argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-12
Topic: Health
Anthony Joseph Lloyd (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister knows that the control mechanisms introduced in Greater Manchester can work only if we have an efficient test, track and trace system. He told the House earlier that he aims by the end of this month to have half a million tests completed daily. Can he make it clear that track and trace works only if those tests deliver results very quickly? When will we get to the point when those half a million tests will be reported back in a reasonable time and in most cases within a day?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2020-10-12
Topic: Health
Julie Elliott (Labour, Centre-left): Sunderland, along with a lot of the north-east, went into local measures a few weeks ago and a number of asks were made of Government: some £14 million for test and trace; and some £24 million for business support. Almost four weeks later, there was been no response one way or the other. Could the Prime Minister commit to look into what the logjam is and get a response quickly to our local authorities because they need to know what is happening?
Queen Mary’s Hospital: Urgent Care Services — House of Commons, 2020-10-12
Topic: Health
Fleur Anderson (Labour, Centre-left): Many cancers will be missed if people cannot go to the urgent care centre and are redirected to other facilities, because there is a real concern that they are not making that journey According to Breast Cancer Now, the importance of GP referrals and of the NHS breast screening programme to breast cancer survival cannot be underestimated. However, the number of people referred to see a specialist with suspected cancer declined dramatically during the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. In England, between March and July this year, there were 95,000 fewer referrals by a GP for tests Prostate cancer is also of real concern. This cancer claims the life of one man every 45 minutes in the UK. Early diagnosis, as I know from my own family, really does save lives. The impact of covid-19 has meant that around 3,500 men in the UK risk being diagnosed with last-stage, incurable prostate cancer. With GP appointments often hard to get, urgent care centres such as the one at Queen Mary’s Hospital are very important in spotting signs of cancer early on. The prolonged closures of urgent care centres are accelerating the crisis in cancer care. Cancer and other serious diseases will not wait for the covid-19 crisis to abate—they will not wait until the winter is over—before taking lives again. We cannot lose sight of this. We cannot risk the lives of local people In summary, the urgent treatment centre and pharmacy at Queen Mary’s Hospital is a very valued and valuable local health service with fantastic staff. I understand that it had to close and that difficult decisions had to be made, but for too long, people in Roehampton, Putney and Southfields needing urgent care have been sent away. That is leading to some people going untreated and others suffering on long journeys, and it is adding to the pressure on A&E services at Kingston Hospital and St George’s Hospital in Tooting. It is time to stop sending people with dislocated shoulders, deep cuts, chest pains or severe allergic reactions to places an hour away when we have a great hospital with great urgent care nurses in our own community. We need the out-patient pharmacy to provide medications for treatment as soon as they are needed. There is more demand than ever for a walk-in service at the urgent treatment centre, which used to treat 16,000 to 18,000 people a year. My ask of the Minister is simple: will he do everything in his power to reopen the urgent treatment centre with walk-in capacity and the out-patient pharmacy at Queen Mary’s Hospital before the winter begins?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Gerald Jones (Labour, Centre-left): By 6 pm this evening, both local authorities covering my constituency will be under Welsh Government local lockdown restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. Among the restrictions will be one on holiday travel, meaning that constituents will not be able to go on planned holidays. Some holiday companies are refusing refunds on the grounds that local restrictions are not covered by UK law, pointing instead to Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice on travel. What can the Prime Minister do to support constituents in this case and what is his message to those holiday companies?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Diana Ruth Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): Can the Prime Minister explain why a new test centre opening today on Hull University land for students and the local community—a centre that of course I welcome—will be run by private firms Deloitte and G4S with no accountability to local bodies with statutory public health responsibilities to the local community, or to the university, which is of course responsible for its students? How does this silo approach that the Prime Minister has created around testing help us to have the joined-up approach that we all want in Hull to tackle this pandemic?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Karin Marguerite Smyth (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister’s objective relies on the local public health effort. I thank the local NHS in Bristol, Bristol City Council and Public Health England in the south-west for their remarkable work. The reorganisation of health services always distracts from people’s jobs, destroys morale and wastes money, so will the Prime Minister explain the benefits of abolishing Public Health England in the middle of this crisis? If he cannot, will he commit now to reversing that decision, at least until we have an inquiry?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Stephen Creswell Timms (Labour, Centre-left): Children were delighted to return to their primary schools earlier this month, but—not surprisingly, after six months of isolation—coughs and colds have spread rapidly among them since. We have been reminded that each primary school has just 10 covid tests. When will primary schools have the wherewithal to test children and staff with symptoms to avoid spreading the virus at school and unnecessary school closures?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Yvette Cooper (Labour, Centre-left): Some of my constituents have been waiting for four days, five days or even longer to get their test results back. In July, the Government rightly promised that 80% of in-person tests would receive their results within 24 hours of booking. That figure is now down to below 20%. That is dangerous: it means that people are not in the tracing system and their contacts are not being traced; it makes it easier for the virus to spread; and it makes it more likely that we will face even tougher restrictions, which the Prime Minister has described, across the whole country. Given that the Government made so many mistakes on testing in the first wave, we cannot afford for him to get this wrong again now. When will that 80% target now be met?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Richard Burgon (Labour, Centre-left): Shamefully, the UK has had the one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the world. If we had had Germany’s deaths per million rate, we would have had more than 30,000 fewer coronavirus deaths. If we had had the much lower death rates of South Korea and New Zealand, we would have had more than 40,000 fewer deaths. So will the Prime Minister take responsibility for our unacceptably high death rate? To avoid a repeat this winter, will he now pursue the zero covid strategy that the Independent SAGE is calling for, and that countries such as South Korea and New Zealand are successfully implementing?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Mohammed Afzal Khan (Labour, Centre-left): Manchester is home to two of the largest universities in the country, with a combined student body of nearly 80,000, many of whom choose to live in my constituency. With so many students returning to the area, this is an incredibly difficult time for the community, and for students and their families, who are concerned for their safety. With the surge in infections and the second wave now in evidence, what advice do the Government intend to give to universities on keeping their students, staff and the wider community safe?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Zarah Sultana (Labour, Centre-left): The Prime Minister calls it NHS test and trace, but would it not be more accurate to call it Serco test and trace, as it has been outsourced, like other health contracts, often to friends and family members of Tory MPs, lining their pockets while taking the public for a ride? Despite its record of failure, last week Serco was handed another test and trace contract, worth £45 million. These giant corporations put private profit before public health. Is it not time to end the scandal of outsourcing and bring these contracts into public hands for a genuine NHS test and trace?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Navendu Prabhat Mishra (Labour, Centre-left): Last week I received a letter from the Health Minister informing me that a new covid testing centre would be available for my Stockport constituents some 240 miles away at the University of Greenwich campus in Kent. I am willing to accept that this might have been an administrative error, but it is entirely possible that the letter is accurate, given that many of my constituents are already having travel more than 70 miles for a test in Telford. Is it not time that this Government got a grip and provided comprehensive testing like our partner countries, or will their shambolic handling of the pandemic once again lead to the highest covid death toll in Europe in the imminent second wave?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
James Ian Mearns (Labour, Centre-left): Can the Prime Minister, for the sake of absolute clarity and to remove any doubt about potential mixed messaging, please confirm that the measures he has announced today in the national context do not supersede or dilute the more stringent measures announced last week for Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and Durham, where case numbers have, sadly, been growing rapidly, despite a local reduction in testing capacity? Will he also confirm what additional support he will put in place for businesses and workers in the north-east in sectors where activity has been greatly reduced by covid restrictions?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Sarah Mei Li Owen (Labour, Centre-left): How does the Prime Minister justify recent reports that every child at Eton gets a covid test, while 10% of children and staff at Gill Blowers nursery in Luton have to stay at home and isolate while they wait for tests that show no sign of coming? Can he tell us how many schoolchildren are self-isolating because they cannot afford to buy their own tests and why, if there is so much spare capacity, not every child can get a test when they need it?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Helen Elizabeth Hayes (Labour, Centre-left): One of the most shocking aspects of the coronavirus pandemic has been the disproportionate impact on black, Asian and minority ethnic residents. When Public Health England published a report documenting that injustice, the Government were warned that they needed to act immediately to stop further preventable deaths, but we have seen no urgency. The chair of the British Medical Association is now warning that Government inaction will lead to more preventable deaths of black, Asian and minority ethnic residents over the winter. What is the Prime Minister going to do about it?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Olivia Frances Blake Dagnall (Labour, Centre-left): Clarity is key to public trust. Many people have been confused by the Government’s mixed messages on public health measures. Can the Prime Minister guarantee that none of his Ministers or advisers will contradict the rules he has set out today, and that if they do so, they will be disciplined?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Stephen John Doughty (Labour, Centre-left): I thank all those working on testing, because they are doing remarkable and life-saving work, but that does not mean that the Prime Minister can simply brush off serious questions about failures in systems on something so crucial to this fight. First, has he now fixed the problems in the UK Lighthouse lab system that have negatively affected Wales and caused the Welsh Government to have to plug the gaps? Secondly, is it true, as Dido Harding has said, that people will have to pay for his so-called moonshot tests?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Stephanie Louise Peacock (Labour, Centre-left): Sadly, the reason we are facing greater restrictions is that the Government have failed to establish an effective testing system. My constituent was not able to access a test for her son, who was sent home from school and asked to travel 300 miles for a test. Despite the fact that I raised her case in the Chamber last week and received assurances from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, she still cannot get a test and has still had no contact. When will the Prime Minister fix the testing system?
Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2020-09-22
Topic: Health
Apsana Begum (Labour, Centre-left): Through the testing scheme, we have seen that the BAME population has suffered most from covid-19. What assurances can the Prime Minister give that ethnic minority communities can be prioritised for testing? My constituency has a high Bangladeshi population, which has suffered the highest number of excess deaths of any ethnic group. That community is devastated. It really needs assurances that it will be prioritised for testing, along with other ethnic groups.
Covid-19 Restrictions — House of Commons, 2020-10-14
Topic: Health
Anna Rhiannon McMorrin (Labour, Centre-left): Unlike this Tory Government in England, our Labour Government in Wales do follow the science. The rules in Wales have stopped people taking the virus with them from high-prevalence to low-prevalence areas, thus protecting people’s lives. We want the same for visitors to Wales from across the rest of the UK, where rates are even higher, so why are this Tory Government ignoring the First Minister yet again, failing to stand up for the people of Wales and playing politics with people’s lives?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2020-10-14
Topic: Health
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): I do not think that approach goes far enough, and neither does SAGE. The Prime Minister talks of the costs. Since he rejected SAGE’s advice on 21 September, I remind him that the R rate has gone up, the infection rate has quadrupled and hospital admissions have gone from 275 a day to 628 a day in England. Yesterday, 441 covid patients were on ventilators and the number of deaths recorded was, tragically, the highest since 10 June. That is the cost of rejecting the advice. SAGE has a clear view on why that is happening. What is the Prime Minister’s view on why these numbers are all heading in the wrong direction?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2020-10-14
Topic: Health
Keir Starmer (Labour, Centre-left): I think the Prime Minister is behind the curve again. He probably has not noticed that this morning, the council leaders in Greater Manchester that he just quoted, including the Mayor and the Conservative leader of Bolton Council, said in a press statement that they support a circuit break above tier 3 restrictions—keep up, Prime Minister The big problem the Prime Minister has, as the SAGE minutes make absolutely clear, is that his two main policies—track and trace and local restrictions—simply have not worked, and we cannot stand by. In July, the Prime Minister told me that track and trace "will play a vital part in ensuring that we do not have a second spike this winter." Those were his words. Three months later, SAGE has concluded that track and trace is only "having a marginal impact on transmission" It goes on to say—and this is the really worrying part—that this is likely to "further decline in the future." Let us not have the usual nonsense that anyone asking the Prime Minister a question about track and trace is somehow knocking the NHS. This is SAGE’s assessment—the Government’s own advisers. After £12 billion, let us have a straight answer: why does the Prime Minister think that his track and trace system has gone so wrong?
Covid-19 Economic Support Package — House of Commons, 2020-10-14
Topic: Health
Anneliese Jane Dodds (Labour, Centre-left): I beg to move, That this House believes the Government should do what it takes to support areas with additional local restrictions, currently the North of England and parts of the Midlands, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, by reforming the Job Support Scheme so it incentivises employers to keep staff on rather than letting them go; ensuring no-one is pushed into poverty when they do the right thing; providing clear, consistent and fair funding that goes hand-in-hand with the imposition of new restrictions, including using the £1.3 billion underspend on the grants fund to support local jobs; fixing gaps in support for the self-employed; and extending the ban on evictions We are at a critical moment for our country. Infection rates are rising, and the economic outlook is worsening. It is more vital than ever that this Government get a grip on both the health and the economic crises. There are some who seek to pit people’s health against our economy, but we all know that our country has suffered a double tragedy: the highest excess death rate in Europe and the deepest recession in the G7. The predominant reason why many expect our recovery to proceed more slowly than that in other countries is the continued severe impact of the public health crisis in the UK. It has been suggested that the Chancellor blocked proposals from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies for a circuit breaker. He can now, if he wishes to, intervene on me and set the record straight.
Covid-19 Economic Support Package — House of Commons, 2020-10-14
Topic: Health
Anneliese Jane Dodds (Labour, Centre-left): I was just about to go on to say that the Government’s current stance is costing jobs and leading to reduced business confidence. If we continue as we are, without taking control of the public health situation, we will see a worse situation for jobs and businesses in our country. It appears that that will be the only intervention that I will receive It is clear that blocking a circuit breaker does not make sense for the health of our population or for our economy. Government Members need a reality check. One in four people in our country are subject to localised restrictions. We have already experienced a record rise in quarterly redundancies. Without action, we face the prospect of infections rising yet again, with more and more areas coming under localised restrictions and the Government eventually being forced into more national restrictions in any case. Every week of that inaction will hit business and consumer confidence, costing more jobs and livelihoods, with more businesses going to the wall. The question is not whether we can afford a circuit breaker. The question is whether we can afford to continue with a Government who duck taking hard choices until they are forced into them and who seem unable to stand apart from their chaotic lurching from week to week to assess what our country needs and take decisive action That circuit break must be used to fix test and trace, devolving it to local areas, so that we can protect our NHS, get control of the virus and start building economic confidence back up again, and it must be accompanied by support for jobs and businesses. We stand ready to work with the Government to ensure that that is put in place, so that no one is pushed into poverty for doing the right thing.
Covid-19 Economic Support Package — House of Commons, 2020-10-14
Topic: Health
Anneliese Jane Dodds (Labour, Centre-left): I will make a little progress, if my hon. Friend does not mind We need to find out from the Government why they have not used the £1.3 billion underspend from the grants programme, which was already allocated as business support, for local areas to direct at businesses that need that help. Yesterday, the Chief Secretary said that the money was not available for use now because, in his words, "the need" had been "met". That beggars belief. The need clearly has not been met. The Government should reallocate that funding on a consistent basis, so that businesses in the hardest-hit areas can get support What possible justification can there be for local areas getting control of test, trace and isolate only once they are into tier 3 and thus facing rapidly rising infection rates? As the debate following this one will indicate, the Government have poured vast amounts of public money into private contracts to deliver a system that is simply not working. Labour-run Wales has shown how locally delivered tracing is vastly more effective than a contracted-out system. When will the Chancellor’s Government stop dithering, follow the evidence and get a grip on test, track and trace?
Covid-19 Economic Support Package — House of Commons, 2020-10-14
Topic: Health
Christopher Philip James Elmore (Labour, Centre-left): One of the key benefits of the Welsh system is that it allows local government to track and trace where people may have had the virus and been in contact with someone. Does my hon. Friend agree that if the UK Government could apply that to England, it could save many people’s lives?
Local Contact Tracing — House of Commons, 2020-10-14
Topic: Health
Rachel Jane Reeves (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend makes his point well. He has been a staunch advocate of transparency and value for money in the delivery of public services. The Government’s own Minister in the Cabinet Office in the other place has made those points as well, saying that the Government are spending too much money on consultants when that work could be done in-house with better value for taxpayers. I very much agree with my hon. Friend’s comments. The minutes of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies meeting from three weeks ago on 21 September, as well as suggesting a circuit break to deal with the rising infection numbers, reflected on the performance of the Government’s approach to test, trace and isolate. The minutes said that "relatively low levels of engagement with the system…coupled with testing delays…is having a marginal impact on transmission" All that money spent, yet this key part of the Government’s system to keep us safe is only having a marginal impact on transmission.