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22 Jan 2003 : Column 391W—continued
Hospital Food
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the answer of 7 January 2003, Official Report, column 181W, what proportion of trusts make no use of leading chef dishes. [91589]
Mr. Lammy: Through the Better Hospital Food programme, acute hospital trusts were asked to include three leading chef dishes in their menus each day.
Information collected from the national health service does not differentiate between hospitals which have included no leading chef dishes in their menus and those which have included fewer than three. It is therefore not possible to provide an accurate number of trusts which have made no use of these dishes.
Hospital Hygiene
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidelines he has issued on the use of alcoholic hand gels in the prevention of the spread of noroviruses; and if he will make a statement. [91129]
Ms Blears: Evidence based guidelines on the general principles for preventing healthcare associated infection were commissioned and funded by the Department and published in January 2001 1 . These guidelines include the standard principles for hand hygiene and use of alcoholic hand rubs to decontaminate hands.
Chief Executives of NHS trusts were recently reminded that the incidence of gastro-enteritis increases at this time of the year and that they may wish to consult published guidance on managing outbreaks due to norovirus, previously referred to as small round structured viruses or Norwalk-like viruses 2 .
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1 Journal of Hospital Infection (2001) 47(Supplement): SI doi:10.1053/jhin.2000.0921 available at http://www.doh.gov.uk/hai/epic.htm.
2 Journal of Hospital Infection (2000) 45:1–10 Article nojhin.2000.0662 available at http//www.phls.org.uk/topics az/norwalk/hospital srsv.pdf
Mr. Lammy: Health Service Circular HSC 2001/010, issued in April 2001, required national health service trusts and primary care trusts to ensure that all ward sisters and charge nurses have authority to ensure that the basics of care, including standards of cleanliness, are right. The circular also required that modern matrons be introduced to provide highly visible, accessible and authoritative figures.
Where problems arise with cleaning standards which ward sisters or charge nurses are unable to resolve directly, then there should be systems to address these, including the authority for matrons to instruct that payment for cleaning services be withheld.
Guidance on a system to address problems with cleaning services, including withholding of payment or termination of contracts, is set out in "Process Mapping the Housekeeper Service—A Toolkit for Change", launched in November 2002.
The exercise of these powers is a matter for local discretion, and information is not held centrally on the extent to which they have been applied.
HPA
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many IT Systems within the organisations due to be amalgamated within the HPA will require re-engineering as a result of the changes. [90087]
Ms Blears: Over time, all information technology systems will need to be reviewed and updated, to ensure they contribute to the objectives of the proposed Health Protection Agency (HPA), as set out in "Getting Ahead of the Curve", issued in January 2002. The board of the proposed HPA will be responsible for developing the necessary strategy.
In the immediate term, priority is being given to ensuring that, on the establishment of the proposed HPA, existing systems continue to function effectively.
Job Sharing
Mr. Bercow : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the extent of job sharing in his Department. [90860]
Mr. Lammy: The percentage of staff who work part-time within the Department is 9 per cent. Of those part-time workers, 10 posts are known to be job shares. However, that number could be a great deal higher, as employees working on job share contracts are recorded as 'part-time' workers.
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It is therefore not possible to correctly identify the number of staff employed on a job share contract, as these figures do not differentiate between those actually employed part-time and those employed specifically on a job share contract.
Medical Reservists
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that there are no consequences for the level of service provided by Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth and Portsmouth hospitals NHS trust should medical staff working there be required to join troops in the middle east or be required to serve in war with Iraq; and if he will make a statement. [91395]
Ms Blears: The Portsmouth hospitals national health service trust has worked for many years with the Ministry of Defence to ensure that the provision of hospital services is not adversely affected when military medical personnel are required to deploy on exercises and other military commitments.
Contingency planning is ongoing between the Department of Health and the trust to minimise the effect of any call up should further deployments be required. The NHS community in Portsmouth and Hampshire is working with the trust in support of these contingency plans.
Mid-Essex Hospital Trust
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total pay costs for employees in the latest available financial year were in the Mid-Essex hospital trust area. [91365]
Mr. Lammy
[holding answer 21 January 2003]: The total employee costs for Mid Essex Hospital Services National Health Service trust for 2001–02 was £76,664,000.
Source:
Summarisation Schedule for Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust 2001–02.
Milk
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Healthy Start Scheme will reflect FSA guidance on the age limits for (a) whole milk and (b) semi-skimmed milk. [91076]
Ms Blears: The guidance provided by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on the age limits for whole and semi-skimmed milk is based upon that provided by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA). The welfare food scheme will continue to follow this advice.
Decisions about the proposed reform of the scheme will not be taken until the results of the public consultation, which closed on the 13 December 2002, have been assessed.
Mixed-sex Mental Health Wards
Mr. Flook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many mixed sex mental health wards there are in (a) Somerset and (b) Somerset and Dorset strategic health authority area. [91946]
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Ms Blears: The information requested is not available, as compliance is measured on a trust by trust basis and not at individual ward level.
Hospital wards generally care for both men and women. Guidance issued to the national health service for new mental health accommodation recommends that patient privacy is maintained through providing single bedrooms, preferably with en-suite facilities.
In existing facilities it is the responsibility of each NHS trust to determine the most appropriate configuration to meet their specific requirements. Wards may be split into single sex bays or single rooms, or otherwise configured to provide adequate segregation of gender.
Overseas Dental Surgeons
Mr. Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what training is on offer for those with qualifications from the University of Nairobi, who are not refugees, to qualify for registration as a UK dental surgeon; [87427]
- (2) for what reason dental qualifications from the University of Nairobi are not recognised for registration as a UK dental surgeon; and if he will make a statement. [87426]
Mr. Lammy: The General Dental Council (GDC) may only register dentists who have satisfied the GDC that they have the requisite knowledge and skills to practise safely.
Accordingly, section 15 (1) of the Dental Act 1984 empowers the GDC to register as dentists graduates of a university dental school in the United Kingdom or any person who is a national of a member state of the European Economic Area and holds an appropriate European diploma. Section 16 of the Act empowers the GDC to set an examination for other dentists who trained abroad and are seeking registration here.
The national advice centre for post graduate education of dentists, which is located at the Royal College of Surgeons, advises dentists on how to acquire the training and experience required to sit the GDC's international qualifying examination.
Patient Advice and Liaison Service
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if his Department will check that each NHS trust has instituted a Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) before community health councils are abolished; where a suitable PALS has not been implemented in an area, if he will extend the life of the local community health council to maintain cover; and whose responsibility it is to ensure a PALS is instituted before the relevant community health council is abolished. [91862]
Mr. Lammy: Patient advice and liaison services (PALS) are not linked to the abolition of Community Health Councils (CHCs). CHCs will be replaced by a new system of patient and public involvement, based on local authority scrutiny of health services and the establishment of the Commission of Patient and Public Involvement in Health and Patients' Forums.
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PALS are an additional resource, providing a responsive service for patients, their families and carers.
The Department has commissioned a mapping exercise of PALS implementation, due for completion at the end of January. Initial responses indicate an 89 per cent. implementation rate. It is anticipated that all trusts will have implemented PALS by April 2003.
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