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Northern Devon Healthcare NHS TrustNorth Hertfordshire NHS Trust
North Tees Health NHS Trust
Northumbrian Ambulance NHS Trust
Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust
Nottingham Community Health NHS Trust
Poole Hospital NHS Trust
Royal Cornwall Hospitals and West Cornwall Hospital NHS Trust Royal Liverpool University Hospital NHS Trust
Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital NHS Trust
Royal Surrey County and St. Lukes NHS Trust
Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust
South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service NHS Trust Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust South Bedfordshire Community Healthcare NHS Trust
Southend Health Care NHS Trust
Southport and Formby Hospital NHS Trust
St. Helens and Knowsley Hospitals NHS Trust
St. James' University Hospital NHS Trust
St. Peter's Hospital NHS Trust
United Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust
West Dorset Community Health NHS Trust
West Dorset General Hospitals NHS Trust
West Dorset Mental Health NHS Trust
Walsgrave Hospital NHS Trust
Wellhouse NHS Trust
Tobacco Advertising
Mr. Barron : To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer of 1 March, Official Report, columns 681-82, who was present at the meeting held between her Department's officials and representatives of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association on 23 February ; what was the outcome of the meeting ; and when the next meeting will take place.
Dr. Mawhinney : The meeting was attended by Department of Health officials and representatives of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association. The content of the meeting is confidential. A further meeting was held on 4 March.
Incontinence Services
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what are the statutory responsibilities of (a) district health authorities, (b) trusts and (c) family health services authorities for the provision of incontinence services ;
(2) what requirements exist in respect of minimal standards of provision of incontinence services ;
(3) what requirement is placed on district health authorities, trusts and family health services authorities to publicise the availability of incontinence services.
Mr. Bowis : Where there is shown to be a medical need for health services, health authorities, national health service trusts and family health services authorities have a general duty to provide them, subject to priorities set for the use of the resources available. The NHS planning guidelines for 1994-95--EL(93)54--issued on 29 June 1993 require district health authorities to ensure that continence services conform to the guidelines in the departmental report "An Agenda for Action on Continence Services" which was issued to the chairmen of NHS authorities in 1991. Copies of both documents are available in the Library. The report lists the key features of an effective local service including active publicity work. The 1994-95 planning guidelines also require health authorities to set specific challenging targets for reductions in the prevalence of treatable incontinence.
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Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what provision is made within fundholding general practice budgets for incontinence services.
Mr. Bowis : No specific provision is made but all general practitioners advise their patients on problems of incontinence.
Day Surgery
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will publish a table showing for each region, for each of the last four quarters, the number of patients waiting for day surgery (a) under 12 months and (b) over 12 months.
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Dr. Mawhinney : Information on waiting lists for hospital day case treatment by regional health authority and in annual time bands is shown in the table. There has been a rise of around 7,000 since March 1993 in the number of patients waiting more than a year for day case treatment. However, the fact remains that the number fell dramatically from nearly 33,000 in December 1989, to less than 11,000 in March 1993.
It is the time people wait that matters not the number waiting. Half of all admissions to hospital are immediate. Of those admitted from waiting lists almost half are admitted within five weeks, nearly 75 per cent. within three months and 98 per cent. within a year.
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Day case hospital treatment figures
Provisional waiting times figures
Provider-based
March 1993 June 1993 September 1993 December 1993
Region |0-11 months|12+ months |0-11 months|12+ months |0-11 months|12+ months |0-11 months|12+ months
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Northern |23,289 |369 |23,289 |730 |24,507 |951 |25,623 |1,157
Yorkshire |22,502 |726 |24,211 |1,128 |24,644 |1,387 |26,808 |1,684
Trent |25,434 |898 |27,823 |929 |28,851 |1,129 |31,746 |1,269
East Anglian |11,922 |387 |12,384 |491 |13,054 |657 |14,439 |680
North West Thames |17,807 |1,035 |19,078 |1,068 |20,313 |1,262 |21,072 |1,591
North East Thames |29,552 |1,398 |30,265 |1,757 |32,802 |2,238 |36,201 |3,083
South East Thames |21,328 |1,322 |22,600 |1,277 |24,434 |1,389 |28,480 |1,930
South West Thames |21,053 |518 |23,214 |955 |25,037 |1,289 |27,451 |1,486
Wessex |20,889 |935 |19,662 |1,060 |20,146 |1,008 |19,180 |768
Oxford |13,839 |518 |14,445 |578 |14,665 |537 |15,291 |445
South Western |23,035 |53 |23,730 |155 |23,755 |168 |24,323 |142
West Midlands |32,437 |953 |34,421 |1,250 |36,196 |1,540 |39,329 |1,861
Mersey |21,638 |24 |22,752 |114 |22,073 |56 |22,411 |0
North Western |29,600 |1,601 |31,661 |1,725 |32,889 |1,825 |35,471 |1,827
|---- |--- |---- |--- |---- |--- |---- |---
All Regions |314,325 |10,737 |329,535 |13,217 |343,366 |15,436 |367,825 |17,923
Hospital Closures
Mr. Milburn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list by region and name each proposed hospital closure notified to her Department for each year since 1988 ; whether the hospital closed, merged, changed its function or was downsized ; and what was the number of beds each hospital had at its closure date.
Mr. Sackville : The Department requires formal notification only where proposed closures are contested by the community health councils. The detailed information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Social Workers
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the number of social workers based in hospitals for each year since 1979.
Mr. Bowis : For 1979 to 1992 this information is not available centrally. The information for 1993 is still being validated.
Care Packages
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is her policy in respect of care packages for individuals or their relatives who refuse to accept discharge arrangements from hospital into independent sector residential or nursing care.
Mr. Bowis : Where an individual does not want, for whatever reason, to be discharged to a nursing home or
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residential care home the local and health authorities should seek to work together with the individual and their family or carer to find a satisfactory alternative solution.Health Information Service
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many calls the health information service has received since it was set up ;
(2) how many people are employed to answer calls in the health information service ;
(3) what was the cost of setting up the health information service, including publicity ; and what are the running costs of the service.
Mr. Sackville : The information, in the form requested, is not available centrally. A special trawl of regions has produced the information set out below.
The number of calls received by the health information service in the period April 1992 to December 1992 was 51,252. In the period between 26 January 1993, when the freephone facility was set up, to 31 December 1993 the number of calls was 136,293, making a total of 187,545.
The number of staff employed to answer the telephones is 31.5 whole-time equivalent personnel.
The total setting-up costs for the regions for 1992-93 were £379, 182 and £209,257 for publicity, totalling £588,439, and for 1993-94 £287,686 and £156,701 for publicity, totalling £444,387.
The total setting-up costs for the Department of Health were £397, 000. The running costs of the health information service operated by all regions were £899,113 for 1992-93 and £1,401,127 for 1993-94.
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Extra-contractual Referrals
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidelines she has issued to regulate extra-contractual referrals ; and if she will make a statement.
Dr. Mawhinney : Current guidance is contained in
FDL(93)07--"Consolidation of Guidance on Extra-Contractual Referrals, Tariffs and Invoicing"--and HSG(93)8--"Guidance on Operation of Notification Arrangements for Tertiary Extra-Contractual Referrals"--copies of which will be placed in the Library.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what monitoring her Department undertakes of the rate of extra-contractual referrals.
Dr. Mawhinney : The National Health Service Management Executive quarterly monitoring system collects information by regional health authority on their forecast outturn spend on extra-contractual referrals compared with their planned levels of spend.
Correspondence
Mr. Winnick : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the hon. Member for Walsall, North will receive a reply to his letter of 24 January, ref. 4/4593/21 and originally written to the Secretary of State for Social Security.
Mr. Bowis : I replied to the hon. Member's letter on 3 March.
Patient Waiting Times
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will publish a table showing for each divisional health authority area, for each of the last four quarters, the number of patients waiting for treatment (a) less than 12 months and (b) more than 12 months.
Dr. Mawhinney : Information on waiting lists for in-patient and day case treatment by district health authority is given in "Hospital Waiting List Statistics : England", which is published twice yearly. In addition, provisional figures are published quarterly but only on a regional health authority basis. Copies of both are available in the Library.
Hospital Beds
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) acute and (b) non-acute beds were available in each region, each district, each special health authority and for the nation as a whole for each year from 1987.
Mr. Sackville : The information is shown in "Bed availability for England, Financial Year 1992-93", a copy of which is available in the Library.
Emergency Admissions
Mr. Milburn : To ask the Secretary of state for Health if she will provide a table showing the number of emergency hospital admissions by region for each of the last five years.
Mr. Sackville : The number of finished consultant episodes that are non-elective admissions by regional
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health authority for 1991-92, 1992-93 and 1993-94--forecast and subject to revision--are shown in the table. Directly comparable information for earlier years is not available. The information is for the general and acute specialities and has been compiled on a purchaser basis in order to reach regional totals. It is estimated that over 80 per cent. of non-elective admissions are emergencies.
General and acute-'000s
|Forecast
|1991-92 |1992-93 |1993-94
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Northern Non-electives |255.0 |257.0 |263.7
Total |553.8 |560.9 |579.6
Percentage |47.8 |45.8 |45.5
Yorkshire Non-electives |295.8 |304.7 |304.0
Total |616.5 |644.3 |669.2
Percentage |48.0 |47.3 |45.4
Trent Non-electives |345.1 |359.4 |379.6
Total |705.7 |751.9 |806.3
Percentage |48.9 |47.8 |47.1
East Anglian Non-electives |137.3 |144.1 |144.3
Total |280.9 |293.4 |310.9
Percentage |48.9 |49.1 |46.4
North West Thames Non-electives |217.8 |224.6 |220.3
Total |471.6 |490.4 |497.9
Percentage |46.2 |45.8 |44.2
North East Thames Non-electives |273.6 |266.1 |271.7
Total |534.4 |530.6 |552.7
Percentage |51.2 |50.2 |49.2
South East Thames Non-electives |248.7 |256.1 |261.3
Total |510.6 |535.8 |550.5
Percentage |48.7 |47.8 |47.5
South West Thames Non-electives |195.3 |199.8 |200.0
Total |421.0 |429.7 |433.7
Percentage |46.4 |46.5 |46.1
Wessex Non-electives |195.1 |219.9 |228.6
Total |455.1 |482.1 |501.5
Percentage |42.9 |45.6 |45.6
Oxford Non-electives |155.6 |156.5 |161.5
Total |316.9 |342.8 |357.5
Percentage |49.1 |45.7 |45.2
South Western Non-electives |218.9 |230.2 |244.3
Total |488.0 |527.4 |556.2
Percentage |44.9 |43.7 |43.9
West Midlands Non-electives |356.8 |380.7 |399.0
Total |755.0 |799.7 |821.9
Percentage |47.3 |47.6 |48.5
Mersey Non-electives |207.0 |218.8 |226.7
Total |395.0 |429.2 |456.8
Percentage |52.4 |51.0 |49.6
North Western Non-electives |340.8 |339.0 |351.0
Total |721.9 |748.4 |788.0
Percentage |47.2 |45.3 |44.5
ENGLAND Non-electives |3,442.8 |3,556.9 |3,655.8
Total |7,206.5 |7,566.5 |7,882.6
Percentage |47.8 |47.0 |46.4
Source: 1991-92, 1992-93 (Quarter 4) Quarterly Monitoring
1993-94 (Quarter 3) Quarterly Monitoring
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HOME DEPARTMENT
Royal Palaces (Security)
Mr. David Young : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what proportion of the cost of security arrangements at the royal palaces fell on the Exchequer, including police and Army wages, in the last year for which figures are available ; (2) who is operationally responsible for overseeing security at royal palaces ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Howard : Operational responsibility for overseeing security at the royal palaces and residences rests with the chief officer of police concerned. Within the Metropolitan police district all aspects of royalty protection are the responsibility of a deputy assistant commissioner who reports directly to the Commissioner. The effectiveness of the arrangements made for royalty protection is examined regularly by the standing group for monitoring royalty protection which was established in 1982 and reports to me from time to time. For security reasons, it would not be right to give a breakdown of the costs involved, but I can confirm that nearly all the costs incurred fall to the Exchequer.
Private Clubs
Mr. David Young : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his definition of a private club ; and how many private clubs are operating in each standard region of England.
Mr. Maclean : The term "private club" has no particular legal significance. It could be applied to a wide range of associations and establishments, such as political clubs, sports clubs and philatelist clubs. There is no requirement for private clubs to be registered as such, and the Government have no information as to their numbers.
Mr. David Young : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will review present legislation governing inspection and enforcement of fire regulations at private clubs ; and what assessment he has made of the changes necessary as a result of the recent tragedy in London.
Mr. Charles Wardle : The fire safety scrutiny set up by the Government, which began its work on 17 January 1994, is looking at the operation and effectiveness of all legislation dealing with fire safety, and with the organisational arrangements of all bodies responsible for enforcing it.
Any decision about the need for changes to the legislation must await the outcome of that scrutiny and of the inquiries which are currently being conducted into the tragic fire at the Dream City Club.
Passports
Mrs. Ewing : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department has spent, and is planning to spend in the next year, on market testing for the issue of United Kingdom passports.
Mr. Charles Wardle : Estimated expenditure on the three United Kingdom Passport Agency projects which were included in the Department's 1992-93 market-testing
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programme is about £5,000. The extent of future spending on market testing will depend on the outcome of the current review of the agency's framework document which includes an examination of the scope for market testing.Cannabis
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the average fine imposed on individuals found guilty of possession of cannabis.
Mr. Maclean : In 1992, the latest year for which figures are available, the average fine for the offence of unlawful possession of cannabis was £74.
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received on the proposal to increase the maximum fine for possession of cannabis.
Mr. Maclean : Apart from several general inquiries from members of the public, we have had forwarded by hon. Members nine letters on the proposed increase in fines for the illegal possession of class B and class C drugs.
Identity Cards
Mr. Rooker : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the EU member states and the states about to join the EU which use identity cards or unique personal reference numbers, outlining the degree of obligation to produce evidence of identity in each state.
Mr. Charles Wardle : The following European Union member states use national identity cards :
Belgium
France
Germany
Greece
Italy
Luxembourg
The Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
With the exception of the Netherlands, we understand that the police are able to request proof of identity in each of these member states. We understand that new legislation will come into effect in the Netherlands on 1 June 1994 which will oblige Dutch nationals to provide proof of identity in certain defined circumstances. In Denmark all citizens are issued with a "central person register" number. This is used for administrative purposes. The police may request proof of identity although we understand that the CPR number is not accepted as such proof.
Information about those states about to join the European Union is not readily available.
Firearms
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the increase in firearms imported illegally from eastern Europe since 1988.
Mr. Charles Wardle : There is no doubt that the breakup of the former Soviet Union and the demise of the Warsaw pact has led to a greater availability of firearms on the world market. I know that HM Customs is aware of this increased risk and is taking steps to counter it.
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Anti-drug Policies
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will publish the report "The Use of Drugs by Young People in Newcastle" ; and what assessment he has made of the outcome of Government anti-drug policies in the light of the report.
Mr. Maclean : The research reported on in "The Use of Drugs by Young People in Newcastle", by Dr. Leslie Gofton of the University of Newcastle, was funded with a grant from the Newcastle drugs prevention team. Publication will be arranged by Dr. Gofton. The research consisted of some group interviews with young people about their leisure activities and drug use and a survey of the self-reported drug usage of 263 18 to 25-year-olds. The research provided insights into the nature of local drug use, and of young people's leisure preferences, which the Newcastle drugs prevention team has taken into account in the development of its local work, including "Take Notice", a local drugs prevention information campaign aimed at young people. But the samples demographic profile was not representative of the general population of young people, in Newcastle or elsewhere.
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