Coronavirus and Care Homes

James Murray Excerpts
Tuesday 19th May 2020

(4 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.

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Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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I say happy birthday to my hon. Friend and pass on the best wishes, no doubt, of the whole House. The question he raises is a difficult one, because in many cases, the best place for somebody is not in a hospital. Indeed, people can catch diseases in hospital, so it needs to be done on a clinical basis. That is why we have put in place the testing, isolation procedures and infection control of people who are leaving hospital to go into care homes.

James Murray Portrait James Murray (Ealing North) (Lab/Co-op) [V]
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At the Health and Social Care Committee on 5 May, the Government chief scientific adviser told me:

“We need to get on top of it in care homes. We have been clear about that.”

He added:

“What SAGE does is try to distil the scientific advice into a form that then others need to operationalise and take accountability for”.

Will the Secretary of State commit to publishing all the SAGE advice that his Department has received throughout this outbreak about infection control in care homes?

Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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We do regularly publish SAGE advice.