Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking in response to the risk that a COVID-19 vaccine may not be found in the coming months.
Answered by Lord Bethell
There is extraordinary effort taking place in the United Kingdom and internationally to accelerate the research and development of a vaccine as soon as possible, with the Government making over £130 million available to fund the front-runners University of Oxford and Imperial College London teams, on top of the £250 million we have pledged to the international effort to find a vaccine – the largest international contribution of any country.
Given that a COVID-19 vaccine may not be found, we are also working on identifying safe and effective treatments for COVID-19. There are multiple clinical trials underway, including the ACCORD phase II trial platform that identifies and tests newer therapeutics, and phase III trials including PRINCIPLE, RECOVERY and REMAP-CAP, that are trialling repurposed drugs in primary, acute and intensive care settings respectively.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to use international procurement arrangements for the provision of personal protective equipment at the end of the EU withdrawal transition period.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have set up a cross-Government personal protective equipment (PPE) sourcing unit to secure new supply lines from across the world and published rigorous standards against which we will buy.
Expert procurement professionals from the NHS Supply Chain have been seconded into this dedicated new unit to work with a cross-Government team of over 400 staff from the Government Commercial Function. This unit is identifying PPE suppliers from across the globe to meet the increasing demand for a growing list of PPE products.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government on what dates in 2020 the initial audits were first conducted of the need for protective personal equipment in (1) the NHS, and (2) care services.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government stockpiled medicines and consumables including personal protective equipment (PPE) for the National Health Service and social care for a reasonable worst-case influenza pandemic as outlined in the UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy 2011. COVID-19 is a different disease with a higher hospitalisation rate.
Forecasts for the need for PPE to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak have been continuously updated in line with modelling based on the prevalence and impact of the virus and the guidance on how PPE should be used. This guidance has itself been updated to reflect emerging scientific evidence about transmission routes and appropriate methods to prevent transmission and the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to guarantee a continuous supply of insulin for those with type 1 diabetes in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for leaving the European Union. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the uninterrupted supply of medicines and medical products, including insulin, once we have left the EU.
The Department, as part of our EU exit preparations, is implementing a multi-layered approach to mitigate potential disruption to supply, which consists of stockpiling where possible, securing freight capacity, changing or clarifying regulatory requirements, procuring additional warehousing, working closely with industry to improve trader readiness and putting in place the National Supply Disruption Response to manage potential shortages.
As an example of the preparations being taken by industry to prepare for EU exit, all three suppliers of insulin have publicly stated that they have significantly increased their United Kingdom stockpiles, and have met the Government’s request that they hold at least six weeks’ worth of extra stock in addition to their usual operational stocks.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what alternative bio-aortic root replacement supply lines have been developed in the event of a no-deal Brexit interrupting imports from Italy.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for leaving the European Union. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the uninterrupted supply of medicines and medical products once we have left the EU. This includes the supply of bio-aortic root replacement devices.
The Department, as part of our EU exit preparations, is implementing a multi-layered approach to mitigate potential disruption to supply, which consists of stockpiling where possible, securing freight capacity, changing or clarifying regulatory requirements, procuring additional warehousing, working closely with industry to improve trader readiness and putting in place the National Supply Disruption Response to manage potential shortages.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many heart operations they estimate will be cancelled by the NHS in the event of a no-deal Brexit due to a lack of availability of bio-aortic root replacement imports from Italy.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Department is doing everything appropriate to prepare for leaving the European Union. We want to reassure patients that our plans should ensure the uninterrupted supply of medicines and medical products once we have left the EU. This includes the supply of bio-aortic root replacement devices.
The Department, as part of our EU exit preparations, is implementing a multi-layered approach to mitigate potential disruption to supply, which consists of stockpiling where possible, securing freight capacity, changing or clarifying regulatory requirements, procuring additional warehousing, working closely with industry to improve trader readiness and putting in place the National Supply Disruption Response to manage potential shortages.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that research into the use of medicinal cannabis as a potential treatment will be shared following the UK exiting the EU.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government has not commissioned research into the number of patients that might benefit from use of cannabis-based medicinal products.
The Government values the strong collaborative partnerships that we have across the European Union in the areas of science, research and innovation, and as part of exit negotiations is working to ensure that we have the best possible environment in which to support clinical trials and new medicines after we leave the EU. The Government will continue to monitor and share the emerging evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis-based medicinal products.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have carried out any research into the number of potential beneficiaries of a relaxation of the current restrictions on the use of medicinal cannabis.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government has not commissioned research into the number of patients that might benefit from use of cannabis-based medicinal products.
The Government values the strong collaborative partnerships that we have across the European Union in the areas of science, research and innovation, and as part of exit negotiations is working to ensure that we have the best possible environment in which to support clinical trials and new medicines after we leave the EU. The Government will continue to monitor and share the emerging evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis-based medicinal products.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much additional funding they estimate the NHS will receive in each financial year from 2018 to 2025; and what percentage of that funding will be raised from (1) increased taxation, (2) anticipated savings, and (3) the Brexit dividend.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Prime Minister has announced a five-year funding agreement which will see the National Health Service budget grow by over £20 billion, in real terms, by 2023-24. The planned resource budgets for NHS England, and what these amount to as additional funding in real terms, are included in the attached table due to the size of the data. These planned increases will be confirmed at a future fiscal event, subject to a NHS plan that meets the tests we have set out.
This funding agreement does not extend to 2024-25, for which planned resource budgets for NHS England have not yet been confirmed.
As the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care have set out, some of this funding will be paid for by the United Kingdom no longer having to send annual membership subscriptions to the European Union. The commitment the Government is making goes further and so we will all need to make a greater contribution through the tax system – in a fair and balanced way - because we can not pass on extra debt to the next generation.
The Government will listen to views about how we do this and the Chancellor will set out the details in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that GP capacity is maintained to meet current and expected levels of demand.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The General Practice Forward View, published in April 2016, commits increasing investment in general practice by £2.4 billion a year by 2020/21 from £9.6 billion in 2015/16 to over £12 billion by 2020/21 – a 14% real-terms increase. It will improve patient care and access, and invest in new ways of providing primary care. As part of this package NHS England is investing £500 million in a national sustainability and transformation package to support general practitioner (GP) practices, which includes additional funds from local clinical commissioning groups. It includes help for struggling practices, plans to reduce workload, expansion of a wider workforce, investment in technology and estates and a national development programme to speed up transformation of services. A copy of the General Practice Forward View is attached.
By 2020 there will be an extra 1,500 students doctors entering training each year. The new places are being allocated to schools which have demonstrated a commitment to sending more trainees to rural or coastal areas and increasing the number of GPs and mental health specialists.
Health Education England has made 3,250 places in GP speciality training available per year since 2016. In 2017, there were 3,157 doctors recruited to speciality GP training posts. To bridge the gap whilst doctors are in training, in August 2017, NHS England announced plans to accelerate its international recruitment to 2,000 GPs in the next three years. We also have a broad offer to support GPs to remain in the National Health Service: GP Career Plus, The GP Retention Scheme, and The National GP Induction and Refresher Scheme to help GPs back into the NHS.