| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Departmental Staff
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many unfilled vacancies for permanent staff his Department has; what percentage of staff positions in his Department are vacant; what the monthly cost would be to his Department of employing civil servants in these positions; how many and what percentage of staff his Department employs on a temporary basis through employment agencies; how much his Department paid employment agencies to supply temporary staff in each of the last 12 months; and how much he expects to pay employment agencies to supply temporary staff in each of the next 12 months. [131433]
25 Jul 2000 : Column: 495W
Ms Stuart: Responsibility for staffing and recruitment issues has been substantially delegated to individual business units. As a result, the information requested is not held centrally. To collect it would incur disproportionate costs.
Clinical Errors
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to introduce an early warning system for clinical errors. [131505]
Ms Stuart: "An Organisation with a Memory", the report of an expert group chaired by the Chief Medical Officer, was published on 13 June 2000. The group examined the extent to which the National Health Service and its constituent organisations had the capability to learn from untoward incidents and service failures so that similar occurrences are avoided in future. The report's main recommendation is the introduction of a mandatory reporting system for adverse health care events and specified near misses. We are taking steps to implement such a system and expect to have made significant progress before the end of the year.
25 Jul 2000 : Column: 496W
National Plan
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress he is making on the National Plan for Health; and if he will make a statement. [131503]
Mr. Denham: Over 220,000 members of the public and staff and around 100 national and local organisations responded to our consultation exercise. Their comments and ideas have now been analysed, together with the detailed work of the modernisation action teams and the more in-depth public involvement strategy. All this has culminated in the National Health Service National Plan which will be presented to the House later this week.
Operations
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hernia operations were carried out by the NHS last year (a) in Coventry, South, (b) in the West Midlands and (c) nationally. [131506]
Mr. Denham: The number of hernia operations carried out by the National Health Service in Coventry Health Authority, the West Midlands and England during the financial year 1998-99 are shown in the table.
25 Jul 2000 : Column: 495W
| Operation | Coventry(1) | West Midlands | England | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T19 | Simple excision of inguinal hernial sac | 44 | 1,051 | 10,315 |
| T20 | Primary repair of inguinal hernia | 619 | 7,670 | 66,346 |
| T21 | Repair of recurrent inguinal hernia | 16 | 610 | 5,478 |
| T22 | Primary repair of femoral hernia | 21 | 445 | 4,119 |
| T23 | Repair of recurrent femoral hernia | 0 | 14 | 177 |
| T24 | Repair of umbilical hernia | 75 | 1,489 | 12,358 |
| T25 | Primary repair of incisional hernia | 43 | 617 | 5,297 |
| T26 | Repair of recurrent incisional hernia | 6 | 87 | 689 |
| T27 | Repair of other hernia of abdominal wall | 38 | 517 | 4,885 |
| Total | 862 | 12,500 | 109,664 |
(1) The appropriate area of treatment for Coventry, South is Coventry Health Authority.
Notes:
1. The figures do not represent the number of patients, as one person may have several operations within the year.
2. Finished Consultant Episodes (FCEs) where OPCS4R operation codes T19 to T27 appeared as the main operation.
3. For 1998-99, no adjustments have as yet been made for shortfalls in the data.
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Department of Health.
25 Jul 2000 : Column: 495W
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) hip replacement and (b) cataract operations were carried out by the NHS last year (i) in Coventry South, (ii) in the West Midlands and (c) nationally. [131538]
Mr. Denham: The information requested is given in the table.
| Operation | Coventry(1) | West Midlands | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary total hip replacements(1) | 275 | 4,704 | 37,189 |
| Hip replacement revisions(1) | 24 | 408 | 4,013 |
| Total hip replacement operations | 299 | 5,112 | 41,202 |
| Cataract operations(1) | 1,995 | 20,602 | 204,074 |
(1) The appropriate area of treatment for Coventry South, is Coventry Health Authority.
(1) Finished Consultant Episodes (FCEs) with a main operation OPCS4R code in the range W37-W39 or W46-W48, excluding revisions, emergency admissions and FCEs with a primary diagnosis of ICD10 S72.0, S72.1 or S72.2 (fracture of neck of femur).
(1) FCEs with a main operation OPCS4 code W37.3, W38.3, W39.3, W46.3, W47.3, or W48.3, excluding emergency admissions and episodes with a primary diagnosis of ICD10 S72.0, S72.1 or S72.2 (fracture of neck of femur).
(1) Count of FCEs where OPCS4R codes C71, C72, C74 or C75 occurred in any of the four (main and three secondary) operation codes.
Notes:
1. The figures do not represent the number of patients, as one person may have several operations within the year.
2. For 1998-99, no adjustments have as yet been made for shortfalls in the data.
3. These figures were provided by Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Department of Health.
25 Jul 2000 : Column: 497W
Health Provision Variations
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to reduce variation in health provision between the poorest and the best-off areas across the UK. [131504]
Yvette Cooper: We are setting standards through the National Institute for Clinical Excellence and the national service frameworks. We are ensuring local delivery through clinical governance and monitoring delivery through the performance assessment framework and the Commission for Health Improvement. On 14 July we published a second set of performance indicators which will enable the local health service to identify where their performance falls below that of the best and we expect measures to be taken to improve poorly performing services. We are working with relevant parties, utilising the record increases in National Health Service funding to improve NHS performance and tackle health inequalities.
GM Food
Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the nature is of the feeding trials in which animals are being fed GM herbicide-tolerant forage maize treated with glufosinate ammonium. [132649]
Ms Stuart: The Food Standards Agency knows of no current feeding trials, but is aware that the developers of the crop variety intend to use the maize in an animal feeding study in the future. The company has undertaken to seek our agreement to the protocol for such work.
Neonatal Hearing Screening
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much his Department has invested in neonatal hearing screening for each of the last five years; [131332]
- (2) how much his Department plans to spend on (a) the launch and (b) the national roll-out of the neonatal hearing screening pilot project in each of the next three years; [131333]
(3) what cost to benefit analysis his Department has carried out of introducing universal neonatal hearing screening; [131334]
(4) what studies his Department has carried out into the benefits of neonatal hearing screening; [131335]
(5) what his Department's timetable is for the national roll-out of the neonatal hearing screening pilot project; when an announcement about a timetable will be made; and what factors will inform the timing of an announcement of the timetable; [131336]
(6) if he will review the findings of the Colorado research project on neonatal hearing screening; [131337]
(7) what consultations his Department has had with disability organisations of and for deaf and hard of hearing people about the launch of the neonatal hearing screening pilot project; [131338]
(8) when his Department will establish an advisory group to advise on the launch and national roll-out of its pilot project for neonatal hearing screening; and when it will announce the composition of the group; [131339]
25 Jul 2000 : Column: 498W
(9) by what process his Department will establish (a) the criteria, (b) the selection procedure and (c) the timetable for the establishment of the 20 neonatal hearing screening pilot sites; [131340]
(10) what discussions his Department has had with the Department for Education and Employment about developing the provision of language and education support for children from zero to two years in preparation for (a) the launch and (b) the national roll-out of its pilot project for neonatal hearing screening; [131341]
(11) what discussions his Department (a) has had and (b) plans to have with (i) health authorities and NHS trusts, (ii) paediatric audiologists, (iii) ENT consultants, (iv) speech and language therapists and (v) cochlear implant centres about (A) the launch and (B) the national roll-out of the neonatal hearing screening pilot project. [131342]
Yvette Cooper: Investment in neonatal hearing screening over the last five years is estimated to be in the region of £18 million per annum: that is £3 million per annum on targeted neonatal hearing screening and £15 million per annum on health visitors performing the infant distraction test.
The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (NSC) has recommended that a universal neonatal hearing screening (UNHS) programme should replace the infant distraction test to screen for hearing impairment. This was based on a report by the health technology assessment programme 'A critical review of the role of neonatal screening in the detection of congenital hearing impairment'.
An expert group, which included representatives of professional groups, National Health Service bodies, voluntary organisations, Government Departments and other interested bodies, was convened by the NSC and undertook further detailed work on the benefits, cost-benefits and feasibility and service issues of developing a UNHS programme. The committee took existing and emerging research findings into account in making its recommendations.
We have recently agreed to conduct a pilot programme to evaluate the optimum way in which this change in service delivery might be achieved. The pilot programme will run for 12 months at a cost of £750,000. The pilot will help us gain a better understanding of the operational implications of running a national programme, including its potential cost.
Project and steering groups will be established shortly to oversee the development of the pilot programme. Key professional, voluntary, NHS and policy stakeholders will be appropriately involved. The Department will be writing to the NHS about participating in the pilot project and the timescales later in the autumn.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |