Asked by: Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many notifications of medical discontinuations to Northern Ireland have been formally received by his Department in each week since 1 August 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Department regularly receives notifications of discontinuations and possible discontinuations from suppliers. However, we are unable to provide the information requested as it is commercially sensitive.
Asked by: Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the Elective Recovery Fund has been allocated to neurology elective care in England broken down by NHS region.
Answered by Edward Argar
Information on how much of the £1 billion Elective Recovery Fund has been allocated to each National Health Service region and elective service in England is not held centrally, as it will not be distributed through set allocations. As set out in NHS Planning Guidance for 2021-22, systems are asked to deliver activity levels above set thresholds in order to access this additional funding.
Asked by: Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding from the Elective Recovery Fund has been allocated to neurology elective care in England since that fund's creation.
Answered by Edward Argar
Information on how much of the £1 billion Elective Recovery Fund has been allocated to each National Health Service region and elective service in England is not held centrally, as it will not be distributed through set allocations. As set out in NHS Planning Guidance for 2021-22, systems are asked to deliver activity levels above set thresholds in order to access this additional funding.
Asked by: Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Public Health England’s findings that people with learning disabilities were three to six times more likely to die from covid-19 than the general population during the first wave of covid-19 was taken into account when developing the vaccine prioritisation policy.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is the independent expert advisory committee which advises the Government on vaccination. The JCVI reviewed data on COVID-19 mortality from OpenSAFELY, QCOVID and Public Health England (PHE). This included the PHE report on mortality in people with learning disabilities.
After consideration of the evidence, the JCVI advised that people with severe and profound learning disabilities and Down’s syndrome should be offered vaccination in the first phase of the programme.
Asked by: Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)
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 (a) increase provision of rehabilitation services for people with (i) neurological conditions and (ii) multiple sclerosis who have become deconditioned as a result of covid-19 lockdown restrictions and disruption of healthcare services and (b) provide additional provision of those services to meet the needs of people recovering from covid-19.
Answered by Edward Argar
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS England and NHS Improvement advised in-person consultations should only take place when absolutely necessary. Providers have been rolling out remote consultations using video, telephone, email and text message services as a priority, including for those with neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis.
In-person rehabilitation services should now be resumed. The Association of British Neurologists published guidance on recommencing neurology services in the recovery phase of the pandemic, assessing which services and patients require urgent prioritisation. NHS England and NHS Improvement have also provided prioritisation advice for restarting community services, which aims to meet the needs of people with neurological conditions safely and effectively. This guidance can be found at the following links:
Asked by: Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)
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 (a) increase provision of rehabilitation services for people who have become deconditioned as a result of covid-19 lockdown restrictions and disruption of healthcare services and (b) provide additional provision to meet the needs of people recovering from covid-19.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
In July 2020, the National Health Service launched the ‘Your COVID Recovery’ service to support the recovery of people who have been in hospital or suffered at home with the virus. This is a two-phase endeavour with phase one being available as an open, publicly available site containing general information on all aspects of recovering from COVID-19, including physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing. Over 100,000 people have used the online service since it was launched in July.
On 7 October the NHS announced £10 million is be invested this year to help kick start and designate ‘long COVID-19’ clinics that will be available to all patients in England. Alongside this, new guidance has been commissioned by NHS England from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on the clinical case definition of ‘long COVID-19’. This will include patients who have had COVID-19 who may not have had a hospital admission or a previous positive test. It will be followed by evidence-based NICE clinical guidelines that will outline the support that ‘long COVID-19’ patients should receive, enabling NHS doctors, therapists and staff to provide a clear and personalised treatment plan. This will include education materials for general practitioners and other health professionals to help them refer and signpost patients to the right support.