Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
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 ensure that the clinically extremely vulnerable (a) are a priority for and (b) have safe access to a covid-19 mass vaccination programme; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccine/s the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level. The JCVI has advised that the first priorities for any COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the prevention of COVID-19 mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems. Therefore, in line with the recommendations of the JCVI, the vaccine will be initially rolled out to the priority groups including care home residents and staff, people over 80 years old and health and care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and risk, including those who are clinically extremely vulnerable and individuals aged 16 to 64 years old with certain underlying health conditions. Those conditions are set out in the advice of the JCVI published on 30 December at the following link:
Consideration has been given to vaccination of household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals. However, at this time there is no data on the size of the effect of COVID-19 vaccines on transmission. Evidence is expected to accrue during the course of the vaccine programme, and until that time the committee is not in a position to advise vaccination solely on the basis of indirect protection.
By 15 February we aim to have offered a first vaccine dose to everyone in the top four priority groups identified by the JCVI:
- all residents in a care home for older adults and their carers;
- all those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers;
- all those 75 years of age and over; and
- all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
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 effectiveness of the 111 clinical assessment service for users; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Argar
The clinical assessment services that support NHS 111 ensure that callers are given the appropriate self-care advice, treatment or referral to another service.
Each clinical assessment service is locally commissioned and locally provided, and their clinical and operational effectiveness is subject to constant review by clinical commissioning groups.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
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 community pharmacies assisting with the roll-out of covid-19 vaccinations to ensure (a) timeliness and (b) safe access to vaccinations for the clinically extremely vulnerable; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The National Health Service stands ready to deliver each COVID-19 vaccination programme as soon as the vaccine is authorised for use by the medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
The?planning?for?effective models of delivery includes?the consideration of settings?such as community pharmacies to support rollout.
The COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment Programme is engaging with senior pharmacy sector representatives from the Department, NHS England, and NHS Improvement regarding the community pharmacy sector’s role in the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that dementia research is not disrupted by the covid-19 outbreak; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Government remains strongly committed to supporting research into dementia and the United Kingdom research community is playing a significant role in the global effort to find a cure or a major disease-modifying treatment by 2025.
The Department’s National Institute for Health Research published a framework in May to support the restarting of research paused due to COVID-19 which is available at the following link:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/documents/restart-framework/24886
The NIHR is supporting the research community to amend study protocols for COVID-19 security. The NIHR published guidance in October that NIHR-funded research staff should not be deployed to front line duties except in exceptional circumstances.
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
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 diagnosis rate of Alzheimer’s disease in Eastbourne; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Challenge on Dementia 2020 sets the ambition for two thirds of people with dementia to receive a formal diagnosis.
NHS Digital collects data on the number of patients with a recorded dementia diagnosis in their clinical record and report this on a monthly basis, so that the National Health Service, general practitioners and commissioners can make informed choices to plan their services. The latest data for October 2020 shows that that the Dementia Diagnosis Rate for Eastbourne was 67.2%. The data is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/recorded-dementia-diagnoses
Asked by: Caroline Ansell (Conservative - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has made of the outcomes of the Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge 2020; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
In 2018 we undertook a review of the progress made in implementing the Challenge on Dementia 2020. This was informed by a call for evidence. Respondents told us that we were largely on track to meet our commitments. In a small number of areas additional or refined actions were identified to help ensure that commitments could be met. The report of the review was published on 22 February 2019 and is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dementia-2020-challenge-progress-review
We have continued to make significant progress in meeting the commitments made in the Challenge.