Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure people who require insulin are aware of alternative medications.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware of a supply disruption affecting Tresiba (Insulin degludec) FlexTouch 100 units per millilitre solution for injection three millilitre pre-filled pens. While we do not hold information on number of people affected by this issue, we have worked with industry to identify suitable alternatives and can confirm that Tresiba Penfill cartridges are available and can fully support the increase in demand.
A National Patient Safety Alert was issued for Tresiba Flextouch pens on Friday 8 December 2023, providing updates to the National Health Service about the supply issue and providing advice for healthcare professionals on how to manage patients during the supply disruption. Any patient who is concerned should speak to their clinician.
There is a team within the Department that deals specifically with medicine supply problems. It has well-established tools and processes to manage medicine supply issues, working closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and expedite resupply as soon as possible to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised. Information on the number of people affected by the supply issue is not held.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure that people who require insulin are able to access it.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware of a supply disruption affecting Tresiba (Insulin degludec) FlexTouch 100 units per millilitre solution for injection three millilitre pre-filled pens. While we do not hold information on number of people affected by this issue, we have worked with industry to identify suitable alternatives and can confirm that Tresiba Penfill cartridges are available and can fully support the increase in demand.
A National Patient Safety Alert was issued for Tresiba Flextouch pens on Friday 8 December 2023, providing updates to the National Health Service about the supply issue and providing advice for healthcare professionals on how to manage patients during the supply disruption. Any patient who is concerned should speak to their clinician.
There is a team within the Department that deals specifically with medicine supply problems. It has well-established tools and processes to manage medicine supply issues, working closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and expedite resupply as soon as possible to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised. Information on the number of people affected by the supply issue is not held.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people affected by a shortage of insulin.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware of a supply disruption affecting Tresiba (Insulin degludec) FlexTouch 100 units per millilitre solution for injection three millilitre pre-filled pens. While we do not hold information on number of people affected by this issue, we have worked with industry to identify suitable alternatives and can confirm that Tresiba Penfill cartridges are available and can fully support the increase in demand.
A National Patient Safety Alert was issued for Tresiba Flextouch pens on Friday 8 December 2023, providing updates to the National Health Service about the supply issue and providing advice for healthcare professionals on how to manage patients during the supply disruption. Any patient who is concerned should speak to their clinician.
There is a team within the Department that deals specifically with medicine supply problems. It has well-established tools and processes to manage medicine supply issues, working closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages and expedite resupply as soon as possible to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised. Information on the number of people affected by the supply issue is not held.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking with local authorities to increase levels of social care provision.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market and deliver a range of care and support services to meet the diverse needs of local people. To support with this, the Government has made a total of nearly £2 billion available to local authorities over two years through the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund (MSIF) and MSIF Workforce Fund. Both are designed to support increased adult social care capacity, and support local authorities to make improvements to adult social care services.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help ensure that health and social care staff continue to have access to free covid-19 testing.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
From 1 April 2023, the Government implemented changes to COVID-19 testing. These changes aligned COVID-19 more closely with the management of other respiratory infections. As part of this change, routine symptomatic testing of staff in high-risk settings ended. Staff testing has continued in a limited number of the most high-risk settings to protect particularly vulnerable people. This includes hospice staff with symptoms and some National Health Service staff with symptoms, working on inpatient wards with severely immunosuppressed patients. Information on testing in these settings is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-testing-during-periods-of-low-prevalence
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made a recent assessment of the impact of covid-19 infection rates among health and social care staff on the delivery of frontline health and social care services.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Sickness absence rates, including COVID-19 absence, among National Health Service staff are currently collected and published by NHS England. Data is published monthly in their COVID-19 data release and also weekly, for a subset of providers within the Urgent and Emergency Care Situation Reports for 2023/24. The monthly and weekly data sets, respectively, are available at the following links:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-hospital-activity/
Similarly for adult social care settings, data on staff absences due to COVID-19 related reasons are collected by the Department and published monthly, and are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/monthly-statistics-for-adult-social-care-england
However, whilst rates are collected and monitored both centrally and locally, there has been no specific recent assessment of the impact of COVID-19 infection rates among health and social care staff on the delivery of frontline health and social care services.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many Registered Nurses are both currently not working and in receipt of Carer’s Allowance.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has had discussions with (a) the UK Health Security Agency and (b) Wiltshire Council on the decision to close Hickory House nursery at Porton Down science park.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) developed a business case for future options for nursery provision at Porton Down. After careful consideration it was concluded that UKHSA are not able to prioritise such capital costs for physical reprovision of a nursery against other needs. UKHSA are continuing to engage with partners to explore any other opportunities.
There have been joint meetings with Wiltshire Council, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and Porton Biopharma Ltd that use the nursery. A joint meeting with impacted staff and families took place on 6 March 2023.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
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 provide mental health support, including counselling, to people living in rural communities as part of the Major Conditions Strategy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Major Conditions Strategy will cover prevention to treatment for six broad conditions including mental ill health and we will continue to work closely with stakeholders, citizens and the National Health Service in coming weeks to identify actions that will have the most impact.
We are already taking steps to increase access to mental health services, including for people in rural settings. The NHS Long Term Plan commits to investing an additional £2.3 billion a year into mental health services, including through integrated care board (ICB) baseline funding. As part of this, we are increasing access to NHS Talking Therapies across all parts of England, including rural areas. NHS Talking Therapies provide evidence-based support for a range of conditions.
ICBs are responsible for decisions about the provision of services in their area and how funding allocations should be used to meet the needs of people in their areas. There are a range of adjustments made in the ICB allocations formula to account for how the costs of providing health care may vary between different types of rural and urban areas.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, What steps he has taken to improve access to Liothyronine (T3) for the treatment of hypothyroidism?
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made. NHS England’s guidance ‘Items which should not be routinely prescribed in primary care’ states that levothyroxine is the first treatment for hypothyroidism and liothyronine should not be routinely prescribed. However, the guidance states that liothyronine may be recommended for individual patients who may not respond to levothyroxine alone. NHS England is currently reviewing its guidance and has engaged with patient groups and other stakeholders to obtain feedback.