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15 Jan 2004 : Column 854W—continued

Health Promotion England

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the (a) budget allocation and (b) actual spending of Health Promotion England for each year since 2000. [144786]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The budget allocation and actual spend for Health Promotion England for each year since 2000 is shown in the table.

£ million

	Budget	Actual spend
2000–01	5.683	5.232
2001–02	6.265	6.061

Health Services (Lancashire)

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much earmarked funding has been provided to (a) Lancashire county council and (b) district councils in Lancashire for (i) older people's services and (ii) adults with learning disabilities in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [147855]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The Department does not provide earmarked funds to county councils for services for older people or for adults with learning disabilities. Lancashire county council decides how much to make available for these services from the overall amount provided for adult services by the Department. Lancashire county council will receive a £14 million, or 7.4 per cent., increase for adult personal social services in 2004–05.

Hospital-acquired Infections

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the extra bed days caused by extended stays in UK hospitals due to hospital acquired infections in each of the last six years, broken down by hospital trust. [144147]

Miss Melanie Johnson: These data are not available, but a 1994–95 study ¹ suggested that patients who acquire an infection in hospital remain in hospital on average an extra 11 days.

¹ The Socio-economic Burden of Hospital Acquired Infection—Public Health Laboratory Service, 1999, also available at: www.doh.gov.uk/haicosts.htm

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Influenza Vaccine

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the take-up rates for influenza vaccine were as at 1 December 2003 (a) in England and (b) broken down by (i) primary care trust and (ii) strategic health authority. [147184]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The overall uptake of flu vaccine in England in those aged 65 and over as at 1 December 2003 was 67.9 per cent.. A breakdown by strategic health authority and primary care trust has been placed in the Library.

Landfill Sites

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what studies have been carried out into the incidence of birth defects within the proximity of landfill sites. [147233]

Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 12 January 2004]: I refer the hon. Member to the response I gave him on 14 January 2004, Official Report, column 798W.

Mental Health Services

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent on adult mental health services in each year since 1997–98; what the projected expenditure is in financial year 2003–04; if he will provide the figures in (a) cash terms and (b) Retail Price Index-adjusted terms using 1997–98 as a baseline; and if he will make a statement on the method used for compiling the figures. [143715]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The table sets out the mental health services expenditure on patients aged 16 or over since 1997–98.

£ million

	Expenditure	RPI-adjusted expenditure
1997–98	2,849	2,849
1998–99	3,011	2,894
1999–2000	3,188	3,016
2000–01	3,729	3,427
2001–02	4,006	3,617

It is not possible to estimate the expenditure for mental health services for 2002–03 and 2003–04 until the national health service accounts for these years are finalised, at the end of January 2004 and 2005 respectively.

The figures are taken from the Expenditure Per Head of Population (EPHoP) analysis of healthcare spend. EPHoP measures activity from in-patients, out-patients and community based patients against expenditure taken from the hospital and community health service programme budget. The programme budget is compiled using NHS accounts—a combination of finance returns from strategic health authorities, NHS trusts, primary care trusts and the strategic health authority summarisation schedules.

Activity data from a range of sources, for example hospital episode statistics, Körner community returns, the Living in Britain survey, etc. are used to distribute

15 Jan 2004 : Column 856W

the expenditure figures for each sector—mental health, acute services, etc. proportionally across the whole population.

Using the combination of expenditure and activity figures, the treatment cost is for each person within each age group and for each type of activity is calculated.

Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were waiting for in-patient treatment in the Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust area at the latest date for which figures are available; and how many people have been waiting over 12 months for in-patient treatment. [147989]

Dr. Ladyman: As of 31 October 2003, 8,040 patients were waiting for elective in-patient admission, and no patients were waiting over 12 months. The source of this data is the Department of Health monthly monitoring.

Patients Forums

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 5 January 2004, Official Report, columns 203–04W, on patients forums, how many applications were made for membership of each patients forum; and how many members each has. [147951]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Information on applications received for each patients forum is not available because some applicants expressed multiple preferences or no preference for a particular forum. The total number of applicants at 9 January, the latest figures, was 5,776. At the same date, 549 of the 572 forums had seven or more volunteers.

Prostate Cancer

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures his Department is taking with (a) the NHS and (b) voluntary organisations to tackle prostate cancer. [147461]

Miss Melanie Johnson: In September 2000, the Government published the national health service prostate cancer programme, which set out what was known about prostate cancer and established a framework for future action. Good progress has been made on prostate cancer since the programme was published.

Over 98 per cent. of patients with suspected urological cancers, including prostate, were seen for their first outpatient appointment within two weeks of their general practitioner referral between July and September 2003.

There has been a 38 per cent. increase in the number of consultant urologists since 1997; from 343 to 473.

We have increased funding for research into prostate cancer twenty-fold since 1999–2000, which means in 2003–04, the Department is directly funding £4.2 million of research into prostate cancer.

We have provided Section 64 funding to the Prostate Cancer Charity to increase public awareness of prostate cancer, and funded the Database of Individual Patient Experiences in prostate cancer.

15 Jan 2004 : Column 857W

In the summer of 2001, we launched the prostate cancer risk management programme. This programme was established to ensure that men who are considering a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test for prostate cancer are given information concerning the benefits, limitations and risks associated with receiving a test. As part of this programme, an evidence based pack of materials has been sent to all general practitioners in England to help them counsel men in making an informed choice about the PSA test.

Much has been achieved on prostate cancer but we recognise that there is still much to be done. That is why we welcomed the launch of the Prostate Cancer Charter for Action on 29 January 2003 and set up the Prostate Cancer Advisory Group (PCAG) to ensure better collaboration and communication between the charter members and Government. PCAG is already working hard and is taking forward work on information for prostate cancer patients, public awareness, prostate cancer treatment and a national prostate cancer resource website.

Residential Care

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research he has commissioned on the need for more residential care places for people below pensionable age. [147216]

Dr. Ladyman: It is up to local councils to determine the range of care options, including residential care places for people below pensionable age, that are needed locally. This information should then inform their commissioning strategies and decisions.

The vast majority of people prefer to receive care at home rather than enter residential care.

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many residential care homes cater for people only below pensionable age; and how many places this represents in total. [147217]

Dr. Ladyman: The number of residential care homes catering primarily for 18 to 64-year-olds in 2001 was 11,400 and the number of places was 81,100. This represents 24 per cent. of all places in residential care homes.

Figures for later years have been collected by the National Care Standards Commission, but comparable details are not available.

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