Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure stocks of medicines for end of life do not run short.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of our concerted national efforts to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, we are doing everything we can to ensure patients continue to access safe and effective medicines, including those used in end of life care. The Department is working closely with the pharmaceutical industry, the National Health Service and others in the supply chain to help ensure patients can access the medicines they need, and precautions are in place to reduce the likelihood of future shortages.
NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised clinical commissioning groups to establish local hubs to ensure rapid access to anticipatory medicines. These hubs could be a community pharmacy, primary care network (general practitioner practice), community hospital, acute or other setting where palliative medicines (including controlled drugs) can be safely and legally stored and rapidly released when needed.
The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have published a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the use of medicines labelled for one patient, who no longer needs them, to be used by another person, in hospices and care homes. This will protect the medicine supply chain and ensure that patients can access critical medicines at end of life. The SOP can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much of the Government's £750 million support package for charities has been allocated.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The £750 million funding package announced by the Government on 8 April is to ensure charities providing frontline services to vulnerable people affected by the pandemic can continue their vital work.
£360 million of this has been distributed to individual government departments based on evidence of service need. This includes £200 million to directly support hospices, which is being administered by the Department of Health and Social Care. Departments are using a range of approaches to allocating the remaining funding in order to meet identified needs quickly, including bidding processes and awarding funding directly. As applications are still open for several of the open funds, it is not possible to determine how much of this funding has been received by charities at this stage.
£370 million has been allocated to support small and medium sized charities during the pandemic. This includes £60 million funding through the Barnett formula to support charities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Of the £310 million to be spent in England, £200 million has been distributed to the National Lottery Community Fund to award grants through the Coronavirus Community Support Fund. Applications for this fund opened on 22 May.
In addition, the Government is matching public donations to the BBC Big Night In. The first £20 million of match funding went to the National Emergencies Trust. The 47 local Community Foundations across the UK, including Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland will then provide grant funding to eligible organisations within their community.
Further information on available funds and how to apply for them can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/financial-support-for-voluntary-community-and-social-enterprise-vcse-organisations-to-respond-to-coronavirus-covid-19.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bethell on 14 May (HL3356), on what date in 2020 ministers ordered a reassessment of personal protective equipment requirements across the NHS and the care services sector; and when the results of that reassessment were communicated to ministers.
Answered by Lord Bethell
While the United Kingdom entered the current situation with a stockpile designed to respond to a pandemic influenza and a no-deal exit from the European Union, the supply chain for personal protective equipment (PPE) was designed to accommodate delivering to 226 National Health Service trusts.
We published the ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19): personal protective equipment (PPE) plan’ on 10 April, and since that week, we have massively scaled this up, providing essential PPE supplies to 58,000 different providers including care homes, general practitioner surgeries, hospices and community care organisations.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much of the £360 million allocated to charities to help mitigate the effect of the covid-19 outbreak has been allocated to disability charities.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The £750 million funding package announced by the Government on 8 April is to ensure charities providing frontline services to vulnerable people affected by the pandemic can continue their vital work. £360 million of this is being distributed via individual government departments based on evidence of service need. £200 million of this will directly support hospices and be administered by the Department of Health and Social Care.
Departments are using a range of approaches to allocating the remaining funding in order to meet identified needs quickly, including bidding processes and awarding funding directly. Applications are now open for funding for the distribution of food to vulnerable people, safe accommodation for survivors of domestic abuse, armed services charities, and charities working to tackle loneliness and homelessness. Further announcements from individual departments are expected shortly. Further information has been released on GOV.UK.
As applications are still open for several of the funds and there are announcements yet to be made, it is not possible to determine how much of this funding has been allocated to disability charities at this stage. Disability charities will be eligible for a range of the funds.
On 20 May the government committed £200 million to the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, which will be distributed by the National Lottery Community Foundation. The fund will support small and medium sized charities and social enterprises and will be open for applications on 22 May. Disability charities will be eligible to apply for this funding.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make it his policy to establish an online Coronavirus charity support finder to signpost Government financial support that is available.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The £750 million funding package announced by the Government on 8 April is to ensure charities providing frontline services to vulnerable people affected by the pandemic can continue their vital work. £360m is being distributed via individual government departments based on evidence of service need. Up to £200m of this will directly support hospices and be administered by the Department of Health and Social Care. Departments are using a range of approaches to allocating funding in order to meet identified needs quickly, including bidding processes and awarding funding directly. Applications are now open for funding for the distribution of food to vulnerable people, safe accommodation for survivors of domestic abuse, armed services charities, and charities working to tackle loneliness and homelessness. Further information has been released on gov.uk.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will publish an online resource signposting charities to these funding opportunities available for applications through government departments. We expect this resource to be published shortly.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allocating funding to Rett UK to enable it to maintain the provision of providing support to people with Rett syndrome.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 8 April 2020 the Chancellor announced £750 million to support the charity sector in response to COVID-19. This fund comprises three elements:
- £360 million will be allocated by central government to charities in England based on evidence of service need. This will include up to £200 million support for hospices, with the rest going to organisations like St John Ambulance and the Citizens Advice Bureau as well as charities supporting vulnerable children, victims of domestic abuse, or disabled people. The Department of Health and Social Care is working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and HM Treasury to work through which voluntary sector organisations are making an essential contribution to the COVID-19 response and may be eligible for funding;
- £370 million will support charities working with vulnerable people. In England, this support will be provided through the National Lottery Community Fund. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is working with the National Lottery Community Fund to develop eligibility, application and assessment criteria for this part of the fund, which will be launched imminently. Applicants will be assessed on the extent to which they meet the objectives of the fund, which are to reduce temporary closures of essential charities and to reduce the burden on the public services, including the National Health Service; and
- The Government will match the public donations to the BBC Big Night In fundraising event, which took place on 23 April, starting with a contribution of at least £20 million to the National Emergencies Trust appeal.
Charities can also access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme; the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme; and, they are able to benefit from the three-month VAT deferral scheme. Charity shop premises will benefit from the new enhanced retail rate relief at 100%.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 help ensure provision of end of life care by community-based palliative care teams during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is important to ensure patients requiring high-quality palliative and end of life care, whether in hospices or in the community, continue to receive that support during the COVID-19 outbreak.
To support local commissioners during this challenging time, a range of guidance has already been made available to support the delivery of high-quality end of life care in community settings, including:
- The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) ‘Rapid Guideline: managing symptoms (including at the end of life) in the community’.
- The NHS England and NHS Improvement clinical specialty guide ‘Community Palliative, End of Life and Bereavement Care in the COVID-19 pandemic’.
- The NHS England and NHS Improvement clinical guidelines for children and young people with palliative care needs in all care settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Links to the guidance are as follows:
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/NG163
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that children's hospices have an adequate supply of personal protective equipment during the covid-19 oubreak.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department recognises the vital services that children’s hospices provide and are aware of issues they have been facing in obtaining personal protective equipment (PPE). The Department is working on putting a sustainable solution in place to ensure continuity of supply for the hospice sector, which has recently stepped up to take the pressure off the National Health Service as part of a £200 million funding arrangement announced by the Chancellor on 8 April.
To address continuity of supply concerns, central delivery points provided by hospices, including children’s hospices, to the Department will get weekly drops of PPE until they can be added to the PPE e-commerce ordering portal. The Department will continue to work with the hospice sector to ensure they have the support they need during this challenging period.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what additional (1) funds, and (2) equipment, they intend to provide for the hospice movement to deal with the rising death rate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Bethell
To support the hospice movement in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced on 8 April 2020 additional funding of up to £200 million for hospices as part of a wider package of £750 million for the wider voluntary and charity sector. This funding is supporting hospices by securing capacity to relieve pressure on the National Health Service as the Government manages its response to COVID-19.
The Department is also actively taking steps to ensure that staff operating in the hospice sector have access to the proper equipment, including adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), to continue to provide palliative and end of life care during this challenging period.
To address continuity of supply concerns, central delivery points provided by hospices, including children’s hospices, to the Department will get weekly drops of PPE until they can be added to the PPE e-commerce ordering portal. The Department will continue to work with the hospice sector to ensure they have the support they need during this challenging period.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the Government's guidance is on people (a) travelling and (b) travelling a distance of over 10 miles to visit someone who is dying at home from a non-covid-19 terminal illness.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 10 May, the Prime Minister released a statement explaining that everyone must stay at home wherever possible. People are allowed to leave home for limited purposes including medical need, such as caring for or supporting a vulnerable person. The Government has not set specific travel distance restrictions.
On 13 May 2020, National Health Service England published guidance on visitors for patients at the end of life in all settings - healthcare inpatient settings, care homes, hospices and at home. The considerations assert the rights of the dying to see their loved ones and/or to receive religious support. For end of life care at home, it is the healthcare professional’s role to advise on minimising risk while allowing close family members or friends to accompany and say goodbye to their loved ones. Practical considerations include the number of visitors at the bedside is limited to one close family contact or somebody important to the dying person. However, where it is possible to maintain social distancing throughout the visit, a second additional visitor (including a child) could be permitted.
The considerations aim to minimise risk of infection whilst allowing close family members or friends to accompany and say goodbye to their loved ones at the end of their life. This guidance applies to both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 related illness.
More information can be found at the following link: