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Hospital Beds
Mr. Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospital beds were available in (a) Great Britain and (b) each NHS trust in (i) 1979, (ii) 1990 and (iii) each year since 1992 for which figures are available. [126921]
Mr. Denham [holding answer 21 June 2000]: Copies of the information available have been placed in the Library. This relates to all types of beds and is for England only. Hospital beds in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are a matter for the devolved administrations. The information is subject to the following caveats:
- Information on the average daily number of beds is now collected annually, on a financial year basis, from National Health Service providers. Prior to 1987-88 information was collected on a calendar year basis.
- Figures for 1989-90 were collected at district health authority level.
- From 1991-92 to 1994-95 NHS beds were provided by a mix of NHS trusts and directly managed units. The information in the tables is split into beds provided by NHS trusts and beds provided by directly managed units. From 1995-96 all beds were provided by NHS trusts.
Spiritual Healers
Mr. Tredinnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with the Home Secretary about the Charity Commission's approach to the proposed registration of the National Federation of Spiritual Healers Charitable Trust Ltd. as a charity; and if he will make a statement. [126473]
Yvette Cooper [holding answer 22 June 2000]: None. This is a matter for the Charity Commission, which is answerable to the High Court for its legal decisions and its interpretation of charity law.
Eye Tests
Mr. Hurst: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many free eye tests have been undertaken for pensioners under the current scheme; and what is the cost of the scheme to date. [127587]
Mr. Denham: We estimate that 2.5 million additional people aged 60 or over received National Health Service sight tests in the financial year from April 1999 and that the cost of our decision to restore eligibility for free tests to this population group is about £40 million per annum.
28 Jun 2000 : Column: 513W
National Plan
Mr. Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress he has made on compiling the National Plan; and if he will make a statement. [127650]
Mr. Denham: We have now received working papers from each of the modernisation action teams; reports on the consultation with National Health Service staff from each of the NHS Executive regional offices; responses from around 50 national and local organisations; and over 219,000 responses from staff and members of the public. We are now in the process of synthesising the material and will publish the National Plan next month.
MRSA (Greater London)
Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many outbreaks of MRSA there have been in each of the last five years for which figures are available in (a) Greater London and (b) Enfield and Haringey Health Authority; how many wards were closed as a result and what the average length of closure was; and if he will make a statement. [127841]
Mr. Denham: The Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) compiles aggregate data on numbers of incidents of MRSA (three or more patients infected or colonised by the same strain of MRSA in a month) that are reported voluntary by NHS Trusts.
Data are available by health service region. The health regions that include Greater London have changed twice in the past five years. Data on MRSA incidents in the Thames regions (1995-98) and London and South East regions (1999) are summarised in the table.
| Region | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North East Thames | 266 | 245 | (1)158 | -- | -- |
| North West Thames | 300 | 294 | (1)141 | -- | -- |
| South East Thames | 248 | 235 | (1)120 | -- | -- |
| South West Thames | 129 | 186 | (1)93 | -- | -- |
| North Thames | -- | -- | (2)245 | 289 | -- |
| South Thames | -- | -- | (2)172 | 220 | -- |
| London | -- | -- | -- | -- | 290 |
| South-East | -- | -- | -- | -- | 170 |
| Total | 943 | 960 | 929 | 509 | 460 |
(1) Data from January to June 1997
(2) Data from July to December 1997
The PHLS does not collect data for individual health authorities.
Health Action Zones
Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans the Government have to announce a further bidding round for health action zones; and if he will make a statement. [127840]
Mr. Denham: There are no plans for a further bidding round for health action zones (HAZs). We are however committed to spreading learning and good practice from the existing 26 HAZs into other areas and seeing the services and approaches being developed by HAZs integrated into mainstream activity throughout the country. An example of this is the new premises flexibilities that were developed with HAZs and that I announced to all health authorities on 20 January.
28 Jun 2000 : Column: 514W
Coronary Heart Disease
Mr. David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the implementation of the National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease. [127430]
Yvette Cooper [holding answer 23 June 2000]: The National Service Framework (NSF) which sets national standards for improved prevention, diagnosis and treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD) was published on 6 March.
Action is progressing on a number of fronts:
National Priorities Guidance (NPG) identifies developing and implementing local prevention policies on CHD and stroke by March 2001, increasing the number of coronary revascularisations (CABG/PTCA) by 3,000 by April 2002 and achieving the NHS milestones for April 2001 as priorities for the National Health Service.
We have appointed Dr. Roger Boyle as National Director for Heart Disease. Dr. Boyle's first priority is to work with NHS and Regional Offices on drawing up plans for guidance on the immediate priorities including plans for expenditure of £50 million (announced last October) to increase the numbers of heart operations.
Plans are also being worked up for spending the further £50 million (announced on 6 March) for establishing rapid access chest pain clinics, speeding up ambulance response times and purchasing defibrillators and other equipment.
£3 million of the £50 million will also be used to reduce waiting times for treatment by developing projects to test out better and more streamlined ways of delivering services, the CHD partnership programme. Plans to take this forward are in hand.
Health authorities and their partner organisations are establishing local implementation teams to draw up comprehensive local delivery plans, to be completed and agreed by October 2000.
We are in the process of setting up the National Coronary Heart Disease Implementation Group which will oversee national progress on implementation.
Surgical Services
Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the effect of clinical governance on the continuing provision of in-patient surgical services at (a) smaller hospitals and (b) in general. [127797]
Mr. Denham: Clinical governance is central to our plans to provide a health service that continually improves the overall standard of clinical care it delivers, reduces unacceptable variations in treatment outcomes, and ensures that clinical decision making is supported by evidence of effectiveness. It represents a systematic approach to clinical quality assurance and improvement, but does not dictate how services should be managed or delivered. This is the responsibility of local commissioners who must ensure that high quality surgical services are provided safely, taking into account local circumstances such as geography and the need for remote smaller services to be linked into wider clinical networks.
28 Jun 2000 : Column: 515W
Acute Services
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many acute hospital beds are available at NHS hospitals within the Greater London Authority area. [127847]
Mr. Denham: I refer my hon. Friend to my answer of 17 May 2000, Official Report, column 128W.
The average daily number of available acute hospital care beds in the London region in the financial year 1998-99 was 17,022.
Internet
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he has taken to provide protection to patients who utilise the Internet for health information services and products. [127883]
Ms Stuart [holding answer 27 June 2000]: The success of the Internet has been partly due to the ease with which people can access and create information. While it is not possible to restrict what patients see on the Internet, we recognise the need to signpost information sources, and to give easy access to relevant quality information that the public and patients can rely on, and which is presented in a clear and intelligible way.
A number of information initiatives are being put in place to improve the quality and range of information available about health and health services:
- The National Health Service Executive has set up the Centre for Health Information Quality (CHiQ). The role of CHiQ is to work with the producers of information for the patients and the public to improve its quality, accessibility and evidence base. The CHiQ work uses the DISCERN tool for evaluating health literature. DISCERN was developed by the UK academic sector in collaboration with healthcare professionals and is funded by the NHS Executive.
- NHS Direct Online (www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk) is a highly successful gateway to health information on the Internet attracting 25,000 users a week and complementing the NHS Direct telephone advice service. NHS Direct Online is managed by the CHiQ on behalf of the NHS Executive.
- nhs.uk will provide a strongly branded gateway (www.nhs.uk) to NHS websites and licensed or accredited websites and services. Close working relationships with the Department of Health, NHS Executive, other NHS Information Authority programmes and the NHS are in place.
- The National Electronic Library for Health (NeLH) will provide a common point of public access to a wide range of health knowledge bases. The NeLH will emphasise the need for all clinical practitioners to critically evaluate sources.
Ultimately however the responsibility rests on individual clinicians, patients and members of the public to make their own judgments about the validity of the material they access.
28 Jun 2000 : Column: 516W
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