Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department will publish the Elective Recovery Plan.
Answered by Edward Argar
The publication of the National Health Service elective recovery delivery plan has been delayed as a result of the emergence of the Omicron variant. The Department continues to ensure the NHS is in the strongest position to recover elective services and tackle the backlog. The delivery plan will be published in due course.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timescale is for (a) notifying and (b) deploying people who have made successful applications to work on the covid-19 vaccine delivery programme.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The timescales will vary due to differences in training programmes for returners, those who are still registered in their profession and those who are no longer registered.
Returners who are still registered in their profession, including the temporary register, are no longer required to complete the full statutory and mandatory package.
However, those who are not registered healthcare professionals and are applying through the national recruitment process are required to complete the full core knowledge on statutory and mandatory training as part of their application process. They may also need to complete local training which will be decided by the relevant trust.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
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 ensure the (a) equitable and (b) transparent distribution of the covid-19 vaccine throughout the East of England.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
To ensure equitable and transparent distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, the National Health Service have an allocations committee that reviews and monitors distribution. Allocations to all regions in England, including the East of England, are made on a population proportionate basis factoring in the priority cohorts identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
Each Primary Care Network site, including those in the East of England, receives their own supply and work has been carried out with local clinical commissioning groups to ensure that vaccine supply aligns with the number of registered patients in the priority cohort groups.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when a vaccine for covid-19 will be available to high priority patients in (a) Bedford and (b) Kempston.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The phased vaccination programme commenced on 8 December 2020. The NHS has now offered the COVID-19 vaccine to everyone in the top four priority cohorts which includes people aged 70 years old and over, care home residents and staff, health and care staff and clinically extremely vulnerable patients.
From 15 February 2021, we have been inviting people aged 65 to 69 years old and those who are defined as clinically vulnerable and are therefore thought to be at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19 to book their vaccination. The target to reach all those in priority cohorts five to nine is 15 April 2021.