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Palliative Care
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what new training is available for district and community nurses dealing with palliative care. [24343]
Mr. Hutton [holding answer 8 January 2002]: We have made £6 million available over the next three years to support over 10,000 nurses in primary care to take part in new training in the general principles and practice of palliative care.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many district and community nurses have received new training in palliative care. [24342]
Mr. Hutton [holding answer 8 January 2002]: The information requested is not collected centrally.
The English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and health Visiting records nurse post registration training information. However, their records do not differentiate between different types of nurses.
We have funded a £2 million initiative to provide training to help nurses support people with cancer at home for as long as possible during their illness. We expect that over 10,000 nurses in primary care will take part in the training programme over the next three years.
Empty Properties
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his estimate is of the (a) annual cost and (b) total value of the empty properties owned by (i) his Department, (ii) his agencies and (iii) other public bodies for which he has had responsibility in each of the last four years. [30071]
Mr. Hutton: The Department, its agencies and executive non-departmental public bodies have only one property that has been empty since July 2000 at an annual cost of £321,000 and a value of £3.7 million. This property is intended to be used by the national health service shortly.
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No information is available centrally on vacant properties held by NHS bodies.
Health Bodies (Composition)
Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people from the Knowsley, North and Sefton, East constituency sit on (a) local health trusts and (b) other health bodies sponsored by his Department; and if he will make a statement. [30972]
Jacqui Smith: Six people who live in the Knowsley, North and Sefton, East constituency currently serve on national health service boards. The bodies involved are given in the table.
| NHS body | Number of members |
|---|---|
| Aintree Hospital Trust | 1 |
| North Mersey Community NHS Trust | 1 |
| St. Helens and Knowsley Community NHS Trust | 2 |
| St. Helens and Knowsley Health Authority | 1 |
| St. Helens and Knowsley Hospital NHS Trust | 1 |
| Total | 6 |
Laura Touche
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action the Government proposes to take following the coroner's verdict on the death of Laura Touche at the Portland hospital, London. [30854]
Jacqui Smith: We have already taken steps to improve the regulation of private health care services. From 1 April this year, a new independent body, the National Care Standards Commission, will take over from health authorities the regulation of independent health care providers.
For the first time, providers will have to meet national minimum standards. The guiding principles when producing these standards was that the needs of patients were paramount, and that the standards must be compatible with national health service standards where possible. The standards comprise core standards with which all independent health care providers will have to comply, including the requirement that they have in place a formal complaints policy and procedures. Complainants who are dissatisfied with a hospital's complaints system may approach the Commission direct.
Apart from core standards, providers will be required to meet standards specific to the services they provide. For the first time, the owners and managers of private hospitals will be held accountable for the quality of care provided in their establishment.
NHS Concordat
Andy Burnham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients have been treated to date under the NHS concordat in (a) the south-east, (b) the south-west, (c) London, (d) Trent, (e) the west midlands, (f) the north-west, (g) north and Yorkshire and (h) England. [31107]
Mr. Hutton [holding answer 29 January 2002]: Since November 2000 the Independent Healthcare Association has collected monthly data from independent health care
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providers about the number of national health service patients treated by them. A breakdown of the information will shortly be placed in the Library.
According to this data, at least 80,000 procedures have been treated in the independent sector in England, paid for by the NHS. This figure includes out-patient appointments, day cases and in-patient treatment. Information for the regions requested is in the table.
The Department has recently surveyed health authorities and trusts on the amount of activity they are purchasing for NHS patients within the private sector and will make available key results soon. The Department is also currently reviewing its information needs as far as NHS-funded activity in the private sector is concerned.
| Region(25) | Procedures(26) |
|---|---|
| London | 3,162 |
| North-west | 18,542 |
| Northern and Yorkshire | 15,172 |
| South-east | 19,047 |
| South-west | 6,636 |
| Trent | 6,978 |
| West Midlands | 7,029 |
(25) May differ slightly from NHS regions.
(26) Procedures undertaken by the independent sector facilities in each region (may differ slightly from NHS regions) paid for by the NHS between November 2000 and December 2001 (including out-patient appointments, day cases and in-patient treatment).
Parliamentary Questions (PFI)
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many written parliamentary questions regarding private finance initiatives have been tabled since 1 January 2000; and in answer to how many of these information has not been provided on the grounds of commercial confidentiality. [31855]
Mr. Hutton: No information has been withheld on the grounds of commercial confidentiality to all the 109 written parliamentary questions which have been tabled since 1 January 2000 relating to the private finance initiative.
Departmental Salary Costs
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of the departmental expenditure limit in 2001–02 will be accounted for by salary costs and pension contributions. [32006]
Mr. Hutton: The total departmental expenditure limit in 2001–02 is £49.8 billion. The current estimate of the hospital and community health service paybill in 2001–02 is £22.7 billion (45 per cent. of the planned expenditure).
The estimate of the HCHS paybill includes all salary costs—including pension contributions.
Children in Care
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children in care turned 16 in the academic years (a) 1996–97, (b) 1997–98, (c) 1998–99, (d) 1999–2000 and (e) 2000–01. [31763]
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Jacqui Smith: The information in the table approximates to the number of school children in their GCSE year, who had been looked after at any time during their secondary education up to and including that year.
| Academic year | Estimated number |
|---|---|
| 1996–97 | 12,100 |
| 1997–98 | 11,300 |
| 1998–99 | 11,100 |
| 1999–2000 | 11,000 |
| 2000–01(29),(30) | 10,400 |
(27) The table excludes children who were looked after under a series of short term placements.
(28) All figures in the above table have been rounded to the nearest 100.
(29) All CLA data for financial year ending 31 March 2001 are provisional.
(30) Incomplete year. Latest information on DH database relates to year ending 31 March 2001. The estimated figure relates to children who were 16 during the period 1 September 2000 to 31 August 2001, and were looked after at any time during the period 1 September 1996 to 31 March 2001.
Source:
CLA Episode system.
Silicone Cosmesis
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been allocated to each health authority for silicone cosmesis from the funding for 2001–02; and how much has been spent. [31664]
Jacqui Smith: On the 9 January 2001 the Government announced that funding totalling £4 million to provide silicone cosmesis to prosthetic limb users was to be made available over the next three years. The funding started with £0.5 million for 2001–02, £1.5 million for 2002–03 and £2 million for 2003–04. This was an addition to the baseline allocations to the 99 health authorities. Each local health authority will provide funding to individual disablement service centres (DSCs) to provide silicone cosmesis.
The contract for purchasing silicone cosmesis covers was awarded on 1 October 2001. To support this initiative officials in my Department wrote, on 12 December 2001, to all health authorities reminding them that this funding has been provided to them in their allocations.
The contractor is required as part of the contract to provide the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency with quarterly contract sales figures which will include:
- total sales figure in £s;
£s spent by each DSC; and
what span of products are purchased.
These data are currently being collected by the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency.
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