Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the Government's long-term strategy is on tackling the backlog of people who have not started their first cancer treatment.
Answered by Jo Churchill
NHS Planning Guidance 2021/2022 outlines the cancer recovery priorities for 2021-22 and local systems, drawing on advice and analysis from their Cancer Alliance, will ensure that there is sufficient treatment capacity in place to meet cancer needs. Patients will benefit from approximately £1 billion allocated to tackle the elective backlog, including those awaiting treatment for cancer.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
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 validity of evidence that suggests that people who are immunocompromised or immunosuppressed may not receive the same level of protection from the covid-19 vaccines as the general population.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Data from the Virus Watch study suggests a modestly reduced antibody response after one dose among individuals with immunosuppression, including those on immunosuppressive therapy. However, as this is not a direct measure of protection it is too soon to determine the impact on clinical disease or whether this remains after a complete course of vaccination.
As part of the COVID-19 Immunity National Core Study, UK Research and Innovation is providing £1.8 million towards the OCTAVE study. This study will examine the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in clinically at-risk groups including patients with certain immunosuppressed conditions.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
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 tackle the harmful effects on children of the consumption of ultra-processed foods.
Answered by Jo Churchill
There is no universally agreed description of ultra-processed foods based on either their ingredients and/or additives or by how much processing has been involved in their production. However, a diet high in processed foods is often high in calories, salt, saturated fat and sugar.
‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’, sets out our intention to end the advertising of high fat, salt and sugar products being shown on TV before 9pm and we have consulted on a total high fat, salt and sugar products advertising restriction online. We have also confirmed we will restrict the promotions of high fat, salt and sugar food and drinks in retailers.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement from the US Food and Drug Administration on the poor efficacy of Innova covid-19 tests, whether he has plans for the (a) authorisation of alternative covid-19 rapid lateral flow tests, including those being produced in the UK and (b) extension of the exceptional use authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority following the extension of covid-19 restrictions.
Answered by Jo Churchill
We are planning to diversify the supply of lateral flow devices (LFDs) and have begun to deploy other products in some settings, including the Orient Gene device. We will expand this over the coming months.
In December last year, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) provided the Department with an Exceptional Use Authorisation (EUA) which permits NHS Test and Trace to deploy the repurposed Innova COVID-19 as a self-test device throughout the United Kingdom as a test to detect infection in asymptomatic individuals. At this time an EUA was necessary due to a limited pool of suppliers offering a device which had passed the Government’s relevant validation tests and no suppliers had a CE mark for a COVID-19 self-test LFD. We will continue to work closely with the MHRA to ensure all available tests are safe and effective.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
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 WHO guideline on health workforce development, attraction, recruitment and retention in rural and remote areas.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government welcomes the World Health Organization’s guideline on health workforce attraction, recruitment and retention in rural areas and is committed to ensuring there is a sufficient workforce supply across all geographies of England.
Five new medical schools have opened in hard-to-recruit areas, including rural and coastal locations in Sunderland, Lancashire, Chelmsford, Lincoln and Canterbury. To further attract trainees to remote geographies, foundation priority programmes were introduced in 2019 allowing applicants to rank their preference for selected priority programmes and be offered places prior to national allocation. The NHS People Plan has a key focus on retention. National Health Service organisations locally should shape their workforce plans to meet local workforce challenges focusing on both recruitment and retention to increase overall supply.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he had with NHS England on enacting regulation 61 of the The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Department is in regular discussions with NHS England and NHS Improvement over the provision of services. On 27 March 2020, directions were issued on behalf of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to enable Regulation 61 of the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013. It has been regularly reviewed and extended during the pandemic. Currently the directions are in place until 30 June 2021.
Regulation 61 allows NHS England and NHS Improvement to commission a dispensing doctor to provide pharmaceutical services to patients to whom the dispensing doctor is not otherwise entitled to provide pharmaceutical services during an emergency. Exercise of this function is an operational decision for regional offices, taking into account local circumstances.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
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 potential merits of allowing dispensing doctors to use the Electronic Prescription Service.
Answered by Jo Churchill
NHS Digital piloted phase four of the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) at general practitioner practices and dispensers across England, from November 2018 and the national deployment, which includes dispensing doctor practices, began in November 2019. The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently looking at what potential further support can be provided to dispensing practices to implement EPS dispensing functionality.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
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 additional requirements of general practice in rural areas.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Capitation payments to practices include a formula weighting for rurality. We also recognise there are issues with recruitment and retention in some rural locations. The Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme offers a £20,000 salary supplement to attract general practitioner trainees to work in areas of the country in which training places have been unfilled for a number of years.
Additionally, NHS England and NHS Improvement have allowed commissioners to waive the Primary Care Network (PCN) minimum population where a PCN serves a community with a low population density across a large rural and remote area.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans mandate care home covid-19 guidance to ensure that care homes do not prohibit visitors without good cause as restrictions are lifted.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
We have issued new guidance on care home visiting and will keep arrangements under review.
If a resident or their family believe a care home is not following visiting guidance appropriately then concerns should be raised with the home in the first instance. If this does not resolve the situation, they can also raise concerns with the Care Quality Commission who will investigate.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 10 March 2021 to Question 163234 on Social Services, whether he plans to publish the proposed legislation before the House rises for summer recess.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The legislative measures in the Health and Care Bill White Paper are a critical first step in wider reform in the adult social care sector. However, our commitment to the reform of social care extends beyond this legislation and we will bring forward further proposals in 2021.