Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of the aims of the Cheque for Tech Diabetes funding campaign.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The £559 million technology funding for NHSX announced in the Spending Review is not disease specific but covers the infrastructure and whole pathways work for all major diseases, including diabetes. This investment will support the National Health Service frontline, help fast track innovation and deliver a better experience for patients and staff alike.
In addition to this work and as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England and NHS Improvement committed to both improving the pipeline of innovation and speeding up the uptake and spread, so that proven and affordable innovations get to patients faster. It sets out a number of specific commitments in relation to the treatment of people living with diabetes and supporting the adoption of new technologies.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that blood tests are accessible within an acceptable timeframe during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Throughout the pandemic all services remained available to meet the clinical need of patients using the National Health Service. Pathology networks deployed staff and services accordingly to ensure that testing for COVID-19 was maximised and that other services were also available within the usual timeframe expected by clinicians to manage their patients.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the accessibility of blood tests during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Blood tests have remained available to all patients throughout the pandemic. As with all blood tests these are undertaken at the request of a clinician based upon clinical need.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what targets his Department has set for the waiting time for a blood test (a) during the covid-19 outbreak; and whether that target has changed since the start of the outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Targets for blood tests are set by local hospitals and pathology networks following guidance set out by NHS England and NHS Improvement in the Pathology Quality Assurance Dashboard and from organisations such as the Royal College of Pathologists. These targets were set prior to the pandemic and no changes to these were made during the pandemic. All targets are driven by clinical need and requirements to ensure appropriate patient management.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of people waiting for cancer screening tests in Erith and Thamesmead constituency since the start of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information is not held centrally in the format requested.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timetable is for the publication of contracts tendered to private companies to provide services in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are working to complete the publishing of all the contract award notices (CANs) and the associated contracts for all COVID-19 related work as soon as possible. 89% of the CANs have now been published and over 50% of the contracts can been be found on Contracts Finder at the following link:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/
Delays in publishing this information have been due to the resources available within the Department for this work, given the vast increase in the volume of contracts that have had to be processed.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional support he has made available to unpaid carers to alleviate the added financial pressure of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognise the vital role unpaid carers play, and the pressures they are facing due to COVID-19. The Department for Work and Pensions introduced two important temporary measures in the spring to help unpaid carers through the COVID19 pandemic:
- unpaid carers are able to continue to claim Carer’s Allowance if they have a temporary break in caring, because they or the person they care for gets coronavirus or if either have to isolate because of it.
- providing ‘emotional support’ rather than just more traditional forms of care to a disabled person will also now count towards the Carer’s Allowance threshold of 35 hours of care a week.
These provisions have been extended until 12 May 2021. This will allow unpaid carers receiving Carer’s Allowance who need some extra flexibility in the way they provide care during the current emergency, so as to continue to protect themselves and the people they are caring for. We continue to work with carer organisations and others to identify and respond to the needs of carers during the pandemic.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps people in Erith and Thamesmead constituency should take in the event that they have covid-19 symptoms but are unable to access a covid-19 testing kit.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has worked to build testing capacity Erith and Thamesmead, currently operating sites at Erith Road and Abery Street car park alongside other facilities such as mobile testing units and home testing across south east London.
COVID-19 test sites are opening regularly across the United Kingdom, currently there are 675 sites in operation. Home testing kits are available daily for those who need them.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
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 findings of Sense Forgotten families campaign; and if he will take steps to ensure the reintroduction of community social care services for disabled people that have ceased during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware that during the national lockdown a range of community social care providers ceased provision of services. In July, the Social Care Institute for Excellence published guidance on the safe re-opening of services.
In addition, a proportion of the £546 million Infection Control Fund extension announced in September can be used by local authorities to fund expenditure on Infection Prevention and Control measures needed to safely reopen day and respite services.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what advice his Department is giving to local authorities on enforcing mask wearing in public spaces.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Regulations that mandate the wearing of face coverings in an array of indoor, public settings in England also allow for exemptions and reasonable excuses.
The Government expects the vast majority of people will comply with the rules, as they have done throughout the pandemic. However, the Regulations do give powers to the police and Transport for London officers to enforce the requirement to wear a face covering. In doing so, the police will use their usual ‘four Es’ approach: Explaining, Engaging, Encouraging; and Enforcing only issuing a fine as a last resort.