Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
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 availability of lateral flow covid-19 tests in County Durham.
Answered by Maggie Throup
In December 2021, we delivered approximately 280 million lateral flow device (LFD) tests and we have since procured new stocks and increased delivery capacity. We expect to deliver 90 million LFD tests a week across the United Kingdom, including East Yorkshire and County Durham, including seven million a day through GOV.UK. In England, this includes approximately 12 million tests a week through pharmacies.
For polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, we increased capacity before Christmas and developed a network which processed over four million tests by 10 January 2022. We expect that there is currently sufficient capacity to process PCR tests.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether members of the public who purchased antigen tests from previously Government-accredited companies, who are no longer accredited, will receive a refund for tests purchased.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Government does not accredit private providers. Those on the GOV.UK list have demonstrated compliance with the Government's minimum standards and may be removed on a precautionary basis pending investigation if they breach these standards. Consumers requiring a refund from a private test provider should contact the provider in the first instance.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects that NHS covid passes will be made available for 12-15 year olds.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The travel NHS COVID Pass letter is now available for 12 to 15 year olds who are fully vaccinated. A digital solution to access the NHS COVID Pass for this age group is expected in early 2022. Children under the age of 18 years old are not required to demonstrate their vaccination status in England.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many opioid prescriptions were handed out in County Durham in the year to August 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The NHS Business Services Authority’s data shows that 543,296 prescription items for opioid analgesics were prescribed and subsequently dispensed in a community setting in County Durham between September 2020 and August 2021. The data is based on items prescribed by Durham County Council, County Durham Clinical Commissioning Group and County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of opioid-related deaths in the North East in each of the last five years.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Office for National Statistics publish data on drug-related deaths through annual drug poisoning statistics. The following table shows opioid-related deaths in the North East in each of the last five years.
Registration year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
Number of deaths | 160 | 164 | 187 | 172 | 191 |
Source:
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in what procedures is hyaluronidase permitted to be used by medical practitioners.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Hyaluronidase is licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for the following indications:
Enhance permeation of subcutaneous or intramuscular injections by subcutaneous injection, or by intramuscular injection; enhance permeation of local anaesthetics by local infiltration; enhance permeation of ophthalmic local anaesthetic to the eye; hypodermoclysis by subcutaneous injection; and extravasation by local infiltration.
There is no definitive list of procedures in which it can be used.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government have to reduce the public health backlog.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The National Health Service is ensuring that national public health programmes continue to address additional demand during the pandemic, including in some screening and routine vaccination programmes. We are also ensuring that local authorities are recovering activity on NHS health checks where they were paused.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the Government has spent on public health messaging for foetal alcohol spectrum disorder in each of the last five years.
Answered by Maggie Throup
No specific public health messaging on foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) has been undertaken in the last five years. However, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, NHS England and NHS Improvement and local commissioners continue to raise awareness and education on the dangers of drinking alcohol while pregnant. The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines published in 2016 provide clear advice to women not to drink alcohol if they are planning for a pregnancy or are pregnant.
In 2020/21, the Department allocated £531,928 funding to five voluntary organisations to support grassroots initiatives to develop resources and training programmes for professionals and to help improve support for children and families affected by FASD.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the proposal by NHS England to incorporate Clinical Commissioning Groups into integrated care systems, whether his Department monitors the per capita expenditure of ICGs by region.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We have interpreted the hon. Member's question to refer to the intended future monitoring of integrated care boards (ICBs) as the successor to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).
The proposals for ICBs are set out in the current Health and Care Bill. ICBs will be established from April 2022 and will take on the merged allocations from CCGs. The Department does not currently monitor the per capita expenditure of CCGs and there are no plans to monitor the per capita expenditure of ICBs.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will bring forward legislative proposals to require medicine and medical device makers to declare all payments made to (a) doctors, (b) teaching hospitals, (c) research institutions and (d) charities.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government’s response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review accepted in principle the need for stronger reporting of payments made by industry to healthcare professionals and organisations. The Department continues to explore options to expand and reinforce current industry schemes, including making reporting mandatory through legislation.