Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer from Baroness Barran on 25 April (HL7840), what advice the UK Health Security Agency has given to education providers on managing the disposal of surplus COVID-19 test kits.
Answered by Lord Kamall
In April 2022, advice was issued to education providers that test kits which have expired should be disposed of in line with the requirements of the waste duty of care regulations. If more than one carton of lateral flow device test kits requires disposal, a waste contractor must be informed.
Kits within three months’ expiry and less than four cartons in pristine condition should be retained. We are currently undertaking a pilot exercise with 51 schools to collect excess stock, with the hope of deploying a wider returns exercise.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of GP surgeries asking patients to email a photograph of their skin conditions.
Answered by Lord Kamall
No specific assessment has been made. However, NHS England and NHS Improvement work with NHS Digital to ensure that the digital tools used within primary care enable patients to access care from general practitioner (GP) practices which meet their clinical needs and support accessibility, inclusivity and take account of the patient’s preference.
The functionality of digital products is assessed nationally via procurement frameworks, which consider information governance, clinical safety and cyber security before products are approved. Images sent to practices from patients must be stored in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation and in line with the storage and management policy for all patient data. NHS England and NHS Improvement strongly encourage practices and commissioners to use an approved and assured digital product to communicate with patients and to facilitate sending pictures.
The request, receipt and use of images must be guided by the principle of the interests of the patient and assessed on a case by case basis. The practice should determine whether to request an image from a patient and whether this would be clinically appropriate to support providing care, reaching a diagnosis or deciding what further care should be provided, depending on the needs of the patient. Practices should also consider the patient’s non-medical circumstances and preferences when making this decision.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of the £3m additional NHS funding to support access to healthcare has been spent on psychological support for Afghan citizens who arrived under the resettlement scheme; and what steps they have taken to ensure that such support is (1) culturally sensitive, and (2) appropriate for people who may have suffered trauma.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The information is not held in the format requested. Local areas have provided trauma-informed psychological and emotional support responses for Afghan refugees. These are led by clinicians with expertise in working with refugee populations and local community groups and organisations to ensure it is culturally appropriate and accessible.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are engaging with areas which have received Afghan refugees to share best practice with other areas of the country.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - 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 (1) children, and (2) young people, who have been diagnosed as having myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).
Answered by Lord Kamall
No specific assessment has been made. However, recent data from the UK Biobank estimates that there are over 240,000 adults aged between 40 and 69 years old in England with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The number of children and young people diagnosed with ME is unknown.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how often children have dental checks in school; and what percentage of schoolchildren in England and Wales had these checks in the last academic year.
Answered by Lord Kamall
There is no national programme of routine dental checks in schools in England. The provision of dental checks in schools in Wales is a devolved matter.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 23 February (HL6197), why they do not centrally hold information on the number of dental practices providing National Health Service dentistry.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Data is collated in the form of contracts for National Health Services. Whilst this is approximately equivalent to the number of practices providing NHS services, there will be individual practices or businesses which may hold more than one contract for different or additional services.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of (1) NHS dentists, and (2) NHS dental practices, for each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The information requested on the number of practices providing National Health Service dentistry is not held centrally. However, the following table shows the number of dentists undertaking activity on behalf of the NHS and the number of dental contracts in each year since 2017/18.
Year NHS dentists NHS contracts
2017/18 24,308 8,526
2018/19 24,545 8,479
2019/20 24,684 8,408
2020/21 23,733 8,305
2021/22 N/A 8,341
Information on the number of dentists providing NHS care in 2021/22 is expected to be published in the third quarter of 2022/23.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what scientific and medical assessments informed their decision to make the wearing of face masks in public faces voluntary.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Before moving to Step 4 of the Roadmap on 19 July, which changed the requirement to wear face coverings in certain settings from mandatory to voluntary, the Government assessed the evidence of progress against four tests:
- The deployment of the vaccine programme;
- The effectiveness of vaccines in reducing hospitalisations and deaths among those vaccinated;
- The level of infection rates in relation to the pressure on the National Health Service; and
- The risks presented by new variants of concern.
The Joint Biosecurity Centre assessed the data and evidence from a variety of sources against these four tests. COVID-19 Response: Autumn and Winter Plan, which is available in an online only format, set out a ‘plan B’ for England, which includes the reintroduction of the legally mandated wearing of face coverings in certain settings.
Asked by: Lord Storey (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 reduce the costs of clinical negligence.
Answered by Lord Kamall
In 2017, the National Audit Office identified three areas of rising clinical negligence costs over the previous decade: claim volume, compensation awards and claimant legal costs. However, since then claim volume and claimant legal costs have levelled out, but overall costs have continued to increase due to payments for compensation.
The Department is therefore working with the Ministry of Justice, other Government departments and NHS Resolution to address these issues. This is a complex area and the work is ongoing. In the 2020 Spending Review, the Government committed to publishing a consultation.