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Recycling
Mr. Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is his policy on the recycling of material produced by his Department. [108473]
Yvette Cooper: The Department fully supports the Green Ministers' target for Government Departments of recovering a minimum of 40 per cent. of total office waste, with at least 25 per cent. coming from recycling or composting, in 2000-01. This target has recently been incorporated into the Department's environmental strategy and a waste audit has recently been commissioned to review our recycling schemes to ensure the target is met.
Our associate bodies are being asked to support the Department's environmental strategy and adopt the Green Ministers' target.
In-patient Statistics
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of in-patients are aged over (a) 65, (b) 70, (c) 75 and (d) 80 years. [108161]
Mr. Denham: The table shows numbers of admissions by age and are expressed as a proportion of all admissions in NHS hospitals in England for the financial year 1997-98.
| Age group (years) | Admissions | Proportion of all admissions |
|---|---|---|
| Over 65 | 3,061,773 | 29.3 |
| Over 70 | 2,393,274 | 22.9 |
| Over 75 | 1,679,226 | 16.0 |
| Over 80 | 1,003,300 | 9.6 |
| All ages | 10,463,971 | 100.0 |
The information is extracted from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) system. HES contains details of patients admitted to, and treated in, NHS hospitals in England.
The HES data shown are the number of admissions to hospital. It is not yet possible to count each individual patient once and once only.
Figures for 1997-98 are provisional as no adjustments have yet been made for missing records or invalid/unknown diagnoses.
Dr. Iddon:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health in (1) what circumstances health authorities may gain access to patient records held by general practitioners without compromising confidentiality; [108611]
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Mr. Denham:
Under their terms of service, general practitioners are currently required to
Medical records are also routinely referred to by designated health authority staff for Post Payment Verification purposes, using a process agreed with Local Medical Committees so as not to contravene patient confidentiality.
It is essential that computer-based records must have a robust audit trail so that any changes to, or deletions from, the medical record are fully recorded so that it is always possible to re-create the record in the form in which it would originally have appeared.
The Department has published minimum standards to which general practice computer systems should conform and these include a detailed requirement for such an audit trail. These requirements are periodically reviewed to keep pace with changing technology and the latest version was published in October 1999.
Dr. Iddon:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will introduce a national immunisation programme for hepatitis B, with particular reference to intravenous drug users. [108610]
Yvette Cooper:
The Department has had a policy of immunisation against hepatitis B since 1988 for those who are at increased risk of infection. We have made available additional funds for key objectives in its anti-drugs strategy, one of which is to enable health authorities to increase hepatitis B immunisation of drug misusers.
Ms Oona King:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what were the average waiting times for out-patient appointments for East London and the City Health Authority in (a) 1997-98 and (b) 1998-99. [108441]
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Mr. Denham:
The average waiting times for outpatients' appointments in East London and the City Health Authority for the years requested are shown in the table:
(2) if he will examine ways of preventing doctors retrospectively changing the computer records of patients. [108612]
"keep adequate records of the illnesses and treatment of his patients on forms supplied to him for the purpose by the HA"
and to
"forward such records to the HA on request as soon as possible".
It is generally accepted that patients who disclose information to a doctor do so on the understanding that information may be used by the National Health Service to monitor and improve the standards of care through research, clinical audit and the maintaining of registers. We have said that we intend to press ahead with the proposals for mandatory clinical audit in the Chief Medical Officer's consultation paper "Supporting Doctors, Protecting Patients", and that clinical governance will apply to all doctors. This will introduce accountability, promote high care standards, and ensure that an individual doctor's pattern of practice is not hidden.
| Year | Average Outpatient Wait (weeks) |
|---|---|
| 1997-98 | 8.95 |
| 1998-99 | 8.72 |
Miscarriages
Audrey Wise: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) miscarriages occurred in pregnancies of at least 13 and less than 24 completed weeks of gestation in England and (b) women (i) who were admitted to hospital and (ii) cared for by a general practitioner without admission to hospital following such miscarriages in each of the last 10 years. [108680]
Yvette Cooper: There are no reliable data held by the Department about the number of miscarriages where care was provided by a general practitioner. Information about the number of women requiring hospital treatment for miscarriages is available from the Hospital Episode Statistics but not by period of gestation. The latest information for the number of women diagnosed as receiving hospital care for miscarriage from 1989-90 to 1997-98 are in the table.
| Year | Number of miscarriages |
|---|---|
| 1989-90 | 48,500 |
| 1990-91 | 50,600 |
| 1991-92 | 53,100 |
| 1992-93 | 52,400 |
| 1993-94 | 51,300 |
| 1994-95 | 48,700 |
| 1995-96 | 43,900 |
| 1996-97 | 44,500 |
| 1997-98 | (5)41,800 |
(5) Provisional
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics
The information in the table is obtained from the Hospital Episodes Statistics system. The data are ungrossed and therefore have not been adjusted to allow for missing, incomplete or inaccurate records.
Data extracted were those with the diagnosis code O03 (ICD-10) Spontaneous Abortion.
Audrey Wise:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what was the number of births in hospitals in England which were (a) spontaneous, (b) by Caesarean section, (c) by forceps, (d) by vacuum extraction and (e) otherwise, broken down by social class of the babies' fathers for births which were (i) within marriage and (ii) outside marriage and registered jointly by both parents and (iii) outside marriage registered by the mother alone; [108679]
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Yvette Cooper:
The information requested is not available in the form requested. The numbers of births by type of delivery are collected by the Department on the Hospital Episode Statistics system. The numbers of births by social class of father and mother, and inside/outside marriage including sole registration are collected by the Office for National Statistics through the birth registration system. These two systems are not linked and the information requested cannot be provided.
The latest statistics on births by social class of father and type of registration (inside/outside marriage) for England and Wales for 1998, published by the Office for National Statistics, is contained in the Series FM1 volumes Birth statistics. Copies are in the Library.
(2) what was the number of births in hospitals in England which were (a) spontaneous, (b) by Caesarean section, (c) by forceps, (d) by vacuum extraction and
(e) otherwise, broken down by social class of the babies' mothers, in the most recent year for which the information is available. [108678]
| Method of delivery | Percentage | Number (thousand) |
|---|---|---|
| Spontaneous | 71 | 412 |
| Caesarean | 17 | 99 |
| Forceps | 4 | 23 |
| Vacuum extraction | 6 | 35 |
| Other (including breach) | 2 | 12 |
| Total maternities | 100 | 580 |
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (Maternity) and the Office for National Statistics
Audrey Wise: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the number of births of babies born to residents of England weighing (a) under 1,000g, (b) 1,000-1,499g, (c) 1,500-2,499g and (d) 2,500g and over, who have been diagnosed as having cerebral palsy by the age of (i) two years and (ii) five years in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available. [108677]
Yvette Cooper: There are no centrally collected data on the numbers of children in England with cerebral palsy. We are aware however that the risk of cerebral palsy among babies born weighing less than 1,500 grammes is 70 times higher than among babies weighing 2,500 grammes or more at birth.
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