Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps to incentivise new and existing GPs to locate in areas of high deprivation with the lowest numbers of GPs per patient.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department continues to work with NHS England and NHS Improvement to consider the best ways to tackle health inequalities within primary care, and to address variation in access to general practice. Since 2016, the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme has attracted hundreds of doctors to train in hard to recruit areas by providing a one-off financial incentive of £20,000. In 2021, there are 500 places available.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
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 impact assessments carried out on the (a) covid-19 vaccines delivery programme and (b) vaccination sites in (i) Blackburn and (ii) Lancashire.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department is providing to mitigate the (a) financial and (b) educational costs to nursing students who opted in to work in the NHS during the first wave of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All nursing students in England who opted in to paid placements during the first wave of COVID-19 maintained their eligibility for relevant student support packages from the Student Loans Company, in addition to non-repayable funding through the NHS Learning Support Fund. Those students also received a salary and automatic National Health Service pension entitlement at the appropriate band.
Health Education England continues to work with system partners to ensure any impact on training and placements is minimised; including supporting universities to rearrange interrupted clinical placements and finding alternatives such as using simulation where that is appropriate. In cases where extensions to students’ courses are unavoidable, the Government will continue to ensure that appropriate financial support is made available to affected students.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
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 support available to nursing staff working in the independent sector; and what comparative assessment he has made of the level of access to physical health and mental well-being initiatives between nurses working in the (a) independent sector and (b) NHS.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before prorogation.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS nurses there are in each region; and how many vacancies for NHS nurses there are in each region.
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: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
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 level of additional funding that the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care has identified that local authorities require to support people with learning disabilities.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Councils are being provided with access to over £1 billion of additional funding for social care in 2021-22. This includes £300 million of new grant funding for social care, on top of the £1 billion social care grant announced last year. Longer term funding decisions on social care beyond 2021-22 will be decided at the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of covid-19 vaccination centres required for every (a) local authority and (b) 100,000 population.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Estimations for the number of vaccination centres required is based on a number of factors and not geographical location or relative population alone. The network of vaccination sites has been designed to scale up and fit the expected vaccine supply, resident priority populations at relevant deployment stage and to and ensure safe and easy access for the whole population.
The programme aims to offer everyone in England a vaccine service within 10 miles, and currently this is applicable for more than 98% of the population. In a small number of highly rural areas, the vaccination centre will be a mobile unit. In England, latest published data from 26 March shows that a total of 1,763 vaccination sites have now been established.
The network will continue to expand and evolve as we progress towards vaccinating all adults by the end of July. Further information on vaccine sites in England can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/vaccination-sites/
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria his Department is using to assess the viability of covid-19 vaccination sites.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
NHS England and NHS Improvement undertake an assessment of all potential sites which may be considered under the vaccination programme. This will include size, location, availability, suitability and will include an assessment around accessibility aligned to the Equality Act 2010. Where there are running costs to be incurred, the site will also be subject to a value for money assessment. Sites will be secured under formal lease or licence.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
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 potential merits of waiving the repayment of the £370 million allocated to community pharmacies during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Discussions are ongoing with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) on additional funding for costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The PSNC has proposed that the £370 million increased advance payments are not paid back to cover the COVID-19 costs incurred by community pharmacies. That proposal is being looked at as part of the Government’s ongoing assessment of COVID-19 costs incurred by the sector.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department has provided to local authorities to carry out surge covid-19 testing in areas where the South African variant has been detected.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Working in partnership with local authorities, we are targeting areas within specific postcodes where the variant has been found. Mobile testing units will be deployed offering polymerase chain reaction testing to people without symptoms who have to leave their home for work or essential reasons, with local authorities providing additional home test kits.