Health and Social Care Update

Debate between Matt Hancock and Mick Whitley

Thursday 18th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mick Whitley (Birkenhead) (Lab) [V]]

Care home workers have made enormous sacrifices over the past year to keep their residents safe, and they continue to work on the frontlines of the pandemic. Will the Secretary of State inform the House of what he is doing to increase uptake of the covid vaccine among care home staff and whether high-risk care home staff who have come forward for vaccination in April will be able to get their first dose?

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, absolutely. The hon. Gentleman is quite right and I totally agree with him. Anybody who works in an elderly care home should come forward now for a vaccine if they have not had it. We are working incredibly hard to try to make those vaccines as accessible as possible.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Matt Hancock and Mick Whitley

Programme motion
Monday 19th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Throughout this, and even with the challenges with demand for testing that we saw last month, we kept the tests going to care homes because people who live in care homes are the most vulnerable. No matter what we do to protect care homes from coronavirus, the higher the number of cases in the community, with staff living in the community and, of course, people visiting where visits are allowed, there is more likelihood of a case getting into a care home. It is a sad fact of life. We do everything we possibly can to prevent that, as do the brilliant care staff who work in her constituency, to whom I pay tribute. On the particular point about a courier being late for a pick-up, I will look into that immediately and see if we can resolve that.

[Mick Whitley (Birkenhead) (Lab)]

On the Wirral, over a third of the people who have been in contact with someone with covid-19 have not been contacted by Test and Trace. Will the Secretary of State concede that outsourcing of Test and Trace is simply not working, and its responsibilities should now be given to the local public health teams?

[Matt Hancock]

No, I think it should be a team effort.

Covid-19

Debate between Matt Hancock and Mick Whitley

Monday 16th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, there is. We have been absolutely overwhelmed with the positive response to the national effort for building ventilators. That email address is up and running, and we are trying to engage with everybody who contacts us.

[Mick Whitley (Birkenhead) (Lab)]

Can the Secretary of State assure the House that if schools are closed because of the coronavirus, money will be made available so that lunches and hot food are provided to the children who are the most in need? Also, he said that he took advice from other countries—Ireland has closed its schools.

[Matt Hancock]

We are looking at the impact of all the decisions that different countries have taken. There will be lots of consequences should we take the decision to close schools, but we have not taken that decision today.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Matt Hancock and Mick Whitley

Tuesday 10th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Matt Hancock)]

The 2019 spending round announced real-terms growth in the public health grant for next year, so local authorities can continue to invest in prevention. Every local authority will see a real-terms increase in their grant allocations, which I expect to publish imminently.

[Mick Whitley]

Despite the urgency of the coronavirus situation at the moment, we could see local councils planning to cut numbers of nurses, even though they would be very much needed, simply because the councils do not know what their public health budgets are. Does the Minister think that is acceptable?

[Matt Hancock]

No, and that is why I have just announced that every local authority will see a real-terms increase in their grant allocation so that that does not have to happen.