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28 Apr 2003 : Column 280W—continued
NHS Operations
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether current employment arrangements in the NHS provide for breaks for non-medical staff involved in providing support to operating theatre teams to be taken during operating time. [109198]
Mr. Hutton: It is the responsibility of National Health Service employers to adhere to the requirements of the Working Time Regulations, which provides for rest breaks.
General guidance (HSC 1998/204) was issued to employers on the implementation of the Regulations in the NHS.
The aim is to provide quality patient care by ensuring minimum standards of rest for all staff in the NHS.
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NHS Prescriptions (Fraud)
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of fraud in relation to NHS prescribing and NHS prescription charges in the last 12 months. [110177]
Mr. Lammy: The National Health Service Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (NHS CFSMS) has an on-going programme of highly accurate risk measurement exercises (accurate to plus or minus one per cent.) designed to reveal levels of losses and, through repeated exercises, reduction in such losses. Phase one of these exercises included patient prescription charge evasion fraud. The information is shown in the table.
| Year data selected | Fraud losses |
|---|---|
| 1998–99 | 117 |
| 1999–2000 | 69 |
A statistically valid sample of those prescriptions prescribed during March 2003 is being taken for a further measurement exercise to be conducted. Further fraud reductions are anticipated and the figures will be produced later this year.
Phase two of the programme will focus on contractor fraud within the NHS. As the measurement programme extends, it will enable NHS CFSMS to accurately assess the totality of NHS fraud.
NHS Services (Durham)
Mr. Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will list the individuals appointed to NHS trusts who live in the North Durham constituency; [108595]
- (2) if he will list the individuals appointed to NHS trusts and primary care trusts in Durham who have neither previously served on NHS trust boards nor held any other public appointment. [108597]
Mr. Lammy: The following individuals, who live in the North Durham parliamentary constituency, are currently serving on national health service boards:
- Rachel Burton (non-executive, Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust)
Thomas Conery (non-executive, North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust)
Brian Ebbatson (non-executive, Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust)
Vera McEwan (Chair, Gateshead Primary Care Trust)
Keith Murray-Hetherington (Chair, Derwentside Primary Care Trust)
Heather Scott (non-executive, Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust)
Peter Smith (Chair, Gateshead Health NHS Trust)
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- Rachel Burton (non-executive, Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust)
John Dixon (non-executive, County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust)
Kathleen Duggan (non-executive, Derwentside Primary Care Trust)
Andrew Gray (non-executive, Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust)
John Griffiths (non-executive, County Durham and Darlington Priority Services NHS Trust
David Hall (non-executive, County Durham and Darlington Priority Services NHS Trust)
Judith Lund (non-executive, Derwentside Primary Care Trust)
Collette O'Byrne (non-executive, Derwentside Primary Care Trust)
James Owens (non-executive, Derwentside Primary Care Trust)
Heather Scott (non-executive, Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust)
Paul Taylor (non-executive, Durham Dales Primary Care Trust)
Karen Veitch (non-executive, Durham Dales Primary Care Trust)
Wendy Westmorland (non-executive, Easington Primary Care Trust)
Penelope Young (Chair, Easington Primary Care Trust)
NHS Treatments
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of (a) cancer patients and (b) heart disease patients were successfully treated in (i) the London borough of Havering, (ii) other London boroughs and (iii) the County of Essex in the last three years. [108664]
Mr. Hutton: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Nursing Care Fees
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of nursing homes failing to pass on the free nursing care contribution to former preserved rights residents. [109002]
Jacqui Smith: The nursing care of former preserved rights residents of care homes, as for other residents supported by councils, only became the responsibility of the national health service from 1 April 2003. These residents are placed under contracts made by councils and the NHS.
They are not charged directly by providers for the nursing care that they receive. There is therefore no need for providers to pass on any contribution to them.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 7 April 2003, Official Report, column 96W, on care homes, whether the care home providers the Minister wrote to (a) passed the contribution on to residents and (b) reduced their fees according to the banding that residents were placed in. [109017]
28 Apr 2003 : Column 283W
Jacqui Smith: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to him on 25 April 2002, Official Report, column 457W. It should not be assumed that all the providers who were written to had, in every case, failed to pass on any financial benefit arising from the national health service funding part of their care.
Nursing Care Payments
Mr. O'Hara: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what alterations the Government plans to make to example 4 in the NHS funded nursing care practice guidance and workbook used by nurses in making their determinations about the correct band of NHS payment towards nursing care, in response to case E 420/00–01 ('Mrs. N') in the Health Ombudsman's recent report, NHS funding for long term care; [110050]
- (2) what alterations will be made to the criteria used by nurses in their determinations in relation to (a) the higher band and (b) the middle band of NHS payment towards nursing care in the relevant guidance (HSC 2001/17) in order to ensure that they do not impose a higher test for nursing care payments than the Court of Appeal indicated in the Coughlan case was required for NHS continuing care. [110049]
Jacqui Smith: The case studies that are set out in the Practice Guide and Workbook assume that a continuing care assessment has already been carried out. These are fictional examples that do not identify needs for other therapeutic or medical input. It is therefore not meaningful to compare these to cases identified in the Ombudsman's report, and I do not consider that there is any need to amend either the guidance or the guide.
The recently issued guidance on NHS Funded Nursing Care (HSC 2003/6: LAC (2003)7) emphasised the distinction between National Health Service funded nursing care and NHS continuing healthcare very clearly. It stresses that all the individual's needs for medical and nursing care, as well as therapeutic and personal care, should be examined. Based on this examination, it highlights the need in every case to consider whether the person meets the criteria for fully funded NHS healthcare, before there is any consideration of NHS funded nursing care as part of a mixed package of care.
Osteoporosis
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on progress made by the NHS in tackling osteoporosis since the publication of the Green Paper, Our Healthier Nation. [109089]
Jacqui Smith: Since the publication of the Green Paper in February 1998, a number of steps have been taken to tackle osteoporosis. In June 1998, we launched a strategy aimed at reducing the number of fractures caused by osteoporosis. The strategy is evidence-based; prioritises treatment for those at higher risk of developing the disease; is easily accessible and encourages people to think about how they can play a part in preventing fractures and accidents and ultimately to prevent osteoporosis. Health authorities were recommended to use the strategy as a basis for developing their own local strategies.
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Osteoporosis has been included in the falls standard of the national service framework (NSF) for older people. This standard requires each local health system to have a falls service in place by April 2005. These services must include appropriate interventions and advice to prevent osteoporosis.
We have asked the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to undertake an appraisal of pharmacological treatments for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis with a view to giving doctors the latest evidence based information on the most effective treatments for their patients. NICE expects to publish towards the end of the year. NICE is also drawing up clinical guidelines for the prevention and treatment of this disease. Although the guidelines are being developed to support the NSF for older people, they will have an effect on the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis at all ages.
Towards the end of 2002, we announced the first three pilot schemes for pre-retirement health checks for people approaching retirement, including one on osteoporosis. Pre-retirement is a good time to make people aware of lifestyle changes they can adopt to prevent the onset of this disease. These checks can also identify those in need of immediate treatment for established osteoporosis.
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