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8 May 2003 : Column 866W—continued

Cancer Services (Havering)

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of (a) throat, (b) prostate, (c) bowel, (d) breast and (e) lung cancer patients in the London Borough of Havering were treated successfully in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [110585]

Mr. Hutton: The Department does not collect the information requested.

Hospital Reconfiguration Reviews

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the NHS hospitals which are subject to reconfiguration reviews. [110947]

Mr. Hutton: The Department does not collect information centrally on configuration reviews and there is no obligation on the National Health Service locally to report on every service change they are considering.

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All strategic health authorities are in the process of agreeing local delivery plans for the next three years. These show systematically how improvements will be made locally to deliver the increases in capacity and quality set out in the document 'Improvement, Expansion and Reform: Priorities and Planning Framework 2003–2006' and include acute hospital services.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he plans to publish the results of the consultation on the future configuration of NHS hospitals. [110953]

Mr. Hutton: 'Keeping the NHS Local—A New Direction of Travel' was published on 14 February. The service models in the document are presented for consultation, which were presented to stimulate discussion and debate. The consultation closes on 14 May in line with Cabinet Office guidelines and we will be publishing a short summary of responses on the configuring hospitals website in due course.

Ambulatory Care

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health where the Government is piloting the hospital models for local ambulatory care. [111028]

Mr. Hutton: "Keeping the NHS Local—A New Direction of Travel" highlighted the developing role of ambulatory care in the provision of local health services. Many variations on this theme have already been put into practice across England, so the development work for the guidance has not included establishment of additional ambulatory care pilots.

Looked After Children

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for ealth what discussions his Department had with the (a) Department for Education and Skills, (b) the Social Exclusion Unit and (c) local authorities regarding the revision of educational targets for looked after children. [111045]

Jacqui Smith: Officials in the Department of Health and the Department for Education and Skills have worked closely with the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) on all aspects of their project on the educational attainment of looked after children, including on the development of the new targets. The SEU's work has involved extensive written and oral consultation with key stakeholders, including local government. This consultation sought views on a wide range of issues affecting children in care, including the appropriate nature and level of targets for this group.

Maternity Units

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many midwife-only maternity units are in operation at non-acute hospital sites; and if he will list them. [110955]

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Jacqui Smith: This information is not collected centrally. The Department does not advocate any one single model of maternity care in preference to others, but acknowledges that midwife-led units play important role in the local network of services available to women during pregnancy and labour and after birth.

The maternity records collected through the Hospital Episodes Statistics system are usually identified only to trust level, rather than to any specific unit within the trust. Some trusts provide information regarding the staff group with lead responsibility for care, for example, midwife-led or consultant-led, but this does not allow the identification of midwife-only units.

ME

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what treatments the NHS provides for patients with ME; and what rehabilitation courses the NHS offers to such patients. [110837]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 1 May 2003]: Decisions on what treatments and rehabilitation services a patient needs are best made by the clinicians in charge of treatment. We do not hold information centrally on the treatments and rehabilitation services available to these patients.

Care Standards

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received about the National Care Standards Commission (Registration) (Amendment) Regulations. [111731]

Jacqui Smith: I have received no representations about the National Care Standards Commission (Registration) (Amendment) Regulations.

National IT Programme

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reason Kellogg Brown and Root was selected to lead the national IT programme; and what experience they have in major IT projects. [107798]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 7 April 2003]: An Official Journal of the European Community (OJEC) contract notice for programme management services was issued on 12 February 2003. Following the open procurement exercise Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) has been appointed to provide independent and professional support for planning activities, risk analysis, cost modelling, contracting, procurement and implementation management for the national programme for information technology.

KBR was selected due to its established record of successfully providing such services to the UK public sector and private and public sector clients worldwide. KBR is a world class company specialising in the management of such complex programmes.

Older People

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the funding of the National Service Framework for older people in (a) 2001–02, (b) 2002–03 and (c) 2003–04. [110324]

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Jacqui Smith: Implementation of the national service framework (NSF) for older people is supported by the substantial additional investment that has been provided for the National Health Service since the NSF's publication in 2001. In 2001–02 and 2002–03, the NHS received average annual increases of 6.3 per cent, above inflation. Cash allocations to primary care trusts in the three years from 2003–04 will provide an average increase over the three years of more than 30 per cent.

NHS Pilots

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the next stage of appraisal of the pilots at the (a) Central Middlesex, (b) Bishop Auckland and (c) West Cornwall hospitals will be completed; and if he will make a statement. [111027]

Mr. Hutton: The National Co-ordinating Centre for the service delivery and organisation research and development programme is commissioning a national research project to evaluate all three of the hospital pilots. The closing date for outline applications was 16 April. Full proposals will be invited shortly.

NHS Trusts

Ms Drown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he last made a direction to (a) an NHS trust and (b) all NHS trusts; and what that direction was. [95617]

Mr. Hutton: As stated in my earlier reply to my hon. Friend on Wednesday 29 January, Official Report, column 899W, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has not issued any directions recently to individual National Health Service trusts.

The most recent direction that was made that affected all NHS trusts, was on 30 April 2003, and was entitled 'NHS Trust Schedules for the transfer of charitable funds'.

Hospital Discharges

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the number of NHS beds which could be released by programmes of earlier planned discharges. [111180]

Jacqui Smith: There has been a continued reduction in delayed discharges in England since September 2001, freeing up national health service capacity. The latest figures show that in December 2002, there were 4,586 people delayed on any one day, compared to 7,065 in September 2001. The provisions of the Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc) Act 2003 will ensure that this reduction continues, to reach the target of minimal delays by 2006.

PET Scanners

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many full positron emission tomograph scanners are available in the NHS; and where they are located. [109926]

Ms Blears: There are five positron emission tomography (PET) scanners in National Health Service hospitals in England used for routine clinical assessments. They are situated at Guys, St. Thomas',

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Middlesex, Mount Vernon and Hammersmith Hospitals. Four other PET scanners are used primarily for research and are located in dedicated research facilities in London, Cambridge and Manchester. In addition, three private facilities, including a new mobile PET scanner in London, are available for NHS patients.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time is for PET scans. [109927]

Ms Blears: Data is not collected centrally on waiting times for positron emission tomography (PET) scans. The length of time that a patient may have to wait for any scan is dependent on their clinical condition. Emergency cases need to be seen immediately. Other cases will be carried out as quickly as possible, dependent on the clinical priority of all patients waiting to be scanned.

Where a scan forms part of the diagnostic process for a patient urgently referred with suspected cancer, this will be covered by the target of a maximum two months wait from urgent referral to first treatment, which will be in place for all cancers by the end of 2005.

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