Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
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 identify and deliver the covid-19 vaccine to people who have been sleeping rough.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Local vaccination services will play a vital role in reaching vulnerable groups such as those who are sleeping rough. These services mobilise general practice, working together in groups of Primary Care Networks plus large and small community pharmacy sites. These services provide the largest number of locations and are well placed to support the highest risk individuals, many of whom already have a trusted relationship with their local health services. They also coordinate and deliver vaccination to people who are unable to attend a vaccination site and to reach vulnerable groups such as those who are experiencing homelessness.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether home carers are planned to receive a covid-19 vaccination at the same time as those they care for who are clinically extremely vulnerable.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Unpaid carers are included in the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s priority group six which comprises of all individuals aged 16 to 64 years old with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality. This also includes those who are in receipt of a carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if the carer fall ill.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
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 both adults' and under 18s' eating disorders services have adequate resources to respond to the level of urgent referrals that those services are receiving.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
For children and young people, we are enhancing capacity in community eating disorder services to ensure appropriate support including crisis care and intensive home treatment. The community team can provide support during an admission to a paediatric ward for medical stabilisation or inpatient mental health bed if required.
For adults, we are increasing our investment in community mental health care year-on-year, up to almost £1 billion extra by 2023/24. Twelve areas in England have transformation funding since 2019/20 to test new integrated models of primary and community mental health care. Eight of these sites have also received specific additional funding to transform the eating disorders pathway, including early intervention for young adults with eating disorders.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason Lighthouse Laboratories are not required to report covid-19 testing cases and data directly to Public Health England.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Individual laboratories do not report to Public Health England as they operate without any personally identifiable information and could not complete the reporting process as they do not have the data required.
Laboratories connect to the National Pathology Exchange (NPEx) as a mechanism to return test outcomes to the Test and Trace programme. NPEx interfaces with the digital platform, NHS Business Service Authority and other systems or platforms as necessary to complete the notification of patients and all statutory reporting processes.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2020 to Question 70532, on Coronavirus: Research, and evidence that long covid affects patients that were not hospitalised and in some cases had milder symptoms, if he will make it his policy to fund new schemes to focus on patients with long covid and resultant cardiac, endocrine and neurological issues.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
On 18 February, this Government announced that through the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research Innovation, we have awarded £18.5 million in funding for four research projects to help understand and address the longer-term health effects of COVID-19 in non-hospitalised patients.
These studies will work with people living with ongoing symptoms and issues for more than four weeks post-COVID-19 infection to improve understanding and treatment of ‘long’ COVID-19. We are at an early stage in developing world-class understanding, treatment and care for those people experiencing ‘long’ COVID-19 and research funders will continue to consider proposals.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the public health justification is for the restriction on pubs selling alcohol to takeaway during the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Allowing people to take alcohol purchases away from hospitality venues increases the risk that people will consume the alcohol nearby or congregate in public spaces. This potentially results in a higher risk of transmission, as the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies’ advice has highlighted that alcohol consumption may increase risk of non-compliance with social distancing. Pubs and business are still able to sell alcohol as part of a delivery service if allowed under their licence conditions. The Government keeps all rules, including the hospitality restrictions under continual review and will make changes as and when the data and science supports it.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
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 rate of covid-19 transmission amongst (a) employees and (b) customers of fast-food restaurant outlets.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
There is potential for higher than average risk due to venues for socialisation such as restaurants having higher than average proximity and occupant density, prolonged duration of exposure and challenges in maintaining adequate ventilation.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
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 covid-19 transmission rates by sectors of employment.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Estimates of the numbers of COVID-19 cases linked directly to different sectors of employment is not yet available. The Joint Biosecurity Centre, working with the Health and Safety Executive and Public Health England, is currently assessing outbreaks of COVID-19 across employment sectors on an ongoing basis. This will be made publicly available on completion of that assessment.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the priority for children's and adults' social workers is for receipt of the covid-19 vaccine; whether those social workers will be deemed to be under the category of social care workers in respect of the priority accorded to them for that vaccine; and what the timetable is for the receipt of that vaccine by (a) mental health professionals and (b) other such workers with higher-risks of covid-19 infection undertaking house calls to households with covid-19 positive cases.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), advised that the priority for the current COVID-19 vaccination programme should be the prevention of COVID-19 mortality and the protection of health and social care staff and systems.
All frontline social care workers directly working with people clinically vulnerable to COVID-19 who need care and support irrespective of where they work will be a priority for phase one of the vaccine programme.
The Government will set out plans for phase two of vaccination, based on further advice from the JCVI. Phase two of the roll-out may include further reduction in hospitalisation and targeted vaccination of those at high risk of exposure and/or those delivering key public services.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many volunteer scientists have been volunteering in covid-19 testing laboratories in each month since June 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Three laboratories – Cambridge, Alderley Park, and the National Biosample Centre at Milton Keynes – have used volunteers since June. The total number of volunteers in June was 196, falling to 65 by July, 40 by August, 17 in September and minimal numbers since.