Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 effect on mental health of enabling couples to form a bubble while living in separate households during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Until 3 December, people must not mix with any other households indoors apart from under certain exemptions, including being able to form a support bubble. If a person or their partner is in a single adult household, they can form a support bubble between your household and do not have to adhere to social distancing rules.
We understand these rules are difficult for everyone, but reducing social contact is paramount to protecting the National Health Service and saving lives. The Government will keep this under constant review and has published guidance on mental health and wellbeing which includes guidance on maintaining relationships, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 facilitate safe contact between the guests of care homes and their families to mitigate the effects of loneliness on mental health during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
We are aware that limiting visits in care homes has been difficult for many families and residents who want to see their loved ones.
We published updated visiting guidance on 15 October 2020, which set out tightened infection prevention and control measures to enable visits to continue safely, based on the views of their local Director of Public Health.
Care homes should provide support to visitors on how to prepare for a visit, including the appropriate infection control precautions.
For areas at local COVID alert level medium visits to care homes can continue as set out in the care homes visiting guidance. For areas at local COVID alert level high and very high visits to care homes should return to exceptional circumstances only such as end of life.
Our priority remains the prevention of infection in care homes to protect staff and residents and we are considering plans to test specific family and friends to reduce the risk of visiting care homes. We will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of covid-19 tests had results confirmed within 48 hours.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Information on turnaround times for testing is published for pillars 1 and 2 weekly as part of the NHS Test and Trace statistics at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/nhs-test-and-trace-statistics-england-weekly-reports
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are waiting for cancer treatment in West Yorkshire; and what the average waiting time is for that treatment.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Data is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to ONS statistical release, Coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by disability status, England and Wales: 2 March to 15 May 2020, if his Department will make an assessment of the reasons for the higher death rate from covid-19 among disabled women.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
We know that many people with long standing, limiting illnesses or health conditions are at higher risk of poorer outcomes from COVID-19.
The survey analysis undertaken by the Office for National Statistics is provisional. We will continue to review all available evidence regarding the impact of COVID-19 for disabled people, including disabled women, and we are commissioning new research to better understand the specific impacts. This evidence will inform policy development going forwards.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 results of the new treatment service for gambling addiction in Sunderland.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The assessment of the Sunderland clinic is ongoing. The NHS Long Term Plan includes a commitment to expand the coverage of NHS services for people with serious gambling problems, and to work with partners to tackle the problem at source. Up to 15 such clinics will be open by 2023/24.
The treatment clinic in Sunderland, opened in January 2020, is run by the NHS Northern Gambling Service. Throughout 2020/21, the site will continue to serve as a pilot site to test models for spreading geographical coverage of treatment provision, using central clinics that have satellite clinics in neighbouring populations.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 using Nightingale hospitals in the winter in the event that further hospital capacity is needed.
Answered by Edward Argar
Nightingale hospitals have helped the National Health Service to rise to an unprecedented challenge by providing extra capacity to manage surges in demand due to COVID-19.
We continue to work closely with the NHS and partners, and guidance has already been issued on restoring urgent non-COVID-19 services safely, whilst ensuring surge capacity can be stood up again if needed, including through the use of Nightingale hospitals.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government intends to commission further research into the findings in the letter by Helms et al entitled, Neurologic Features in Severe SARS-CoV-2 Infection, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on 4 June 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Department invests £1 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR continues to play a critical role in prioritising, funding and delivering research into COVID-19. The NIHR is prioritising COVID-19 clinical research activity through its Urgent Public Health research prioritisation process. A list of prioritised studies is available at the following link:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/covid-studies/
The NIHR funds COVID-19 research through its research calls. The NIHR Recovery and Learning Call will fund research to better understand and manage the health and social care consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This follows on from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-NIHR Rapid Response Call and the UKRI-NIHR Rapid Rolling Call for research that aims to make a significant contribution to the understanding, prevention and/or management of COVID-19.
The UKRI Medical Research Council has funded the UK Dementia Research Institute to conduct a study into the clinical characterisation of the neurological and cognitive effects of SARS-CoV-2 linked brain injury.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
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 effect of the covid-19 outbreak on treatment time for (a) elective care and routine operations, (b) cancer and (c) urgent treatment.
Answered by Edward Argar
The postponement of non-urgent elective operations was vital in ensuring that the National Health Service had sufficient capacity to manage COVID-19 demand, although the most urgent and emergency treatments continued to be provided. This pause in activity led to an increase in waiting times following referral. The latest performance against the target for 92% of patients to start treatment within 18 weeks following referral was 66.2% in May 2020. Performance against the target of 85% of patients having a first definitive treatment for cancer within 62 days following an urgent general practitioner referral was 69.9% in May. Performance against the target for 95% of patients to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours upon arrival at accident and emergency was 92.8% in June 2020.
We continue to work closely with the NHS and partners, and guidance has already been issued on starting to restore urgent non-COVID-19 services safely, whilst ensuring surge capacity can be stood up again if needed.