Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve referral pathways for children with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In 2019/20, NHS England and NHS Improvement funded seven community eating disorder teams in each region in England for children and young people in a pilot programme to improve access, assessment and treatment for children presenting with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). The pilots included training to support the adaption of each service’s existing care pathways, assessments and treatment interventions for children and young people with ARFID. The training from these pilots is now available for local areas to commission community children and young people’s eating disorder services. In 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement also commissioned ARFID training for staff delivering treatment in inpatient children and young people’s mental health services.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is planning to take to help improve the diagnostic rates of children with Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID).
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
In 2019/20, NHS England and NHS Improvement funded seven community eating disorder teams in each region in England for children and young people in a pilot programme to improve access, assessment and treatment for children presenting with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). The pilots included training to support the adaption of each service’s existing care pathways, assessments and treatment interventions for children and young people with ARFID. The training from these pilots is now available for local areas to commission community children and young people’s eating disorder services. In 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement also commissioned ARFID training for staff delivering treatment in inpatient children and young people’s mental health services.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people who have received two covid-19 vaccinations, including Oxford AstraZeneca batch numbers (a) 4120Z001, (b) 4120Z002 and (c) 4120Z003, are able to travel to EU countries.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The European Union has recently published a list of vaccines it sees as equivalent to those authorised by the European Medicines Agency, for travel purposes which is at the following link:
The list includes all vaccines administered in the United Kingdom, including all batches of AstraZeneca vaccine administered in the UK known commercially as Vaxzevria. This also includes batches 4120Z001, 4120Z002 and 4120Z003. Decisions on which vaccines EU Member States will accept at their borders is for those countries to decide. We are not aware that any have decided not to accept UK vaccines.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Written Statement of 11 January 2021, HCWS692, Update on the Government’s response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, whether he plans to support a redress scheme for the families affected by sodium valproate.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government published its response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review on 21st July 2021. In this response the Government did not accept the recommendation to establish separate redress schemes for the three interventions discussed in the report, including sodium valproate. Our primary focus is on improving future medicines and medical devices safety and it is therefore crucial that we focus Government funds on initiatives that directly improve future safety (including specialist mesh centres and support for families affected by medicines in pregnancy). For this reason, redress schemes will not be established in response to the recommendation in the report.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many women under the age of 30 have received the Oxford/AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccination to date.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information is not currently held centrally held in the format requested.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to NHS dentists in (a) Calderdale and (b) England.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Contractual arrangements for the first six months of the 2021/22 financial year have been communicated to dental practices by NHS England and NHS Improvement. National Health Service dentists have been asked to maximise safe throughput to meet as many prioritised needs as possible. A revised unit of dental activity threshold has been set at 60% for full payment of NHS contractual value, based on data that indicates practices have capacity to safely achieve more dental activity than in the final quarter of 2020/21. It is expected that this increased threshold will improve access to NHS dentistry. Arrangements will continue to be monitored and at current are expected to be in place for six months in order to provide increased stability for dental practices.
Calder Valley, received additional funding as part of the access scheme. This has been extended until the end of September 2021 and NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently considering the most effective way to support practices to improve access for patients. In circumstances where patients are unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through a NHS dental practice, they are advised to call NHS 111 who will assist in booking an appointment at one of over 100 designated urgent care centres, which continue to stay open across Yorkshire.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the procurement process for the provision of healthcare services for the new Hassockfield Immigration Removal Centre has been completed.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The procurement process has not yet been completed.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2021 to Question 146935, what advice Public Health England provided in respect of the removal of residents from Napier Barracks.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Following initial investigations, Public Health England advised moving those who are clinically vulnerable and those who have testing negative off-site. If it was not possible to relocate all negative individuals off site, then they should be accommodated separately on-site, with numbers in groups kept as small as possible to reduce the risk of ongoing transmission. This has remained the advice since.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS health and social care workers of non-British nationality were working in the UK as of 20 January 2021; and what proportion of those people had indefinite leave to remain as of that date.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As at September 2020 there were 176,965 NHS staff with a non-UK nationality. Information on the proportion of staff who had indefinite leave to remain as at September 2020 is not held centrally.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support the resumption of endoscopy service provision during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The National Health Service has continued to provide urgent and emergency services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure patient safety and continuation of service, local systems and Cancer Alliances are providing diagnostic and surgical provision through cancer hubs and contracted independent sector hospitals.
Diagnostics and treatment are actively being brought back up to pre-pandemic levels and referrals into services are being encouraged through campaigns such as the ‘Open for Business’ media campaign to encourage people with potentially serious health issues, such as cancer, to continue to seek medical advice and attend essential appointments.