Asked by: Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department made of the potential risks of discontinuing routine covid-19 testing of hospital patients prior to their discharge to care homes before.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The public health advice is that now is an appropriate point to end routine asymptomatic discharge testing for COVID-19, and move to a risk-based approach. A reduction in the severity of illness associated with the omicron variant, coupled with a high uptake of the vaccine among residents during the autumn COVID-19 vaccination booster, continued provision of infection prevention and control guidance, and the upcoming increased eligibility for COVID-19 treatments, demonstrates a reduced level of risk from COVID-19 in adult social care settings. In addition, epidemiological studies, and consensus reports from the early phases of the pandemic, suggest that hospital discharge was not dominant in the ingress of COVID-19 into care home settings.
The UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) guidance on safe discharge and management of individuals with symptoms of an acute respiratory infection remains in place, and this will be kept under regular review. National Health Service trusts will have local discretion to re-introduce discharge or other forms of testing where clinically appropriate, following a risk assessment involving local authority public health teams, UKHSA Health Protection Teams, and care providers, as necessary in the decision making.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June 2022 to Question 22411 on Coronavirus: Schools, whether she has provided guidance to schools on the findings of the Rapid Covid-19 Air Disinfection Study; if she will place a copy of the findings of that study in the Library; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Rapid Covid-19 Air Disinfection Study, which has been renamed the Bradford classroom air cleaning technology (class-ACT) trial, is a project looking at the implications and potential benefits of fitting schools with air cleaning technology.
This trial was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and managed through the UK Health Security Agency. The study is run from the Centre for Applied Education Research which is based at the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. Officials from the Department for Education sat on the working group of the trial. The trial has concluded and the academic leads intend to make the results available by publishing in a peer reviewed journal in due course. As the results have not yet been published, no guidance has been provided.
The Department recognises that good ventilation can reduce the spread of respiratory infections and has provided CO2 monitors to all eligible state funded settings in England. These monitors enable staff to identify areas where ventilation needs to be improved and provide reassurance that existing ventilation measures are working. This helps balance the need for good ventilation and keeping classrooms warm. The Department has also provided over 9,000 air cleaning units (ACUs) to over 1,300 settings that had sustained high CO2 readings of above 1500ppm. These ACUs work through high efficiency particulate air filter technology.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
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 support hospitals to manage new covid-19 variants.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) monitors cases of COVID-19 to identify any variants of concern which might cause significant morbidity and therefore result in additional pressures on the National Health Service, including hospitals.
As a precautionary measure given the emergence of the BA.2.86 variant, the current autumn booster campaign has been brought forward to start from 11 September 2023. While BA.2.86 is not currently classified as a variant of concern, UKHSA advised that speeding up the autumn vaccine programme will deliver greater protection, supporting those at greatest risk of severe illness and reducing the potential impact on the NHS.
In addition, our recovery plan for urgent and emergency care, backed by £1 billion of dedicated funding, sets out measures to increase patient flow in hospital and reduce bed occupancy. This includes increasing capacity, adding 5,000 additional beds to the permanent bed base ahead of this coming winter.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the value of equipment procured for NHS Nightingale Hospitals in response to the COVID-19 pandemic which has now been transferred to other NHS facilities.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally by the department. NHS England advises that each host trust is responsible for managing a list of assets and equipment including beds and medical equipment from the Nightingale hospitals, some of which will have been absorbed by host trusts. The remaining surplus stock has been collected and made available for national redistribution under the existing warehousing, asset tracking and logistics contracts.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much resource has been expended on NHS Nightingale Hospitals.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The total cost for the Nightingale hospital programme was £362 million, all of which was incurred during financial year 2020/21.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many NHS Nightingale Hospitals established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been decommissioned, and when.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Seven temporary Nightingale hospitals were established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and these were decommissioned during 2021. Validated data on the total number of patients treated in Nightingale hospitals is not available centrally.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many NHS Nightingale Hospitals were started and how many completed during the response to COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Seven temporary Nightingale hospitals were established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and these were decommissioned during 2021. Validated data on the total number of patients treated in Nightingale hospitals is not available centrally.
Asked by: Lord Clark of Windermere (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many patients have been treated in NHS Nightingale Hospitals.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Seven temporary Nightingale hospitals were established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and these were decommissioned during 2021. Validated data on the total number of patients treated in Nightingale hospitals is not available centrally.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many nightingale hospitals were constructed during the covid-19 pandemic; and what the total cost was of those facilities.
Answered by Will Quince
There were seven temporary Nightingale hospitals constructed during financial year 2020/21 and the total cost for the Nightingale hospital programme in that year was £362 million.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people in (a) Walsall and (b) England and Wales were admitted to hospital as a result of covid-19 infection or associated complications in (i) October 2022, (ii) January 2023 and (iii) the most recent 30-day period for which figures are available.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We do not hold the data in the format requested for people in Walsall being admitted to hospital, however we do hold the data by National Health Service trust. The most relevant trust for the question asked would be Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust and this data is provided below.
For Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, in October 2022, 187 people were admitted to hospital with or for COVID-19. In January 2023, 77 people were admitted to hospital with or for COVID-19. In the 30-day period from 12 March to 10 April 2023, 144 people were admitted to hospital with or for COVID-19
For England and Wales, in October 2022, 31,613 people were admitted to hospital with or for COVID-19. In January 2023, 21,033 people were admitted to hospital with or for COVID-19. In the 30-day period from 12 March to 10 April 2023, 24,989 people were admitted to hospital with or for COVID-19.