Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
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 reducing the 15-minute waiting period following the administration of the second dose of a covid-19 vaccine when no negative reaction occurred following the administration of the first dose of that vaccine.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The 15 minute waiting period applies only to the Pfizer vaccine. Appropriate medical treatment and supervision should always be readily available in case of an anaphylactic reaction following the administration of the vaccine. The waiting time is in line with the conditions under which that vaccine was authorised for use, which are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulatory-approval-of-pfizer-biontech-vaccine-for-covid-19
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) advised that Pfizer vaccine recipients should be monitored for 15 minutes after vaccination. The MHRA’s advice is informed by their research on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines prior to approving them for use. It also recommends that a second dose of the vaccine should not be given to those who have experienced anaphylaxis to the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2021 to Question 166600 on what type of equipment will be redistributed from Nightingale hospitals (a) to elsewhere within the NHS and (b) placed into storage for future use.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This includes clinical equipment, beds, other ward items and non-clinical IT.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2021 to Question 166600, how it will be determined whether equipment from Nightingale hospitals will be (a) redistributed to elsewhere within the NHS and (b) placed into storage.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Equipment is being distributed based on immediate clinical need and to support current National Health Service provider plans. Where there are items to be stored, they will continue to be made available.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
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 including people who have medical conditions which result in sleep deprivation in priority group six of the covid-19 vaccine programme.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s advice on priority groups for COVID-19 vaccination is based on a range of evidence including a review of United Kingdom epidemiological data on the impact of the pandemic so far and data on demographic and clinical risk factors for mortality and hospitalisation. To date, sleep deprivation in itself has not been identified as a condition that would place an individual at increased clinical risk to COVID-19.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the running cost of each NHS Nightingale Hospital to close in April 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
NHS England and NHS Improvement are in the process of reviewing all spending incurred for each individual site. The forecast for total costs including set-up, running costs, stand-by costs and costs of decommissioning across all sites will reach around £532 million covering the end of the financial year 2019/20 and 2020/21.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
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 establishing a system by which a negative PCR test for covid-19 can overrule a positive lateral flow test conducted at a school.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Recent evaluation of lateral flow tests suggests they are at least 99.9% specific which means that the risk of false positives is extremely low.
Tests taken on test sites, such as on school and college grounds, do not currently need confirmation by polymerase chain reaction testing. This is because these tests are done in a supervised environment where the individual being tested swabs themselves under supervision of a trained operator, and the trained operator processes the test and reads the result.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase BAME uptake of the covid-19 vaccine in West Yorkshire.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
On 13 February we published the ‘UK COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Plan’, which aims to improve uptake across all communities. The approach set out in the plan is underpinned by four enablers at national, regional and local level. These are working in partnership; removing barriers to access; data and information; and conversations and engagement. The plan takes a local, community-led approach, with support provided from Government, NHS England and NHS Improvement and local authorities to coordinate and enable action.
The Department, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the National Health Service hold regular meetings with local authorities, faith leaders and black, Asian and minority ethnic organisations to provide advice and information about COVID-19 vaccines and how they will be made available. In West Yorkshire, we have been delivering ‘pop up’ clinics in local community areas in Bradford such as local mosques and providing regular updates and resources to faith and community leaders to share. Local NHS staff and council officials have attended online question and answer sessions facilitated by local community leaders and engagement workers have been visiting areas of low vaccine uptake to provide information in spoken and written community languages.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that homeless people are able to receive a covid-19 vaccine as quickly as possible.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recognises that many people who are homeless or sleeping rough are likely to have underlying health conditions which would place them in priority group six. These are likely to be under-diagnosed or not properly reflected in general practitioner (GP) records. The JCVI advised they should be offered the vaccine without the need for a National Health Service number or GP registration.
There is work being undertaken to update our operational guidance on reaching rough sleepers and homeless people based on this recent JCVI advice. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government are working closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement to support outreach and further work is being done to explore the availability of effective on-street models which could be used to support this work. Local teams are now prioritising all homeless people for vaccination alongside priority group six.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to assist other nations in identifying new variants of the covid-19 virus.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 26 January, we announced a global offer of United Kingdom genomics expertise to detect new variants of COVID-19. Following this, the New Variants Assessment Platform (NVAP) has been developed by Public Health England. The primary aim of the NVAP is to support global mapping of variants of concern, feeding into the World Health Organization, with further assessments to determine the risk of vaccine escape when deemed necessary.
In addition to the NVAP there are several work programmes, including through the UK’s G7 presidency, which address other aspects of global pathogen surveillance needs.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of people who cannot receive a covid-19 vaccine for medical reasons.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
There are very few people who cannot receive one of the current COVID-19 vaccines for medical reasons. Those who have previously had an allergic reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine, or to a component of one of the COVID-19 vaccines should not receive the vaccine. Current guidance is that pregnant women should also not receive a COVID-19 vaccine, unless they are at high risk of exposure to the virus and this cannot be avoided or where the woman has underlying conditions which put them at very high risk of serious complications of the virus.