Rare Diseases: Coronavirus
(asked on 20th July 2020) - View Source
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 effect of covid-19 on people with rare diseases; what steps he has taken to ensure access to NHS services by those people; and what assessment he has made of the effect of shielding on the health of those people.
The Department, alongside NHS England, is considering the impact of COVID-19 on patients with rare diseases. NHS England has had discussions with some services and patients/patient groups to understand the impact of COVID-19 including what has worked well; what has not worked so well; and opportunities for transformation.
NHS England will continue to look at what services can be delivered successfully through virtual communication technology such as telephone consultation and videoconferences. Where services do need to be delivered face-to-face, NHS England will work with providers to ensure that patients have a safe journey through the hospital to the treatment area.
It is not possible to reliably estimate what health outcomes and mortality rates would have been if shielding had not been implemented. Therefore, we cannot make an assessment of the effect of shielding on rare disease patients. NHS Digital published 'Tracking Healthcare Activity and Outcomes for Shielded Patients, England' on 21 July 2020:
This is not an evaluation so conclusions on the shielding programme cannot be made from it.