| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Independent Complaints Reviews
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidelines exist with respect to tape recording the proceedings of independent complaints reviews; and if he will make a statement. [31069]
Ms Blears: It is for the lay chairman, in consultation with the other panel members, to decide how an independent review panel will operate. This can involve the tape recording of the panel's proceedings with the agreement of all concerned.
Hospital Meals
Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average cost per hospital meal is (a) before and (b) after the implementation of the Government's Better Hospital Food programme; and if he will make a statement. [31331]
Ms Blears: The Better Hospital Food programme, announced in the NHS Plan, is designed to improve the quality and availability of food in hospitals for all patients and is a long-term programme. An additional £38.5 million has been made available to support this programme.
The first stage is to ensure that all sites are brought up to the required level. As the 31 December 2001 target date for implementation has only just passed, precise information will not yet be available, and will vary from site to site according to historic levels of investment, the type of system in operation and patient choice. We expect that detailed costings information will be available as the programme becomes established.
7 Feb 2002 : Column 1163W
Chiropody Services
Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of chiropody services in the Hillingdon health authority. [31361]
Mr. Hutton: It is for local statutory bodies, Hillingdon Primary Care Trust in this instance, to determine the services they provide in the light of their knowledge of local needs and priorities.
Ashford and St. Peter's Hospital NHS Trust
Mr. Wilshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds were available for use within the Ashford and St. Peters hospital NHS trust on 1 January (a) 1999, (b) 2000, (c) 2001 and (d) 2002. [31588]
Ms Blears: The number of beds available for use on the 1 January for the requested years at Ashford and St. Peter's hospitals national health service trust is not centrally available.
An average daily number of available beds in each financial year is collected and the information for the trust is given in the table. An available bed is defined as open and staffed at midnight and is ready to take a patient or has a patient occupying the bed.
| Year | Total number of available beds |
|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 633 |
| 1999–2000 | 612 |
| 1998–99 | 612 |
(25) ie 24 hours
Source:
KH03—Bed availability and occupancy
Health Authority Expenditure
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will rank each health authority in England by the percentage change in health spending per head of population between 1997–98 and 2002–03. [31820]
Mr. Hutton: Expenditure per head cannot be reliably compared between health authorities or between different years.
Expenditure data for 2000–01 are the latest available, therefore the increase in expenditure per weighted head of population has been calculated as the percentage change between 1997–98 and 2000–01. These are shown in the table.
Notes:
1. In many health authorities there are factors which distort the expenditure per head. These include: the health authority acting in a lead capacity to commission health care or fund training on behalf of other health bodies; asset revaluations in NHS Trusts being funded through health authorities; and some double counting of expenditure between health authorities and primary care trusts within the health authority area. Allocations per weighted head of population provide a much more reliable measure to identify differences between funding of health authorities.
2. Expenditure is taken from health authority and primary care trust summarisation forms and accounts which are prepared on a resource basis and therefore differ from allocations in the year. The expenditure is the total spent by the health authority and by the primary care trusts within each health authority area. The majority of General Dental Services expenditure is not included in the health authority or primary care trust accounts and is separately accounted for by the Dental Practice Board.
3. Health authorities and primary care trusts should account for their expenditure on a gross basis. This results in an element of double counting where one body acts as the main commissioner and is then reimbursed by other bodies. This affects the results for 2000–01 in particular but the effect of this double counting within the answer cannot be identified.
4. Cambridgeshire and Norfolk health authorities were established on 1 April 1999 from the merger of three former health authorities. Expenditure figures for 1997–98 have been calculated from the relevant proportions of the three health authorities in the new bodies.
Source:
Health Authority annual accounts 1997–98
Health Authority summarisation forms 2000–01
Primary Care Trust summarisation schedules 2000–01
Weighted population estimates 2000–01
7 Feb 2002 : Column 1165W
Residential Children's Services
Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when residential children's services will be registered in Herefordshire and Worcestershire under the new requirements governing residential child care. [31674]
Jacqui Smith: The new National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) will register residential children's services when its powers, as set out in the Care Standards Act 2000, come into force on 1 April 2002. Until that date, applications for registration will continue to be dealt with by the local council in which area the proposed residential service is situated. Applications that have not been processed by councils by the end of March 2002 will have their applications transferred to NCSC.
Children's residential services, which are already registered with local councils, will have their current registration transferred to the NCSC on 1 April 2002.
7 Feb 2002 : Column 1166W
Councils are currently compiling the necessary information to ensure that transfer of registration takes place on that date.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |