Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government has communicated the right to claim from the England Infected Blood Support scheme to veterans who were infected with hepatitis C and/or HIV in a British Military Hospital.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
There have been no specific communications. Information about the England Infected Blood Support Scheme (EIBSS), including eligibility, is available on the NHS Business Service Authority’s website. The NHS Business Services Authority also works with a range of charities which support those infected with HIV or hepatitis C to signpost potential beneficiaries to the EIBSS. The ongoing Infected Blood Inquiry may also direct potential beneficiaries to the Scheme. Medical professionals within the National Health Service have also been made aware of the EIBSS to inform patients who may be eligible.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to respond to the consultation on changing the qualifying age for free prescriptions in England to 66 years of age.
Answered by Edward Argar
The consultation on increasing the upper age exemption for free prescriptions to align it with the state pension age closed on 3 September 2021. No decisions on the proposals have yet been made. We will respond to the consultation and announce our next steps in due course.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 provide additional support to the ambulance service amid (a) staff shortages and (b) high demand during the current covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar
NHS England and NHS Improvement are supporting to ambulance trusts in England with an investment of an extra £55 million to increase staff numbers for the winter, including over 700 additional staff in control rooms and on the frontline. This includes £1.85 million to place more hospital ambulance liaison officers at the most challenged hospitals to address ambulance queues and £4.4 million to maintain an additional 154 ambulances.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether additional mental health support is being made available to people affected by the contaminated blood scandal.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
This Government is committed to providing mental health support for people affected by the contaminated blood tragedy. In England funding is available via the English Infected Blood Support Scheme for infected and affected individuals and their families to access counselling in addition to National Health Service-provided services. In May 2020 a significant change was made to the application process for this support so that beneficiaries can now receive funding for counselling without general practitioner approval or the need to access NHS waiting lists. The devolved administrations, who each run their own Infected Blood Support Schemes, also offer psychological support.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that the contaminated blood support scheme is compatible with the Equalities Act 2010.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Under the general equality duty set out in the Equality Act 2010, the Department has assessed the effect of the English Infected Blood Support Scheme on groups protected under the Act, as well as the impact on families. We published our assessment of changes to the scheme in 2017 and keep this equality analysis under review. The assessment is available at the following link:
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
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 assure Haemophiliacs that the Coronavirus vaccination is safe following evidence given by Professor Ludlam to the Infected Blood Inquiry.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The COVID-19 vaccine is made from a non-human source material and so there is no risk of infection from the manufacturing process. There are no components of human or animal origin in any of the COVID-19 vaccines. The quality data for any COVID-19 vaccine is robustly and thoroughly reviewed with scientific rigour before approval of the vaccine to ensure safety for all, including those with haemophilia. In addition, each batch is tested to ensure the absence of contaminating viruses and other microorganisms. This orthogonal approach, which is applied to all medicinal products and vaccines including the COVID-19 vaccines ensures that no batch of product would ever be released for use if it were to contain any viral or microbiological contaminants.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether patients with covid-19 were discharged from hospitals into care homes in Wansbeck constituency.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Our priority is the prevention of infection in care homes and ensuring that everyone receives the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
Since the start of this pandemic, we have worked closely with the sector and public health experts to support safe and timely discharge. We have provided guidance to support safe admission to care homes and embed the Discharge to Assess model, backing this up with over £1.8 billion of funding.
We are working with the Care Quality Commission and the National Health Service to ensure anyone who is likely to be infectious with COVID-19 is discharged to a designated care setting to complete a period of isolation before moving to a care home. These settings will meet a set of agreed standards to provide safe care for COVID-19 positive residents. This is to further support safe and timely discharge and protect care home residents and staff from COVID-19.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many key workers have received the covid-19 vaccines in Wansbeck.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many constituents have received the covid-19 vaccines in Wansbeck.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Since 24 December 2020, NHS England and NHS Improvement have published weekly United Kingdom-wide vaccination data. In January 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement began to publish daily statistics by age and region, with a more detailed information provided weekly including the overall number of people who have been vaccinated by dose, those aged 80 years old and above and location.
Vaccination data is currently available at a national and regional level by sustainability and transformation partnership and integrated care system.
Further data is available at the following links:
www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-vaccinations/
coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations
www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccine-monitoring-reports
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the (a) mean and (b) median average distance is that people from Wansbeck constituency have had to travel to access a covid-19 test.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government does not publish data in the format requested.