health – Page 3 – The Church of England in Parliament

Bishop of London asks about statutory sick pay

The Bishop of London received the following written answer on 14th December 2022:

The Lord Bishop of London asked His Majesty’s Government how many people are currently receiving statutory sick pay; how many people are eligible to receive only statutory sick pay when unwell; and how many people earn less than the lower earnings threshold, making them ineligible for statutory sick pay.

Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con): Statutory Sick Pay is administered and paid by employers, so this information is not held by the Government. Therefore, we are not able to make a robust assessment on the number of people who are currently receiving SSP.

Bishop of Gloucester asks about localising the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

The Bishop of Gloucester received the following written answer on 7th November 2022:

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked His Majesty’s Government:

what assessment they have made of the potential merits of enabling local or regional authorities to influence or control the allocation of School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme budgets for their area.
what consideration they have given to reforming the School Fruit and Vegetable scheme (1) to strengthen local procurement strategies, and (2) to enhance the supply of (a) seasonal, or (b) organic, produce to schools.
what consideration they have given to enabling local authorities to have a role, on an initial pilot basis, in allocating funding from the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme in their area.

Bishop of London leads debate on ambulance handovers

The Bishop of London tabled a question for short debate on 3rd November 2022, concerning ambulance handovers in light of an upcoming strike:

The Lord Bishop of London: To ask His Majesty’s Government what progress they are making on ensuring swift ambulance handovers, as set out in Our Plan for Patients, published on 22 September, given the decision of ambulance workers across 11 trusts to ballot for strike action.

My Lords, I start by saying how grateful I am to your Lordships’ House for setting time aside for what I think is an important and timely debate. I am also grateful for the briefing from the House of Lords Library.

Last week, the GMB union announced that it was balloting ambulance workers over strike action across 11 trusts in what would be the biggest ambulance workers’ strike for 30 years. I think it would be wise to ask ourselves what has happened across the whole system to bring us to this point. Ambulance handover delays are an increasing issue across the trusts in England. The NHS contract for this year sets out that 90% of handovers should take place within 30 minutes and 65% within 15. However, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives notes 40,000 cases of patients waiting longer than an hour for handover—this was recorded this year and is the third-highest volume on record.

Long handover delays increase the risk of harm to patients while they are in ambulances. The NHS Confederation says that eight out of 10 patients who were delayed beyond 60 minutes were assessed as having had an experience that had potentially harmed them, and nearly one in 10 experienced severe harm as a result. The number of ambulances waiting to transfer their patients also impacts on the availability of ambulances, and the response times therefore increase. This in turn risks increasing further harm to those who are waiting for an ambulance in the community. Florence Nightingale famously once said that hospitals should do no harm. It is a sentiment that I believe is appropriate to the wider healthcare system. The healthcare system should do no harm.

Bishop of London asks about health disparities white paper

The Bishop of London received the following written answer on 17th October 2022:

The Lord Bishop of London asked His Majesty’s Government whether they still intend to publish a white paper on health disparities; and if so, when.

Bishop of London asks about the government’s health strategy

The Bishop of London asked about the government’s plans to publish a health disparities white paper on 17th October 2022, during a debate on childhood obesity:

The Lord Bishop of London: My Lords, the National Food Strategy to tackle obesity, the new tobacco control plan and the health disparities White Paper were key to the Government’s aim to level-up health. The most recent NHS Providers report found that 95% of trust leaders said that the cost of living had either significantly or severely worsened health inequalities in the local area. Given the worsening situation, can the Minister confirm when the health disparities White Paper will be published? If not, can he point to what else the Government are doing to reduce inequalities in health?

Bishop of Gloucester asks about automatic registration for the Healthy Start Scheme

The Bishop of Gloucester received the following written answer on 20th July 2022:

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to the potential merits of introducing an automatic registration process for the Healthy Start scheme.

Bishop of St Albans asks a question on healthcare recruitment data

The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 18th July 2022:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Kamall on 27 June (HL1046), what plans they have to record data on the number of health care professionals who were hired from countries graded as red by the World Health Organisation.

Bishop of St Albans speaks in a debate on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases

On 7th July 2022, the House of Lords debated the question of global control of malaria and neglected tropical diseases. The Bishop of St Albans spoke in the debate:

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Trees, for obtaining this important debate on a subject that really needs to be before your Lordships’ House more frequently and deserves a much higher profile. This is a topic of some interest to me because one of my colleagues, the Bishop of Hertford—last week, he became the Bishop of Bath and Wells—is a professional epidemiologist. I hope that he will be in this House in a few years, because he has spent a lot of his time—even though he has been a bishop—in Africa working on a variety of things such as malaria and Ebola. Thanks to him, I have become increasingly aware of just how important this area is and, as we come out of Covid, how vital it is that we grow human capital in these regions.

It was said to me that rather than calling them “neglected tropical diseases” it would be more apt to call them “tropical diseases of neglected peoples”, given the global economic status of their victims. While I am conscious that malaria is specifically referenced in this debate and that NTDs include a host of serious bacterial and viral infections, I want to focus my brief comments on the parasitical infections within the NTD umbrella, as these are really diseases of poverty. Parasitical infections such as worms are in many cases caught because of the social context in which people are living—poor sanitary conditions, lack of clean water and the inability to store or consume food safely. It is therefore no surprise that deworming programmes are a huge part of the global effort to combat NTDs.

Bishop of London speaks in a debate on nursing

The Bishop of London spoke in a debate on nursing staffing on 16th June 2022:

The Lord Bishop of London: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, for securing this timely debate. This issue is close to my heart. I draw noble Lords’ attention to my interests as set out in the register, specifically as a former government Chief Nursing Officer for England.

In my role as chair of a health inequalities action group, and as a Bishop with oversight of a diocese that includes some of the best hospitals in the world, I have had the privilege over the last few months of listening to a wide range of nurses. They have talked about their continued passion for high-quality nursing care, the wonderful teams of which they are a part, the innovations that are happening and their pride in their work.

Bishop of Oxford asks about zoonotic diseases

On 24th May 2022, the Bishop of Oxford asked a question during a debate on establishing a zoonosis research centre in the UK:

The Lord Bishop of Oxford: My Lords, I am sure the Minister is aware that the rapid increase in zoonotic diseases has its roots in the environmental crisis: deforestation, habitat destruction, intensive farming and unregulated trade in wild animals. Therefore, as well as the vital areas of medical research and response to disease, how are the Government focusing their intervention on prevention as well as diagnosis and cure?

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