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Hospital Trusts

Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what control NHS hospital trusts have over the volume of patients being referred to hospitals. [133403]

Mr. Hutton: Primary care trusts (PCTs) are responsible for commissioning sufficient activity from national health service trusts and other providers to meet the needs of their local population. The levels of activity required from NHS trusts should be specified in service agreements (SAs) and will represent a ceiling to the Trusts contractual obligations.

Where either there are no SAs in place or the activity levels specified in a SA have already been met by the trust, the PCT is responsible for commissioning additional activity to meet the needs of its patients.

HSC 2002/007 (Securing Service Delivery: Commissioning Freedoms of Primary Care Trusts) and HSC 1998/198 (Commissioning in the new NHS) provide further information. Copies are available in the Library.

Information Technology

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions his Department has had with the National Audit Office regarding the correspondence they have had about the national programme for information technology. [133926]

Mr. Hutton: The Department routinely has discussion with the National Audit Office (NAO) as part of its remit to monitor the work of Government departments. A senior member of the NAO has a seat on the national programme board for the National Health Service information management and technology strategy.

Joint Working

Mr. Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make a statement on joint working between primary health care trusts and citizen advice bureaux; and how much funding primary health care trusts contributed to citizens advice bureaux in each of the past three years. [135873]

Mr. Hutton: It is for individual primary care trusts to determine joint working arrangements with local stakeholders and to allocate funds accordingly. The information requested on funding is not available centrally.

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King George's Hospital (Redbridge)

John Cryer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) which private healthcare companies expressed an interest in running the treatment centre at King George's Hospital, Redbridge; and what the criteria were used to award the contract; [133273]

(2) if he will estimate how many patients will be treated at the treatment centre based at King George's Hospital, Redbridge; and if he will make a statement. [133274]

Mr. Hutton: Anglo Canadian was announced as preferred bidder for the proposed treatment centre at King George's Hospital, Redbridge on 12 September. Their appointment is subject to final contract negotiation and agreement. Because of the commercial in confidence status of the procurement, it is not possible to list the other companies that expressed an interest in this scheme.

The selection of the preferred bidders followed detailed evaluation of the submitted tenders. The evaluation criteria included clinical quality, building proposals, human resources, speed of mobilisation and delivery, affordability, value for money, bidders corporate structure and price. There was a structured scoring mechanism against each of these criteria and total scores assessed between bidders.

It is expected that the treatment centre based at King George's Hospital will complete 11,800 procedures on average per year of the contract in ophthalmology, general surgery and trauma and orthopaedics. These are indicative activity levels and are subject to the possibility that it may make sense for the national health service and the preferred bidder to shift activity between different centres.

Macular Degeneration

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the number of patients with wet age-related macular degeneration who were treated privately with photodynamic therapy in NHS hospitals in each of the last four years; and if he will make a statement. [138048]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not collect data on the number of patients treated privately with photodynamic therapy in national health service hospitals.

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations (a) he and (b) his ministerial colleagues has received from (i) the Royal College of Ophthalmology, (ii) the AMD Alliance and (iii) the RNIB on the implementation of NICE guidance for wet age-related macular degeneration; and if he will make a statement. [138049]

Ms Rosie Winterton: We have recently received representations from the Royal National Institute for the Blind and the Macular Disease Society raising concerns about the extended implementation period from three to nine months. They were concerned that primary care trusts would delay paying for photodynamic therapy (PDT) until the latest possible time. Specialised commissioning groups are leading the implementation of PDT and at a meeting held on

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4 November, departmental officials made clear that funding should not delay implementation of the guidance. The Department is also working closely with the Royal College of Ophthalmologists on the implementation of the guidance.

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether reading centres assessing patients with wet age-related macular degeneration for treatment with photodynamic therapy will be required to make a diagnosis before patients are treated; and if he will make a statement. [138050]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Reading centres assessing patients with wet age-related macular degeneration for treatment with photodynamic therapy (PDT) will not be required to make a diagnosis before patients are treated. For the moment, reporting on the same day, in real time, by the reading centres service is not feasible. Consequently to avoid delay, PDT will be offered on the basis of the initial judgement of the clinician at the PDT centre, with confirmation of the diagnosis by the reading centres service being made after the first PDT treatment has occurred.

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the annual cost to the NHS of providing photodynamic therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration (a) by primary care trusts, (b) by hospital trusts and (c) in total; and if he will make a statement. [138051]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The National Institiute for Clinical Excellence has estimated that the cost of providing photodynamic therapy (PDT) to 1000 patients per year would be in the region of £4 million in the first year, rising to £8.3 million by the third year and remaining constant thereafter. PDT is a specialised service and we would expect up to 50 centres to be supported. Therefore, every primary care trust (PCT) or hospital trust is not expected to provide this service. Initially, specialised commissioners will fund the service and PCTs will need to consider longer term funding arrangements.

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of patients with classic no occult wet age-related macular degeneration who are unable to receive photodynamic therapy on the NHS; and if he will make a statement. [138052]

Ms Rosie Winterton: On the basis of limited epidemiological data, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) estimated that each year in England and Wales there may be 5000 to 7500 new cases of predominantly classic subfoveal choroidal neovascularisation (CNV) associated with wet age-related macular degeneration. However, they noted there is a high degree of uncertainty about this estimate. We have asked the National Health Service to ensure that patients with suspected CNV are treated wherever capacity exists to do so. By July 2004, the NICE guidance will have been implemented fully across the country and capacity will build between now and then.

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Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospitals have equipment and trained professionals in place to provide photodynamic therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration; and if he will make a statement. [138053]

Ms Rosie Winterton: There are approximately 30 centres providing photodynamic therapy. Some are well established, others are coming on stream. We expect that up to 50 centres will be set up to deliver the National Institute for Clinical Excellence's recommendations. As a specialised service, we expect commissioners to plan for centres to serve a population of not less than a million.

Meat Fraud

Judy Mallaber: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will set up an inquiry into the lessons to be learnt from the prosecutions relating to meat fraud (a) at Denby Poultry Products and (b) in Rotherham. [137587]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Following the prosecutions for fraudulent diversion of unfit meat in the Rotherham case, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) set up the independent Waste Food Task Force. The Task Force, which was made up of experts from enforcement, industry and consumer backgrounds, advised the FSA on additional action that could be taken to prevent the illegal diversion of unfit meat into the food chain. The Task Force also included enforcers involved in the Denby Poultry Products prosecutions. The board of the FSA, at its September meeting, adopted an action plan to implement the recommendations of the Task Force. In addition to this, the FSA has called a seminar on 26 November to discuss the lessons to be learned from the Denby prosecutions. The seminar will involve those who were involved both in the Denby prosecutions and in other similar cases, including local authority enforcers, the Meat Hygiene Service, the police and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as well as industry and consumer representatives.

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