Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of NHS Test and Trace emails sent to people have included technical errors in each of the last 12 weeks.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what improvements were made to the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing process from (a) 29 December 2020 to (b) 27 January 2021.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Between 29 December 2020 and 27 January 2021, the contact tracing service implemented numerous service improvements including automatic presentation of cases to agents, recorded voicemail messages, changes to scripting, enhanced tracing performance levels and outcomes on positive lateral flow tests, multi-skill training of agents, roll-out of a new quality assurance framework, and improvements to the CTAS (Contact Tracing and Advice Service Software) system including capturing international phone numbers.
The contact tracing service also introduced RTTS (Real Time Technology Services) at the beginning of the year which allowed for a median reduction time of over 6 hours from the time a case was uploaded into CTAS.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
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 make more people with cycstic fibrosis eligible for keftrio treatment; and what the timescale is for that work.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Kaftrio is available to National Health Service patients in line with its marketing authorisation through an interim access deal negotiated between NHS England and NHS Improvement and Vertex, the drug manufacturer. This deal will last for four years and means that eligible NHS patients are among the first in Europe to benefit from access to Kaftrio. The deal has been structured to allow patients access if the license is updated during the term of the agreement.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to surge testing for the South African variant of covid-19 which commenced on 1 February 2021, how many tests have been distributed; and what proportion of those tests were (a) not returned, (b) returned unopened and (c) returned spoiled in (i) EN10, (ii) W7, (iii) N17, (iv) CR4, (v) PR9, (vi) ME15, (vii) GU21 and (viii) WS2 areas and in each (A) postcode and (B) postcode sector in those areas.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold the information in the format requested. All polymerase chain reaction test results in surge testing regions are included in the weekly statistics published by Public Health England on the number of confirmed COVID-19 test results, which is available at the following link:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testing
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on what date his Department first became aware that a case of the South African variant of covid-19 had been identified in London W7, as confirmed by his Department on 1 February 2021.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Public Health England discovered a cluster linked to this variant in early December. The Department was notified on 11 December.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
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 number of people resident in each (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority area that were tested under (i) Pillar 1, (ii) Pillar 2 In-person routes and (ii) Pillar 2 Delivery routes.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All upper tier local authorities have access to record level (including sex, age, occupation and postcode) test and case data.
We also publish public dashboards at a national, regional and local authority level and the MSOA (Middle Layer Super Output Area) map, allows users to type in a postcode to see how many cases there are in small areas of around 7,000 people.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the proportion of people who receive a positive result to a PCR test under (a) Pillar 1 and (b) Pillar 2 of the Government’s covid-19 testing programme who are infectious with covid-19 at the time the tests are taken.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data on the number of PCR tests conducted and positive and negative results by pillars 1 and 2 are available at the following link:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/testing
We have made no assessment of the proportion of people who test positive who may be infectious at the time they are tested.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he is putting in place to ensure that residential care homes do not experience a shortage of (a) covid-19 tests and (b) personal protective equipment in the event of a second wave of covid-19 infections.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Adult Social Care Winter Plan outlines the Government’s commitment to provide free personal protective equipment for COVID-19 needs for adult social care until March 2021. The plan also provides advice and guidance on our testing strategy for adult social care.
We are issuing more than 100,000 tests a day to care homes across the country. As part of the drive to towards the target of a 500,000-a-day testing United Kingdom capacity by the end of October, the Government has announced the addition of new Lighthouse laboratories in Newport and Charnwood to the national lab network, and work is ongoing on plans to expand the UK’s laboratory capacity even further over the coming months. The recent £500 million investment will increase testing capacity and rollout new cutting-edge testing technology to deliver rapid tests.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the £6.6 billion of support for health services identified within the Government’s Coronavirus emergency response fund has been (a) accessed by NHS trusts and (b) used to fund supplier relief sick pay.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Of the £6.6 billion COVID-19 response funding for health services announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 13th April, approximately £4.2 billion will fund direct costs incurred by the National Health Service. The remaining will fund centrally-led initiatives such as personal protective equipment, testing and the ventilator programme that will also directly support the NHS’s COVID-19 response.
Spending data is collected on a monthly basis by NHS England and NHS Improvement. Initial data indicates that NHS providers (NHS trusts and foundation trusts) have collectively spent approximately £0.8 billion on COVID-19 related spending in April 2020, with similar levels expected in May 2020, all of which has been fully funded.
Asked by: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)
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 effect on musculoskeletal health of the Government guidance (a) issued on 23 March 2020 that permitted people to take one form of exercise a day and (b) updated on 11 May 2020 that permits people to exercise outside as often as they wish.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is too early to make any assessment of the effect on musculoskeletal health and the Government guidance on outdoor exercises. The Government wants people to remain fit and active at all times. The Chief Medical Officer is clear that being physically active is very important to long-term health and crucial for keeping people healthy during the ongoing pandemic. Evidence suggests that regular physical activity can promote good physical health and help manage stress and anxiety.