Tag: Department of Health and Social Care

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 24 August 2022.

• Routine asymptomatic testing will be paused across remaining settings, including hospitals and care homes, from 31 August as Covid cases continue to fall
• Testing for individuals with symptoms in these settings, including health and social care staff, will continue
• Immunocompromised patients in hospitals and people being admitted into care homes and hospices will also continue to be tested

Regular asymptomatic testing for Covid in all remaining settings in England will be paused from 31 August, as Covid cases continue to fall.

Free testing for the public ended on 1 April as part of the government’s Living with Covid plan, but asymptomatic testing continued to be used in some settings during periods of high case rates.

The vaccination programme means Covid cases have now fallen to 40,027 and the risk of transmission has reduced. Deaths have fallen to 744 and hospitalisations to 6,005 in the last seven days, meaning wider asymptomatic testing can soon end as planned in most instances. Symptomatic testing in high risk settings will continue.

Settings where asymptomatic testing of staff and patients or residents will be paused include:

• The NHS (including independent health care providers treating NHS patients);
• Adult social care and hospice services (apart from new admissions);
• Parts of the prison estate and some places of detention; and
• Certain domestic abuse refuges and homelessness settings.

Testing will remain in place for admissions into care homes and hospices from both hospitals and the community, and for transfers for immunocompromised patients into and within hospital to protect those who are most vulnerable.

Testing will also be available for outbreaks in certain high-risk settings such as care homes.

Year-round symptomatic testing will continue to be provided in some settings, including:

• NHS patients who require testing as part of established clinical pathways or those eligible for Covid treatments;
• NHS staff and staff in NHS-funded independent healthcare provision;
• Staff in adult social care services and hospices and residents of care homes, extra care and supported living settings and hospices;
• Staff and detainees in prisons; and
• Staff and service users of certain domestic abuse refuges and homelessness services.

Individuals will continue to be protected through vaccination and access to antivirals where eligible.

The government continues to encourage all who are eligible to take up boosters. Autumn boosters will be available to book through the National Booking Service ahead of the wider rollout, due to start on the 12 September. The NHS will contact people when it is their turn.

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:

“Thanks to the success of our world-leading vaccination roll-out, we are able to continue living with Covid and, from 31 August, we will pause routine asymptomatic testing in most high-risk settings.

This reflects the fact case rates have fallen and the risk of transmission has reduced, though we will continue to closely monitor the situation and work with sectors to resume testing should it be needed. Those being admitted into care homes will continue to be tested.

Our upcoming autumn booster programme will offer jabs to protect those at greatest risk from severe Covid, and I urge everyone who is eligible to take up the offer.”

Dr Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Health Security Agency, said:

“Covid case rates and hospitalisations are on the decline, demonstrating the positive impact of the vaccines, which remain our best form of defence. The data from our surveillance shows prevalence is low and decreasing, and we will continue to monitor this data closely.

If you are invited to receive a booster jab in the autumn, or if you have not yet had a Covid vaccine, please do take up the offer to protect yourself and those around you.”

The government expects the prevalence of Covid to remain low following the most recent wave but will keep the situation under review. In line with the Living with Covid plan, the government will continue to work closely with sectors and services and will be ready to resume testing if required.

Guidance on testing in adult social care settings will be updated today (24 August) and guidance on other high-risk settings will follow shortly.

On 15 August, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) published its advice on which vaccines should be used in this year’s Autumn booster programme. This includes the approval of new dual-strain (or “bivalent”) vaccines as part of the programme, targeting both the original strain of the virus and the new, more prevalent Omicron strain.

All of the available boosters provide good protection against severe illness from Covid and the Committee has emphasised that getting a booster in good time before the winter season is more important for those eligible than the type of vaccine that is received.

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 23 August 2022.

– National safeguarding guidance to be published by Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health for under-18s accessing early medical abortions.

– Additional data on use of remote abortions to be gathered to better understand use of remote abortion services.

Women in England and Wales will be able to permanently access early medical abortions at home from 30 August.

New legislation will allow women to access pills for early medical abortion via a teleconsultation, and for both pills to be taken at home for gestation of up to nine weeks and six days.

The update comes as all independent sector abortion clinics in England have been reapproved ensuring abortion services continue to be available to women across the country. All current approvals are valid until 31 July 2026.

Minister for Public Health, Maggie Throup, said:

“The wellbeing and safety of women requiring access to abortion services is paramount.

With these measures women will have more choice in how and where they access abortion services, while ensuring robust data is collected to ensure their continued safety.”

To ensure the continued safety of children and young people, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health will publish safeguarding guidance for under-18s accessing early medical abortion services.

The guidance, which will be published shortly, reinforces the principles that every young person should have access to early medical abortions in a timely manner and that their holistic and safeguarding needs must be addressed by providers.

To effectively monitor the impact and use of at home early medical abortions, doctors will be required to include information on place of termination, place of consultation as well as whether the consultation was fully remote on abortion notification forms. This data will allow for analysis of trends in abortion provision as well as monitoring pathways for home-use abortions.

Doctors will also be required to certify in “good faith” that the gestation period is below 10 weeks for abortion pills prescribed from home and if one or both pills are taken at a woman’s home.

The amendments to the notification forms and certification requirement are set out in the Abortion (Amendment) Regulations 2022. These changes follow a free vote by Members of Parliament in March 2022.

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 11 August 2022.

The government has launched a call for evidence to gather insights from experts and organisations on the potential racial and gender bias of medical devices.

As part of an Independent Review on Equity in Medical Devices led by Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead, the government is seeking to tackle disparities in healthcare by gathering new evidence on how medical devices and technologies may be biased against patients of different ethnicities, genders and other socio-demographic groups.

Through the call for evidence, which will be open for 8 weeks, it hopes to hear from those who work most closely with medical devices such as oxygen measuring devices and infrared scanners and related software and hardware, including databases and instructions. This applies across a device’s entire life cycle – from evaluation to marketing and implementation – to identify potential biases at each and every stage.

For example, some devices employing infrared light or imaging may not perform as well with patients with darker skin pigmentation, which has not been accounted for in the development and testing of the devices, and has led to patients being recruited with only a limited range of lighter skin tones.

The independent review, which the call for evidence will feed into, aims to reduce the potential for medical devices to worsen existing healthcare disparities, ensuring people can receive the best-possible care throughout their patient experience regardless of their ethnicity or gender.

Health Minister Gillian Keegan said:

“I am committed to ensuring all patients receive high-quality, innovative healthcare without discrimination.

The independent review is part of our vital work to tackle healthcare inequalities, and I invite the industry to share their expertise in the call for evidence so we can ensure medical devices are free of any form of bias.”

Members of expert and professional groups and organisations, including academics, researchers, engineers, healthcare professionals and industry representatives, are invited to submit evidence and insights regarding potential disparities and proposed solutions, with this evidence informing the independent review.

Members of the public, patients and carers can also contribute their views and insights on these topics.

Research suggests the way some medical devices are designed and used may be failing to account for differences related to ethnic background, gender or other characteristics such as disabilities – potentially exacerbating existing inequalities in healthcare.

While current UK regulations set out clear expectations on medical devices and technologies, they do not currently include provisions to ensure that medical devices are working equally well for different groups in the population based on their social or demographic characteristics.

The independent review will cover different types of medical devices, including devices enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) used in diagnosing illness and determining therapy pathways, as well as risk-scoring systems using genomics to make decisions about personalised medicine.

It will consider in what ways existing or future regulations could successfully address any biases in medical devices that arise at any stage of their design, development, evaluation, implementation and use.

Patients can be reassured that the NHS is expert in providing the best possible care, and the review is intended to accelerate the process of improving the quality and availability of medical devices to diverse communities.

Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead, chair of the independent review, said:

“We aim to establish where and how potential ethnic and other unfair biases may arise in the design and use of medical devices, and what can be done to make improvements.

We especially encourage health, technology and industry experts and researchers to share their views and any evidence concerning medical devices in order to help us tackle inequalities in healthcare.”

The review chair will issue the panel’s report to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care setting out clear options for consideration by spring 2023 with interim findings expected in winter 2022.

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 10 August 2022.

The press release issued by the Department of Health and Social Care on 5 August 2022.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, thanked NHS staff at 2 sites in Warwickshire for their unwavering work busting the COVID backlogs

He visited the new community diagnostic centre (CDC) at George Eliot Hospital that will further support people access tests and scans locally and more rapidly

Visit highlights continued commitment to ensure patients can get timely, quality care from the NHS

Patients across Warwickshire are benefiting from use of innovative digital health technologies and the opening of a new CDC to improve access to services and bust the COVID backlogs.

The George Eliot Hospital CDC, which will open mid August, will host a new X-ray suite and dedicated clinical areas, opening up capacity for up to 12,000 ultrasound scans and 19,000 X-rays each year. This will speed up appointment times so patients are able to access treatment quicker, easier and closer to home.

Visiting the region today (Friday 5 August) Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, went to both the new George Eliot Hospital and Manor Park Surgery to thank NHS staff for their tireless efforts to provide care to their local communities.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, said:

With the backlogs due to COVID it is vital that we innovate to speed up diagnosis and treatment. So it was great to see the state of the art new diagnostic centre in Nuneaton, which opens in 10 days time, and to discuss with local GPs how this will also help them deliver improved patient care.

Diagnostic one-stop shops, like the George Eliot Hospital, are right at the heart of local communities and are helping to speed up access to X-rays, lung function tests, ultrasound and endoscopy. By bringing under one roof cardiac and respiratory diagnosis with access to pathology investigations, it will allow patients to attend once rather than need repeat visits. It is also good for staff retention and progression to have these new facilities with state of the art equipment.

This, combined with other innovations in the region like remote monitoring at Manor Park Surgery are supporting the NHS on the biggest catch up programme in history.

The Health and Social Care Secretary also met with radiographers at the George Elliot hospital who are doing vital work carrying out diagnostic imaging and intervention procedures to bust the backlogs and ensure people are being seen quickly. Combined, CDCs in the Midlands region have delivered 257,239 tests between November 2021 and 17 July 2022 – which has helped thousands of people across the region to get tests earlier, speeding up diagnosis of a range of conditions from cancer to heart or lung disease, and enabling patients to access treatment faster.

At Manor Court Surgery in Nuneaton the Health and Social Care Secretary met dedicated staff to discuss what the surgery is doing to support patients. The practice, which forms part of the Nuneaton and Bedworth Primary Care Network, told the Secretary of State about their innovative use of remote monitoring to better support patients in care homes and those with long term conditions. Remote monitoring, where patients monitor their condition via technology and feed back to their doctor from home, both improves patient experience, by receiving the care they need from their home, and frees up valuable time.

Over 280,000 people have already used remote monitoring at home and in care homes across the country in the last year, and increasing the availability of remote monitoring across the country could support a further 500,000 people receive personalised care from home by March 2023.

Dr Catherine Free, Chief Medical Officer at George Eliot Hospital, said:

By putting X-rays, scans and other tests for a large range of conditions in the same location we can begin to provide a one-stop service for patients to improve patient experience and reduce the time people wait between appointments.

The need for tests to help diagnose and treat patients is forecast to increase so we need to ensure we have the right facilities to meet the demand.

This is the first phase of the project and we are waiting to hear confirmation of funding to complete the second phase of the project which will bring CT and MRI scans and all the tests for cancer under one roof, improving outcomes for patients with cancer and other serious conditions.

Backed by £2.3 billion, up to 160 CDCs will be rolled out across the country by 2025, delivering 9 million tests and checks a year.

Over 90 CDCs are already open across England and have delivered over 1.5 million checks – including over 700,000 additional CT, MRI, ultrasound, endoscopy and ultrasound tests, with around 30,000 tests a week.

As a result, good progress towards reducing the longest waits is already being made – the number of patients waiting over 2 years for treatment falling by more than 80% since February.

Over the next 3 years, a record £39 billion will be invested in the health and social care system to ensure it has the long-term resource it needs while working to bust the COVID backlogs, reducing patient waiting times and speeding up diagnoses.