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HEALTH
Defibrillators
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many new automated defibrillators have been installed in public places. [47011]
Yvette Cooper: Since its launch in April 2000 the defibrillators in public places programme has seen 486 automated external defibrillator devices installed at a total of 65 sites across England, including airports, main-line railway stations, and bus and coach stations. Action is continuing to install defibrillators at further sites.
Private Finance Initiative
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the total savings to public funds of the Private Finance Initiative contract for the Black Country Mental Health NHS Trust by comparison with a non-Private Finance Initiative alternative; [49519] (2) what estimate he has made of the total savings to public funds of the Private Finance Initiative contract for the Bucknall Hospital Psychiatric Unit for the North Staffordshire Combined Health Care NHS Trust by comparison with a non-Private Finance Initiative alternative; [49543] (3) what estimate he has made of the total savings to public funds of the Private Finance Initiative contract for Monyhull for the South Birmingham Mental Health NHS Trust by comparison with a non-Private Finance Initiative alternative. [49525]
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Yvette Cooper: The business case justifying the individual schemes estimating the net savings in present value terms (i.e. all future costs and benefits discounted to their present values) compared with publicly funding the scheme is shown in the table.
| NHS TRUST | PFI | |||
| £000s | ||||
| Public | ||||
| £000s | ||||
| Savings | ||||
| in EAC | ||||
| terms | ||||
| £000s | per cent | |||
| Difference | ||||
| North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare | 26,608 | 26,663 | 55 | 0.20 |
| South Birmingham Mental Health | 2,336 | 2,364 | 28 | 1.18 |
| Black Country Mental Health | 4,099 | 4,099.5 | 0.5 | 0.01 |
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the total savings to public funds of the Private Finance Initiative contract for the Standard Court Health Authority headquarters for the Nottingham Health Authority by comparison with a non-Private Finance Initiative alternative. [49510]
Jacqui Smith: The business case justifying this scheme estimating the net savings in present value terms (i.e. all future costs and benefits discounted to their present values) compared with publicly funding the scheme is shown in the table.
| Scheme | PFI | |||
| £000s | Public | |||
| £000s | Savings | |||
| in net | ||||
| present | ||||
| value | ||||
| terms | ||||
| £000s | ||||
| per cent | ||||
| Difference | ||||
| Nottingham Health Authority | 2801 | 3408 | 607 | 17.8 |
| Headquarters–Standard Court |
Published guidance on public sector comparators notes that: "Accounting Officers should not rely solely on a straight comparison of a PFI bid to its PSC, which should never be regarded as a pass/fail test but instead as a quantitative way of informing judgement". (Treasury Taskforce Technical Note No. 5: How to construct a public sector comparator.)
Mental Health
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the average waiting time for a residential place with 24-hour staffing for a mental health patient in London. [48866]
Jacqui Smith: The Department does not collect this information. However, the NHS Plan commitment to create an additional 320 24-hour staffed beds across the country by April 2001 was achieved and returns indicate that a substantial number of these were in the London Region. It is anticipated that this increase will have reduced waiting times for places.
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the funding for the present year for (a) hospital and residential mental care and (b) day and community care, in mental health in London; how much funding for each category has increased since 1997; and what his
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Department estimates is the shortfall in provision in the capital, in both categories, in terms of both places and funding. [48865]
Jacqui Smith: Health authorities and primary care trusts receive the majority of their funding through unified allocations. Since 1997, total National Health Service expenditure has increased by almost 36 per cent in real terms, with net capital expenditure more than doubling in real terms.
In general, funding for specific services are not identified separately, in order to allow health authorities and PCTs to be able to manage flexibly the resources available to them.
Allocations specifically identified in Health Authority baselines for mental health since 1997 include:
£10.6 million nationally (£3.6 million in London) from the mental health challenge fund allocated recurrently in 1997–98;
£20 million nationally (£5 million in London) from the modernisation fund allocated recurrently in 1999–2000;
£42 million nationally (£37 million adult mental health and £5 million child and adolescent mental health) from the modernisation fund allocated recurrently in 2000–01;
£75 million nationally (£12.5 million in London) earmarked specifically for mental health in 2002–03.
Myotonic Dystrophy
Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the numbers of people with myotonic dystrophy; and if he will make a statement. [49921]
Jacqui Smith: We have made no assessment of the numbers of people with myotonic dystrophy, as information on the prevalence of individual conditions is not collected centrally. We do have some data on hospital activity as shown in the table below.
| 1996–97 | 251 |
| 1997–98 | 253 |
| 1998–99 | 301 |
| 1999–00 | 316 |
| 2000–01 | 299 |
Please note that these figures are a count of in-patient admissions and therefore do not represent the number of patients. Data in this table are adjusted for both coverage and unknown/invalid clinical data, except for 2000–01 which are not yet adjusted for shortfalls.
Care Standards (Older People)
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many structures identifying nursing leaders with responsibility for older people have been developed as part of the milestones set out in the National Service Framework for Older People, page 172; [51529]
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(2) how many strategic and operational plans, including initial action to address identified age discrimination, he (a) has received and (b) expects to receive as part of the milestones set out in the National Service Framework for Older People, page 172; [51527] (3) which general hospitals have (a) submitted and (b) not submitted plans to introduce a specialised stroke unit by 2004 as part of the milestones set out in the National Service Framework for Older People; and what steps he proposes to take against those general hospitals that have failed to produce these plans; [51535] (4) how many (a) specialist multidisciplinary teams and (b) interfaces for care for older people throughout hospitals have been identified as part of the milestones set out in the National Service Framework for Older People, page 172. [51530]
Jacqui Smith: Information about progress against the April 2002 milestones set within the national service framework for older people will be available in the summer.
Following the October 2001 milestone on the audit of age-related policies, we sought information about the results of the audits. An interim report on the results is available on the National Service Framework website (www.doh.gov.uk/nsf/olderpeople.htm). All health organisations which had identified written age-related policies without an evidence base indicated that they would be reviewing those policies.
Severalls Hospital
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the sale of the former Severalls Hospital in Colchester. [52450]
Yvette Cooper: The sale of the first phase of parcels of land in Colchester, near to the Severalls Hospital has been completed. A second phase is now on the market. Further phases have been included as part of a proposed one-off sale to achieve the NHS Plan's objective of the sale of surplus property to fund the NHS modernisation programme. Offers for these later phases are due to be received shortly and it is expected their sale will be completed in autumn 2002.
The Department's officials are continuing to work closely with the local planning authority regarding the development proposals for the site.
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