Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of beds in NHS England hospitals are currently occupied by patients admitted for treatment of covid 19.
Answered by Edward Argar
As of 18 January 2022, 7,605 beds in English National Health Service hospitals were occupied by patients being treated primarily for COVID-19.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what drugs are made available to NHS patients with covid-19 to treat them and help keep them out of hospital.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Since December 2021, National Health Service patients can access new COVID-19 therapies, including antivirals and monoclonal antibodies which can reduce the risk of becoming hospitalised. In England, 1.3 million of the highest risk patients are eligible for monoclonal antibody Sotrovimab and antiviral drug molnupiravir directly. Eligible patients who receive a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result will be contacted by a clinician from a COVID Medicines Delivery Unit to discuss treatment suitability. The clinician will be responsible for assessing the patient and deciding which treatment option is most appropriate for them and their existing condition/s.
In addition, over 20 million people are eligible for the antiviral molnupiravir through the new PANORAMIC national study, run by the University of Oxford. This study is open to individuals in the United Kingdom who have received a positive PCR test result, are aged 50 years old and over, or are aged 18 to 49 years old with an underlying medical condition that can increase the risk of developing severe COVID-19.
The antiviral PF-07321332+ritonavir (co-packaged and brand name Paxlovid) received approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on 31 December 2021 and will be made available to eligible patients in due course.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
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 accuracy of SAGE forecasts of likely hospital bed use for covid-19 patients during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) provides advice to the Government on its response to the COVID-19 epidemic. Their operational subgroup, the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M-O), regularly models potential scenarios for the trajectory of the epidemic, including hospital admissions and occupancy. Such modelling is regularly updated to reflect changes in assumptions as and when more detailed studies are released. This has been the case throughout the pandemic.
Much of SAGE’s modelling is of unmitigated scenarios, which assume that no interventions are made. In reality, non-pharmaceutical interventions have been implemented in order to avoid such scenarios occurring. Comparisons between modelled scenarios and real events should be made on a like-for-like basis as the assumptions and/or context changed between the modelling being performed and the outturn data. The SPI-M-O regularly reviews these scenarios against outturn data.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of NHS hospital beds were occupied by patients admitted solely to treat covid-19 at the last available count.
Answered by Edward Argar
The data is not held in the format requested. As of 11 January 2022, 56% of beds occupied by COVID-19 patients were occupied by those admitted solely to be treated for COVID-19.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what budget has been allocated for covid-19 testing in 2021-22; and how many self-testing kits are being used each day.
Answered by Maggie Throup
In 2021/22, £15 billion was allocated for test, trace and isolate activities. Of this, approximately £11.26 billion relates to testing, including polymerase chain reaction and lateral flow device testing and associated costs. The number of self-testing kits used each day is not held centrally as some tests are likely to be unregistered.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
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 expand UK-based capacity to produce covid-19 testing kits.
Answered by Maggie Throup
In October 2020, the Government commissioned work to support the United Kingdom’s diagnostic industry, to secure a lateral flow antigen test and increase domestic production capacity. The UK Make programme delivered two clinically validated and regulatory approved UK lateral flow antigen tests and provided investment in capital equipment and facilities expansion at three UK manufacturing companies. Over 100 million tests were produced for deployment by the UK Health Security Agency and production capacity of lateral flow antigen test increased by 3,500%. The first UK-made self-test lateral flow device is currently due to be deployed in January 2022. The UK Make programme has also increased capacity and resilience for current and future public health challenges.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the potential increase in covid-19 cases of all variants in England over the next month.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The University of Warwick and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have undertaken modelling of the estimated levels of all variants in England in the next month. This predicts that cases of COVID-19 will decrease throughout January, to a level similar to that seen in November 2021.
Omicron is the dominant COVID-19 variant in the United Kingdom. For those cases which have the relevant genetic test, 93% are consistent with the Omicron variant. With no new variants currently circulated widely elsewhere in the world, the risk of a new variant becoming dominant in the next month is very low.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to increase hospital bed capacity in winter 2021-22 for all health pressures on hospitals.
Answered by Edward Argar
The National Health Service is working with local authorities and partners to release the maximum number of beds through ensuring that medically fit patients can be discharged home as soon as possible, seven days a week. The use of non-acute beds in the local health and care system is also being maximised, including in hospices, hotels, community beds and the independent sector. The NHS is also expanding the use of ‘virtual wards’ and ‘hospital at home’ models of care, allowing for patients to be safely cared for in their own homes and creating additional bed capacity in hospitals. NHS trusts are also reviewing plans to expand general and acute and critical care bed capacity in hospitals as needed, learning lessons from the pandemic to date.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the difference in risk of serious illness from covid-19 is of having a booster vaccination for someone who has previously had two doses of the vaccine.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Early data suggests that vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation and severe illness after two doses is 72%, compared to 88% following a booster dose. Analysis will continue as the booster programme progresses, including monitoring the duration of protection of booster doses against a range of disease outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will model the potential impact of the omicron covid-19 variant on NHS England hospital admissions based on South African levels of serious cases relative to total cases.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has no plans to do so as demographics, co-morbidities, past-infection and immunisation statuses in the two countries differ. However, the UKHSA is currently estimating the severity of the Omicron variant related infections in England to understand the likely ongoing demand for healthcare. This is in its early stages as a reasonable period of observation is required to fully understand the evolution of the Omicron variant in sufficient numbers of people across all ages and immunity status over time.