argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Coronavirus — House of Lords, 2020-03-12
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my noble friend for those questions. In terms of funding, the Treasury has provided immediately a £5 billion contingency fund to ensure that not only the NHS but local authorities have the resources necessary for both clinical and social care. The kinds of items that the money can immediately be spent on include boosting staffing, particularly in the NHS, which might include re-employing retired doctors and nurses and recruiting and offering compensation to volunteers who agree to help provide health and social care services full-time for the period of surge The precise arrangements for how that volunteering army can be put together will have to wait until we have the legal provisions for that army because there are important questions of indemnity, legal registration and DBS checks, all of which have been raised in this Chamber previously and which we take very seriously. But it would be premature to describe plans that are being worked on at the moment until we have tabled the sorts of legal requirements that we will need Funding will also ensure that we have the right drugs, supplies and equipment. Lastly, there will inevitably be a backlog of care after the virus has passed. We are conscious that this backlog will put a long-lasting strain on our medical and social care arrangements, and we are putting in the resources today to ensure that the backlog can be addressed in the future.
Mental Health Taskforce — House of Commons, 2016-02-23
Topic: Health
Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): All of us in the House welcome the strides made in changing the stigma around mental health, and people have been brave enough to speak out. In Scotland, we had the "See me" campaign, which was about seeing the person, not the condition Despite all the great talk, the money has often not gone to the services. Mental health trusts suffered a 2% cut in their budget between 2013 and 2015, and the number of psychiatric nurses decreased by 1.4%. The right hon. Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox) talked about money often ending up somewhere else, and we must avoid that. We need also to focus on children, because one in 10 of our children suffer from mental health problems between the ages of five and 16, and they are waiting a very long time to get help. We face the same challenge in Scotland. We measure it, we know how difficult it is to deal with, and we have managed to improve things by increasing staff and funding, but we also have a long road to walk. One thing we are not doing enough is thinking about the whole spread of mental health support out into the community and about the way people work: people having insecure jobs; and people struggling to keep a roof over their head. Later, we are going to debate welfare reforms, and mental health issues arise from that. Three times as many poor children will have a mental health issue as children who are in a stable and well-financed family. Are we not going to try to join up our decisions and look at our other policy areas, in terms of how people work, how people are supported, and the mental health suffering that comes from the lack of that?
Mental Health Taskforce — House of Commons, 2016-02-23
Topic: Health
Lisa Cameron (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I declare an interest as a registered clinical psychologist. I thank the Minister for his commitment and the taskforce for its informative report. In considering mental health across the lifespan, the report highlights the fact that 40% of people living in care homes are affected by depression, which contributes to morbidity. Alongside medical and social care, will the Minister commit to funding specialists in older adult psychological treatment, to address the growing mental health needs of our population?
Daesh — House of Commons, 2016-01-18
Topic: Defense
Brendan O'Hara (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I, too, welcome the hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry) to her place and wish her well in her new post. I know that we are in agreement on important areas of defence, and I look forward to working constructively with her and her team over the coming years Does the Secretary of State agree with the Prime Minister, who told the Liaison Committee last week that in the case of civilian casualties, "if people make allegations we must look at them"?
Covid-19: Business — House of Lords, 2020-05-13
Topic: Health
Martin Callanan (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Lord makes a very valid point. Our priority remains that testing patients to inform their clinical diagnosis is extremely important. We are also offering tests to all essential workers, including NHS and social care workers with symptoms, anyone over 65 with symptoms, anyone with symptoms whose work cannot be done from home and anyone who has symptoms of coronavirus and lives with any of those identified above. Yes, testing is extremely important. The Prime Minister has addressed that we have a strategy that we are working towards.
William Mead: 111 Helpline — House of Commons, 2016-01-26
Topic: Health
Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Like others, I add my condolences to the family. It is hard to imagine anything worse for a family to face. Like many deaths in the NHS, it is always sad to look back and see that it was a catalogue of missed opportunities and errors. One thing I should like to pick up on is the fact that young children are very hard to assess. It is quite hard for a doctor to assess them when they are actually seeing them; they can be running round one minute and then keeling over half an hour later. It is particularly hard to pick up clues about their health over the phone. When NHS Direct services were started throughout the UK, they were based in local out-of-hours GP centres, which meant that the nurse could just pass the phone and say, "Can you come and chat, because I am not sure." We had rules in our local one that if a young child was involved, they got a visit from our mobile service. Instead of such cases being put through call centres, I hope that the Secretary of State will agree in this review to have some dissemination back to a local system, so that these cases can be accelerated easily to a clinician.
Economy: Update — House of Lords, 2020-04-28
Topic: Health
Theodore Agnew (Conservative, Centre-right): I assure the noble Lord that we are looking at all options. He makes a good point about the shortage of doctors. As the Chancellor has repeatedly said, we will give the NHS all the support it needs. Noble Lords might recall that in the Budget a few weeks ago—it seems like another era—substantial additional funding was announced for the public sector, and we will of course have our spending round, albeit delayed, in the next few months.
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2016-04-12
Topic: Health
Andrew Egan Henderson Hendry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): On mitigating the loss, I am here to represent several constituents, but one in particular—Andy Gunn. He is extremely concerned by the Health Secretary’s suggestion that the funding might come from the NHS budget. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that that would be highly inappropriate?
Contaminated Blood — House of Commons, 2016-04-12
Topic: Health
Paul William Monaghan (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): One of my first actions, following my election to this place, was to highlight the plight of those infected with contaminated blood in the 1970s and 1980s. I did this by writing to the Department of Health, following discussions with Julie, a constituent of mine. In July 2015, I also tabled early-day motion 334 to recognise "the ongoing hardship and challenges faced by those infected with contaminated blood" and to encourage "the Prime Minister to implement promised arrangements to distribute an additional £25 million to those affected as soon as is practicable." Infected blood is one of the most terrible chapters in the history of the NHS. Many people have died or suffered long-term disability and hardship as a result of infection. Relatives have had to sacrifice careers to provide care and support, and in some cases partners and loved ones have become infected. Patients, families and carers have dealt with those difficulties with immense and enduring courage. My constituent Julie was born with a rare genetic condition known as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which requires treatment, including blood transfusions. She was infected with contaminated blood in 1974—42 years ago—while a young woman with her whole life ahead of her. Following a transfusion that September, she quickly developed symptoms of hepatitis and suffers today from a range of chronic and debilitating health conditions that have rendered her unable to remain upright for longer than 10 minutes at a time without becoming fatigued, owing to liver and lung damage arising directly from the transfusions Although now living in Scotland, Julie was infected in England. The liability for the current ex gratia schemes is based on where the individual was infected, rather than residency. This means that the English schemes and the consultation recently launched by the Under-Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Battersea (Jane Ellison), are responsible for supporting Julie and delivering the financial support she will require. Julie is currently classed as Skipton stage 1 and has received an ex gratia payment of £20,000 but receives no annual award. Her medical condition means that she has great difficulty meeting the qualifying criteria for stage 2, which would increase her ex gratia payment and provide approximately £15,000 per annum in badly needed support. I have reviewed her correspondence with the Skipton Fund on the reassessment and have found it unhelpful, perhaps even deliberately obtuse.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Lords, 2016-04-25
Topic: Health
Dale Norman Campbell-Savours (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, perhaps I might ask two very brief questions. First, I recognise the undertaking that the Conservative Party gave in its manifesto, but were the BMA—or the junior doctors, more widely—consulted prior to the general election on their views on seven-day working? That is quite a simple question. If they were, what was their response in that consultation? Secondly, following the Written Questions that I tabled recently on information that the Government might hold on the position of junior doctors, why do the Government not keep statistics on doctors’ resignations from the National Health Service and on the emigration of doctors who cede their posts in the United Kingdom to take up posts overseas? Why are those vital statistics not available, particularly when we are going into this very difficult period?
Covid-19: Social Care Services — House of Lords, 2020-04-23
Topic: Health
Nathanael Ming-Yan Wei (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, for tabling this very timely debate, and I declare my interests on the Lords register. I, too, echo the praise that others have expressed for the Government and our heroic NHS and care workers, especially those on the front line I will focus on just two issues relating to the handling of the social care crisis during this pandemic. I am concerned at how centralised an approach Public Health England has taken on a number of fronts. I fear this may have contributed to the challenges and deaths we are seeing in the care sector and non-hospital contexts generally, including in the home. It seems that at times we have let the best be the enemy of the good, alongside a narrow focus on centralised testing and healthcare rather than what can be done by the rest of society, including business and citizens. I fear that PHE maintains such a gold standard that delays and an inability to harness the energies out there can often be the result. We need to do more to loosen regulations in this emergency to allow more localised testing operated by local labs and organisations to be enabled and then shared, open-source, as well as enabling the provision of PPE. We could even have trials of new drugs made available in and near residential homes, as well as in social care contexts I am therefore keen to learn from the Minister whether PHE is being instructed or, if necessary, bypassed to enable more third-party innovation and involvement, and whether a Bill or instruments could be passed to relax certain rules so that local actors can be more empowered to make decisions as they see fit. Indeed, lessons need to be learned so that we can build a more agile, decentralised model of healthcare for the 21st century, delivered closer to homes generally Finally, I want to ask what action is being taken and what resources are being deployed to separate elderly residents of care homes who have mild symptoms, or who have been tested as asymptomatic, from other residents, without the risks associated with admitting them to hospital. Does the Minister agree that we may need to introduce a programme akin to the Nightingale one, but more like the famed little merchant navy that complemented the naval efforts to evacuate Dunkirk? That way, we can build and create facilities close to care homes for isolating elderly and vulnerable people and those of all ages who test positive but have mild symptoms, separating them from mainstream care and the general population. These individuals do not need hospital care, but they might be at risk of infecting others fatally.
NHS: Health and Social Care Act 2012 — House of Lords, 2016-09-08
Topic: Health
David Stephen Geoffrey Pollock (Labour, Centre-left): This has been an interesting and disturbing debate. We have had a diversity of opinions regarding the state of the NHS and its likely future, not many of which have been favourable. I am heartened by what I understand to be the reaffirmation of the founding principles of the NHS by the noble Lord, Lord Prior; however, I am very doubtful of his optimism Be that as it may, I draw attention to the National Health Service Bill, a Private Member’s Bill that had its Second Reading in the Commons on 11 March. The Bill, which was known in a previous version as the NHS Reinstatement Bill, proposes to reverse the 25 years of privatisation in the NHS by abolishing the essential purchaser-provider split, by re-establishing public bodies and by enshrining that the NHS reverts to an accountable public service. The Bill, which has been presented again for the 2016-17 Session, had another First Reading in the Commons on 13 July. It received the support of numerous Labour MPs and even from some Conservative MPs. This Bill merits our attention, as do the speeches that accompanied its introduction I reiterate that I am very grateful for all contributions to what has been a very fruitful debate—at least I hope it has been.
Covid-19 — House of Lords, 2020-04-23
Topic: Health
Anne McIntosh (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I declare an interest: I work with the Dispensing Doctors’ Association. It is emerging that all gowns are made to one size, which is posing a problem particularly for larger men and all women. I realise that this matter is being addressed. Can the Minister update us on it today I warmly congratulate my noble friend and the Government on introducing the new measures on testing and tracing. It strikes me that, if we could do this as locally as possible and perhaps look to training environmental health officers to be able to do some of the tracking and tracing, it would be a good use of their time When it comes to ending the lockdown, I urge the Government to follow the Swedish example of maintaining self-isolation but allowing hospitals, bars, pubs and cafés to open in a regulated and controlled manner.
Covid-19 — House of Lords, 2020-04-23
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): My noble friend Lady McIntosh is quite right that we should look at several different workstreams for our track and trace model. As the noble Lord, Lord Scriven, implied, one of the most important things to consider is having surge capacity. Track and trace is very important when you have an outbreak or second epidemic. We need to have in place that additional capacity to track down and isolate those who bring in new infection.
Covid-19 — House of Lords, 2020-04-23
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Lord, Lord Patel, will be interested to read the details of our ONS serology tests that have begun earlier this week, which will be published in mid-May. These are surveillance tests and will provide us with the information that we need to understand how the epidemic is developing. At the right time we will also bring in mass serology testing. However, as the noble Lord will be aware, when prevalence rates are around 3%, 4% or 5%, as they seem likely to be, serology tests for managing the epidemic are not relevant yet.
Covid-19 — House of Lords, 2020-04-23
Topic: Health
Ralph Matthew Palmer (Conservative, Centre-right): I am delighted that the Government are taking resilience seriously. Will my noble friend confirm that the Government will have a permanent stake in the facilities and the intellectual property that they are creating, to ensure that it stays here and is well maintained? Will he also extend the interest in resilience to pharmaceutical intermediates and generics, where we are also seeing problems developing which were also problems when we were contemplating no deal? There seems to be a strong argument for having a better set of arrangements in place in this country to ensure supply in difficult times.
Covid-19 — House of Lords, 2020-04-23
Topic: Health
James Bethell (Conservative, Centre-right): I reassure my noble friend Lady Altmann that we are making this a massive priority. It has huge advantages over other therapeutics because it is plasma and can therefore have an accelerated regulatory advance. I signed for procurement of £20 million-worth of fractionating machines last week to help the blood transplant service create the hyperplasma to which she alludes.
Social Care Budgets: A&E Attendance — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Health
Questions: Having listened to what the Minister has to say, people in my constituency will be disbelieving. The number of days that patients are stuck in hospital, not because they are sick but because there is nowhere to move them, has doubled under his Government. He has to acknowledge that that is due to the neglect of local government and adult social care specifically.; The Health Foundation estimates that the gap in social care funding by 2020 will be £6 billion, not taking into account the increase in the minimum wage, so although the spending review narrows the gap, it still leaves an enormous gap which will result in further cuts in social care. How will the Government avoid the totally unacceptable situation in which those with money will still get good care and those without money will get substandard care or no care at all?
Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): In Scotland, A&E performance is published weekly, but since June that in England has been published only every month and now after a six-week delay. Since that time, the performance in Scotland has risen and 96% of people were seen within four hours in Christmas week, which is a huge challenge, whereas the last data published for England were for October and show a figure below 90%. Do the Minister and the Secretary of State accept that to improve performance we need to return to more timeous and frequent analysis and publication?
Saudi Arabia — House of Commons, 2016-01-05
Topic: Defense
Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Minister says that any incidence of the use of British weapons against civilians in Yemen will be investigated. Is the bombing of the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in the Saada region being investigated, as Saudi planes were identified as having been involved?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2016-01-06
Topic: Health
Questions: In 2016 we will mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s passing away. Does my right hon. Friend agree that our country should unite to commemorate his works? rose— There are special events at the Royal Shakespeare Company; the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is renovating the site of his home, New Place; and King Edward’s School is opening his original classroom. May I invite my right hon. Friend, the whole House and the world to come and celebrate our greatest bard?
Angus Robertson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Scottish Government have been investing record levels of funding in the NHS in Scotland and they work very hard to have the best possible relations with doctors, nurses and all NHS staff. Will the English Health Secretary speak to his Scottish colleague, Shona Robison, to learn how to resolve the situation in England and stave off strike action that no one wants, least of all junior doctors?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-02-01
Topic: Health
Questions: Can the Secretary of State give me some indication of when he will publish the draft regulations on housing benefits for 18 to 21-year-olds? Will he also look sympathetically at exempting from those regulations those who cannot live safely in their neighbourhood where their family home is because of sexual abuse, gang-related activity or overcrowded housing?; As the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on multiple sclerosis, may I ask the Minister to join me in applauding the excellent work of the Multiple Sclerosis Society in supporting people with MS? Will he tell us how his Department is supporting people with MS to get into work or to keep their jobs after a diagnosis of MS?; Jobs fairs are an effective way for local employers to promote their apprenticeships, which are a key element of this Government’s long-term economic plan. Will the Minister join me in congratulating local Havant businesses Fasset, Barratt Homes and Lockheed Martin on supporting my jobs fair later this month?; May I ask the Minister to speed up the review process for benefit claimants who have been sanctioned or whose claims are being investigated? Over the Christmas period, a number of my constituents, despite having done everything right, ended up having to borrow money to get through that period because of delays. In some cases, this has happened after the Christmas period as well.; Will my right hon. Friend congratulate Tame Plastics and other manufacturing firms in Tamworth that are creating new jobs and apprenticeships? What can he do in areas of low unemployment to turn jobcentres into recruitment agencies for more and better-skilled roles?; Last week, the Government suffered another embarrassing defeat in the House of Lords on the proposals to cut ESA WRAG support by £30, which would leave many disabled people in a very difficult financial position. Despite what has been said earlier today, will the Secretary of State now re-examine the arguments put forward by the Scottish National party? Will he categorically give a commitment today that no one will lose out on this critical financial support?
Joanna Catherine Cherry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Half of those receiving employment and support allowance in Scotland qualify through a mental health problem. A report from the Scottish Association for Mental Health, which has a base in my constituency at Redhall Walled Garden, has found that people who are placed in the work-related activity group report "inappropriate expectations" being put on them, making their mental illness worse. Does the Minister agree that that will be exacerbated by the Government’s proposed changes?