Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which pharmacies in England reported that they were closed for (1) all, or (2) part, of their contracted opening hours on dates between 1 January to 31 October; and what steps they have taken to safeguard patient access to pharmacy services during any closure periods.
Answered by Lord Kamall
This information is not held centrally. In March 2020, the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013 were amended to allow the flexible provision of pharmaceutical services during the pandemic in circumstances beyond the control of a community pharmacy. If a pharmacy cannot open due to unavailability of a responsible pharmacist or enough staff to open safely, they must immediately inform the NHS regional team or, if a pharmacy needs to temporarily reduce its opening hours, a 24 hours notification is required. This provision is in place until 31 January 2022. The information related to these notifications is held locally by NHS England and NHS Improvement regional teams. All community pharmacies should have a business continuity plan in place in case of emergencies to minimise disruption to the provision of NHS pharmaceutical services.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government who is responsible for monitoring the provision of community pharmacy contractual services in England.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The arrangements for the provision of pharmaceutical services in England are governed by the National Health Service (Pharmaceutical and Local Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 2013. NHS England and NHS Improvement’s regional teams have responsibility for monitoring the provision of nationally commissioned essential and advanced services. Arrangements for monitoring locally commissioned services may be set out in local contracts or service level agreements.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that people required to self-isolate in hotels on arrival back in the UK do so.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have designated certain airports for managed quarantine arrivals and individuals should ensure they return via one of these locations. The carrier has responsibility to deny persons boarding if they are travelling to a port which cannot receive passengers from ‘red list’ countries. On arrival, individuals are met at passport control and guided through baggage reclaim and customs to the dedicated hotel transport.
At ports, Border Force officers issue fixed penalty notices to individuals who do not comply with booking managed quarantine packages and complete a Passenger Locator Form in advance of travel. Once checked in at the designated hotels, individuals are required not leave their rooms except in exceptional circumstances or with permission from the security staff.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what sanctions are available upon discovering that a hotel is not fulfilling its agreed role in self-isolating travellers arriving back in the UK.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have contracted with Corporate Travel Management (CTM) as the Department’s travel services delivery partner. They are responsible for identifying and contracting with the individual hotels that support the Managed Quarantine Service.
Hotels have standard operating procedures (SOPs), testing processes and infection prevention control processes for staff and guests. These were put in place following consultation and advice from Public Health England and are in line with National Health Service guidance. Local on-site liaison officers ensure compliance with testing procedures and SOPs, raise any issues with the hotel general manager and escalate via the Department’s liaison officers. We work closely with hotel managers and local authorities to ensure that staff and guests are complying with these processes. Where there is a material failure to provide the required service which is not rectified in a reasonable time, CTM would ultimately terminate the contract.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have received from (1) private companies, and (2) manufacturers, about the use of rapid COVID-19 testing kits based on the analysis of saliva.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The Government has established a number of partnerships with industry, academia, local government and others to deliver its testing programme - from companies supplying testing kits and supplies to logistics and processing partnerships.
This is a national effort and we are proud to be working with a number of partners on innovative solutions to increase capacity where it is needed and introduce larger scale testing. To do this successfully we are securing partnerships with suppliers to pursue new testing technologies and we are acquiring significant numbers of test kits and equipment.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to maintain the quality of life of people who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 if they are required to isolate for a considerable time into next year.
Answered by Lord Bethell
Everyone in England, including those who are clinically extremely vulnerable, is required to follow the new national restrictions from 5 November, which have been set out by the government and apply to the whole population. Additional guidance and support has been provided to clinically extremely vulnerable people to further protect them from COVID-19 during this time.
Support is available to individuals who are feeling anxious or distressed. ‘Every Mind Matters’ offers advice and practical steps that people can take to support their wellbeing and mental health during this time. Help can also be provided by local charities, organisations and National Health Service Volunteer Responders.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to incorporate the results of rapid saliva-based COVID-19 test kits into the NHS COVID-19 app
Answered by Lord Bethell
The app will continue to evolve and we will explore opportunities to incorporate results from these tests in due course.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many confirmed COVID-19 cases were recorded under (1) pillar 1, and (2) pillar 2, testing in Portsmouth on each day since records began.
Answered by Lord Bethell
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 Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA) map, which allows individuals to type in a postcode to find their MSOA and see how many cases there are in small areas of around 7,000 people.
Data on the 7 day average for the number of people with COVID-19 identified through an NHS lab (Pillar 1) or from commercial swab testing (Pillar 2) back to March 2020 is available as part of the NHS Digital Progression Dashboard to upper tier local authority level and is available in an online only format through the NHS Digital website.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many confirmed COVID-19 cases were recorded under (1) pillar 1, and (2) pillar 2, testing in Brighton and Hove on each day since records began.
Answered by Lord Bethell
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 Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA) map, which allows individuals to type in a postcode to find their MSOA and see how many cases there are in small areas of around 7,000 people.
Data on the 7 day average for the number of people with COVID-19 identified through an NHS lab (Pillar 1) or from commercial swab testing (Pillar 2) back to March 2020 is available as part of the NHS Digital Progression Dashboard to upper tier local authority level and is available in an online only format through the NHS Digital website.
Asked by: Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many confirmed COVID-19 cases were recorded under (1) pillar 1, and (2) pillar 2, testing in (a) each London Borough, and (b) the City of London, on each day since records began.
Answered by Lord Bethell
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 Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA) map, which allows individuals to type in a postcode to find their MSOA and see how many cases there are in small areas of around 7,000 people.
Data on the 7 day average for the number of people with COVID-19 identified through an NHS lab (Pillar 1) or from commercial swab testing (Pillar 2) back to March 2020 is available as part of the NHS Digital Progression Dashboard to upper tier local authority level and is available in an online only format through the NHS Digital website.