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Surgical Instruments

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to introduce standardised, mandatory training for (a) doctors and (b) surgeons in the use of re-usable surgical instruments. [24634]

Mr. Hutton: The Specialist Training Authority (STA) of the medical Royal Colleges is the competent authority responsible for specialist medical training within the United Kingdom. Working with the individual medical Royal Colleges, the STA approves the curriculum for training in each specialty.

Hodgkin's Disease

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) men and (b) women suffer from Hodgkin's disease in England. [24694]

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Yvette Cooper: Recent information on prevalence of Hodgkin's disease is not available. The number of registrations of newly diagnosed cases of Hodgkin's disease in England in 1998 (the latest year for which figures are available) were 675 in males and 512 in females.

Nurses

Ms Shipley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many practice nurses are employed by general practitioners in (a) England, (b) West Midlands and (c) the Dudley area. [23704]

Yvette Cooper: The data for 2000 are shown in the table. The 2001 census will be published in February 2002.

Practice nurses employed by unrestricted principals and equivalents (PEs)(24) in England and West Midlands regional office as at 30 September 2000

Headcount
England19,200
of which:
West Midlands RO
Birmingham HA426
Coventry HA142
Dudley HA100
Herefordshire HA67
North Staffordshire HA196
Sandwell HA122
Shropshire HA155
Solihull HA77
South Staffordshire HA261
Walsall HA101
Warwickshire HA144
Wolverhampton HA113
Worcestershire HA200
West Midland total2,104

(24) UPEs include GMS unrestricted principals, PMS contracted GPs and PMS salaried GPs.

Source:

Department of Health General and Personal Medical Services Statistics—February 2002.


Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many nurses recruited into the NHS in each of the last three years have come from overseas. [24658]

Mr. Hutton: The Department's non-medical work force census does not record how many nurses were trained overseas.

In order to work in the United Kingdom foreign nurses have to be registered with the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC). The UKCC register differentiates between nurses trained in the European Community and those trained elsewhere. Data for the last three years where analysis have been published are in the table.

Nurses registered with the UKCC do not necessarily work in the NHS.

Year to 31 March 1998Year to 31 March 1999Year to 31 March 2000
EC initial entrants1,4391,4121,416
Overseas initial entrants2,8613,5685,967
Total4,3004,9807,404

Source:

UKCC statistical analysis of the professional register


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Cot Death

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what systems and services are in place to help parents of cot death babies; [24657]

Yvette Cooper: Families affected by the tragedy of cot death, also known as sudden infant death syndrome, receive help from a range of health and social care professionals. We are looking at ways in which a uniform approach to offering support, incorporating the best elements of current practice, can be further developed. As a part of this process we have invested £28 million over the last three years to modernise pathology services, also we are committed to increasing the number of pathologists, including those within paediatric pathology.

Delayed Discharges

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds in NHS hospitals in Greater London were occupied by delayed discharge patients at the latest available date. [24632]

Jacqui Smith: Information collected in Quarter 2 of 2001–02 (September 2001) showed a rate of delayed discharge of 6.5 per cent. (proportion of beds occupied by patients whose discharge is delayed) in the London Region.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the extent of bed blocking in (a) the south- east and (b) other regions in the United Kingdom. [24673]

Jacqui Smith: The table shows the rate of delayed discharge in each national health service region for quarter 2 of 2001–02:

Delayed discharge rate for all ages per region for Q2 2001–02

Percentage
Northern and Yorkshire5.6
Trent3.3
West Midlands7.7
North-west4.1
Eastern7.6
London6.5
South-east10.3
South-west7.1

We are investing an additional £300 million over this year and next as part of a radical 'cash for change' programme. This is aimed at further reducing delayed discharges and targeted on the areas with the most serious problems.


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Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many delayed discharges there were in the Portsmouth, Isle of Wight and South East Hampshire NHS Trusts in (a) 1997, (b) 1998, (c) 1999 and (d) 2000. [22377]

Ms Blears [holding answer 11 December 2001]: Information collected centrally on delayed discharges for the years 1997–2000 in the Isle of Wight health authority and Portsmouth and South East Hampshire health authority areas has been placed in the Library. Information is also available for Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and South East Hampshire health authority, which was formed in April 2001.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 15 October 2001, Official Report, column 1036W, what the five predominant reasons for delayed discharge of those over 75 years of age were (a) in number of cases for each reason and (b) as a percentage for (i) Q3 2000–01, (ii) Q4 2000–01 and (iii) Q1 2000–02, by (A) region and (B) health authority. [24045]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 19 December 2001]: The information requested has been placed in the Library. This does not include information requested on quarter 1 2001–02 figures for those over 75 years of age, since from April 2001 figures on reasons for delay are only collected on the basis of patients of all ages. The information has been supplied for patients of all ages in quarter 1 2001–02.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 15 October 2001, Official Report, column 1036W, what the average length of delay for those over 75 years of age was in (a) Q3 2000–01, (b) Q4 2000–01 and (c) Q1 2001–02, by (i) region and (ii) health authority. [24043]

Jacqui Smith: [holding answer 19 December 2001]: No information was collected centrally about the length of delay for patients with delayed discharge until the first quarter of 2001–02. The information on the breakdown in length of delay for patients of all ages in quarter 1 of 2001–02 has been placed in the Library.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 15 October 2001, Official Report, column 1036W, on delayed discharges, if he will set out (a) by region and (b) by health authority the mortality rate for those readmitted over 75 years of age (i) in re-admission and (ii) within 30 days of readmission in (A) Q3 2000–01, (B) Q4 2000–01, and (C) Q1 2001–02. [24046]

Jacqui Smith: [holding answer 19 December 2001]: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Bed Blocking

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made in the last two years in reducing incidents of bed blocking in the NHS. [23965]

Jacqui Smith: In September 1999 the rate of delayed discharge for patients over 75 was 12.8 per cent., while in September 2001 the comparable figure was 12.1 per cent. To increase the reduction further we are investing an

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additional £300 million over this year and next as part of a radical 'cash for change' programme in England. This is aimed at further reducing delayed discharges and targeted on the areas with the most serious problems.


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