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Correspondence
Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the target time is for his Department to reply to letters from (a) hon. Members and (b) members of the public; and what the time is that it has been taking his Department to reply to letters from (i) hon. Members and (ii) members of the public in the last six months. [46972]
Ms Blears: Information is published annually by the Cabinet Office on the volume of correspondence from Members of Parliament received by Ministers and agency chief executives, Departments' and Agencies' handling targets, and their performance in meeting these targets. The report for 2001 is due to be published shortly.
Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Leominster dated 17 January, concerning the payment of widows' pensions under the NHS Pension Scheme. [48694]
Ms Blears [holding answer 10 April 2002]: The Department has no record of receiving this correspondence. The Department's Ministerial Correspondence Unit is seeking a copy of this correspondence.
Cottage Hospitals
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the cottage hospitals which have been (a) opened and (b) closed since 1997. [47019]
Ms Blears: Information on hospital closures ceased to be collected in 1991 following the introduction of the national health service internal market and trusts.
Community and cottage hospitals play an important role in providing care closer to home, for example in carrying out day surgery, minor procedures and caring for patients in the recuperative phases of recovery from illness or accident. These hospitals will help us meet our target of introducing an additional 5,000 intermediate care beds by 2004, of which more than 2,400 are already in place.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds in cottage hospitals there were in each of the past five years. [47029]
Ms Blears: The information is not collected centrally.
Data on bed numbers are collected annually at national health service trust level, rather than by individual hospital site. Information on bed availability and occupancy is available on the Department's website www.doh.gov.uk/ hospitalactivity.
New Hospital Beds
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many extra NHS beds have been introduced in (a) total, (b) general and (c) acute wards since the publication of the national plan. [47828]
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Mr. Hutton: In the general and acute sector in England, the number of beds available in 2000–01 increased by over 700 to 135,794 compared with the year before. This represents a third of the target of 2,100 extra general and acute beds set out in the NHS Plan. Further information is shown in the table.
| Available beds | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sector | 1999–2000 | 2000–01 | Net change |
| All ward types | 186,290 | 186,091 | -199 |
| Acute | 107,218 | 107,956 | 738 |
| Geriatric | 27,862 | 27,838 | -24 |
| General and acute (acute plus geriatric) | 135,080 | 135,794 | 714 |
Source:
Department of Health form KH03
Hospital Food
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many unannounced inspections of the quality of hospital food have taken place since the introduction of the NHS National Plan. [47004]
Ms Blears: The NHS Plan said that there would be unannounced inspections of the quality of hospital food.
These inspections have been undertaken by patient environment action teams (PEATs) as part of the wider assessment of the quality of the environment in which patients are treated.
The programme of PEAT visits commenced in 2000, and a further round of inspections is currently in process. To date a total of 1,060 unannounced inspections of the quality of food have been carried out, this figure will rise to 1,172 by the end of the current round of PEAT inspections.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many requests for each category of snack boxes there have been, expressed as a percentage of the overall number of requests; [47030]
- (2) what percentage of hospitals make the full range of snack boxes available 24 hours of the day. [47031]
Ms Blears: The requirement for hospitals to introduce a 24-hour catering service was included in the NHS Plan. The better hospital food programme, launched on 8 May 2001, set out details of the 24-hour service which should include a ward kitchen service, a snack box service and, by 2004, a light bite service. £4 million was issued to NHS trusts in January 2001 to assist in setting up 24-hour services.
The implementation pack issued to all national health service trusts in support of the better hospital food programme included three examples of snack boxes. However hospitals are not required to introduce these exact versions—each hospital should determine the types of snack box(es) used, and their precise contents, taking into account patient-mix and the advice of catering managers, nursing staff and dietitians.
Information relating to the types of snack boxes in use, and the numbers of requests, is not collected centrally.
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Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what role dieticians play in (a) advising and (b) checking on nutritional values in food in the NHS. [47006]
Ms Blears: The better hospital food programme, announced in the NHS Plan, is a long-term initiative designed to improve the quality, availability of and access to food in NHS hospitals. It is supported by the investment of £38.5 million over four years.
It is increasingly being recognised that ensuring patients, many of whom enter hospital malnourished or over-nourished, receive and can benefit form adequate and appropriate nutrition plays a key part in the overall healthcare they receive and can lead to speedier recovery, reduced length of stay, reduced incidence of post operative complications such as pressure sores and poor wound healing and may lead to reduced expenditure on drugs, particularly antibiotics, used to combat these.
Hospital dieticians have a crucial role to play in ensuring that these benefits are realised through: advising on the formulation of hospital menus to ensure that nutritional standards are delivered for all patients, including those with specific dietary need; monitoring the nutritional intake of patients, particularly those at greatest risk; and advising individual patients on the nutritional values of foods, in order to help them make informed choices about their food intake to meet both their dietary needs and those of their clinical condition.
To this end NHS Estates has been working closely with representatives of the British Dietetic Association who are developing a consensus statement on "Food Service and the State Registered Dietitian" which will cover standards for the professions in a number of key areas: nutritional analysis of recipes and menus; diet coding definitions and standard glossary of terms. This will be a key document enabling standard criteria to be applied across the NHS.
Additionally, an ad hoc working group which includes nutritional experts, representatives of the British Dietetic Association, NHS dietitians and nurses is devising principles for nutritional screening which will facilitate the measurement of both under and over nutrition on entry to hospital. This will allow early intervention of clinical and dietetic staff to address problems which, unchecked, may lead to prolonged ill health. In addition research will be undertaken to establish the clinical outcomes of improved nutrition and to provide a tool to ensure that the nutritional aims of the better hospital food programme are taking effect.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of NHS trusts have introduced a 24-hour catering service. [47829]
Ms Blears: The requirement for hospitals to introduce a 24-hour catering service was included in the NHS Plan. The better hospital food programme, launched on 8 May 2001, set out details of the 24-hour service which should include a ward kitchen service, a snack box service and, by 2004, a light bite service. £4 million was issued to national health service trusts in January 2001 to assist in setting up 24-hour services.
The most recent returns from acute NHS trusts shows that 69 per cent. of hospitals have introduced ward kitchen services and 66 per cent. provide snack boxes. No figures are yet available regarding the number that have introduced light bite services.
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Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of hospitals have successfully adopted the new NHS menus. [47024]
Mr. Hutton: The Better Hospital Food programme, which was launched in May 2001, is supported by the provision of £38.5 million over four years. It is a longer term initiative designed to improve the quality, availability of and access to food in hospitals.
The programme has set a number of targets for the national health service to achieve, including the incorporation into menus of dishes designed for the NHS by a team of leading chefs.
Latest returns from acute hospitals show that by the end of April two thirds of hospitals will include at least three of the 'leading chef' dishes in their menus.
The majority of those hospitals which are still working towards this target are those which use external suppliers. NHS Estates are working closely with the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency and the external manufacturers to increase the availability of 'leading chef' dishes from these sources so that hospitals with delivered meals services can move swiftly to incorporate them in their menus.
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