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27 Jan 2004 : Column 324W—continued
Health Service Recovery Plans
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which (a) NHS, (b) NHS mental health and (c) primary care trusts have financial recovery plans; what period the recovery plans cover; and what the level of (i) recurring and (ii) non-recurring deficit or overspend the plans are intended to recover. [151470]
Mr. Hutton: The information is not collected centrally for individual organisations. This is the responsibility of the managing strategic health authority.
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Hepatitis C
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether (a) haemophiliacs and (b) non-haemophiliacs will be eligible for compensation under the hepatitis C ex-gratia payment scheme; and when he expects to announce the details of the scheme. [151351]
Miss Melanie Johnson: I refer the hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement made to the House on 26 January 2004, Official Report, column 1WS, by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health, announcing the details of the scheme which will be open to both haemophiliacs and non-haemophiliacs.
HIV/AIDS
Mr. Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of rape victims are known consequently to have contracted (a) a sexually transmitted disease, (b) HIV/AIDS, (c) hepatitis B and (d) hepatitis C in each of the last five years. [149906]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Routine surveillance for sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B and C, conducted by the Health Protection Agency, collects information on routes of transmission of these infections (for example, whether through homosexual or heterosexual sex), but does not record whether or not sex was consensual.
Mr. Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in (a) St. Helens and (b) Merseyside had HIV/AIDS in (i) 2001, (ii) 2002, (iii) 2003 and (iv) the most recent in 2004 for which figures are available. [149910]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The table shows the number of HIV-infected people resident in St. Helen's and Knowsley and Merseyside local authorities who attended national health service services for HIV-related treatment and care in the last five years for which data are available.
| Residence | ||
|---|---|---|
| Survey year | St. Helens and Knowsley local authority | Merseyside local authority(11) |
| 1998 | 23 | 163 |
| 1999 | 24 | 180 |
| 2000 | 27 | 208 |
| 2001 | 27 | 220 |
| 2002 | 37 | 293 |
(11) Merseyside LAs include Liverpool, Sefton, St. Helens and Knowsley and Wirral.Source:
North West HIV/AIDS Monitoring Unit, Liverpool John Moores University.
Hospital-acquired Infection
Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action his Department is taking to combat the spread of MRSA within nursing and residential homes. [147605]
Miss Melanie Johnson: We consider that implementation of our recent report, "Winning Ways—Working together to reduce Healthcare Associated Infection in England 1 ", will reduce infections in both
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hospital and community settings. This report will raise standards by reinforcing the need to follow existing good practice 2 .
- 1 Available at www.doh.gov.uk/cmo/hai/winningways/pdf.
- 2 The Public Health Medicine Environmental Group Guidelines on the Control of Infection in Residential and Nursing homes 1996—National Institute for Clinical Excellence. Infection control: prevention of health care associated infection in primary and community care 2003.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the additional cost to the NHS of hospital acquired infections in each of the last six years; and what methodology he used to calculate that figure. [144148]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Precise data are not available. A commonly used estimate 1 is that hospital acquired infection may cost the national health service £1 billion a year.
- 1 R. Plowman, N. Graves, M. Griffin, J.A. Roberts, A.V. Swan, B. Cookson, L. Taylor. The socio-economic burden of hospital acquired infection. Public Health Laboratory Service 1999
Hospitals (Durham)
Mr. Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the implementation of the Darzi Review recommendations on health care in County Durham. [144868]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The proposals arising from the Darzi Review were referred to Ministers by the former South Durham and Weardale Community Health Council. These were subsequently approved for implementation in September 2002. To support the new model, the two trusts responsible for the management of the hospitals in Co. Durham and Darlington merged to form the County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals National Health Service Trust, with effect from 1 October 2002.
County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority is overseeing the process of implementation of the proposals, which cover a wide range of services. The chief executive of the SHA wrote recently to all local right hon. and hon. Members informing them of progress on the review and a copy of his letter has been placed in the Library.
Local Government
Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the extent to which the recommendations in Circular HSC2001/016:LAC(2001)23 have been met by local authorities; and if he will make a statement. [150098]
Dr. Ladyman: We issued the implementation guidance Circular HSC 2001/016: LAC (2001)23 in August 2001. The guidance followed the publication, in March 2001, of the White Paper, 'Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century' (Cm 5086). 'Valuing People' set out our proposals for improving services for people with learning disabilities, their families and carers said that it would take a minimum of five years to make the changes it described.
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Our first annual report to Parliament on learning disability, 'Making Change Happen' (HC 514), published in April 2003, gave a comprehensive report about the progress made on implementing all of the objectives in the White Paper. A copy of the report is available in the Library and was sent to all English right hon. and hon. Members. The report shows that we have made good progress since 'Valuing People' was published, but that there is much more to do to achieve all its aims. Further progress will be reported in our second annual report in April.
The Learning Disability Task Force monitors the progress of 'Valuing People' and reports to the Government on this. Its first report, 'Making Things Happen' was published in January 2003 and a second report is due in February.
Lung Cancer
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action the Government are taking to introduce better techniques for diagnosing lung cancer. [151255]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The Department of Health published "Improving Outcomes Guidance on Lung Cancer" in 1998. This guidance provides advice on how lung cancer services in the national health service should be organised to improve outcomes for lung cancer patients. It addresses the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer and recommends that a full range of diagnostic tests should be available within cancer services.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence is also preparing clinical guidelines (advice on assessment and treatment of a condition) for the NHS on the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. The guideline will provide guidance on diagnosis including early diagnosis; key symptoms and signs upon which a patient should be referred; factors encouraging patients to present to healthcare services sooner; diagnostic methods; staging and the impact of lung cancer on a patient's activities, as well as the need to be referred to other health professionals if required. The guideline is expected to be published in November 2004.
In addition, in March 2000, Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer were published by the Department, and sent to all general practitioners in order to help them identify those patients who are most likely to have cancer, so that they can be referred urgently to a specialist. These guidelines include a chapter on lung cancer. NICE is in the process of updating these guidelines and the update is due to be published in February 2005.
The Department are aware of the potential benefits positron emission tomography (PET) scanning can offer patients with lung cancer, particularly in assessing the stage of the disease. We will be consulting with doctors, voluntary organisations and other stakeholders on a national framework which will set out which tumour groups would benefit from PET scanning, likely future demand, and the implications for the optimal configuration and location of PET scanners for both clinical and research needs.
The work of the Modernisation Agency's Cancer Services Collaborative 'Improvement Partnership' (CSC'IP') is central to the drive to improve the
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detection, diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. A specific goal of the CSC'IP' is to promote early diagnosis of lung cancer.
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