Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to amend the guidance on hospital and care home visitations under the Tier 2 and Tier 3 covid-19 rules to accommodate visits beyond exceptional circumstances at end of life.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Care homes and hospitals look after some of the most vulnerable members of our society. We recognise this has been a difficult time for many residents, patients, their families and staff members and that visits are important for those in care settings. However, the first priority must remain to prevent infections and local hospitals being overwhelmed from outbreaks.
Visiting is allowed in inpatient settings, in a very careful and COVID-19-secure way. Unfortunately, in local Covid alert level high areas and above, this means visiting restrictions will be limited to exceptional circumstances. Where visiting is restricted, care homes and hospitals should support visiting in a virtual manner. We will keep these regulations under regular review.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will expand funding for immunotherapy for advanced cancer in cases where clinical trials have shown that patients have responded well to that treatment.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
NHS England funds licensed medicines that have been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), or off-label use of licensed medicines that have been approved by the NHS England clinical policy process.
The Cancer Drug Fund allows early access to drugs with residual clinical uncertainties which can be addressed following further data collection.
Companies should go to NICE for licensed indications with any new data – and as long as drugs are priced appropriately, they will be made available for patients via the National Health Service. For drugs which will not be licensed, clinicians should apply to NHS England for a clinical policy and a commissioning position based on the strength of clinical evidence for use.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria the Government will use to decide whether the wearing of face coverings (a) in shops and (b) on public transport will remain compulsory.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings in a Relevant Place) (England) Regulations 2020 set out that a review of these requirements must take place within six months to ensure they continue to be necessary to prevent, protect against, control or provide a public health response to the incidence or spread of infection in England. These Regulations will expire after 12 months.
United Kingdom advice on face covering follows advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. As always we are committed to following the evidence and will keep reviewing evidence from around the world and update our position as and when we need to.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of face coverings in reducing the level of covid-19 cases since the wearing of face coverings was made compulsory in shops and on public transport on 24 July 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There is strong scientific evidence that the risk of transmission is higher in enclosed spaces compared to outdoors, it is this risk of transmission that wearing a face covering will reduce.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies advised that using cloth masks as a precautionary measure could be at least partially effective in enclosed spaces where social distancing is not possible consistently, creating a risk of close social contact with multiple parties the person does not usually meet.
This advice does not replace or change existing advice on other measures – such as hand washing, social distancing and self-isolation – which remain more important (because of stronger evidence and larger effects).
People should continue to follow the advice on using face coverings closely, which is to wash hands or use hand sanitiser before putting a face covering on and after taking it off. People should try to avoid touching their eyes, nose, or mouth and store used face coverings in a plastic bag until they have an opportunity to wash or dispose of them.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will relax the rules on the number of family visitors for relatives in residential care on compassionate grounds in circumstances where residents are approaching end of life.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware that limiting visits in care homes has been difficult for many families and residents who want to see their loved ones. Our first priority is to prevent infections in care homes, and this means that visiting policy should still be restricted with alternatives sought wherever possible.
As set out in our guidance on visiting guidance for care homes, visiting policies will now be tailored to the individual care home, and will be based on a local dynamic risk-based approach. The guidance sets out how there may need to be different rules applied to different residents or categories of resident, taking into account tahe benefits to a person’s wellbeing by having a particular visitor or visitors. Specifically, the guidance confirms that any imposed visitor restrictions should have regard to exceptional circumstances such as end of life. The guidance is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus
This guidance will be updated as the risk posed by COVID-19 continues to change.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to his oral contribution of 16 July 2020, Official Report, column 1795, what progress his Department has made on developing a support package for care homes with high rates of vacancies.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s statement of 16 July 2020 (Official Report, columns 1784-1786) outlining the Government’s ongoing work to support care homes with a high rate of vacancies, the Department has continued to review vacancy levels and the support on offer to care homes. As part of the Department’s continued commitment to supporting the social care sector during COVID-19 we will shortly be publishing our Adult Social Care Winter Plan. This plan sets out our strategy for providing national support to the sector over the winter period. Additionally, the Infection Control Fund is being extended until March 2021, providing a further £546 million for the care sector. This new investment underlines the Government’s commitment to ensuring that adult social care has the resources it needs over winter.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will add the activities of non-profit music organisations to the list of exemptions to the rule of six restriction on socialising.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
The latest evidence indicates that the COVID-19 infection rate is beginning to rise across the country. It is therefore now vitally important that the Government takes decisive action to limit any further spread and reduce the likelihood of a further national lockdown of the type that was necessary earlier this year. These measures were announced last week with clear guidance on what would change.
The rule of six does not apply to gatherings necessary for work. Non-professional performing arts activity, including choirs, orchestras or drama groups can legally continue to rehearse or perform together where this is planned activity in line with the performing arts guidance and if they can do so in a way that ensures that there is no interaction between groups of more than six at any time.
If an amateur group is not able to ensure that no mingling takes place between these sub-groups of no more than six (including when arriving at or leaving activity or in any breaks or socialising) then such non-professional activity should not take place.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of evidence suggesting a potential link between vitamin D deficiency and susceptibility to covid-19.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England (PHE) commissioned the Scientific Advisory Commission on Nutrition (SACN) to examine new evidence on whether vitamin D supplementation could reduce the risk of Acute Respiratory Tract Infections (ARTIs). The SACN’s rapid review concluded that evidence currently does not support vitamin D supplementation to prevent ARTIs in the general United Kingdom population. The review reiterates the importance of vitamin D for bone and muscle health. The SACN will keep this topic under review and consider updating this assessment if emerging high-quality evidence suggests a change to existing conclusions. The review can be accessed at the following link:
https://app.box.com/s/g0ldpth1upfd7fw763ew3aqa3c0pyvky
PHE supported the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to review emerging evidence on vitamin D and the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. NICE’s review concluded that there is currently no robust evidence to support taking vitamin D supplements to reduce the risk or severity of COVID-19. The review can be accessed at the following link:
www.nice.org.uk/advice/es28/evidence/evidence-review-pdf-8777674477
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
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 encourage the maintenance of adequate vitamin D levels to support immune response during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England re-issued its advice on vitamin D supplementation in early April 2020, in response to the stay at home measures because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It recommended that everyone should consider taking a daily vitamin D supplement of 10 micrograms to mitigate the effects of reduced time outdoors. This advice was published on NHS.UK and related to protecting muscle and bone health. The advice is not about preventing COVID-19 or mitigating its effects. This guidance can be accessed at the following link:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has undertaken of the validity of evidence linking time spent out of doors with improving vitamin D levels.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Public Health England monitors the diet and nutritional status of the United Kingdom’s population through the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) rolling programme.
Data from the NDNS show that mean blood vitamin D concentrations were lowest in the winter months (January-March) and highest in the summer months (July-September). These data can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/ndns-time-trend-and-income-analyses-for-years-1-to-9