Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) policies and (b) grant and funding programmes his Department has introduced to provide support to individuals and organisations in response to the covid-19 outbreak; and what funding has been allocated to each of those programmes in the 2020-21 financial year.
Answered by Edward Argar
As part of the 2020 Spending Review, HM Treasury announced that for 2020-21 agreed funding includes; £52 billion for frontline health services to tackle the pandemic including £22 billion for the Test and Trace programme; over £15 billion for the procurement of personal protective equipment; and £2.7 billion to support the development and procurement of vaccines. This also included £3 billion for a package of additional capacity initiatives to support the National Health Service through the winter, including keeping the Nightingale hospitals capacity available, accessing increased capacity from independent sector providers and supporting increased safe discharge of patients from NHS hospitals.
Additionally, we have implemented a temporary NHS finance regime for the first half of the year that ensured every penny spent in NHS systems was fully reimbursed and provided approximately £2.7 billion extra funding to cover the second half of this financial year, to support NHS organisations to manage ongoing COVID-19 pressures and resume routine activity. We have provided up to £1.46 billion for infection control and other grants, funding predominantly given to local authorities to help cover the costs of implementing measures to reduce transmission. This was first introduced in May 2020 and was then extended to March 2021.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
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 use the 11,300 community pharmacies in England to administer the Oxford/AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine at scale.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
From 1 February 2021, 130 community pharmacies have started to offer the COVID-19 vaccination service, including the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, with more pharmacies joining the service over the coming weeks. Some pharmacists and members of their team have also been working with general practitioners to deliver the vaccine in many areas of the country.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with all the national pharmacy organisations on plans to ensure that community pharmacies are used to optimal effect in the COVID-19 vaccination programme, starting with the sites that can do this at scale.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has plans to reorganise NHS trusts in the Black Country.
Answered by Edward Argar
Since the establishment of the sustainability and transformation partnership there has been much greater collaboration between organisations in the Black Country and West Birmingham.
There is an ambition to work much more closely together to reduce the variance in services, standardise clinical practices and take the best part of each other’s improvement programmes which will ultimately improve outcomes for local people.
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust and Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust have therefore indicated that they are looking to progress a strategic collaboration arrangement, which is due to be discussed in upcoming public board meetings.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull 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 15,841 covid-19 cases that were not initially reported to Public Health England between 25 September and 2 October 2020 related to individuals who lived in the West Midlands metropolitan area.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
A total of 1,093 of 15,841 covid-19 cases not initially reported to Public Health England between 25 September and 2 October 2020 related to individuals from the West Midlands metropolitan area.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the methodology the Government is using to calculate the national R rate for covid-19 infections.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The process for formulating the R number is a complex one. The Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), which convenes once a week, builds a consensus on the value of R based on expert scientific advice from multiple academic groups. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies then reviews this and provides advice to the Government on the latest R figure. More information on how R is calculated can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-publishes-latest-r-number
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) quantity and (b) items of personal protective equipment were transported from Turkey to the UK by the RAF on 20 April 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill
185,000 gowns and coveralls were transported from Turkey to the United Kingdom by the Royal Air Force on 22 April.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Care Quality Commission report on medical services for homeless citizens in Birmingham, published in October 2018, when he plans to re-tender the service; and if he will lay a copy of the specification for their service in the Library.
Answered by Steve Brine
The provision of this service is the responsibility of the local clinical commissioning group, (Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group). The current service will remain in place until the clinical commissioning group considers and agrees its commissioning plan for the service going forward; it is anticipated that the plan will be agreed in the very near future.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)
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 specifications of the Clinical Commissioning Group plans to improve medical services for homeless citizens in Birmingham; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
There is a dedicated and specialist service for homeless patients, and rough sleepers, in central Birmingham. The clinical commissioning group has established a project group, which includes a range of stakeholders (health, social care and third sector), to inform the development of the health contribution to an integrated homeless service model.
The Department has made no specific assessment of the plans. However, the clinical commissioning group will continue to carefully monitor the quality of services provided.