Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assistance he is providing to health bodies and people in the South West affected by the false negative covid-19 test results in the South West; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Investigations are ongoing.
On 15 October 2021, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) alerted the public and endeavoured to contact every person who may have been affected, recommending a further test if they were likely to be infectious. Briefings were held with local authorities, Directors of Public Health and public health teams. Samples were diverted to other laboratories to ensure there was no loss of testing provision in the South West. The UKHSA, the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities and NHS England continue to support the regional Directors of Public Health.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the new contract with Immensa to deliver further covid-19 tests was agreed before or after the discovery of false negative covid-19 test results by the company for people testing in the South West.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The contract was awarded to Immensa Health Clinic Ltd in August 2021 prior to the recent findings under investigation.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact of the false negative covid-19 test results returned by Immensa on (a) people affected and (b) rates of transmission in the South West region.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Investigations are ongoing.
On 15 October 2021, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) alerted the public and endeavoured to contact every person who may have been affected, recommending a further test if they were likely to be infectious. Briefings were held with local authorities, Directors of Public Health and public health teams. Samples were diverted to other laboratories to ensure there was no loss of testing provision in the South West. The UKHSA, the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities and NHS England continue to support the regional Directors of Public Health.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 28 September 2021 to Question 51725 on Travel: Quarantine, what is the reason for the differing requirements for quarantine for those people vaccinated in the UK and those vaccinated overseas.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Once within the United Kingdom, domestic self-isolation regulations apply. If an individual who was vaccinated outside of the UK is the contact of a positive case, they are not exempted from self-isolation. This is because there are no means of verifying their vaccination status as it is not recorded by the National Health Service.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 29 April 2021 to Question 188120 on dental services, what the timeframe is for bringing forward proposals on addressing the key challenges facing the delivery of National Health Service dentistry.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with the sector to explore these challenges and how they could be addressed. NHS England and NHS Improvement have established advisory and technical working groups, with membership from the dental profession. These groups are exploring new contractual arrangements to bring forward proposals for change. Any proposed contractual changes will be negotiated with the British Dental Association and may involve legislative changes. It is therefore not possible to set out when these changes could be implemented.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2021 to Question 35720 on Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme, how much funding was allocated to supporting parents on a low income engage with the care of their babies in neonatal care in 2021-22; and how that spending was monitored.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The information requested is not held centrally. Details of discretionary payments made by local trusts for travel expenses is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on enabling British citizens who received their covid-19 vaccinations overseas to be certified as vaccinated by the NHS Covid Pass.
Answered by Maggie Throup
A pilot launched on 30 September in England for residents vaccinated abroad to request that their vaccines are uploaded to the national database. Vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency, the Food and Drug Administration or Swissmedic are accepted for the NHS COVID Pass. We are working to understand which non-Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approved vaccines we would be confident to recognise in the NHS COVID Pass.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what lessons the Government has learned from the faults with PCR testing discovered at the Immensa laboratory in Wolverhampton; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The investigation into the Immensa Laboratory in Wolverhampton is ongoing and the UK Health Security Agency will update their findings in due course.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that NHS 111 call handlers who are employed by private contractors receive a comparable rate of pay to NHS 111 call handlers who are directly employed by the NHS.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Private providers determine the rates of pay for their staff according to their employment contracts and local conditions. However, some contractors may choose to mirror arrangements used in the National Health Service, including annual pay awards.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether definitions used for clinically extremely vulnerable people or others asked to shield initially during the covid-19 outbreak included diabetes; and whether he has reviewed those definitions with regard to the inclusion of diabetes.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers identified specific medical conditions that placed people at the greatest risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19. It was determined that a blanket inclusion of everyone with a diagnosis of diabetes was not appropriate. As the shielding programme has now ended, there is no longer a centrally defined clinically extremely vulnerable group.