Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her department is taking to reduce waiting times for elective surgeries at each healthcare trust in southeast London.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ how the National Health Service will recover and expand elective services over the next three years, including in south east London. We have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available in 2021/2022 to increase elective activity. This funding aims to deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million additional checks and procedures and 30% further elective activity by 2024/25 than pre-pandemic levels. A proportion of this funding will be invested in workforce capacity and training and we have committed to invest £5.9 billion for new beds, equipment and technology.
The target to eliminate waiting times of two years or more for elective procedures was met in July 2022 and we aim to eliminate waiting time of eighteen months or more by April 2023. This will be achieved through increasing capacity, seeking alternate capacity in other trusts or the independent sector and engaging with patients to understand choices made regarding their care.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the uptake of breast cancer screening in Eltham constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is working with NHS England to finalise the delivery of £10 million for breast screening units, including determining which areas will benefit from this investment.
National Health Service breast screening providers are also encouraged to work with Cancer Alliances, Primary Care Networks, NHS regional teams and the voluntary sector to promote the uptake of breast screening and ensure access to services.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the NHS dentist provision in Eltham constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made. However, in September we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Eltham.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve access to NHS dental services in Eltham constituency.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made. However, in September we announced ‘Our plan for patients’, which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care, including in Eltham.
The plan includes improvements to ensure dentists are renumerated fairly for more complex work, allowing greater flexibility to reallocate resources and to utilise dentists with greater capacity to deliver National Health Service treatment, whilst enabling full use of the dental team. The plan also includes streamlining processes for overseas dentists and holding the local NHS to account for dentistry provision. In addition, Health Education England is also reforming dental education to improve the recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What discussions he has had with relevant stakeholders on the effectiveness of passive technology in reducing the transmission of airborne microbes in enclosed spaces.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Through the UK Health Security Agency we have worked with academic experts and businesses, to explore the most suitable air cleaning technologies to be used in enclosed spaces and further commissioned research projects, studying their effectiveness at reducing transmission rates of airborne microbes, including those for COVID-19.
As part of managing these important studies officials continue to have discussions across government and with relevant stakeholders for which we will publish results in due course.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if any outbreaks of newcovid-19 variants have originated from people in quarantine in hotels having just arrived from abroad; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill
This information is not held centrally. However, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies’ Environmental Modelling Group Transmission sub-group is currently reviewing the evidence on the risk of transmission in hotels, including mobile quarantine facilities. This will be published by autumn 2021.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with (a) NHS England and (b) SAGE on the potential risk of outbreaks of new variants of covid-19 originating from people who are in quarantine in hotels having recently arrived from abroad; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jo Churchill
There have been no specific discussions with NHS England or the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies.
However, Public Health England has risk assessed guest journeys and advised the Managed Quarantine Service on the public health mitigations which should be applied. This is regularly reviewed.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of vaccinating workers in hotels being used to quarantine people who have recently arrived from abroad; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
In line with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s advice, workers in hotels used as managed quarantine facilities are being called for vaccination according to their age and clinical risk along with the rest of the population. They will not be prioritised based on their occupation. The vaccination programme is currently on track to offer a first dose to all adults over 18 years old by the end of July.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with NHS England on the rate of (a) covid-19 vaccination and (b) supply of vaccines in London compared to the rest of England; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Department has regular discussions with NHS England on the vaccination programme and the supply of vaccines, including in particular locations, such as London. Specific data on uptake is being monitored to drive and improve the national deployment plan. This is shared daily with local authority directors of public health to enable them to see emerging trends and act quickly to any developing inequalities locally. This is the case for all areas across England.
The Government is in close contact with vaccine manufacturers and remains confident that the supply of vaccines to the United Kingdom will not be disrupted. We remain on track to offer a vaccine to all adults by the end of July.
Asked by: Clive Efford (Labour - Eltham and Chislehurst)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure a consistent supply of vaccines to those areas in London on the watch-list for the Delta variant of covid-19; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Vaccines are supplied on a consistent basis to all regions within England on a weekly basis and have been throughout the programme. Each integrated care system works with borough management teams and local Directors of Public Health to allocate the supply to sites, considering a number of factors, including infection rates. An additional 92,000 Pfizer vaccines were made available to the region and 60,000 doses were allocated to North West London, which had high rates of infection/surge testing.