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Head Injuries

Mr. Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will create a new social services user category for neurological conditions including acquired brain injury. [30838]

Jacqui Smith: I apologise to my hon. Friend for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002, Official Report, column 192W.

It is not usual practice to instruct councils with social services responsibilities to provide services within specific categories and I do not at present intend to create a new user category for neurological conditions. However I recognise the importance of the provision of the right sort of services to meet the needs of people with acquired

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brain injury. The National Service Framework (NSF) for long-term conditions will set standards for the care and treatment of various long-term conditions, including for acquired brain injury. This NSF will look at services and set standards in both health and social care.

NHS Professionals

Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he will take against those trusts which choose not to use NHS professionals to provide their temporary nursing staff. [30769]

Mr. Hutton: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002, Official Report, column 192W.

Current advice to trusts about the use of NHS professionals is contained in HCS 2001–02.

Private Hospitals

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will require private sector hospitals to publish performance indicators on standards of patient care. [30856]

Mr. Hutton: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002, Official Report, at column 192W.

National Care Standards Commission inspection teams will collect data on the performance indicators for the sector as laid out in regulation 28 of the Private and Voluntary Health Care Regulations. This data will be analysed and form part of the report from the Commission to the Secretary of State.

The Commission is also examining other key clinical indicators that may be perceived to be a reflection on the quality of care received by a patient, and inspection teams will collect data on these issues in the first year of inspection experience. They will test the approaches to data collection to ensure that it is robust before publishing the results.

Patient Treatment Statistics

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients were treated in the (a) NHS and (b) private sector (i) in total and (ii) as a percentage, in each of the last 10 years. [30565]

Mr. Hutton: I apologise to my hon. Friend for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002, Official Report, at column 192W.

This information is not available in the form requested.

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Information on the numbers of NHS patients treated by hospitals in England is available from Hospital Episodes Statistics, published by the Department of Health. The Department of Health does not collect information on the overall number of patients treated in private hospitals.

Food Products

Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with the Food Standards Agency concerning manufacturers of food products who will not disclose when they use mechanically recovered meat. [32797]

Yvette Cooper: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002, Official Report, at column 192W.

I have been advised by the Food Standards Agency that a research project, to establish whether bovine mechanically recovered meat (MRM) was a significant source of human exposure to material infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy between 1980 and 1995, is currently being finalised with potential contractors. The agency has had preliminary discussions with the main meat trade associations who have said that they will help gather as much information as possible. The results of the study will be reported to the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee, which advises the Government on matters concerning BSE and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, and will be made publicly available.

NHS Direct

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many calls to NHS Direct are initially dealt with by a call handler who is not a qualified nurse. [33757]

Ms Blears: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002, Official Report, column 192W.

It is general practice for calls made to NHS Direct to be handled by call handlers before being passed on to a qualified nurse. Between 20 and 30 per cent. of NHS Direct's calls are health information calls and can be handled without any form of consultation with a nurse.

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average length of time was for a caller to NHS Direct to speak to a qualified nurse in the last 12 months. [33758]

Ms Blears: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002, Official Report, column 192W.

For the calendar year of 2001, NHS Direct handled around five million calls. The average length of time for a caller to NHS Direct to speak to a nurse is not currently

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available. However, 59.23 per cent. of all callers spoke to a nurse within five minutes, and 82.35 per cent. of all callers spoke to a nurse within 30 minutes.

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many calls were made to the NHS Direct service during the year to 31 December 2001; and what the costs were of administering the service for that period. [30313]

Ms Blears [holding answer 25 January 2002]: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer the hon. Member to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002, Official Report, column 192W.

For the calendar year of 2001, NHS Direct handled around five million calls, averaging 96,000 calls a week. The cost of running NHS Direct in 2000–01 was £80 million.

Consultation Documents

Dr. Richard Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer of 9 November 2001, Official Report, columns 476–77W, on consultation documents, how many of the consultation documents issued by his Department in 2000 defined a preferred option; and in how many of these the preferred option was adopted. [33536]

Jacqui Smith: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002, Official Report, column 192W.

Of the 31 consultation exercises that the Department conducted during 2000, six defined a preferred option and in five cases the preferred option was adopted.

Accountancy Services

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total cost to his Department was for accountancy services in each of the last four years. [34163]

Ms Blears: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002, Official Report, column 192W.

The Department's accounting system does not collect information in the form requested.

Departmental Policies (Bristol, East)

Jean Corston: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will set out, with statistical information relating as directly as possible to the Bristol, East constituency, the effects on Bristol of his Department's policies and actions (a) from 5 May 1994 to 2 May 1997, (b) from 2 May 1997 to 7 May 1998, and (c) since 7 May 1998. [35605]

Ms Blears: I apologise to my hon. Friend for the delay in responding to this question. I refer her to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon.

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Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002, Official Report, column 192W.

I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to her by my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Cabinet Office on 4 March 2002, Official Report, column 80W.

Further information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

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