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6 Oct 2003 : Column 1351W—continued

Social Services

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will break down the figure published in paragraph 2.76 of the Chief Inspector of Social Services 12th Annual Report showing for each staff/professional group how many additional whole time equivalent people will need to join the work force; and what the timetable is for this increase. [130908]

Dr. Ladyman: The Government do not hold information that shows the breakdown for each staff/professional group. Increases in different parts of the workforce will be dependent upon service design and skill mix, a process that will be focused on user need and carried out by the individual employers. For similar reasons the timetable for increases will vary by employer and service user group, and according to availability of development funding. The national recruitment campaign is planned to continue to 2006.

Sport and Physical Activity Board

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the membership of the Sport and Physical Activity Board; what its terms of reference are; and what projects it is working on. [130114]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The activity co-ordination team (ACT), formerly the sports and physical activity board, is jointly chaired by my right hon. the Minister of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Mr Caborn) and myself. The membership is drawn from officials from the following Government Departments and other organisations:

Department of Health;


Department for Culture, Media and Sport;

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Department for Education and Skills;


Treasury;


The Prime Minister's Office;


Department for Transport;


Home Office;


Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs;


Department for Work and Pensions;


Office of the Deputy Prime Minister;


Health Development Agency;


New Opportunities Fund;


Sport England; and


Local Government Association.

The terms of reference for the ACT are:

to make recommendations to Ministers on interventions to raise mass participation in sport and physical activity, particularly among economically disadvantaged groups, school leavers, women and older people;


to deploy existing funding (for example, local exercise action pilots, sport action zones, new opportunities for physical exercise and sport and new opportunities fund/Sport England partnership fund) and to identify new sources of funding for interventions where there is existing robust evidence of their cost-effectiveness, pilot projects where there is potential to increase participation where the evidence is not yet in place;


to identify and co-ordinate existing work and to classify it as delivery elements of the strategy reporting to and steered by ACT, or as autonomous programmes feeding information into and being informed by ACT as appropriate;


to ensure effective evaluation of the strategy and communication of results from existing and new national, local and regional projects to inform policy and practice;


to make recommendations to Ministers on a methodology to secure better evidence and data on participation and fitness;


to develop and oversee an effective communication strategy, in line with Ministers' wishes and agreed as widely as possible both within Government and with outside bodies such as health charities, Sport England, the national health service, the business community and others; and


to ensure that the programme of work includes quick wins and easily implemented low-cost interventions as well as longer-term solutions.

ACTs work centres on the development of a delivery plan by April 2004, to implement the key recommendation in 'Game Plan':

"to increase significantly levels of physical activity and sport particularly among disadvantaged groups".

Staff Expenses

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost was of (a) staff excess travel and (b) removal expenses in the NHS in the last year for which figures are available. [131021]

Mr. Hutton: Information on staff excess travel and removal expenses is not identified separately in the annual financial returns of national health service employers.

Stomach Stapling

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many stomach stapling operations took place in England, broken down by region, in each year between 1995 and 2002; [127702]

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(2) what percentage of stomach stapling operations failed due to the patient overeating after the operation in the last 12 months. [127703]

Mr. Hutton: The Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) database provides data on the number of surgical operations and procedures carried out in the National Health Service. Data on stomach stapling are collected under the code for partitioning of stomach. This code includes a number of procedures, and no further breakdown is available to identify stomach stapling procedures separately.

HES data do not record information on the number of failed stomach stapling operations due to patients overeating.

Stroke Care

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the general hospitals caring for people with a stroke which do not have a specialist stroke unit. [130325]

Dr. Ladyman: We do not routinely collect the information requested. The most comprehensive source of information is the national sentinel stroke audit, carried out by the Royal College of Physicians. The audit was commissioned by the national health service in 1998 and was last updated in 2002. The results can be found at http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/pubs/strokeaudit01–02.pdf. The 2002 audit shows that 73 per cent. of trusts who participated had a stroke unit compared to 56 per cent. three years earlier. The audit shows that 80 per cent. of trusts that participated have a consultant physician with specialist knowledge of stroke who is formally recognised as having principal responsibility for stroke services. While it is recognised that some services need to increase their capacity, the audit notes that very significant improvements have already been made.

Our major vehicle for further improving standards for stroke services is through the older people's national service framework which sets specific milestones for improvement by 2004 of stroke services in primary care trusts, specialist services and general hospitals that care for people suffering from a stroke. Our document, "Improvement, Expansion and Reform", which sets for the national health service a priorities and planning framework for 2003–06, makes clear that implementation of the older people's national service framework is a top priority, and that the 2004 milestone around specialist stroke services is a key target.

We monitor progress against the key milestones in the national service framework. From the information gathered so far we know that 83 per cent., of the hospitals who have replied, .now have plans to have a specialist stroke service in place by April 2004.

Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many stroke patients are treated in specialist stroke units; and how many he estimates will be treated in such units by April 2004; [131045]

(2) how many of the anticipated specialist stroke units in place by April 2004 he estimates will be (a) acute, (b) rehabilitation and (c) both acute and rehabilitation; and what percentage each will represent of the total; [131047]

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(3) what progress is being made in introducing stroke registers in GP practices; and what percentage of GP practices he estimates will have a fully operational and resourced register by April 2004. [131048]

Dr. Ladyman [holding answer 18 September 2003]: We do not routinely collect information on stroke services at the level of detail requested in these questions. The most comprehensive source of information on stroke is the national sentinel stroke audit, carried out; by the Royal College of Physicians. The audit was commissioned by the National Health Service in 1998 and was last updated in 2002. The results can be found at http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/pubs/strokeaudit01–02.pdf. There will be a further update of these figures next year.

The 2002 audit shows that 73 per cent., of trusts who participated had a stroke unit, compared to 56 per cent. three years earlier. In addition, 83 per cent. of patients receive brain imaging—the highest ever level. The audit shows that 80 per cent. of trusts that participated have a consultant physician with specialist knowledge of stroke who is formally recognised as having principal responsibility for stroke services. While it is recognised that some services need to increase their capacity, the audit notes that very significant improvements have already been made.

The quality framework of the new contract for general practitioners includes an indicator on the practice having a register of stroke patients. However, as the quality framework is voluntary, not all practices may choose to work towards this, although we expect many will do so. The first formal measurement of achievement against this indicator will be March 2005, and practices will be working to develop their stroke registers over the next 18 months.

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the most recent occupancy levels for each specialist stroke unit; and what age restrictions are placed on admission at each stroke unit. [131033]

Dr. Ladyman: The information requested is not collected centrally.

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