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Regions White Paper
Joyce Quin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what progress his Department has made towards the aim in the White Paper, Your Region, Your Choice, of assessing the balance of staff between the centre and the regions in terms of effective policy design and implementation; and what examples there have been since the publication of the White Paper of the Department deciding between locating new streams of work (a) in and (b) outside London and the South East; [108573]
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- (2) what progress the Department has made towards the goal set out in the White Paper, Your Region, Your Choice, of (a) ensuring that regional awareness and devolution feature strongly in Civil Service training and development, (b) increasing the mobility of civil servants between headquarters offices, regional offices, and the Government Offices and (c) encouraging interchange between the civil service and organisations in the regions. [108583]
Mr. Lammy: In the Department of Health, over 40 per cent. of the Department's 4,900 staff are now based outside London and the south-east, including nearly 1,000 headquarters staff in Leeds. The Department's regional directors of public health and their teams are based in the Government offices of the regions. In addition, from October 2002, 28 strategic health authorities—located around the country—have assumed a range of functions previously undertaken by the Department. Further progress towards effective decentralisation is a major component of the Department's current change programme, which will in turn be reflected in training and development priorities. In the meantime, staff awareness of regional and devolution issues is being raised by a variety of means, including intranet sites, staff interchange, and extensive day-to-day contact with regional and local services.
Shrewsbury Hospital Merger
Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many of the respondees to the consultation on merger between the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal Hospitals were (a) in favour of and (b) against merger. [109698]
Mr. Lammy: The consultation on the proposed merger between the Royal Shrewsbury Hospitals National Health Service Trust and the Princess Royal Hospital NHS Trust resulted in a total of 321 responses. Fifty three of these responses were letters and 268 responses were received on the response slip attached to the consultation document.
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Thirty three written responses and 230 response slips supported the merger proposal. Eleven written responses and 38 response slips opposed the merger.
A further nine written responses were received which gave a qualified support to the proposal.
Shrewsbury Prison (Healthcare Manager)
Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the appointment by Shropshire primary care trust of a healthcare manager from HM Prison Shrewsbury. [109695]
Mr. Lammy: The Shropshire County Primary Care Trust reports that it has not made such an appointment. The PCT is in discussion with Her Majesty's Prison Shrewsbury about provision later this year of mental-health in-reach services, but no appointments have yet been made.
Tuberculosis
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent discussions he has had with (a) the Indian Government and (b) the National Asylum Seekers Service on tackling tuberculosis. [106563]
Ms Blears: No discussions have taken place with the Indian Government. Discussions have been held between Department of Health and National Asylum Support Service officers in relation to providing health assessments and tuberculosis screening for asylum seekers soon after their arrival.
Waiting Times
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients waited more than (a) three months, (b) six months, (c) nine months and (d) 12 months for (i) heart operations, (ii) cancer treatment and (iii) hip replacements in each NHS hospital trust in Suffolk in each year since 1997. [108776]
Mr. Lammy: The information is shown in the tables.
(12) due to reasons of confidentiality, figures below 5 have been suppressed.1. The main operation is the first of four operation fields in the HES data set, and is usually the most resource intensive procedure performed during the episode.2. The primary diagnosis is the first of seven diagnosis fields in the HES data set, and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital.3. Figures in this table have not yet been adjusted for shortfalls in data.Waiting time statistics from HES are not the same as the published waiting list statistics. HES provides counts and waiting times for all patients admitted to hospital within a given period whereas the published waiting list statistics count those waiting for treatment at a given point in time and how long they have been on the waiting list. Also, HES calculates the waiting time as the difference between the admission and decision to admit dates. Unlike published waiting list statistics, this is not adjusted for self-deferrals or periods of medical/social suspension.The data has been cumulated from grouped waiting time counts of admissions. An admission classified in the category 'more than 6 months' would also be counted in the 'more than 3 months' category. Total in year admissions from waiting list and booked cases can be calculated as the sum of the counts for 'under 3 months' and 'more than 3 months'.Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Department of Health.
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