Asked by: Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure cancer and heart disease patients are able to access hospital treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The National Health Service has continued to provide urgent and emergency services throughout the outbreak and has run the ‘Open for Business’ media campaign to encourage people with potentially serious health issues to continue to seek medical advice, particularly those with symptoms of cancer, heart attack and stroke.
NHS trusts and Cancer Alliances are working to identify ring-fenced diagnostic and surgical capacity for cancer so that they can deliver cancer surgery and treatment at cancer hubs, which have been set up to treat patients in non-COVID-19 environments. Full use is also being made of independent sector hospital and diagnostic capacity.
Referrals for cancer treatment from general practitioners (GPs) to hospital continue to go ahead and the NHS is working hard to increase these to pre-COVID-19 levels.
To ensure patients with heart disease are given the care they need, hospitals are prioritising capacity for cardiac surgery, cardiology services and neuroradiology. Secondary care is prioritised for patients with heart failure, valve disease and arrhythmia services.
Further cardiac and stroke services continue to operate throughout the COVID-19 response and GPs continue to refer into these services.
Asked by: Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial support they have provided to companies, institutions, and any other organisations, in the UK which are engaged in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Answered by Lord Bethell
On 21 April 2020, the Government announced a total of £42.5 million to support clinical trials for the vaccines being developed at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London. This funding is in addition to the £4.7 million previously granted to the University of Oxford, Imperial College London and Public Health England for vaccine research through the joint UK Research and Innovation – Medical Research Council and the Department, via the National Institute for Health Research ‘Covid-19 Rapid Response Research Call’. This follows the Government’s £250 million pledge to develop a vaccine, and announcement of a new Vaccines Taskforce, putting the United Kingdom at the forefront of international efforts to fight the virus.