Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to review the ease of use of NHS online apps for making appointments with GP surgeries for flu and other jabs.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are currently reviewing how to improve access to general practice (GP) appointments, including vaccination appointments accessed through the NHS App. NHS App teams undertake continual rounds of user testing and data monitoring on how the online booking journeys are performing, making changes when issues are identified.
97.8 million COVID-19 and flu vaccinations have been booked by the public through the National Booking System, with specifically 73% being booked through the website, 18% through the app, and 8% through a call centre, since its launch towards the end of June 2024. Alongside this, GPs directly invite registered patients into vaccination clinics using local booking systems.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to enable people with work and family responsibilities to communicate flexibly with their NHS GP practice, and to make and attend appointments at mutually convenient times.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that it can be challenging to balance accessing care with other responsibilities. That’s why we have committed to modernising the general practice (GP) booking system, making it easier for patients to communicate with their practice, and why we will ensure that anyone who wants a face-to-face appointment can receive one.
Integrated care boards must ensure that out-of-hours appointments are available to patients to help them access care at convenient times, for example on weekends, evenings or bank holidays.
We will make sure the future of GPs is sustainable by training thousands more GPs across the country to take the pressure off those currently working within the system, ensure increased capacity across the National Health Service, and secure a future pipeline of GPs.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the convenience and efficacy of the systems used by NHS GP practices for patients to make an appointment to see a doctor.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
We published our Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care in May 2023, which sets out how we are moving toward a ‘Modern General Practice’ model. This plan is backed by £240 million of retargeted funding going to provide digital services with the goal of increasing access. A copy of the plan is attached.
The sole method for general practices (GPs) to procure these digital services is via NHS England procurement frameworks, which list pre-approved suppliers for digital and IT services. This is to ensure consistency in service provisions, as each supplier must meet a set of requirements to be entered into a framework.
Each practice will run a procurement for these services and will select a supplier based on their differing specifications for how the IT systems will best meet their patients’ needs. Each supplier will offer varied services with varied benefits, including capabilities which allow patients and service users to request and receive support relating to healthcare concerns, at a time and place convenient for them.
As of March 2024, 93% of general practices now have digital telephony systems, this has enabled GP teams to manage multiple calls and helping to end the ‘8am rush’ for appointments. Trials show that this has increased patients’ ability to get through to their practice by almost a third.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 19 December 2023 (HL858), whether they have reviewed the account by Dame Kate Bingham in The Long Shot of her experience of government and other supervision whilst she was Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce; and what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the framework of project supervision in respect of the work of that Taskforce.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
No assessment has been made of The Long Shot. The Government published A review of the Vaccine Taskforce on GOV.UK in an online-only format on 29 August 2023. The review draws out learning that can be applied to future Government programmes, both in emergency circumstances, and to business-as-usual activity.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of Dame Kate Bingham's experience, as set out in The Long Shot, of leading the Vaccine Task Force during the COVID-19 pandemic; and whether they intend to review the processes and systems of supervision and governance in respect of projects commissioned by His Majesty's Government.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
No assessment has been made of The Long Shot. The Government has published a review of the Vaccine Task Force’s performance. The review draws out learning that can be applied to future government programmes, both in emergency circumstances, and to business-as-usual activity.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the new generation of NHS hospitals being planned or constructed will be insulated; and with what fuel they will be heated.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
In February 2023, NHS England published its ‘NHS Net Zero Building Standard’. The Standard provides technical guidance on achieving whole life Net Zero carbon including the electrification of heat and energy performance standards for new healthcare buildings and major upgrades. A copy is attached.
The National Health Service is committed to having a fully decarbonised estate by 2040. The new hospitals that will be delivered as part of the New Hospital Programme will be developed to meet these wider NHS Net-Zero-Carbon standards and underpinned by the new Standard. This includes a fabric first, highly insulated approach aligned with regulations and building safety requirements. The energy and fuel sources will vary from site to site, but the principles of low-energy and low-carbon are being embedded into each new hospital build.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have identified the virus which has been responsible for the highest incidence of influenza in Autumn/Winter 2022/2023; and whether they have assessed the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine deployed over the same period in countering that virus.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The most prevalent influenza virus this season in England is of the A/H3N2 subtype, with smaller numbers of A/H1N1 detected and fewer still influenza type B. UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is currently analysing vaccine effectiveness against influenza requiring healthcare, including the different types and will be contributing this to the World Health Organization 2023/24 vaccine strain selection meeting taking place in February of this year.
More detailed genomic description of the influenza strains analysed by the UKHSA national Respiratory Virus Unit are available in the weekly surveillance report. UKHSA’s assessment of relative prevalence of influenza viruses is based on detections in the UKHSA Royal College of General Practitioners primary care sentinel virological surveillance system and detections in the UKHSA Respiratory DataMart sentinel laboratory surveillance system.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk of new COVID-19 variants emerging in China.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) monitors all domestic and internationally circulating COVID-19 variants using United Kingdom sequencing data and the international database, GISAID. Lineages are reviewed weekly for trends, analysis and risk assessments. While China has not submitted recent sequences to GISAID, variants would be detected through the global horizon scanning process. The UKHSA works with international partners and the World Health Organization on variant surveillance.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness and timeliness of the patient care offered by GP practices.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
While no formal assessment has been made, the National Health Service has a statutory duty to ensure there are sufficient medical services, including in general practice, in each local area. In addition, as the independent regulator of health and social care the Care Quality Commission assesses the overall quality of individual practices.
As announced in ‘Our plan for patients’ on 22 September 2022, the Government expects that patients who need an appointment with their practice within two weeks should receive one and patients with urgent needs should be seen on the same day. We also expect local integrated care boards to intervene where services need to be improved.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications of the take-up of a third or booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine lagging behind the take-up of first and second doses.
Answered by Lord Kamall - Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made.
While vaccine effectiveness is known to wane over time, protection against the most severe disease is maintained for a longer period of time. Several studies conducted in the United Kingdom indicate that two doses of vaccine are between 65% to 95% effective at preventing symptomatic disease from the Delta variant, with higher levels of protection against severe disease including hospitalisation and death. There is some evidence of waning of protection against infection and symptomatic disease over time, although protection against severe disease remains high in most groups at least five months following the second dose.
By the week ending 22 May 2022, vaccine uptake with three doses was greater than 90% those aged 70 years old and over and 51.7% in all age groups.