Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the £6.6 billion of support for health services identified within the Government’s Coronavirus emergency response fund has been (a) accessed by NHS trusts and (b) used to fund supplier relief sick pay.
Answered by Edward Argar
Of the £6.6 billion COVID-19 response funding for health services announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 13th April, approximately £4.2 billion will fund direct costs incurred by the National Health Service. The remaining will fund centrally-led initiatives such as personal protective equipment, testing and the ventilator programme that will also directly support the NHS’s COVID-19 response.
Spending data is collected on a monthly basis by NHS England and NHS Improvement. Initial data indicates that NHS providers (NHS trusts and foundation trusts) have collectively spent approximately £0.8 billion on COVID-19 related spending in April 2020, with similar levels expected in May 2020, all of which has been fully funded.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
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 effect on musculoskeletal health of the Government guidance (a) issued on 23 March 2020 that permitted people to take one form of exercise a day and (b) updated on 11 May 2020 that permits people to exercise outside as often as they wish.
Answered by Jo Churchill
It is too early to make any assessment of the effect on musculoskeletal health and the Government guidance on outdoor exercises. The Government wants people to remain fit and active at all times. The Chief Medical Officer is clear that being physically active is very important to long-term health and crucial for keeping people healthy during the ongoing pandemic. Evidence suggests that regular physical activity can promote good physical health and help manage stress and anxiety.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many of the 40,369 Pillar 2 covid-19 tests reported under delivery routes for 30 April 2020 were (a) ordered and (b) dispatched on (i) 26 April, (ii) 27 April, (iii) 28 April, (iv) 29 April and (v) 30 April 2020.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Between 26 – 30 April, over 73,000 home kits were ordered and over 64,000 were dispatched. The difference between the figures is due to the time at which an individual orders a home test, which subsequently impacts the time of its dispatch.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish a White Paper on reforming the Mental Health Act 1983.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We have committed to publishing a White Paper which will set out the Government’s response to Sir Simon Wessely’s Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983 and pave the way for reform of the Act.
We will publish our White Paper as soon as it is possible to do so. We will consult publicly on our proposals and will bring forward a Bill to amend the Act when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether data on the average waiting time standard for elective care being piloted by 12 NHS Trusts will continue to be collected during the postponement of elective surgery as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar
The monthly referral-to-treatment return continues to be collected from National Health Service trusts during COVID-19, including data on average waiting times at the 12 field test sites.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department holds data on (a) occupation and (b) gender of people who have requested a sick note from NHS 111 for self-isolation due to covid-19 symptoms.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Department does not hold the data requested.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
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 make sure the instruction to ensure bank staff and subcontractors receive full pay when in self-isolation, as referred to by NHS England and NHS Improvement in a letter of 2 March 2020 to NHS Trust executives, is (a) funded, (b) monitored, and (c) enforced.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
It is essential for infection control purposes that staff members who are told to self-isolate, do so as quickly as possible.
As such we have made sure that we have issued guidance to employers to ensure that all National Health Service staff, including bank workers and subcontracted staff who must be physically present at an NHS facility to fulfill their role, receive full pay should they need to self-isolate. Our guidance states that employers should use their usual methods for calculating full pay using agreed processes at a local level and in line with NHS terms and conditions.
NHS England and NHS Improvement wrote to NHS organisations and providers on 17 March 2020 with details of updates to financial arrangements during the 2020/21 financial year, stating that NHS providers and commissioners must carefully record the costs incurred in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak and report actual costs incurred on a monthly basis.
We are continuing to review our guidance and working closely with trade unions to monitor and address any related concerns as and when they arise.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether (a) cleaners, (b) porters, (c) patient transport staff and (d) other outsourced NHS workers are eligible for the life assurance scheme for NHS and social care workers who die as a result of covid-19, announced on 27 April 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government has launched a life assurance scheme for frontline National Health Service and social care staff. The scheme is non-contributory and pays a £60,000 lump sum where staff who had been recently working where personal care is provided to individuals who have contracted COVID-19 die as a result of the virus.
Cleaners, porters, patient transport staff and other outsourced NHS workers are eligible for the scheme, providing they satisfy the scheme eligibility criteria and were exposed to a high risk of contracting COVID-19, in circumstances where they could not reasonably avoid that risk because of the nature and location of their work.
As well as NHS employees, the scheme also covers staff who work for organisations that support the delivery of NHS services or work on an NHS contract, such as agency staff.