Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 ensuring weddings for terminally ill people are not subject to any future public health restrictions.
Answered by Maggie Throup
In light of the existing restrictions being lifted, the Government has not made a recent assessment. However, should further restrictions be required in future, we would consider what exemptions would be appropriate.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on increasing the level of funding to local authorities to support people living with DiGeorge Syndrome.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We have had no recent discussions.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support he is making available to people having difficulty booking their covid-19 booster vaccines in South Yorkshire.
Answered by Maggie Throup
NHS England and NHS Improvement have not identified any specific local issues with booking booster vaccine appointments in South Yorkshire. Available appointments continue to be added to the national booking system regularly.
Appointments can also be booked online or via 119 and can be made on someone’s behalf. The NHS Immunisation Management Service may contact those who have received an invitation letter but not booked an appointment. If an individual is unable to book a booster vaccination due to an issue relating to their vaccine record, the Vaccine Data Resolution Service can resolve through 119.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP’s have left the profession in (a) South Yorkshire, (b) England and (c) the UK in each of the last five years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data on the number of general practitioner (GPs) who have left the profession in South Yorkshire and the United Kingdom is not collected centrally.
The following table shows the number of qualified permanent GPs, excluding GPs in training grade and locums, leaving the general practice workforce in England by full time equivalent (FTE) and headcount to September 2020. Data for September 2020 to September 2021 is not held, as a review of the general practice workforce data methodology is currently underway.
| FTE | Headcount |
September 2016 - September 2017 | 2,089 | 2,807 |
September 2017 - September 2018 | 2,292 | 3,071 |
September 2018 - September 2019 | 2,501 | 3,437 |
September 2019 - September 2020 | 1,926 | 2,732 |
Source: NHS Digital
Notes:
For September 2017 these figures are based on 27,278 FTE, 98.7% of the 27,624 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.
For September 2018 these figures are based on 26,763 FTE, 99.1% of the 26,999 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.
For September 2019 these figures are based on 26,401 FTE, 98.9% of the 26,681 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.
For September 2020 these figures are based on 26,231 FTE, 98.9% of the 26,510 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.
For September 2016 these figures are based on 33,544 Headcount, 99.0% of the 33,887 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.
For September 2017 these figures are based on 33,473 Headcount, 98.7% of the 33,906 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.
For September 2018 these figures are based on 33,319 Headcount, 99.1% of the 33,636 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.
For September 2019 these figures are based on 33,827 Headcount, 98.9% of the 34,220 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.
For September 2020 these figures are based on 34,651 Headcount, 98.9% of the 35,049 all qualified permanent GPs (excludes registrars and locums) workforce excluding estimated records.
8. FTE refers to the proportion of full-time contracted hours that the post holder is contracted to work. One would indicate they work a full set of hours (37.5), 0.5 that they worked half time.
9. Data as at 30 September.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 impact of the closures of all Plasma Donation Facilities in Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council on (a) unemployment and (b) regional health disparities.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department, NHS Blood and Transplant and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working to create a long-term domestic supply of plasma in England, which can be used to manufacture immunoglobulins.
The Government agreed temporary funding for plasma donation using part of the infrastructure originally established for the COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Programme. In light of the important wider opportunity to develop the supply of immunoglobulins in the United Kingdom, the Government has now directed NHS Blood and Transplant to retain three of its plasma donation centres on a permanent basis. This is based on balancing affordability with the benefits of sustaining significant domestic plasma supply.
NHS Blood and Transplant will continue to collect plasma at Birmingham, Reading and Twickenham and from recovered plasma from whole blood donations collected across England. NHS Blood and Transplant is supporting the affected staff at its Barnsley centre to find alternative employment.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 impact of the closures of all Plasma Donation Facilities in Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council on the number of blood plasma donations.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department, NHS Blood and Transplant and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working to create a long-term domestic supply of plasma in England, which can be used to manufacture immunoglobulins.
The Government agreed temporary funding for plasma donation using part of the infrastructure originally established for the COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Programme. In light of the important wider opportunity to develop the supply of immunoglobulins in the United Kingdom, the Government has now directed NHS Blood and Transplant to retain three of its plasma donation centres on a permanent basis. This is based on balancing affordability with the benefits of sustaining significant domestic plasma supply.
NHS Blood and Transplant will continue to collect plasma at Birmingham, Reading and Twickenham and from recovered plasma from whole blood donations collected across England. NHS Blood and Transplant is supporting the affected staff at its Barnsley centre to find alternative employment.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to extend the pilot scheme launched on 30 September 2020 in England for residents vaccinated abroad to request that their vaccines are uploaded to the national database to include UK citizens vaccinated in New Zealand.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The pilot scheme will be deployed nationally in December, supported by online bookings and further vaccination sites. We are working to understand which non-Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency-approved equivalent vaccines we would be confident to recognise in the NHS COVID Pass. Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Janssen vaccines administered in New Zealand recorded with the national service will be able to generate a NHS COVID Pass shortly.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 UK citizens who have received their Covid-19 vaccinations in New Zealand are able to receive an NHS Covid Pass.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The pilot scheme will be deployed nationally in December, supported by online bookings and further vaccination sites. We are working to understand which non-Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency-approved equivalent vaccines we would be confident to recognise in the NHS COVID Pass. Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Janssen vaccines administered in New Zealand recorded with the national service will be able to generate a NHS COVID Pass shortly.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
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 potential economic impact of the social care cost cap on pensioners in Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The Government has undertaken a full economic impact assessment on its charging reform proposals. This will be published in due course. That assessment considers the impact of the reforms on people with different levels of wealth. However, as this varies between and within regions, the impact assessment will not, therefore, consider the impact on people living in specific local authority areas.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to allocate funding to existing hospitals that require facilities upgrades following the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently undertaking a detailed planning exercise following the recent Spending Review. The precise allocation of the settlement is still to be determined. Capital budgets for health and care systems and any opportunities to bid for further funding will be communicated to trusts in the usual way.