Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Maggie Throup and Mike Wood

Tuesday 18th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Maggie Throup]

The hon. Lady makes a really good point. I reassure her that procedures for urgent cases have not been cancelled. As the House knows, we are looking at the private sector to help deliver vital support for those patients.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

4. What assessment he has made of the capacity of the UK’s covid-19 testing infrastructure in comparison to other countries.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maggie Throup)]

The UK continues to provide one of the highest testing rates globally. We have increased capacity for PCR testing by over 200,000 tests per day since December. Home delivery capacity is now at 7 million lateral flow tests every day, with community pharmacies supplying an additional 9.5 million tests last week. In comparison to England, countries that have put in place more restrictions might have chosen a different balance between lateral flow devices and PCRs to meet their individual testing demands. Therefore, we cannot meaningfully compare our testing infrastructure to that of other countries.

[Mike Wood]

I thank the Minister for that answer. Health and social care workers who care for some of the most clinically vulnerable members of our society were rightly prioritised for early vaccination. Does she agree that, similarly, they must be prioritised for testing? What is she doing to ensure that?

[Maggie Throup]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. The most vulnerable people are being prioritised. The UK Health Security Agency and NHS Test and Trace currently deliver an average of more than 70,000 PCR kits and 970,000 LFD kits a week to adult social care settings. In recent weeks, as demand has increased due to the omicron wave, Dudley, like other local authorities, has provided tests to key workers to enable them to keep working.

Health Incentives Scheme

Debate between Maggie Throup and Mike Wood

Friday 22nd October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Maggie Throup]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. We are investing some money in the new pilot and we are confident that it will give us some outcomes that we can work on to take measures forward. If we can save a fraction of the £6 billion, it will be still be a huge saving for people’s health, but, obviously, we want to make sure that this is about saving money and saving lives.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

I am tempted to ask the Minister whether bobbing in this place might count towards the app’s incentives. I know that all Members will appreciate my hon. Friend’s courtesy in making a statement to the House rather than this being announced in a press conference later in the day. As well as the national steps challenge, the Singapore Government launched its Healthy 365 app around a year ago. Will the Minister be looking both at Governments around the world and at businesses and public sector organisations in the United Kingdom that already operate app-based fitness incentives to make sure that we learn from the best and avoid replicating others’ mistakes?

[Maggie Throup]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. Yes, we know that there is a lot of experience out there and we want to pull everything together to make sure that we have an effective pilot and know how we move forward from that to help people to get healthy, get fit and enjoy good lives.