Public Health England has not made such an assessment. The number of cases and deaths due to influenza-related complications varies each season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the low levels of flu virus circulation globally in 2020 and 2021, predictions for the 2021/22 influenza season are particularly uncertain. The average number of estimated deaths in England for the last five seasons was over 11,000 deaths annually. This ranged from almost 4,000 deaths in 2018/19 to over 22,000 deaths in 2017/18. Of these deaths, many were in people with underlying conditions.

The diagnosis of influenza is generally made using clinical symptoms in primary care settings and can only be confirmed by laboratory testing. Rapid testing should be undertaken in all people with complicated influenza which often takes place in hospital. The Department is exploring potential options to expanding winter virus testing via home or community testing.

We have not made a specific assessment. However, the diagnosis of influenza is generally made using clinical symptoms in primary care settings then confirmed by laboratory testing. Rapid testing for complicated influenza often takes place in hospitals. The treatment of influenza can involve antiviral medication and/or hospital admission. As a preventative measure, priority groups most at risk and frontline health and adult social care workers are eligible for a free influenza vaccine to protect them and prevent onward transmission to vulnerable members of the community.

There is no unified record of the number of people with asthma who have contracted Covid-19. While NHS Digital holds data identifying where a patient has both COVID-19 and asthma diagnoses, many cases of asthma will be diagnosed and managed in a primary care setting. Primary care data is not currently linked to data for hospital admissions.

No such assessment has been made.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s rapid guidance, on severe asthma during the pandemic recommends using technology to reduce in-person appointments. However, guidance on face-to-face appointments throughout the pandemic has been in line with clinical need.

Work is continuing to recover primary care services, including services for asthma patients, to an appropriate level balance between phone/online and face to face appointments. NHS England and NHS Improvement’s updated practice on standard operating procedures for patient consultations states that although the use of video and remote consultations may be suitable for some people, face to face appointments will be offered.

The content of the Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) asthma review, which ensures all general practitioner practices establish and maintain a register of patients with an asthma diagnosis, has been amended to incorporate the key elements of basic asthma care positively associated with better patient outcomes and self-management, including:

- An assessment of asthma control;

- A recording of the number of exacerbations;

- An assessment of inhaler technique; and

- A written personalised asthma action plan.

The QOF for 2021/22 has been implemented from April 2021 with these updated indicators for asthma.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is responsible for assessing new medicines and treatments in accordance with its existing methods and processes. NICE’s draft guidance on dupilumab for consultation of 7 May 2021 states that it is not recommended for the treatment of severe asthma. NICE has not yet published its final recommendations on dupilumab and the draft guidance is now open for consultation until 28 May 2021. There will be a further meeting of NICE’s independent appraisal committee in September to consider all comments received during the consultation.

The Government has not made any assessment of the decision of the Scottish Medicines Consortium on dupilumab, as this is a devolved matter.

In 2020/21, the National Health Service Cardiovascular Disease and Respiratory programme has focussed its work on the response to COVID-19. This included bringing forward the implementation of Respiratory Clinical Networks. The networks are vital in promoting an integrated approach to respiratory care during the pandemic and are in parallel supporting delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan priorities.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are working in close partnership with patients and partners, including the British Lung Foundation, to develop and implement policy on provisions of respiratory services in England.

A wide range of treatments are available for prostate cancer across the National Health Service, depending on both the stage of disease and each individual patient’s preferences, which includes surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. In February 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement’s specialised commissioning team announced that it would make available external beam radiotherapy to treat hormone sensitive, low volume prostate cancer.

The NHS also made available a range of ‘COVID-19 friendly’ treatments, offering benefits such as fewer hospital visits or a reduced impact on the patient’s immune system. This includes targeted hormone therapies such as enzalutamide for prostate cancer treatment. After treatment, patients will move to a Personalised Stratified Follow-Up pathway that suits their needs and ensures they can get rapid access to clinical support where they are worried that their cancer may have recurred. This stratified follow-up approach was established in all trusts for prostate cancer in 2020.

NHS England is supporting staff to offer personalised care to people affected by cancer, including people with prostate cancer, by promoting awareness and understanding of the personalised care interventions. The NHS Long Term Plan sets a clear ambition that where appropriate every person diagnosed with cancer, including those with prostate cancer, should have access to personalised care to ensure people’s social, emotional, physical and practical needs are identified and addressed at the earliest opportunity. Over the next five years, Cancer Alliances will be embedding personalised care interventions, which will identify and address the changing needs of cancer patients from diagnosis onwards.

On 13 April, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation published their final advice for prioritisation of phase two of the vaccination programme, recommending an age-based approach which the Government has accepted. Phase two will therefore cover all remaining adults aged between 18 and 49 years old. This includes all those disabled people aged 18 years old or over who have not already been included in phase one.

Specialist clinical nursing workforce working in urology and prostate cancer is a post-registration qualification and it is the responsibility of individual employers to ensure they have the staff available to provide clinical services.

The Spending Review 2020 provides £260 million to continue to increase the National Health Service workforce and support commitments made in the NHS Long Term Plan, including continuing to take forward the Cancer Workforce Plan - Phase One commitment to expand education and training to increase the number of clinical nurse specialists and develop common and consistent competencies.

This data is not available in the format requested. Referrals for prostate cancer are recorded within the urology specialty but not recorded by urological cancer type.

On 23 March 2021 the Government published Saving and improving lives - the future of UK clinical research delivery. This includes the aim to create a research positive culture in which all health and care staff feel empowered and supported to participate in clinical research as part of their job. To support this vision, we have identified five key themes which underpin the improvements as follows:

- Clinical research embedded in the National Health Service;

- Patient-centred research;

- Streamlined, efficient and innovative research;

- Research enabled by data and digital tools; and

- A sustainable and supported research workforce.

An implementation plan and strategy setting out how the Government will begin to deliver the vision will be published later this year. A copy of Saving and improving lives - the future of UK clinical research delivery is attached.

Whilst there are no plans to establish national COVID-19 telephone helplines for the public to use to ask questions related to COVID-19 vaccines, the Department and the NHS and PHE are providing advice and information at every possible opportunity to support those who have been prioritised to receive a vaccine and anyone who has questions about the vaccination process. The latest advice and information is available online and our social media channels are regularly publishing fact cards, films and interviews about vaccine safety and answering frequently asked questions about vaccine production. In addition, senior clinicians are giving media interviews and taking part in live question and answer sessions with the public about COVID-19 vaccines.

The Government’s communications plan includes targeted information and advice via TV, radio and social media. This is being translated into 13 languages including Bengali, Chinese, Filipino, Gujarati, Hindi, Mirpur, Polish, Punjabi and Urdu. Print and online material, including interviews and practical advice has appeared in 600 national, regional, local and specialist titles including media for African, Asian, Bangladeshi, Bengali, Gujarati, Jamaican, Jewish, Pakistani and Turkish communities.

Research to evaluate the long-term health and psychosocial effects of COVID-19 is continuing. Major studies include the Post-Hospitalisation COVID-19 study in the United Kingdom and the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium global COVID-19 long-term follow-up study.

No such assessment has been made. However, the National Institute of Health Research is funding a study to determine whether using a mixture of re-usable and single-use catheters is as safe and acceptable for intermittent catheterisation as using only single-use catheters.

We are not currently taking any specific steps to ensure patients have access to single use catheters. The decision of which device should be offered to patients remains a clinical one.

Prioritisation for phase two has not yet been decided. However the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s (JCVI) interim advice recommends an age-based approach, which the Government has accepted in principle.

The JCVI has advised that phase two will include all adults under 50 years old who were not included in phase one, starting with the oldest adults first. The JCVI’s interim advice has not indicated that, as a group, persons paralysed with spinal cord injuries are at higher risk from COVID-19 and therefore they have not been prioritised for the COVID-19 vaccine programme. Final advice on phase two will be published by the JCVI in due course.

The Government has had no such specific discussions.

Multi-grip upper limb prosthetics, which include the Hero-Arm are not currently routinely commissioned in England for upper limb amputees. NHS England and NHS Improvement are in the process of reviewing the policy for commissioning all multi-grip upper limbs and an evidence review has just been completed. It is anticipated that a decision will be made by early summer as to whether the current policy will be revised to allow multi-grip upper limbs to be made routinely available to upper limb amputees.

The National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation have jointly commissioned research studies to determine the potential risk to patients and staff from aerosol transmission of COVID-19 and investigate how to mitigate those risks. This includes funding of £433,000 to the AERATOR study at the University of Bristol to investigate aerosolization of COVID-19 and transmission risk at short range from medical procedures.

Additionally, Public Health England have been awarded £337,000 to investigate environmental and airborne transmission routes of COVID-19 including in healthcare settings.

The UK Severe Asthma Registry (UKSAR) has gone from having less than 2000 patients registered to over 8000 patients as a result of work on the asthma pathway. Severe asthma services will continue to participate in the NHS England and Improvement Accelerated Access Collaborative programme to deliver the best healthcare to severe asthma patients. The UKSAR is the world’s largest national severe asthma registry and provides novel insights across a range of research areas as well as enabling annual reporting on performance outcomes for severe asthma services.