Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his policy that people living with ME/CFS can be included in Priority Group 6 for COVID-19 vaccinations in the context of that condition being classified as a neurological disease by NHS England.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has not identified any robust data to indicate that, as a group, persons with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome are at higher risk of dying from COVID-19. Therefore this group is not included as part of the prioritisation for phase one of the programme.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
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 in response to the fall below the national minimum standard of 70 percent in the proportion of women taking up their breast screening invitation within six months before the start of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department, NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England (PHE) are committed to the recovery and improvement of screening uptake for all programmes, including breast screening. Breast screening providers are encouraged to work with cancer alliances, primary care networks, NHS England and NHS Improvement regional teams and local authorities to promote uptake and take action to ensure as many people as possible can access services. Measures include text messaging to remind women about their breast screening invitation and encourage them to attend and the provision of information such as the PHE-developed ‘Breast Screening: Easy Guide’ so that women can decide whether screening is right for them. The National Health Service ‘Help Us Help You’ campaign has also been run to encourage the public to continue to access cancer services, including routine appointments such as breast screening.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
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 an implementation plan in response to Professor Sir Mike Richard's Independent review of adult screening programmes.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department, NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England (PHE) are considering the findings of Professor Sir Mike Richards’ report, together with recommendations made by the Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office and any outstanding recommendations form the Independent Breast Screening Review, as part of a wider screening improvement programme.
Following the Government’s announcement that PHE will be replaced by the new National Institute for Health Protection, the publication of an implementation plan was paused to ensure that the resulting organisational changes and transfer of functions were reflected in the implementation plan. The Department remains committed to the improvement of screening programmes and will publish in due course.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of women taking up their screening invitation within six months in (a) April 2020, (b) May 2020, (c) June 2020, (d) July 2020, (e) August 2020, (f) September 2020, (g) October 2020, (h) November 2020, (i) December 2020 and (j) January 2021.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The proportion of women taking up their screening invitation from April 2020 to January 2021 is not available in the format requested.
The latest data on national performance for uptake in breast screening is up to 31 March 2020 for Quarter 4.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the (a) letter of 22 December 2020 from the Chief Dental Officer to Dental Colleagues and (b) recent increases in covid-19 infection rates, if he will review the viability of the increase to the minimum requirement of activity of 45 per cent of contracted units of dental activity.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
NHS England and NHS Improvement have set a 45% dental activity target. This target is based upon clinical advice and modelling from the office of the Chief Dental Officer and has taken into consideration robust adherence to infection prevention and control guidance and social distancing requirements. Furthermore, data on the percentages of activity dental practices have achieved to date supports the view that the target can be safely attainable.
National Health Service commissioners have the discretion to make exceptions, for instance in cases where a dental practice has been impacted by staff being required to self-isolate and the reinstatement of shielding during the national lockdown. There are currently no plans to review or change the unit of dental activity targets for January to March 2021.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will include people with mild to moderate learning difficulties in the covid-19 vaccination priority list.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccines the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation of a COVID-19 vaccine at a population level. For the first phase, the JCVI has advised that the vaccine be given to care home residents and staff, as well as frontline health and social care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors which includes people who are clinically extremely vulnerable and/or have underlying health conditions.
Adults with severe or profound learning difficulties are considered to be ‘at risk’ and adults with Down’s Syndrome are included as priorities the first phase. Prioritisation decisions for next phase delivery are subject to of the surveillance and monitoring data and information from phase one, as well as further input from independent scientific experts such as the JCVI.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) steps he (i) is taking and (ii) plans to take and (b) financial support he (i) is providing and (ii) plans to provide to unpaid carers caring for relatives who are (A) vulnerable, (B) older, (C) disabled and (D) living with a mental or physical illness during (1) the November 2020 and (2) future covid-19 lockdowns.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
During the pandemic the Government’s focus has been on supporting unpaid carers to continue to care. We have:
- produced guidance specifically for carers and young carers,
- provided funding to Carers UK’s support phoneline;
- produced a leaflet to help carers self-identify when someone is discharged from hospital;
- ensured carers can continue to provide essential care and are exempt from rules preventing mixing with other households where they are providing care; worked with NHS England and NHS Improvement on guidance and a letter (template) enabling unpaid carers to identify themselves and their needs, so these can be more easily met;
- introduced two important temporary measures to help unpaid carers financially to be able to continue to claim Carer’s Allowance if they have a temporary break in caring, because they or the person they care for gets COVID-19 or if either have to isolate because of it;
- and made clear that providing ‘emotional support’ rather than just more traditional forms of care to a person in need of care and support also counts towards the Carer’s Allowance threshold of 35 hours of care a week.
We have also continued to iterate the regulations on lockdown to ensure that the care and support needs of people and their carers can be met. The regulations for the lockdown that commenced on 5 November allow for someone to come into the home of the person who needs care to provide that care for the purpose of giving the main carer respite. The person receiving care can also go to someone else’s home to receive respite care. These legislative provisions will enable some carers to arrange and access respite and support during this period.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is the Government's policy to provide an equivalent level of support for people shielding during the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown as was provided to those people during the covid-19 lockdown announced in March 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
During the national November restrictions, the Government has provided advice to those identified as being clinically extremely vulnerable to COVID-19. This includes staying at home as much as possible, including not attending a workplace, shops or pharmacies. Alongside this advice, the Government has launched a support package that will run to 2 December, providing over £30 million of funding to local authorities. This includes access to supermarket delivery slots and free medicines delivery. Those unable to work from home may be eligible for Statutory Sick Pay and the Government has also extended the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (furlough) until March 2021.
Clinically extremely vulnerable people can also continue to access support from local charities, organisations and NHS Volunteer Responders if needed. As well as helping with shopping and medicines delivery, NHS Volunteer Responders can help with a regular, friendly phone call and transport to and from medical appointments.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Alzheimer's Society report entitled Worst hit: dementia during coronavirus, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allowing at least one informal carer per care home resident to be designated a key worker and given access to (a) training, (b) covid-19 testing and vaccinations and (c) personal protective equipment.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are providing rapid (lateral flow) testing and personal protective equipment (PPE) to all care homes in time for the Christmas period, to enable residents to receive regular visits from loved ones. Visitors will still be expected to follow infection prevention and control procedures and minimise contact as much as possible to reduce the risk of transmission. New guidance setting out these visiting opportunities was published on 1 December on GOV.UK.
We are also sending out free PPE to all Care Quality Commission-registered care homes that are also registered on the PPE portal for use by visitors.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
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 potential merits of reinstating paid placements for trainee doctors, nurses and, midwives during the second wave of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is not planning any further paid placements for healthcare students during the COVID-19 outbreak. We are working with Health Education England and healthcare providers to make sure students do placements as planned and critically, gain the knowledge and skills they need to learn for their qualification.
Eligible medical, nursing and midwifery students will continue to receive payments from the Student Loans Company. Eligible nursing and midwifery students can also access the Learning Support Fund from the NHS Business Services Authority, which includes a non-repayable grant of at least £5,000 for travel and dual accommodation expenses and parental support. Eligible medical students in England can access the NHS Business Services Authority’s funding in the final year of their degree.