Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 support people suffering from the long term symptoms of covid-19.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The National Health Service and the wider scientific community are currently working to better understand the disease course of COVID-19 infection, including the prevalence, severity and duration of symptoms, and how best to support recovery. The National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation have invested £8.4 million in the Post-HOSPitalisation COVID-19 study, to understand and improve long-term outcomes for survivors following hospitalisation with COVID-19. The research will inform future NHS service design and provision and the Government is currently considering options for future work in this area.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State of Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to recognise long covid as a medical condition.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The National Health Service and the wider scientific community are currently working to better understand the disease course of COVID-19 infection, including the prevalence, severity and duration of symptoms, and how best to support recovery. The National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation have invested £8.4 million in the Post-HOSPitalisation COVID-19 study, to understand and improve long-term outcomes for survivors following hospitalisation with COVID-19. The research will inform future NHS service design and provision and the Government is currently considering options for future work in this area.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of Luxe Lifestyle Ltd's capacity to fulfil it contract FFP2/KN95 to provide 1.2 million gowns and 10 million masks to the NHS during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Guidance on how contracting authorities should respond to COVID-19 was published on 18 March at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0120-responding-to-covid-19
The supplier will be evaluated by Departmental officials on their financial standing, compliance with minimum product specifications and ability to perform the contract. Contracts are awarded by the appropriate Departmental accounting officer in line with Departmental terms and conditions.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to answer Questions 41119, 411120 and 41121 tabled by the hon Member for Midlothian on 28 April 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to Questions 41119, 41120 and 41121 on 3 August.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
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 support small and medium sized businesses to manufacture (a) personal protective equipment and (b) hand sanitiser.
Answered by Jo Churchill
There isn't a historic minimum annual amount requirement to be part of the supply chain. The minimum requirements are for volume offered now, not volumes provided historically. Businesses must meet certain minimum financial criteria, must be able to demonstrate that it can supply Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at volume, and must pass various other checks and controls.
Manufacture of PPE must meet product safety legislation outlined in the guidance and appropriate health and safety technical specifications.
Lord Deighton is leading the Government effort by British industry to manufacture PPE including hand sanitiser. The Government has contracted with over 175 new suppliers able to deliver at the scale and pace the UK requires. The combined DIT, FCO and DHSC efforts have resulted in DHSC raising purchase orders for over 27.8 billion items of PPE; direct from new relationships in source countries, as well as through our trusted UK suppliers to the NHS, who themselves are using their global connections to help us. We have rapidly processed over 24,000 cases from over 15,000 suppliers to ensure they meet the safety and quality standards that our NHS staff need, as well as prioritising offers of larger volumes. We have so far actively engaged with over 99% of the companies that have offered PPE.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on acquiring personal protective equipment from SMEs.
Answered by Jo Churchill
There isn't a historic minimum annual amount requirement to be part of the supply chain. The minimum requirements are for volume offered now, not volumes provided historically. Businesses must meet certain minimum financial criteria, must be able to demonstrate that it can supply Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at volume, and must pass various other checks and controls.
Manufacture of PPE must meet product safety legislation outlined in the guidance and appropriate health and safety technical specifications.
Lord Deighton is leading the Government effort by British industry to manufacture PPE including hand sanitiser. The Government has contracted with over 175 new suppliers able to deliver at the scale and pace the UK requires. The combined DIT, FCO and DHSC efforts have resulted in DHSC raising purchase orders for over 27.8 billion items of PPE; direct from new relationships in source countries, as well as through our trusted UK suppliers to the NHS, who themselves are using their global connections to help us. We have rapidly processed over 24,000 cases from over 15,000 suppliers to ensure they meet the safety and quality standards that our NHS staff need, as well as prioritising offers of larger volumes. We have so far actively engaged with over 99% of the companies that have offered PPE.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the minimum quantity of (a) hand sanitiser and (b) personal protective equipment that a private business must produce annually for his Department to include it in a supply chain.
Answered by Jo Churchill
There isn't a historic minimum annual amount requirement to be part of the supply chain. The minimum requirements are for volume offered now, not volumes provided historically. Businesses must meet certain minimum financial criteria, must be able to demonstrate that it can supply Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at volume, and must pass various other checks and controls.
Manufacture of PPE must meet product safety legislation outlined in the guidance and appropriate health and safety technical specifications.
Lord Deighton is leading the Government effort by British industry to manufacture PPE including hand sanitiser. The Government has contracted with over 175 new suppliers able to deliver at the scale and pace the UK requires. The combined DIT, FCO and DHSC efforts have resulted in DHSC raising purchase orders for over 27.8 billion items of PPE; direct from new relationships in source countries, as well as through our trusted UK suppliers to the NHS, who themselves are using their global connections to help us. We have rapidly processed over 24,000 cases from over 15,000 suppliers to ensure they meet the safety and quality standards that our NHS staff need, as well as prioritising offers of larger volumes. We have so far actively engaged with over 99% of the companies that have offered PPE.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when (a) the Government and (b) Public Health England first held discussions with the companies selected to participate in the covid-19 antibody testing programme.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
In April 2020, an industry call to action was announced. A number of existing suppliers and United Kingdom-based global companies responded positively to the Government’s call to action for a national effort on testing.