Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
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 research into long covid.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Department, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), launched a £20 million joint research call which closed on 9 December 2020. This call will fund comprehensive research to understand and address the longer term physical and mental health effects of COVID-19 in individuals who contracted the virus but were not hospitalised. Results of the call will be published in due course.
The NIHR and UKRI have already invested £8.5 million in the PHOSP-COVID study led by the University of Leicester. The study is one of the world’s largest comprehensive research studies into the long-term physical and mental health impacts of COVID-19 on hospitalised patients and will draw on expertise from a consortium of leading researchers and doctors from across the United Kingdom.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has for the involvement of (a) medical research charities and (b) the NHS in researching long-covid.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), recently launched a joint research call which closed on 9 December 2020. Through this call, £18.5 million has been committed to funding four research studies to understand and address the longer term physical and mental health effects of ‘long’ COVID-19, in individuals who contracted the virus but were not hospitalised.
The NIHR and UKRI have also invested £8.5 million in the PHOSP-COVID study which is one of the world’s largest comprehensive research studies into the long-term health impacts of COVID-19 on hospitalised patients. Researchers and clinicians as part of the study are actively working with medical charities to help define key questions for research.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to mark World Obesity Day on 4 March 2021; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department supports the aims of World Obesity Day. As part of delivering the commitments in ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’, the Government has announced £100 million extra funding for healthy weight programmes.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
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 communicate changes to the Green Book on vaccination to clinicians to ensure that patients are offered the same standards of care across the UK.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Each revision of the Green Book is promoted in the Vaccine Update (VU), a Public Health England (PHE) immunisation newsletter for health professionals and immunisation practitioners which is sent to health care professional subscribers at least once a month. Any updates are also shared with the National Immunisation Network of Screening and Immunisation professionals at their weekly meeting.
A function is available through the Green Book page on the website to send an email alert when the Green Book collection or chapter is updated.
The PHE immunisation guidance collection is published on gov.uk to provide information regarding the national immunisation programme and ensure patients are offered the same standards of care across the United Kingdom. This is available to read here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immunisation.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of whether proposals regarding the preferred discount rates for costs and health effects used by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence should be included in the scope of his Department's consultations during its ongoing review into evaluation methods used to carry out technology appraisals.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is therefore responsible for its own methods and processes. The discount rates applied by NICE in its health technology assessments are specified in its methods guides. NICE, not the Department, will carry out three public consultations as part of its methods review. The most recent consultation being 6 November to 18 December on the case for change to its methods.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the (a) effectiveness of protection conferred by pneumococcal vaccination in reducing deaths of people who have tested positive for covid-19 and (b) current level of take-up of pneumococcal vaccination among groups eligible for that vaccination; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending eligibility for that vaccination during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There were large reductions in pneumococcal disease since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, most likely because of the lockdown measures that were implemented nationally. Co-infections of SARS-CoV-2 and pneumococcal disease occur very rarely. The number of pneumococcal infections and more so deaths due to pneumococcal disease in people with COVID-19 has been low. As such, it is not possible to assess the effectiveness of protection conferred by pneumococcal vaccination in reducing deaths of people who have tested positive for COVID-19.
The most recently published pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV) coverage data are for the year 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020. PPV coverage was 69.0% in all patients aged 65 years and over, immunised at any time up to 31 March 2020 in England, rising to 82.4% for those aged 75 years and over. The proportion immunised in the last 12 months for these two age groups was 3.8% and 1.4% respectively.
These data are available to view here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pneumococcal-polysaccharide-vaccine-ppv-vaccine-coverage-estimates
As the supply of the PPV23 vaccine is limited due to high demand, the Joint Committee on Vaccine and Immunisation is not currently planning to undertake an assessment of the potential merits of extending eligibility for the vaccine. Public Health England has issued comprehensive clinical guidance on how to prioritise those who should receive this vaccine.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
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 raise clinical and public awareness of Kawasaki disease.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Recent studies have found links between COVID-19 and a ‘Kawasaki-like’ syndrome. NHS England has taken steps to work with experts to define what is now called ‘Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Disorder Temporally Related to Sars CoV2 infection (PIMS-TS)’. All paediatric units and intensive care units have been briefed.
The Government plans to publish a new United Kingdom Rare Diseases Framework by the end of 2020 to replace the current Strategy which will outline the key priorities for rare diseases in the UK over the next five years. One priority area, as identified through the ‘national conversation’ on rare diseases, is to further increase awareness of rare diseases amongst health professionals.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
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 the number of patients receiving treatment for Kawasaki disease in (a) Wales and (b) the UK.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department only holds data for activity in England as health is a devolved matter. The Department, alongside NHS England, continues to consider the impact of COVID-19 on patients with Kawasaki disease and other rare diseases.
NHS England has had discussions with some services and patients/patient groups to understand the impact of COVID-19. NHS England has worked with commissioned providers, patient groups and charities throughout the pandemic to ensure that patients, carers and their families have been supported during the COVID-19 outbreak and ensuring those discussions inform planning for autumn and winter.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
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 ensure that children suffering from Kawasaki disease can access suitable treatment.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring that rare disease patients, including those with Kawasaki disease have access to suitable treatment, and takes steps to improve access via implementation of the United Kingdom Strategy for Rare Diseases.
The Government plans to publish a new UK Rare Diseases Framework by the end of 2020 to replace the UK Rare Disease Strategy. One priority area, as identified through the ‘national conversation’ on rare diseases, is to improve access to specialist care.
Specialised commissioning within NHS England and NHS Improvement have ensured sufficient stock of intravenous immunoglobulin ahead of the second wave of COVID-19.
Asked by: James Davies (Conservative - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the readiness of (a) delivery methods and (b) storage infrastructure for a potential vaccine for covid-19.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England is making preparations for storage of COVID-19 vaccines at the required temperatures to support a national COVID-19 vaccination programme. This includes both the central storage of vaccines and distribution capability across the United Kingdom to the National Health Service.