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20 Nov 2003 : Column 1403W—continued

Olympus Optical Co. (UK) Ltd

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will meet the hon. Member for West Chelmsford and a representative of Olympus Optical Co (UK) Ltd, a constituent. [139997]

Mr. Hutton: I will write to the hon. Member as soon as possible, and place a copy of the letter in the Library.

Paddington Health Campus

Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the estimated patient capacity is of the proposed Paddington Health Campus; and how much that has increased from the estimate in 2000. [131866]

Mr. Hutton: The Paddington Health Campus will have provision for 1088 inpatient beds. This is an increase of 80 beds in comparison with the current total for equivalent services at St Mary's and the Royal Brompton and Harefield National Health Service Trusts. The original forecast projected bed numbers was approximately 1,000. The campus that is now planned is 20 per cent, larger in size and will treat a higher number of acutely ill patients.

Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place a copy of the contract between the Paddington Health Campus project and Christow in the Library. [132572]

Mr. Hutton: Christow, a public relations consultancy, has been appointed on an interim basis, pending selection of permanent communications advisers via formal procurement. An advertisement was sent to the Official Journal of the European Union on 10 October 2003.

It is normal practice for such contracts to be commercially confidential, as releasing this information would entail disclosing a third party's commercial confidence. Exemption 13 of the Open Government Code of Practice therefore applies.

Painkillers

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many painkillers available over the counter contain codeine phosphate. [140053]

Ms Rosie Winterton: I refer the hon. Member to the response I gave him on 18 November 2003.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will answer the Question from the hon. Member for Cotswold tabled on 22 October, ref.134548. [140015]

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Ms Rosie Winterton: I replied to the hon. Member's question on Wednesday 19 November.

Patient Advice and Liaison Services

Mr. Colman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS trusts and primary care trusts in England have functioning patient advice and liaison services. [140085]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not collect data on the number of patient advice and liaison services (PALS). Strategic health authorities (SHAs) are responsible for monitoring the implementation of PALS and in February 2003 they reported to the Department that 98 per cent. of NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) had an active PALS. In responding to the recent Health Select Committee Public Expenditure Inquiry in October 2003, the SHAs established that, of the 15 NHS trusts and PCTs that did not have an active PALS at the time of the February report, 14 now have a PALS in place. The remaining trust currently provides a limited service, which is expected to be fully operational by December 2003.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will set out the Department's definition of an active Patient Advice and Liaison Service. [140105]

Ms Rosie Winterton: An active Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is a service identified by its trust as working to deliver the published core PALS service standards.

NHS trusts and primary care trusts are responsible for establishing PALS that deliver the core PALS service standards published by the Department. Trusts are responsible for deciding how to deliver the service in a way that responds to local needs and strategic health authorities monitor trust performance against those standards.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will (a) collate and (b) publish information on the implementation of patient advice and liaison service, including (i) the percentage of NHS trusts and primary care trusts that have an active PALS and (ii) monitoring of the national PALS standards. [140113]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not collect data on the number of patient advice and liaison services (PALS). Strategic health authorities (SHAs) are responsible for monitoring the implementation of PALS and in February 2003 they reported to the Department that 98 per cent. of NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) had an active PALS. In responding to the recent Health Select Committee Public Expenditure Inquiry in October 2003, the SHAs established that, of the 15 NHS trusts and PCTs that did not have an active PALS at the time of the February report, 14 now have a PALS in place. The remaining trust currently provides a limited service, which is expected to be fully operational by December 2003.

SHAs are responsible for monitoring trust performance against the published standards. The Department published the core PALS service standards in January 2002 ("Supporting the implementation of patient advice and liaison services: A resource pack"). These were reviewed and revised in July 2003.

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Patient Surveys

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 17 July 2003, Official Report, column 631W, to the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Dr. Harris), on patient surveys, if he will place a copy of the analysis commissioned by his Department in the Library. [138350]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Following publication of the National Cancer Patient Survey in July 2002, the Department of Health commissioned a further analysis of the data to inform the development of future surveys. This was an exploratory piece of work to see if there were any inter-dependencies that might affect the patient experience. The output will not be a formal report but rather a series of detailed statistical tables. These will be made available to the Commission for Health Improvement, which has taken over responsibility for the national patient survey programme.

Patients' Forums

Mr. Colman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will introduce legislation to rename patients' forums as patient and public involvement forums. [140083]

Ms Rosie Winterton: No. The Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health decided to re-brand patients' forums as patient and public involvement forums to help the public understand their roles. There is no statutory bar to their doing this.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the (a) number and (b) rate of vacancies within patients' forums on the latest date for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement on progress to meet the minimum number of staff in each patients' forum. [139863]

Ms Rosie Winterton: As at 19 November 2003 the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH) had received 4,254 applications from people to fill the 4,018 patients' forum places available for 1 December 2003. This is the total for the minimum number of seven members needed for all 574 forums in England. Inevitably some forums have attracted greater interest than others. However, CPPIH is still recruiting and applications are being received throughout the country on a daily basis.

Patients' forums cannot employ staff because they are unincorporated organisations. However arrangements have been in place since September for each patients' forum to receive staff support from local network providers.

Physiotherapy

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether there are restrictions on the number of domiciliary visits by physiotherapists to individual patients. [138993]

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Mr. Hutton: There are no centrally imposed restrictions in England.

Private Diagnostic and Treatment Centres

Mr. Dobson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library correspondence between his Department's officials and the Oxford Strategic Health Authority about private diagnostic and treatment centres. [131909]

Mr. Hutton: The procurement of independent sector treatment centres is being managed under strict Official Journal of the European Commission process. Contracts are not yet at financial close and therefore the correspondence with Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority is commercial in confidence and its release would have an impact on the next stage of negotiation.

Private Finance Initiative

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list NHS PFI projects valued at more than £50 million for which approval has been granted by the Department; what the projected cost is of each of these projects; what net impact each project will have on the cost base of the NHS trusts involved; and what the projected completion date is for each project. [136893]

Mr. Hutton: Information on private finance initiative (PFI) schemes which have been given approval with their capital value; the revenue consequences of schemes that have signed contracts; and the projected completion dates for those who have yet to reach financial close have been placed in the Library. It is not possible to include details of the unitary payments for schemes yet to reach financial close as they are not finalised and are commercially sensitive.

Nor is it possible to give the net impact on the cost base of the National Health Service trusts without examining all the individual business cases and thereby incurring disproportionate costs.

For schemes which have not reached financial close, that is still in development, the capital cost is estimated based on highest costed option.

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