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Heart Operations

15. Jeff Ennis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the number of heart operations carried out in the NHS in the past 12 months. [12119]

Ms Blears: The National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease target of an extra 3,000 heart operations for March 2002 has been met a year early. Provisional figures suggest that between September 2000

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and September 2001, there were over 25,000 angioplasty operations and approaching 23,000 bypass operations. An extra £30 million has been allocated this year to further increase the number of heart operations.

Hospital Cleanliness

17. Andy King: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on progress on raising standards of hospital cleanliness. [12121]

25. Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on progress in raising standards of hospital cleanliness. [12130]

Mr. Hutton: The NHS Plan expressed our determination to create real and lasting improvements to standards of hospital cleanliness. Through our Clean Hospitals programme, the number of "red" hospitals has fallen from 253 in autumn 2000 to zero today. Every hospital in England now provides standards of cleanliness which are good or at least acceptable.

NHS Cancer Care

18. Mr. Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent progress has been made on improvement of diagnosis and treatment for cancer patients in the NHS. [12122]

Mr. Milburn: Good progress has been made in implementing the NHS Cancer Plan. 92 per cent. of people urgently referred with symptoms indicating a possibility of cancer are being seen within two weeks; around 13,000 patients each year will benefit from new treatments for cancer, following their appraisal by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence; and expansion and upgrading of equipment used in the NHS to diagnose and treat cancer is well under way.

TNF Alpha Blockade

19. Clive Efford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on variations in practice relating to the prescription of TNF Alpha Blockade. [12124]

Mr. Hutton: The two main drugs involved in this therapy, etanercept and infliximab, are currently being appraised by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. Until NICE has completed its appraisal, national health service bodies have been advised to use their existing arrangements to determine local prescribing policies, using the publicly available evidence to inform their decision.

Care Home Beds

20. Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds there were in elderly care homes in (a) 1997 and (b) the last year for which figures are available. [12125]

32. Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds in elderly care homes there were (a) in 1997 and (b) on the latest date for which figures are available. [12138]

Jacqui Smith: The Department's figures show that, in 1997, there were 261,600 residential places for older people in residential care homes and 154,200 registered nursing beds for them in nursing homes, private hospitals

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and clinics. In March 2000, there were 263,200 such places in residential care homes and 149,600 such beds in nursing homes, private hospitals and clinics.

Homeopathic Treatment

21. Mr. Tredinnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which health authorities fund GP referrals for homeopathic treatment on the NHS; and what plans he has to improve equality of access for such treatment. [12126]

Ms Blears: There is no central record of national health service referrals for homeopathic treatment. Current NHS reforms will give primary care trusts full responsibility for providing services for local patients. This environment of local autonomy and innovation should have scope for complementary therapies that can prove their worth.

Blood Transfusions

22. Mr. Havard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much of the national blood supply was used on cancer patients as part of their treatment; and, on average, how old that blood was when it was given to them, in the past 12 months. [12127]

Mr. Hutton: The National Blood Service estimates that approximately 30 per cent. of red cells collected from blood donations are given to patients with cancer-related illnesses.

All fresh blood components in the national health service are used within strict expiry dates.

Private Finance (NHS)

24. Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the use of private finance within the NHS. [12129]

Mr. Hutton: To be approved, the Private Finance Initiative option for every national health service capital investment project must demonstrate, in a full business case, that it provides improved facilities for the NHS and that, overall, it is value for money when compared to the publicly funded alternative, the Public Sector Comparator.

34. Mr. Rendel: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the use of private finance within the NHS. [12140]

Mr. Hutton: To be approved, the private finance initiative option for every national health service capital investment project must demonstrate, in a full business case, that it provides improved facilities for the NHS and that, overall, it is value for money when compared to the publicly funded alternative, the public sector comparator.

Because of PFI, 10 major new hospitals have opened in the United Kingdom and another 17 are under construction, representing capital investment in the NHS of over £2.4 billion.

Nurses

26. Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the use of agency nurses in the NHS. [12132]

Mr. Hutton: The Government are aware of the potential value for money and quality issues facing national health service employers using agencies. This is

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why we are fully committed to NHS Professionals, the non-profit making temporary staffing solution run by the NHS for the NHS. NHS Professionals is being rolled out by all health professionals by 2003.

27. Colin Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent steps he has taken to improve the recruitment and retention of nurses in the NHS. [12133]

Mr. Hutton: In the first year of the NHS Plan period the number of nurses employed in the national health service increased by 6,310.

The Government are fully committed to investing in NHS staff, to raising the number of nurses, increasing training places, encouraging former staff to return, and recruiting more nurses from abroad.

The NHS Plan introduced the Improving Working Lives Standard, a model of good employment practices against which NHS organisations are measured. NHS organisations are required to provide a portfolio of evidence that they are improving the working lives of staff.

Accident and Emergency Departments

28. Richard Ottaway: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on improving the efficiency of accident and emergency departments in London. [12134]

Mr. Hutton: The Government recognise the importance of improving A&E departments. The A&E Emergency Modernisation Programme aims to modernise, upgrade and refurbish all accident and emergency departments that need modernising. A total of £150 million has been invested in A&E in three waves and London has received over £22 million from the Capital Modernisation Fund. This is the biggest investment in A&E services since the start of the NHS.

In October this year the Government announced a £100 million strategy for reducing long waits in A&E departments and ending inappropriate waits altogether over the next three years. London trusts received over £9 million of this funding.

MRI Scanners

29. Phil Sawford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he is taking to ensure that more hospitals have access to an MRI scanner. [12135]

Jacqui Smith: Following past decades of under- investment in cancer equipment and facilities, investment through the New Opportunities Fund and the NHS Plan will provide 86 MRI scanners for the NHS by 2004. These scanners will support the accurate diagnosis and staging of cancer patients, as well as increased access to an MRI scanner for other patient groups.

31. Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on waiting times for MRI scans in the hospitals in Newark and Retford. [12137]

Jacqui Smith: Waiting times for MRI scans vary according to the clinical condition being investigated and the demand on the service. A recent survey of MRI waiting times in England showed average waiting times for patients attending for urgent examinations, such as

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cancer, of approximately two weeks, while the average waiting times for orthopaedic procedures, for example, were in the order of six months with a 10–12 month waiting time not uncommon. 36 MRI scanners are being provided through the New Opportunities Fund. All of these are due for installation by the end of 2002. Under the terms of the NHS Cancer Plan, a further 50 will be installed by 2004.

MRI facilities are not available at the hospitals in Newark and Retford. At present, most Newark residents are referred to the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, where the waiting time for routine appointments is around 18 months. However, Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, which has been responsible for Newark Hospital since April 2001, is working to establish better links between Newark and the King's Mill Centre near Mansfield. A mobile scanner already visits the King's Mill Centre and additional sessions will be provided in 2002, thereby reducing waiting times.

Most Retford patients requiring MRI scans are referred to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield where waiting time for a routine referral is around six months. The Health Community in Retford is investigating the possibility of using a mobile scanner or referring patients to Doncaster as a means of reducing waiting times.

For urgent referrals, the waiting times vary from one to 12 weeks depending on clinical priority.

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