Asked by: Baroness Thornton (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 extent to which stockpiles of personal protective equipment were replaced by 'just in time' supply arrangements over the past ten years.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department’s advisory Committee for New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) makes recommendations to the Government on what medicines and clinical consumables should be stockpiled for pandemic influenza preparedness including relevant scientific information that is used for estimating target stock levels. No assessment has been made of variance in the spend on personal protective equipment (PPE) over the past 10 years, therefore we are unable to estimate the financial savings made as a result.
A small portion of the required FFP3 respirators and gloves have ‘just in time’ arrangements in place. The majority of the stockholding for these products and all other PPE is held in the stockpile on a ‘just in case’ basis.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the UK's stockpile of personal protective equipment has decreased over the last ten years and, if so, what financial saving was made as a result.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Department’s advisory Committee for New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) makes recommendations to the Government on what medicines and clinical consumables should be stockpiled for pandemic influenza preparedness including relevant scientific information that is used for estimating target stock levels. No assessment has been made of variance in the spend on personal protective equipment (PPE) over the past 10 years, therefore we are unable to estimate the financial savings made as a result.
A small portion of the required FFP3 respirators and gloves have ‘just in time’ arrangements in place. The majority of the stockholding for these products and all other PPE is held in the stockpile on a ‘just in case’ basis.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 home tests returned to them were not viable owing to difficulties in collecting a sample of the virus when self-swabbing.
Answered by Lord Bethell
International peer reviewed evidence, as well as the National Testing Programme’s experience, is that void rates for self-administered tests are of a similar level to clinician-administered tests. The best international evidence, as well as the Programme’s internal data, are kept under constant review, and significant resource has been deployed to ensuring that the instructions for self-administration are clear and easy to follow.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (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 plans developed by NHS England to improve pandemic response planning as a result of Exercise Cygnus.
Answered by Lord Bethell
NHS England is a key partner in the ongoing cross-Government work to develop the United Kingdom’s pandemic preparedness. This Department continues to work across Government and with key stakeholders, including NHS England, to develop coordinated multi-sector response plans for a future influenza pandemic.
The lessons from Exercise Cygnus, along with expert scientific, clinical and operational advice, have informed the UK’s preparedness to ensure that the country remains well prepared for infectious disease outbreaks. This includes work such as development of draft legislation support to the health system response to a future influenza pandemic and strengthening plans to surge and flex beyond normal operations, as demonstrated by the considerable increase in critical care capacity as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether part-time students on (1) physiotherapy, and (2) other courses, will be eligible to receive the £5,000 maintenance grant each year whilst studying.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Students who are enrolled on eligible physiotherapy courses or any other eligible courses and who are studying on a part-time basis will receive a pro-rata payment. Further details will be made available in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (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 (1) financial, (2) operational, and (3) security, implications of missing the January 2020 deadline to migrate all computers used by the National Health Service to Windows 10.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The whole of the National Health Service estate is covered by extended support for Windows 7 until January 2021. This means that the NHS will continue to receive security patches for the next year. This was included at no additional cost within the NHS Windows 10 Agreement.
Government is supporting the roll out of Windows 10 across the NHS estate. This process is on track and all NHS organisations have agreed to migrate to Windows 10 by no later than December 2020.
NHS trusts additionally benefit from access to Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), which provides real time detection and protection against potential threats by identifying suspicious behaviour on devices indicative of a cyber-attack. ATP can be deployed on Windows 7 and Windows 10 machines and gives NHS Digital and local organisations enhanced capability to respond to threats in real time. Through ATP, NHS Digital can also see where every organisation is in relation to the deployment of Windows 10.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of NHS trusts' ability to manage increased patient risk this winter.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
To support performance this winter additional capital and revenue funding was made available to systems and trusts to support staff and bed capacity throughout the winter. This has allowed Trusts to increase bed numbers and facilities to support better flow and, as a result, the National Health Service has reported over 1,000 more hospital beds are open this winter than at the same time last year.
In addition, a further £240 million has been provided again this year for adult social care to help reduce delays in patients being discharged from hospital by providing social care support.
This is all additional to winter funding last year that provided £145 million of capital funding to hospitals. £36.3 million was also provided to ambulance services for 256 new state-of-the-art vehicles and ‘make-ready hubs’ which shorten the turnaround times for vehicles and increase their availability. The winter period is usually considered to be from December to March, therefore an assessment of demand for ambulance services can be made after winter has finished.
Despite a huge increase in demand, the Care Quality Commission’s State of Health and Adult Social Care Report 2018/19 shows that the vast majority of patients continue to receive good, safe care. Overall quality of care in NHS acute hospitals has improved, with 72% of core services rated as good or outstanding, up from 66% in the previous year.
The quality of care in NHS ambulance trusts has also improved over the last year, with seven out of 10 trusts rated as good and none rated as inadequate. And, as at January 2020, 84% of adult social care settings were rated as good or outstanding. Four out of five adult social care services are rated as good, similar to 2018, and 996 services are providing care that is rated as outstanding.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they have given to hospitals to help them manage any increases in activity and workforce shortages over the winter period.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
To support performance this winter additional capital and revenue funding was made available to systems and trusts to support staff and bed capacity throughout the winter. This has allowed Trusts to increase bed numbers and facilities to support better flow and, as a result, the National Health Service has reported over 1,000 more hospital beds are open this winter than at the same time last year.
In addition, a further £240 million has been provided again this year for adult social care to help reduce delays in patients being discharged from hospital by providing social care support.
This is all additional to winter funding last year that provided £145 million of capital funding to hospitals. £36.3 million was also provided to ambulance services for 256 new state-of-the-art vehicles and ‘make-ready hubs’ which shorten the turnaround times for vehicles and increase their availability. The winter period is usually considered to be from December to March, therefore an assessment of demand for ambulance services can be made after winter has finished.
Despite a huge increase in demand, the Care Quality Commission’s State of Health and Adult Social Care Report 2018/19 shows that the vast majority of patients continue to receive good, safe care. Overall quality of care in NHS acute hospitals has improved, with 72% of core services rated as good or outstanding, up from 66% in the previous year.
The quality of care in NHS ambulance trusts has also improved over the last year, with seven out of 10 trusts rated as good and none rated as inadequate. And, as at January 2020, 84% of adult social care settings were rated as good or outstanding. Four out of five adult social care services are rated as good, similar to 2018, and 996 services are providing care that is rated as outstanding.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (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 demand for ambulance services over the winter period.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
To support performance this winter additional capital and revenue funding was made available to systems and trusts to support staff and bed capacity throughout the winter. This has allowed Trusts to increase bed numbers and facilities to support better flow and, as a result, the National Health Service has reported over 1,000 more hospital beds are open this winter than at the same time last year.
In addition, a further £240 million has been provided again this year for adult social care to help reduce delays in patients being discharged from hospital by providing social care support.
This is all additional to winter funding last year that provided £145 million of capital funding to hospitals. £36.3 million was also provided to ambulance services for 256 new state-of-the-art vehicles and ‘make-ready hubs’ which shorten the turnaround times for vehicles and increase their availability. The winter period is usually considered to be from December to March, therefore an assessment of demand for ambulance services can be made after winter has finished.
Despite a huge increase in demand, the Care Quality Commission’s State of Health and Adult Social Care Report 2018/19 shows that the vast majority of patients continue to receive good, safe care. Overall quality of care in NHS acute hospitals has improved, with 72% of core services rated as good or outstanding, up from 66% in the previous year.
The quality of care in NHS ambulance trusts has also improved over the last year, with seven out of 10 trusts rated as good and none rated as inadequate. And, as at January 2020, 84% of adult social care settings were rated as good or outstanding. Four out of five adult social care services are rated as good, similar to 2018, and 996 services are providing care that is rated as outstanding.
Asked by: Baroness Thornton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they intend to ensure the routine commissioning of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Department is continuing to work closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement, Public Health England and local authorities to plan for a seamless transition from the Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Impact Trial to routine commissioning from April 2020. Further information will be available shortly. PrEP continues to be available through the trial.