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Basildon and Thurrock General Hospitals NHS Trust
Mr. Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 9 July, Official Report, column 504, what was the nature of the work carried out by Drivers Jonas in respect of Orsett hospital. [8979]
Mr. Milburn: Information about the exact nature of the work carried out by the chartered surveyors Drivers Jonas in respect of Orsett hospital is not held centrally. However, the recent executive letter EL(97)35 "Making Available Information about PFI Projects" gave notice and guidance to trust and health and authority chief executives on requests for information on their private finance initiative schemes.
Provided the information is not commercially sensitive and its release is consistent with the EL, the information should be obtainable from the chief executive of the trust. Copies of the EL (97)35 have been placed in the Library.
Mr. Mackinlay:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 9 July, Official Report, column 505, from whom the remuneration committee of the Basildon and Thurrock General Hospitals NHS trust board receives advice as to the appropriate pay, conditions and bonuses to be paid to its directors. [8980]
Mr. Milburn:
Guidance on the role of the remuneration committee was issued to trust chief executives in national health service executive letter EL(94)40 on the codes of conduct and accountability. The NHS executive has also issued guidance (TEL(94)2 and TEL(95)1) to all NHS trusts on the principles and procedures to apply when considering severance payments to general and senior managers on short-term rolling contracts. Copies of all the guidance have been
21 Jul 1997 : Column: 414
placed in the Library. Subject to these provisions, it is a matter for the remuneration committee to decide who it should take advice from.
Helen Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the cost of alcohol abuse to the United Kingdom economy. [9218]
Ms Jowell:
The most recent academic study of which we are aware estimated the cost of sickness absence to industry in England and Wales in 1992 as a result of alcohol misuse at £1,059.2 million.
Mr. Campbell-Savours:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library copies of each of the PFI bids for NHS facilities as produced by each of the health care providers involved. [9873]
Mr. Milburn:
The recent NHS executive letter EL(97)35 "Making Available Information about PFI Projects" gave notice and guidance to trust and health authority chief executives on requests for information on their PFI schemes. Copies of the letter have been placed in the Library.
Provided the information is not commercially sensitive and its release is consistent with the EL, the information should be obtainable from the chief executives of the trusts.
Mr. Sanders:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 12 June, Official Report, column 530, when he expects to have completed consideration of whether general practitioners should be allowed to prescribe insulin injection pen needles on the national health service. [9546]
Mr. Milburn:
It is not possible to give an estimate at this stage in our consideration.
Ms Roseanna Cunningham:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many new HIV infections there have been in England and Wales among (a) intravenous drug-users, (b) heterosexuals and (c) homosexuals in the age groups (1) 16 to 25, (2) 26 to 35, (3) 36 to 45, (4) 46 to 55 and (5) over 55s by health authority (i) each year since 1985 and (ii) in total; if he will list the year-on-year change in each group in percentage terms; and if he will make a statement about the Government's targeting of HIV-AIDS prevention materials. [9222]
Ms Jowell:
Tables showing diagnosed HIV infections reported to the public health laboratory service communicable disease surveillance centre, based on data to the end of June 1997, have been placed in the Library. Individuals often do not seek testing unless they believe themselves to be at risk or develop symptoms; hence reported HIV infections underestimate the true number of cases. In addition, these figures are subject to under-reporting.
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Data are given by region because presenting data by health authorities may enable deductive disclosure about individuals in low-prevalence areas and health authorities boundaries have changed over time. Tables showing year on year percentage changes by probable exposure category, age group and region have been prepared.
National health promotion campaigns for HIV-AIDS are targeted in line with the UK Health Department's strategy, "HIV and AIDS Health Promotion: An Evolving Strategy", November 1995. This emphasised the need for better targeting of vulnerable groups as well as the need to inform the general population about the continuing potential risks from HIV. The strategy identified vulnerable groups as gay men--in particular, young gay men--bisexuals and other men who have sex with men, injecting drug users, men and women who travel to or have links with high prevalence countries, currently those in sub-Saharan Africa, and women partners of men in these groups.
In line with the strategy, main Department of Health contracts for national HIV-AIDS health promotion work are with:
Guidance issued by the Department to health authorities on the use of ring-fenced HIV prevention funds stresses the need for locally targeted HIV prevention and health promotion programmes aimed at the groups identified in the evolving strategy.
The Government have encouraged the development of needle and syringe exchange schemes in order to reduce the harm caused by injecting drugs, in particular the risk of transmitting blood-born viruses. Guidance issued to health and local authorities in March 1997 asked commissioners to address the needs of injecting drug misusers as a priority, by ensuring that they have access to needle and syringe exchanges and appropriate treatment services.
Mr. Soames:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to merge hospital trusts in West Sussex.[9600]
Mr. Milburn:
No proposals for merger have come forward from hospital trusts in West Sussex.
Sir Teddy Taylor:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what changes have occurred in the incidence of asthma in children over the past 20 years; what regional variations apply; and what assessment his Department has made of the causes of increases in the incidence of asthma. [9875]
21 Jul 1997 : Column: 416
Ms Jowell:
The table shows the mean weekly incidence of new general practitioner episodes of asthma in children per 100,000 of the population in England for each year since 1977. The data are collected from individual practices, and are not collated on a regional basis. It is therefore not possible to provide a regional breakdown. The figures show a clear increase over three decades up to the early 1990s. Although increasing awareness of asthma may have contributed to part of this rise, it does appear likely that part is due to an actual growth in the prevalence of the disease. However, it is still not known what causes asthma or what accounts for this rise.
(Source: Godfrey, C. and Hardman, G. Changing the Social Costs of Alcohol. Final report to the Alcohol Education and Research Council. York: Centre for Health Economics, 1994.)
(a) the Terrence Higgins Trust: to undertake through community-based groups, targeted HIV-AIDS health promotion work for gay and bisexual men in England.
In addition, the Department is currently developing a national programme of HIV-AIDS health promotion work for sub-Saharan African communities living in England.
(b) the Health Education Authority: to undertake health promotion work for the general population.
| Age group | 0-4 | 5-14 |
|---|---|---|
| 1977(14) | 13.7 | 15.1 |
| 1978(14) | 26.6 | 23.4 |
| 1979 | 33.0 | 25.6 |
| 1980 | 31.6 | 28.8 |
| 1981 | 31.3 | 32.7 |
| 1982 | 32.2 | 31.5 |
| 1983 | 35.4 | 35.7 |
| 1984 | 52.4 | 36.5 |
| 1985 | 57.1 | 43.4 |
| 1986 | 52.4 | 41.1 |
| 1987 | 74.4 | 58.9 |
| 1988 | 102.4 | 68.7 |
| 1989 | 92.9 | 66.3 |
| 1990 | 108.4 | 71.0 |
| 1991 | 145.9 | 89.4 |
| 1992 | 147.8 | 84.2 |
| 1993 | 152.6 | 90.2 |
| 1994 | 137.4 | 89.2 |
| 1995 | 108.9 | 73.7 |
| 1996 | 104.7 | 63.7 |
Note:
(14) Data for 1977 and 1978 are not directly comparable with data for subsequent years as the International Classification of Disease (ICD codes) used to extract asthma data were changed in 1978.
Source:
Royal College of General Practitioners Weekly Returns Service.
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