Select committee: Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 15
Second Report - Delivering core NHS and care services during the pandemic and beyond
Published 1 Oct 2020
Paragraph 123
Addressed to Department of Health and Social Care
Health and Social Care Committee Delivering Core NHS and Care Services during the Pandemic and Beyond All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We ask that Professor Whitty sets out to what extent testing capacity has impacted the advice he and his colleagues have provided to the Government on routine testing of NHS staff. We further ask Professor Whitty to clarify whether he has advised the Government to introduce routine testing of all NHS staff in the current virus hotspots and if not why.
From: Health and Social Care Committee, Second Report - Delivering core NHS and care services during the pandemic and beyond (HC 320), paragraph 123, 1 October 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 15 January 2021 (deadline 1 December 2020).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government and NHS England respond to the Committee's report by setting out action taken on waiting times, PPE, staff testing, A&E, digital care and workforce wellbeing, with some answers qualified as work is ongoing.
- On waiting times, the response says the NHS "will be taking stock" of its elective programmes "early in the New Year" to set operational goals for 2021/22, and that forecasts of waiting lists are "at this point unlikely to be accurate".
- On routine staff testing, it says asymptomatic testing of all patient-facing NHS staff "is now possible", with full roll out under way as test kits are delivered.
- On PPE, the government is "confident that there will be a consistent supply of PPE this winter" and says it is "firmly committed" to addressing difficulties with fit.
- On dentistry, it says challenges "will endure into 2021/22 and beyond" and that it will "seek a longer-term contractual position with the BDA".