Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of including patients that are recovering from major operations in the list of vulnerable people that are eligible for covid-19 support.

The Chief Medical Officer has led a thorough clinical review process to identify six categories of underlying clinical conditions which place someone at very high risk of severe illness if they contract COVID-19. Those who are recovering from major operations are not automatically included in the list of extremely clinically vulnerable people, as they will have a wide range of needs. For some, staying at home at all times and avoiding contact with others may slow their recovery. General practitioners and hospital clinicians have the discretion to add individual patients to the list based on careful, clinical assessments of each individual’s needs.

The Government and civil society are providing additional support to people even where they are not clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19. This includes providing local authorities with £3.2 billion additional funding for service pressures, strengthening links with supermarkets, and mobilising over 750,000 National Health Service volunteers. The Government has also launched a new set of webpages for those who need additional support due to the pandemic across a range of issues, which are regularly updated at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support