills of staff in National Health Service hospitals designated to treat any ebola patients.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
All National Health Service trusts and providers of independent healthcare and adult social care in England are required to comply with The Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice for health and adult social care on the prevention and control of infections and related guidance (2009). This includes standards around infection control provision. A copy is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/216227/dh_123923.pdf
The Care Quality Commission takes this code into account when making decisions about the registration of a provider.
Those NHS trusts that have been designated as having specialist infection control facilities (Royal Free Hospital London, Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary, Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital and Sheffield Teaching Hospital) are subject to additional checks. In line with the requirements set out under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974), the designated person from Health and Safety Executive’s Biological Agents Unit Hazardous Installations has visited each of the units and continues to work closely with them.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the strain of the ebola virus responsible for the recent outbreak, and whether it is a novel mutated strain of the virus.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is caused by Ebola Virus (EBOV) (formerly Zaire ebolavirus), first discovered in 1976. There is no evidence to suggest that the current strain of EBOV has a higher rate of transmissibility or an unusual level of pathogenicity compared with previous strains.
The Department continues to work with colleagues across government to monitor and assess the risk posed to the United Kingdom by the current Ebola epidemic. The advice from the Chief Medical Officer is that the public health risk in the UK remains low, but this risk assessment is kept under regular review.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are reassessing the United Kingdom's capability in vaccine development and production with a view to reducing the time taken to produce new vaccines for use against emerging diseases.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
We are not currently reassessing the United Kingdom’s capability in vaccine development and production, which is primarily a matter for the pharmaceutical industry.
However, our horizon-scanning and surveillance for emerging infectious diseases and the development of arrangements for emergency preparedness and response will include collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry when the use of a vaccine may be a potential control measure.
One example of this work is the current efforts to accelerate clinical trials for an Ebola vaccine, working closely with other Governments, vaccine regulators, industry and the World Health Organization.