Asked by: Sara Britcliffe (Conservative - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the (a) effectiveness of and (b) equity of access to the application process for the backlog bonus payment under the NHS Agenda for Change umbrella for (i) the third sector and (ii) social enterprises.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department developed clear and transparent criteria for the application process, which was published by NHS England and accessible to all non-National Health Service organisations. The criteria was agreed to ensure that the funding was given to those most impacted by the NHS pay deal, due to the nature of their contracts and their financial circumstances.
Outcomes of applications will be communicated directly to organisations by the end of the financial year. Organisations will be entitled to seek a review of the decision, which will be undertaken by the Department, to determine if the decision has been reached correctly in accordance with the guidance.
Asked by: Sara Britcliffe (Conservative - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
What steps his Department is taking to improve the diagnosis and treatment of functional neurological disorders.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government is committed to ensuring those with all neurological conditions, including functional neurological disorders, have access to appropriate treatment and services.
In February 2023 the National Neurosciences Advisory Group published its Optimal Clinical Pathway on functional neurological disorders (FND), developed by the neurological community with the support of NHS England.
The pathway sets out what good treatment, care and support looks like for patients with FND, including the importance of timely and effective diagnosis.
Asked by: Sara Britcliffe (Conservative - Hyndburn)
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 effect of starting isolation periods from a positive lateral flow result on the use of PCR tests and the Government's ability to track covid-19 variants.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The move away from confirmatory polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for some groups is compatible with surveillance for COVID-19 variants. The UK Health Security Agency aims to conduct surveillance on at least 10% of community cases for the monitoring of variants. Those groups which will continue to be tested with a PCR test will provide sufficient community-based positive samples to maintain the ability to detect any new mutations in the Omicron or Delta variants or any emerging and new variants.
Asked by: Sara Britcliffe (Conservative - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he will take to ensure that housebound people are able to access the covid-19 booster vaccine.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Every adult in England aged 18 years old and over has now been offered a COVID-19 booster vaccination, including all those who are housebound. General practitioners and community teams have determined the best approach for vaccination for those who are housebound, based on their knowledge of the patient and their circumstances. Some patients may be able to attend Primary Care Network (PCN) designated sites with assistance and discussions should be held with the family and /or carer to facilitate this. For those patients unable to travel to a PCN designated site with assistance, vaccinations will be delivered via roving units to an individual’s home.
Asked by: Sara Britcliffe (Conservative - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to improve the current package of support for unpaid carers.
Answered by Gillian Keegan
We will take steps to ensure that unpaid carers have the support, advice and respite they need, fulfilling the goals of the Care Act 2014. We will work with stakeholders, including unpaid carers, to co-develop our plans and publish further detail in a white paper for reform later this year.
Asked by: Sara Britcliffe (Conservative - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reasons eligibility criteria for accessing covid-19 tests are different for care workers in (a) the community and (b) care homes.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Protecting care home residents and staff has been and continues to be one of our top priorities. We know that people receiving care are some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
Asymptomatic testing for domiciliary care workers (also known as home care workers) is guided by the results from the Public Health England (PHE) prevalence study into domiciliary care. This study found that COVID-19 prevalence among domiciliary care workers was similar to prevalence in the general population.
The eligibility criteria for accessing COVID-19 tests for care workers is based on advice from PHE, The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and evidence from the Vivaldi study, which highlighted the importance of frequent testing for care home staff and residents.
We will continue to develop our testing strategy for adult social care, based on scientific advice on relative priorities and available testing capacity in order to limit the spread and save lives.
Asked by: Sara Britcliffe (Conservative - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure that funding from the public purse is allocated to support the provision of adequate NHS staffing levels to (a) diagnose and (b) treat patients with cancer in the (i) short and (ii) long term.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
‘We are the NHS: People Plan for 2020/2021 – action for us all’ sets out actions to support transformation across the whole National Health Service, including the following commitment on the cancer workforce:
In 2021, Health Education England is prioritising the training of 400 clinical endoscopists and 450 reporting radiographers. Training grants are being offered for 350 nurses to become cancer nurse specialists and chemotherapy nurses, training 58 biomedical scientists, developing an advanced clinical practice qualification in oncology, and extending cancer support-worker training.
The 2020 Comprehensive Spending Review will set out the Government’s spending plans for health and social care for future years. The Government will set out the results of the Spending Review in due course.
Asked by: Sara Britcliffe (Conservative - Hyndburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to allocate additional funding to pharmacies during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jo Churchill
We understand the financial pressure of COVID-19 on community pharmacy which is why £300 million in extra advance payments have been made available to alleviate initial cash flow pressures. The Government has also provided additional funding to community pharmacy to cover costs associated with Bank Holiday opening at Easter and the Early May Bank Holiday and the new medicine delivery service commissioned for shielded patients, as well as making a contribution towards measures taken by community pharmacy to support social distancing.
We continue to work with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and NHS England and NHS Improvement to examine what further funding community pharmacy may require to continue to supply medicines and to help their communities stay well.