Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS England announcement, Rough sleepers in homeless hotspots to benefit from NHS mental health outreach, published on 14 October 2019, whether the roll-out of that initiative will go ahead as planned due to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
NHS England and NHS Improvement still intend to roll-out mental health support for rough sleepers in at least 20 targeted areas with high levels of rough sleeping by 2023/24.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to co-ordinate the Government's support for people’s mental health and wellbeing in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We know that there is the potential for an increase in demand for mental health services. Ministers in the Department are engaging regularly with their counterparts across Whitehall on how best the Government can prevent and mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on mental health and wellbeing.
We are also working with the National Health Service, Public Health England and other key partners to gather evidence and assess the potential longer-term mental health impacts and plan for how to support mental health and wellbeing throughout the ‘recovery’ phase.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester, Withington)
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 are in contact with drug treatment services are tested for hepatitis C.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local authorities are responsible for assessing local needs and commissioning drug prevention, treatment and harm reduction services to meet these needs. This includes making sure people in this high-risk population are screened for hepatitis C virus and identified for treatment when they access these services.
Public Health England (PHE) provides a range of drug and alcohol treatment data to local authorities which monitors national and local activity in drug treatment settings and can inform local commissioning of services. This includes the number of people in drug treatment who have been tested for hepatitis C.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have an Elimination Programme Partnership with the Pharmaceutical Industry and work closely with Gilead Sciences, who have hepatitis C Testing projects with the six largest groups of National Health Service and independent sector treatment providers in England covering approximately 95% of the available addiction services. Their plan is that ‘everybody tests, and everybody is tested’; all staff can carry out tests and they target 100% of their population. Those in contact with drug treatment services in secure and detained settings are engaged through reception in a programme of ‘opt out’ blood borne virus testing covering hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus. Those already within the prison are targeted through a rolling programme of ‘whole population’ testing.
Local authorities are also responsible for commissioning needle and syringe programmes in their areas. The number of needle and syringe programmes in England is not recorded centrally.