Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
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 sickness absence rates for social care workers (a) from January 2020 to July 2020 and (b) January 2019 to July 2019.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The sickness absence rates for social care workers is not collected centrally by the Department.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a list of all social care providers operating on publicly funded contracts.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This information is not held centrally. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are responsible for commissioning publicly funded adult social care services. They have a legal duty to fund care for people with eligible needs and who meet the financial thresholds for public funding, and to commission care services for anyone who meets these requirements. The local government transparency code requires local authorities to publish details of any commissioned activity with a value that exceeds £5,000.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the covid-19 outbreak, what assessment he has made of the availability of personal protective equipment for (a) workers who deliver primary care services and (b) GPs; and what additional resources have been allocated to the provision of that equipment.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is working around the clock to give the National Health Service and social care sectors the PPE equipment and support they need to tackle this outbreak. We are working to expand supply from overseas and improve domestic manufacturing capability. The NHS, industry and the Armed Forces have created a PPE distribution network almost from scratch, providing drops of critical equipment to 58,000 healthcare settings including GPs and pharmacies. The Government is working with e-commerce expertise to pilot a new online portal to help primary and social care providers to order critical PPE.
Over 1.6billion items of PPE have been distributed across the health and social care system.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when supplies of personal protective equipment will be increased to meet the added demand in the NHS resulting from covid-19.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There is currently adequate national supply of personal protection equipment (PPE) in line with Public Health England’s recommended usage, and the pandemic influenza stockpile has now been released. Millions more items of personal protective equipment for frontline staff have been delivered over the last few days to hospitals.
There are well-established procedures to deal with supply issues, should they arise, by working closely with industry, the National Health Service and others in the supply chain to help prevent shortages. We are constantly monitoring this and working to manage demand and secure additional stocks to further enhance our preparedness.
The army and Clipper are now supporting the effort to manage and offload supplies in busy NHS settings, helping to distribute and deliver urgent PPE supplies directly to the frontline.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to issue guidance on aerosol production in dentistry and the risk of spreading covid-19 to staff and patients.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
NHS England and NHS Improvement issue regular updates to general dental practices and community dental services regarding the emerging COVID-19 situation. The latest update was issued on 20 March 2020 and includes guidance on aerosol generating procedures. This can be viewed online at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/preparedness-letters-for-dental-care/
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the NHS will get an adequate supply of covid-19 testing kits and reagents.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The Government has bought 17.5 million antibody tests with ongoing orders for millions more.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are asking identified pathology network laboratories to start working up validation of commercially available kits that can be automated to further increase the available testing capacity across England. Once the test is validated and risk assessments have been completed, a 24 hours a day, seven days a week offering will be considered, and testing should be prioritised above other pathology tests as urgent and high priority, including the return of results.
The British In Vitro Diagnostics Association said the problem was a shortage of reagent kits in the global supply chain. While manufacturers are producing the kits as rapidly as they can, the firms are having to prioritise what products are shipped where.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the NHS plans to offer testing for covid-19 to staff members.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We know that dedicated National Health Service staff want to be caring for patients on the frontline, but without a test, if they or a member of their household develops symptoms they are required to self-isolate.
NHS frontline staff tests started on 27 March, with hundreds of staff to be tested. On 29 March, the Government confirmed that a testing programme to support NHS staff will increase throughout this week and tests will be turned around as quickly as possible. If a NHS worker falls ill, they can now come into one of the drive-in centers and get tested, so they know whether or not they have COVID-19.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether immediate access to covid-19 testing will be made available to (a) vital staff and (b) primary care staff to avoid unnecessary self-isolation.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our first priority is to make sure that we use those tests on the people who need them most.
Public Health England has rolled its own test out to a number of National Health Service collaborators to increase daily testing capacity and it is evaluating commercial tests to allow the NHS to consider faster tests. On 17 March the Prime Minister announced that capacity would increase to 25,000 a day in two weeks
Testing of healthcare workers is happening already and will continue to expand as capacity increases.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many fatalities the Government has estimated from its herd immunisation modelling of covid-19.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Herd immunity is not part of our action plan but is a natural by-product of an epidemic. Our aims are to save lives, protect the most vulnerable, and relieve pressure on the National Health Service.
We have now moved out of the contain phase and into delay, and we have experts working round the clock. Every measure that we have or will introduce will be based on the best scientific evidence.
Our awareness of the likely levels of immunity in the country over the coming months will ensure our planning and response is as accurate and effective as possible.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
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 NHS has an adequate supply of antiviral and immune therapy drugs to treat patients; and what the timescale is for the supply of those drugs to be sufficient to meet demand.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department and Public Health England hold, or have contracts with suppliers for, stockpiles of a wide range of essential medicines. The Department is working closely with industry, the National Health Service and others in the supply chain to help ensure patients can access the medicines they need.