Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department will take to address displaced access to (a) PrEP, (b) HIV services, (c) family planning services and (d) contraception services within the NHS.
Answered by Caroline Johnson - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
We continue to work with the UK Health Security Agency, local authorities and NHS England to monitor the impact of monkeypox on sexual health services and maintain access to routine sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, including HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and contraception.
We have allocated more than £3 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including SRH services, through the Public Health Grant in 2022/23. It is for individual local authorities to determine spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including for SRH services. In addition, we have provided funding for antiviral medicines to treat monkeypox, the procurement of the smallpox vaccine and for sexual health services to deliver this vaccine to those eligible for vaccination.
Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department will take to address the displaced activity that monkeypox has caused within the sexual health services.
Answered by Caroline Johnson - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
We continue to work with the UK Health Security Agency, local authorities and NHS England to monitor the impact of monkeypox on sexual health services and maintain access to routine sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, including HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and contraception.
We have allocated more than £3 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including SRH services, through the Public Health Grant in 2022/23. It is for individual local authorities to determine spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including for SRH services. In addition, we have provided funding for antiviral medicines to treat monkeypox, the procurement of the smallpox vaccine and for sexual health services to deliver this vaccine to those eligible for vaccination.
Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has requested guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on the potential merits of an autumn booster covid-19 vaccine programme for the general population.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Government continues to be guided by the advice of the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on COVID-19 vaccinations.
On 15 July 2022, the Government accepted the JCVI’s advice to offer an autumn booster vaccination to increase immunity in those at higher risk from COVID-19 and protect against severe illness, hospitalisation and death in winter 2022/23. The booster dose will be offered to residents and staff in a care home for older adults; all adults aged 50 years old and over; those aged five to 49 years old in a clinical risk group or who are household contacts of someone with immunosuppression; frontline health and social care workers; and carers aged 16 years old and over.