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21 May 2003 : Column 854W—continued

Health Service Finance

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 6 March 2003, Official Report, column 1210W, on health service finance, what the deficit was for each NHS trust in England at the beginning of the current financial year; and what his most recent estimate is of the deficit of each of the trusts by the end of the financial year. [102989]

Mr. Hutton: At the beginning of the current financial year, all national health service trusts planned a breakeven or better position, except Royal United Bath NHS trust (£15 million deficit) and United Bristol Healthcare NHS trust (£9.4 million deficit).

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The audited information in respect of the 2002–03 financial performance of all NHS trusts will be published in their individual annual accounts. The audited information will be available centrally in autumn 2003. We have no plans to publish national, in year, unaudited financial information. These figures are considered to be exempt under Part II of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.

Health Service Ombudsman

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which strategic health authorities are seeking legal advice regarding the health service ombudsman report on continuing care; and what estimate his Department has made of the number of people that may have been forced to sell their homes to pay for care. [113413]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 15 May 2003]: All strategic health authorities have been advised to take legal advice when drawing up new criteria for continuing care.

The Department has made no estimate of the number of people who may have sold their homes following a decision that the national health service would not fully finance continuing care.

Hospital Smoking Areas

Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health in which hospitals smoking rooms or areas for (a) patients and (b) staff have been built in each year since 1997; and what the cost of building work was in each case. [114501]

Mr. Hutton: These data are not collected centrally.

Housing Benefit

Mr. Truswell : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the number of people with learning disabilities who may lose entitlement to housing benefit as a result of their accommodation being registered as a care home by the National Care Standards Commission. [113968]

Jacqui Smith: There was no intention through the Care Standards Act to widen the scope of regulation to new types of accommodation that had not previously been required to register as care homes. The type of care provided in a home, which will trigger registration is fundamentally unchanged. We have not, therefore, made an assessment.

Whether a particular establishment needs to register as a care home is a matter for the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC). Statutory guidance was issued to the NCSC in August 2002 explaining in broad terms where registration as a care home is required and how to distinguish care homes from supported housing of various kinds. Proprietors can appeal against decisions they don't agree with.

Long-term Care

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to publicise the Health Service Ombudsman Report on NHS funding for Long Term Care to the public. [113032]

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Jacqui Smith: All strategic health authorities have been advised by the Department to take appropriate measures to make local people aware that a review of enquires arising from the Ombudsman's report is taking place.

ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how the funding announced on 12 May for service development for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome will be distributed; [113655]

(2) what assessment he has made of the level and range of service provision for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome. [113534]

Jacqui Smith: We have made no formal assessment of the level and range of service provision for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME). Part of the process of developing the independent working group's report on CFS/ME was to look at the level of service provision. We have also given Action for ME £66,000 from Section 64 funding for their Statutory Service Models project that will undertake a mapping exercise to identify existing services.

The funding of £8.5 million, announced on May 12, will be used to develop services for people with CFS/ME. In July, health organisations will be invited to bid for development funds to set up centres of expertise to develop clinical care, support clinical research and expand education and training programmes for health care professionals. The first phase of development will commence in April 2004.

Mental Health

Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research he has commissioned to assess how far (a) inadequate treatment and (b) misdiagnosis based on a rigid biomedical diagnostic framework leads to (i) mental anguish, (ii) suicide and (iii) illegal drug use. [114322]

Jacqui Smith: The Department has not commissioned any such research.

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what specific training (a) there is and (b) is planned for health practitioners which highlights gender differences in mental illness; what the training consists of; and when it is offered. [114534]

Jacqui Smith: Information on what specific training there is for health practitioners which highlights gender differences in mental illness, what the training consists of and when it is offered is not held centrally. The forthcoming implementation guidance for the women's mental health strategy will make recommendations that will assist services to develop local training initiatives. As part of developing an implementation programme to support this, we will need to work with the workforce development confederations to consider what the education and training needs are of the mental health workforce around gender and gender differences.

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Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to amend the mental health national service framework to reflect gender specific recommendations. [114536]

Jacqui Smith: There are no plans to amend the mental health national service framework to reflect gender specific recommendations. The forthcoming implementation guidance for the women's mental health strategy focuses on the mainstreaming of gender and women's mental health and forms part of the Department's commitment to address inequalities in the delivery of mental health services and to tackle discrimination and disadvantage.

Midwives

Mr. Wilshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list maternity units in England, indicating (a) the number of whole-time equivalent midwives needed to meet the Birthrate Plus standard, (b) the number of WTE midwife posts funded in 2002–03 and (c) the number of WTE midwives in post in 2002–03. [113133]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 19 May 2003]: The maternity records collected through the hospital episodes statistics (HES) system are only identified to a trust level, rather than to any specific unit within the trust. The information requested on maternity units is therefore not available.

Birthrate Plus is a tool for assessing work force requirements in maternity units. Work done for the maternity and neonatal work force group, using Birthrate Plus data for a range of different type of maternity unit, suggests that, by 2005, the projected future supply of trained midwives at least meets future demand.

Information on the number of midwifery posts by unit is not collected centrally. As at September 2001, the latest available data, there were 23,080 qualified midwives employed in the national health service in England. As at March 2002, there were 530 vacancies lasting three months or more for midwives.

NHS Funding

Mr. Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 6 May, Official Report, columns 657–8W, on eligibility criteria, when he expects to be in a position to estimate (a) the number of people, (b) the estimated costs and (c) the number of continuing care criteria that have been needed to be changed since the publication of the second report of the Health Service Ombudsman, on NHS funding for long-term care of older and disabled people, HC399, ession 2002–03; and what steps he will take to inform honourable Members of these estimates. [112906]

Jacqui Smith: We expect to be in a position to estimate the number of people entitled to receive compensation and the estimated cost of this compensation later this year.

All strategic health authorities (SHAs) were asked in August 2002, to agree with local councils one set of criteria for continuing care for each SHA area, in line with the guidance issued by the Department of Health in

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June 2001. This process was already underway at the time of the publication of the second report of the Health Service Ombudsman.

Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the operating surplus or deficit was of each NHS hospital trust in the last year for which figures are available. [111539]

Mr. Hutton: The information on operating surplus or deficit for each National Health Service hospital trust in 2001–03, the last year for which figures are available, has been placed in the Library.

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