Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
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 potential merits of publishing an updated National Carers Strategy.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In June 2018, the Government published its two-year ‘Carers Action Plan 2018 – 2020 supporting carers today’ which sets out a cross-Government programme of targeted work to support all carers in England until the end of 2020.
The Action Plan puts a focus on practical actions to support carers, recognising and supporting unpaid carers to provide care in a way that protects their own health and wellbeing, employment and other life chances.
We plan to produce a final evaluation of the Action Plan next year. Alongside this the Department, with others across Government and carers, will consider next steps to build on the work initiated through the Carer’s Action Plan.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that patients with musculoskeletal health conditions can continue to access (a) NHS, (b) private and (c) voluntary sector physiotherapy during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Private or voluntary sector care decisions on access to care are a matter for the individual provider as these services are independent of the Government.
For NHS services guidance has been issued by NHS England and NHS Improvement on what services should be available. The NHS England and NHS Improvement guidance on COVID-19 prioritisation within community health services, updated August 2020, sets out advice for local commissioners in prioritising the return to near normal for most of their NHS services. This includes physiotherapy. The guidance sets out that commissioners should take into account where care is urgent and where care can take place remotely or may be patient-initiated. The guidance is available at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/publication/implementing-phase-3-of-the-nhs-response-to-the-covid-19-pandemic/
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason routine covid-19 testing is not being made available to asymptomatic private practitioner physiotherapists treating people in care homes.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise the need to ensure professionals are able to visit care homes safely. Regular asymptomatic testing is currently being rolled out to all patient-facing National Health Service staff.
While this will cover the majority of professionals visiting care homes, we recognise the important role played by professionals who visit care homes who are not included in the NHS staff testing, such as private practitioner physiotherapists. We are using our learning from our previous ‘Visiting Professionals’ pilot to determine the best approach for asymptomatic testing professionals who are not NHS staff.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department provides to non-NHS physiotherapy services to ensure that those services can access suitable personal protective equipment.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements for non-National Health Service physiotherapists are set out in the COVID-19 infection prevention guidance, which is published on GOV.UK. This recommends that where possible and clinically appropriate remote consultations rather than face-to-face should be offered to patients. Where this is not possible, guidance on what PPE is required in different settings is set out. Non-NHS physiotherapists are essentially commercial enterprises and are able to procure PPE from their normal suppliers.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to review anticoagulation guidelines for women who have undergone a caesarean section.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Multiple guidelines cover use of anticoagulants for women who have undergone caesarean section.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guideline CG132 contains a recommendation on thromboprophylaxis for caesarean section. NICE is currently developing a new guideline on caesarean section, which will update and replace current the guideline. NICE expects to publish this on 31 March 2021.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many women have died as a result of blood clots and related complications post-caesarean sections without having received anticoagulants in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to prioritise residents of care settings to receive a covid-19 vaccine.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are the independent experts who advise Government on which vaccine/s the United Kingdom should use and provide advice on prioritisation at a population level. The JCVI published interim advice on 25 September 2020 stating the vaccine should first be given to care home residents and staff, followed by people over 80 and health and social workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and risk. The latest recommendations on the priority groups for a COVID-19 vaccine can be found at the following link:
We will consider the Committee’s advice carefully as we continue to plan for a vaccination campaign.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to enable residents of care settings to safely visit their family members.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since the start of this pandemic, we have been working closely with the sector and public health experts to put in place guidance and support for adult social care, including for visits.
We know how important it is for residents in care settings to be able to spend time with their loved ones, including to make visits outside of the care home setting. Guidance to local areas and care providers on visits out of a care home, for example to a family home, is being developed and will be published shortly.
This will supplement our existing guidance on visiting arrangements into care homes – that supports care homes to develop their visiting policies based on a local dynamic risk assessment, led by the relevant Director of Public Health.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS Continuing Healthcare (a) referrals, (b) reviews and (c) assessments were received by local health and social care systems between 19 March and 31 August 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
During the COVID-19 emergency period, National Health Service Continuing Healthcare (NHS CHC) assessments were not required, due to changes made as part of section 14 of the Coronavirus Act 2020. The sector has been asked to reintroduce CHC processes from 1 September 2020.
Data from the NHS CHC Deferred Assessments Situation Report shows that as at 1 September 2020, 37,672 referrals for NHS CHC had been received relating to the period between 19 March and 31 August 2020. This figure includes pre-COVID-19 emergency period cases that were already in progress on 19 March 2020 and which were paused due to COVID-19 pressures or provided with COVID-19 funding, as a result of the COVID-19 Act and discharge requirements.
Data for NHS CHC reviews is not collected centrally.
Statistics relating to the completion of NHS CHC assessments are published on a quarterly basis. For Quarter 1 2020/21, covering the period 1 April to 30 June 2020, this data is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/nhs-chc-fnc/
Quarter 2 2020/21 data, for the period 1 July to 30 September 2020 will be published in November 2020 and will be available at the same link.
Asked by: Rosie Duffield (Labour - Canterbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the time it will take for Clinical Commissioning Groups and Local Authorities to process the NHS Continuing Healthcare referrals, reviews and assessments received between 19 March and 31 August 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We understand that the deferred case assessments will have workload implications for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), the wider National Health Service and local authorities. NHS Continuing Healthcare referrals, reviews and assessments should be completed as soon as is practical and CCGs are expected to carry out this activity in a timely manner.