Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to reduce financial support for PPE costs in the social care sector.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is continuing to provide the adult social care sector with free personal protective equipment (PPE) for COVID-19 needs until March 2024 or until each category of items runs out, whichever is earlier. As the free PPE offer ends, care providers will return to being fully responsible for their PPE costs as they were before the pandemic and have continued to be for non-COVID-19 PPE.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effects of the UK's departure from the EU on the National Health Service.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of our reforms following the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union (EU), provisions within the Medicines and Medical Devices Act 2021 enable us to overhaul medical devices and clinical trial frameworks so patients can get access to new lifesaving medicines and medical devices more quickly. The Department closely monitors National Health Service and adult social care staffing levels in England, with data showing that since leaving the EU we have seen an increase in EU/EEA staff working in the NHS.
We are also working closely with suppliers, NHS England, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the devolved governments, and other stakeholders to ensure patients continue to have access to the treatments they need.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current levels of unmet need and staff vacancies in social care.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
According to Skills for Care’s monthly tracking data, the overall vacancy rate in independent adult social care providers was 11.2% in October 2022.
It is difficult to assess the current levels of unmet need in Adult Social Care. We are taking action to address national data gaps with 54 local authorities contributing to our new Client-Level Data collection which for the first time collects data about the people who draw on care and support as well as unpaid carers. This will be mandatory for all local authorities from April.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to involve the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) to resolve the nurses' strike.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is not looking currently to involve the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service in discussions about industrial action by nurses, but will keep our options open as we seek to find a solution.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the rising cost of living on unpaid carers.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has made no formal assessment. However, HM Treasury has assessed the impact of the rising cost of living across household groups, including unpaid carers.
In 2023/24, £26 billion has been provided to support the cost of living, in addition to benefits uprating of £11 billion to working age households and people with disabilities. This is in addition to the Energy Price Guarantee and £37 billion in place to support households in 2022/23.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding they allocated for adult social care for 2021-22.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2021/22, local authorities’ expenditure on adult social care was £21.4 billion.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to NHS England warning that up to half of hospital beds could be occupied by people with respiratory infections this winter, what steps they expect NHS Boards to take to respond to this challenge.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
For winter 2022/23, the National Health Service is increasing bed capacity by the equivalent of at least 7,000 general and acute beds, including a combination of new physical beds and expanding the use of innovative virtual wards to treat patients safely at home. We are also establishing a £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund to ensure that medically fit patients can be discharged, which will increase bed capacity and reduce long waiting times in accident and emergency.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, given waiting times for NHS treatment have reached a record 6.8 million, what plans they have to provide additional support to low-income earners to enable them to fund private healthcare.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to do so. However, the National Health Service is working with independent sector providers to maximise the capacity available for NHS patients and reduce waiting times.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce an NHS national screening programme for prostate cancer.
Answered by Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist
There are currently no plans to do so. However, the UK National Screening Committee is due to review the evidence for prostate cancer screening in 2023.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reintroduce mandatory mask-wearing in hospitals.
Answered by Lord Kamall
Mask wearing in National Health Service hospitals is determined locally by individual, organisational and system risk assessments. NHS England continues to work with NHS trusts to ensure that effective infection prevention and control is in place in all areas.