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20 Nov 2003 : Column 1384W—continued
Infection Control
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department monitors hospital and community clinicians' attendance at infection control training; and if he will make a statement. [138190]
Mr. Hutton: For nurses, midwives and other non-medical health professionals, it is for local employers to determine their training needs linked to local service plans. Access to training is affected by whether funding is available, staff can be released, training interventions
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are appropriate, flexible and convenient and mentors/assessors are available. It would not be practical for the centre to be prescriptive on this.
Acute trusts have to provide education on infection control as part of the controls assurance standard. Recently published guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence on infection control in primary and community care includes recommendations on training.
For doctors, the content and standard of postgraduate medical training is the responsibility of the United Kingdom competent authorities, the specialist training authority for specialist medicine and, for general practice, the joint committee on postgraduate training for general practice, which will both be replaced by the postgraduate medical education and training board. Their role is that of custodians of quality standards in postgraduate medical education and practice. They are independent of the Department. In addition, the General Medical Council's education committee has the general function of promoting high standards of medical education and co-ordinating all stages of medical education to ensure that students and newly qualified doctors are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes essential for professional practice.
All of these bodies have a vested interest in ensuring that doctors are equipped to deal with the issues they will encounter in practice—including where appropriate, those relating to infection control. However, it is neither practicable nor desirable for the Government to prescribe and monitor the exact training that any individual doctor will receive.
Injuries Compensation
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total cost of compensation paid by the NHS to employees who have been injured at work was in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [138179]
Mr. Hutton: Personal injury cover for national health service employees is provided by trusts' and primary care trusts' membership of the Liabilities to Third Parties Scheme, a non-clinical risk pooling scheme operated by the NHS Litigation Authority. This was introduced in April 1999 as an alternative to purchasing commercial insurance for non-clinical risks. The table shows the total amount of compensation claims paid in each year since April 1999. Information on claims prior to 1999 is not available.
| Number of claims handled | Compensation paid (£) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 810 | 2.4 million |
| 2000–01 | 1,839 | 5.3 million |
| 2001–02 | 2,435 | 3.9 million |
| 2002–03 | 2,450 | 1.1 million |
| 2003–04 | 1,572 | 43,000 |
These figures do not represent the full cost of compensation claims, however, as many small claims which fall under the standard excess of £10,000 are handled directly by NHS trusts and information on these is not reported.
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Insulin
Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of patients use (a) animal and (b) GM-produced human insulin; what assessment has been made of the (i) likely changes in those figures over the next 10 years and (ii) continuing availability of animal insulin; and if he will make a statement. [139904]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Data on the number of people using animal and genetically modified produced human insulins are not collected and there has been no assessment or forecast made of the numbers of people likely to be using these insulins in the future. The table shows the number of prescription items that were dispensed in the community in England, and their cost, in the 12 months ended June 2003.
| Number of prescription items (thousand) | Net ingredient cost (£000) | |
|---|---|---|
| Highly purified animal insulin | 128.1 | 4,217.2 |
| Human sequence (GM insulin) | 3,522.0 | 150,528.8 |
| All insulins | 3,650.0 | 154,746.0 |
Notes:
1. The data is from the Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) system which covers all prescription items that are dispensed in the community in England. This does not include drugs dispensed in hospitals or private prescriptions.
2. Insulins are those defined in the British National Formulary (BNF) paragraph 6.1.1, "Insulins". Insulin drugs have been grouped into highly purified animal and human sequence (GM) insulin in line with the British National Formulary (BNF).
3. Doctors write prescriptions on a prescription form. Each single item written on the form is counted as a prescription item. The net ingredient cost refers to the cost (which the dispenser is reimbursed) of the drug before discounts and does not include any dispensing costs or fees.
Intermediate Care
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many intermediate care beds there were in each year since 1999; [137935]
- (2) how many people received intermediate care services in each year since 1999. [137938]
Dr. Ladyman: The information requested is shown in the tables.
| Number of IC beds | |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 4,242 |
| 2000–01 | (73)— |
| 2001–02 | 7,021 |
| 2002–03 | 7,407 |
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| Number of people receiving IC services | |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 132,447 |
| 2000–01 | (73)— |
| 2001–02 | 246,034 |
| 2002–03 | 276,184 |
(73) Not available.
Inventures
Mr. Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will instruct Inventures to expedite their dealings with the Church Grange Satellite Surgery at Park Village, Basingstoke, in respect of a land transaction; and if he will make a statement on the reasons for delays in Inventures completing this business. [138484]
Mr. Hutton: The new surgery at Park Village, Basingstoke forms an integral part of a much larger residential development and the Village Centre project for which Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council are currently considering a detailed planning application.
The sale and development of the new surgery is linked to that of the larger development. The sale of the larger development site is anticipated to be completed shortly.
The Department is aware of the need for the new surgery to be constructed as soon as practical and is working to achieve this. Drafting Guidelines are attached to the PQ Reference Guide.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to receive the National Audit Office report on the sale of Inventures and NHS property; and whether he plans to publish it. [138835]
Mr. Hutton: We understand that the National Audit Office is close to finalising its findings in relation to the sale of Inventures and national health service property.
No decision has yet been taken with regards to publication of any report.
Clinical Incident Investigations
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to encourage local trust management to establish an open culture for reporting and examining clinical incidents. [140008]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Government established the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) to improve the safety of patients by promoting a culture of reporting and learning from clinical incidents in the National Health Service. The NPSA has developed a new National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) to collect reports, which will be rolled out across NHS organisations in England and Wales. The NRLS will store anonymous data used to identify national trends and patterns of errors and system failures so that the NPSA can develop practical solutions to address them.
The NPSA is working on a range of tools and has appointed a regional network of 31 patient safety managers to support NHS managers in developing a more open and fair culture and in responding effectively when things go wrong locally. As the NRLS is rolled out, the NPSA will offer root-cause analysis training to
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every NHS organisation to encourage thorough and objective investigations and support local learning. Further information is available at www.npsa.nhs.uk.
The recently published Chief Medical Officer's (CMO) report, 'Making Amends', makes 19 recommendations to reform the way in which clinical negligence claims are handled in the NHS. The CMC's proposals include the introduction of a duty of candour for everyone working in health care, and measures to encourage staff to report adverse incidents and so improve patient safety.
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