Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been allocated to research on the effectiveness of the (a) Pfizer/Biontech vaccine and (b) AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine for immuno-suppressed people; and which organisations have received funding to conduct that research.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
UK Research and Innovation is providing around £2 million towards the Immunity programme, as part of the National Core Studies, to support research on vaccine responses in groups of immune-supressed individuals, including those with inflammatory disorders, high risk cancer patient groups, and patients with severe kidney and liver disease.
Public Health England will be monitoring vaccine effectiveness to examine how it varies by subgroup such as by age or clinical risk groups including immunosuppression. Evidence will be generated through routine data sources, including routine testing data and GP electronic health records, as well as through enhanced surveillance.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress he has made on monitoring the effectiveness of the (a) Pfizer/BioNTech and (b) Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccines on people who are immunocompromised.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Public Health England is monitoring the impact of COVID-19 vaccines on a broad range of outcomes including symptomatic disease, infection and hospitalisations as set out in the COVID-19 vaccine surveillance strategy
Vaccine effectiveness assessments are reported regularly to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to inform vaccine policy recommendations. This will include assessment of vaccine effectiveness in immunocompromised individuals using general practice’s electronic health record data. Once sufficient evidence becomes available the JCVI will consider options for a protection strategy for immunosuppressed individuals, including whether any specific vaccine is preferred in this population.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the supplier of Pethidine medication on increasing availability of that medication in the UK.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are two suppliers of pethidine 50 milligram tablets and we are aware that both suppliers experienced supply issues during 2020 due to manufacturing difficulties. One of the suppliers now has stock available and does not anticipate any further issues. Supply should be sufficient to cover entire market demand.
The Department has worked closely with both suppliers during this time to try and expedite resupply and communicated the supply issue to the National Health Service in August 2020. During the time where both suppliers were out of stock, we worked with specialist importer companies to source unlicensed pethidine 50 milligram tablets from abroad to ensure patients could continue to access treatment.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government’s covid-19 vaccine distribution strategy takes into account whether certain covid-19 vaccines should be prioritised for certain groups.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Government has now accepted the recommendations from the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to authorise three COVID-19 vaccines for use from Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford University/AstraZeneca, and Moderna. This follows months of rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data by experts at the MHRA who have concluded that both vaccines met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness.
The National Health Service began to deploy the AstraZeneca vaccine from the week commencing 4 January. Through the Vaccines Taskforce, we have 100 million doses ordered for delivery over the coming months of this particular COVID-19 vaccine, enough to vaccinate millions of people.
Both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccines have proven in clinical trials to give very high protection against severe disease, which is the primary aim of the first phase of the programme and both vaccines have demonstrated good safety profiles. The logistical challenges posed by the storage and distribution requirements for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine mean that in some populations, the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine is the only vaccine which can be deployed rapidly and without substantial vaccine wastage. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation does not advise a preference for either vaccine in any specific population. For operational, logistical and programmatic reasons, such as to enable more extensive and timely vaccine coverage, one vaccine may be offered in certain settings in preference over another vaccine.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the capacity is for (a) pillar I and (b) pillar II covid-19 tests.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Testing capacity in the United Kingdom across all pillars between 26 November and 2 December was at 4,684,727 tests. Data on individual capacity across all pillars throughout England is published each week alongside other Test and Trace statistics at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/nhs-test-and-trace-statistics-england-weekly-reports
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a data protection impact assessment of the app being developed by Google and Apple for tracking and tracing covid-19.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced on 18 June that NHSX has begun the next phase of development in building an app that supports the end-to-end NHS Test and Trace service. This app will use the Google/Apple exposure notification system. We will carry out a Data Protection Impact Assessment in due course.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average cost is of transporting a patient from hospital to their home or suitable care facility.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average daily per patient cost is of hospital treatment.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will update the Covid-19: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Plan, published on 10 April 2020, to state that care providers in Wales and Scotland may be supplied with PPE.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government’s Personal Protective Equipment is United Kingdom-wide, making sure that frontline workers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have the PPE they need to stay protected while taking care of patients. We are working closely with the devolved administrations to co-ordinate the distribution of PPE across the UK.
We continue to prioritise ensuring that the National Health Service and social care sector have the equipment and support they need. The safety of all frontline staff is our top priority.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
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 trends in the level of post-viral complications in relation to people with ME.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England has made no assessment on the effect of the COVID-19 outbreak on trends in the level of post-viral complications in relation to people with myalgic encephalomyelitis.