Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve communication with immunocompromised patients who have not been informed about access to free COVID-19 PCR tests; and what steps they will take to ensure that those patients continue to get the latest information about treatments for COVID-19.

Vulnerable patients who are clinically eligible for antiviral and antibody treatments have been identified digitally, where possible. These patients should have received a ‘pre-notification’ letter or email to advise them that they may be eligible to receive these treatments directly, should they test positive for COVID-19. Some potentially eligible patients are not centrally identifiable using national databases, such as those who are newly diagnosed and some cancer patients. Those patients are being contacted directly by their consultants.

NHS England circulated information to general practices and wrote to medical directors at National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups, to provide an update on patient access to treatments from COVID Medicine Delivery Units (CMDU) from 1 April 2022. This information has been cascaded to clinicians to advise their patients on accessing treatments from CMDUs. Consultants and specialists have been requested to contact eligible patients to provide further information.