Asked by: Baroness Andrews (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether integrated care boards are able to spend a proportion of the £250 million, allocated by the Chancellor to accelerate hospital discharge, on social care projects (1) to increase capacity in the community, and (2) to fund extra care beds.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The £200 million announced on 9 January 2023 is specifically for funding short-term National Health Service step-down care packages and is being used to purchase a maximum of four weeks bedded care per patient. Integrated care boards, working closely with local authorities, are using this to purchase places in care homes and other settings, such as hospices, as well as to help fund wrap-around primary and community health services to support patients’ recovery. The £50 million capital, also announced on 9 January 2023, is targeted at projects that can make an immediate impact on reducing the winter crisis. This includes creating greater capacity in discharge lounges to improve patient discharge and hospital flow, as well as other options such as ambulance hubs.
Asked by: Baroness Andrews (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the availability of chemical reagents needed for polymerase chain reaction tests for COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Baroness Andrews (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking in relation to unregulated or unverified COVID-19 antibody tests being used in the UK; and what steps they are taking to ensure that polymerase chain reaction tests for COVID-19 being offered by private companies are being conducted in accordance with the relevant guidelines.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To provide a more comprehensive response to a number of outstanding Written Questions, this has been answered by an information factsheet Testing – note for House of Lords which is attached, due to the size of the data. A copy has also been placed in the Library
Asked by: Baroness Andrews (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of COVID-19 cases going undetected in (1) care homes, and (2) other community settings; and whether this is a result of a lack of testing capacity.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Understanding the number of cases of COVID-19 in care homes and other community settings requires access to testing in symptomatic and asymptomatic people. Public Health England (PHE) uses a variety of real-time data on results of testing in care homes and other community settings at both local and national level to detect and manage outbreaks and understand the number of infected individuals, both symptomatic and asymptomatic. This data is published in the weekly PHE surveillance report. The latest Weekly Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Surveillance Report is attached.
Regarding testing in care homes, the Minister of State for Care (Helen Whately MP) wrote to local health systems on 14 May to advise of the key messages from emerging evidence in the United Kingdom and internationally in relation to transmission of COVID-19 in care homes, as well as the steps being taken to mitigate this as part of the Government’s care homes support package. A copy of the letter is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Andrews (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many laboratories in the UK are capable of processing the Roche Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody test; and what is the distribution of these laboratories across the country.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government does not hold specific information on the instrumentation available in United Kingdom laboratories. Plans for the roll out of laboratory-based tests are being developed and, among other things, will consider the ability and capacity of National Health Service laboratories to process commercially available tests.
Asked by: Baroness Andrews (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how (1) assumptions about future immunity to COVID-19 from past infection, and (2) existing COVID-19 test results, are informing their strategy for antibody testing; and what plans they have to use antibody testing as an epidemiological survey tool to (a) evaluate past infection of particular individuals, or (b) inform future policy making.
Answered by Lord Bethell
A positive antibody test demonstrates that someone has COVID-19 antibodies. The presence of COVID-19 antibodies signals that the body has staged an immune response to COVID-19. COVID-19 is a new disease, and our understanding of the body’s immune response to it is limited. We do not know, for example, how long an antibody response lasts, nor whether having antibodies means a person cannot transmit the virus to others. Our understanding of the virus will grow as new scientific evidence and studies emerge.
We are conducting some of the biggest surveys in the world, using lab-based tests to find out what proportion of the population have already had the virus. This work includes four major surveillance studies with Public Health England, the Office for National Statistics, IPSOS MORI and UK Biobank, designed to understand the current and future prevalence of COVID-19 in the wider population. We will be able to share further details of the results of these studies in due course. Information on levels of infection will inform our future plans for rolling out antibody tests.
Asked by: Baroness Andrews (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the capacity of UK laboratories to (1) conduct, and (2) process Roche Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests; what plans they have to use unpaid volunteers as swab testers as part of their testing strategy; and what steps they will take, if any, to prohibit the sale of antibody tests by private companies which have not been approved by Public Health England.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government does not hold specific information on the instrumentation available in United Kingdom laboratories. Plans for the roll out of laboratory-based tests are being developed and, among other things, will consider the ability and capacity of National Health Service laboratories to process commercially available tests.
The Chief Medical Officer discourages in the strongest terms organisations from buying their own unvalidated antibody tests. Professor John Newton has also warned that unapproved tests could be misleading, by providing inaccurate or inconsistent results, potentially putting those tested and those around them at risk. He has therefore advised organisations both in the public and private sector against the use of antibody tests that have not been verified in a laboratory setting.
A RT-PCR or ‘antigen’ test is used to find out if a person currently has the virus. These tests are different to antibody tests, which are used to detect antibodies to the COVID-19 virus as a marker of past infection.
The Department is working in partnership with several organisations to ensure the Lighthouse Laboratories, who are conducting antigen testing, have the workforce required to maintain capacity. Individuals can apply to work in the Lighthouse Laboratories directly through Reed recruitment agency or at an organisational level. During screening, individuals can determine whether they wish to be paid or volunteer.
Asked by: Baroness Andrews (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their testing prioritisation plan for COVID-19 antibody tests; and how does this plan compare to the strategy for COVID-19 real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government has announced the start of its national antibody testing programme, with initial plans to provide antibody tests for National Health Service and care staff, as well as hospital patients and care residents on the basis of clinical advice, in England from the end of May. The United Kingdom Government has purchased tests on behalf of the devolved administrations, and each devolved nation is deciding how to use its test allocation. This strategy, in which NHS patients and staff will be amongst the first to benefit from testing, is similar to the approach taken to roll out RT-PCR tests.
Asked by: Baroness Andrews (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to integrate the results of COVID-19 antibody testing with the results of the NHS contacting tracing app; and what consideration they have given to the implications of integrating these results for privacy protections.
Answered by Lord Bethell
There are currently no such plans. If we make any changes to how the app works over time, we will explain in plain English why those changes were made and what they mean for app users and will publish an updated Data Protection Impact Assessment and Privacy Notice.
Asked by: Baroness Andrews (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of NHS 111 call handlers are medically trained; whether the triaging system is reviewed regularly; and if not, what plans they have to implement regular reviews.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The NHS 111 service available across England is staffed by fully trained Health Advisors who are appropriately, safely and timely advised by the NHS Pathways triage tool. This tool assists NHS 111 Health Advisors in appropriately transferring patients to range of clinical professionals via the Clinical Assessment Service.
The licensing requirements for NHS Pathways specify that Health Advisors should receive 10 weeks of training, comprising a mixture of learning, supervised and consolidated practice, to ensure that staff have a strong understanding and experience of the types of calls they may receive. Additionally, licensing requirements outline that sufficient numbers of clinicians must be available to provide full supervision to the number of Health Advisors on a particular shift.
We are continuously looking for ways to improve NHS 111 services and are committed to providing the best possible care for those who need it. The most recent inspection by the Care Quality Commission of all NHS 111 providers found that the minimum levels of quality were attained across providers to provide effective treatment.