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6 Feb 2004 : Column 1124W—continued
Civil Servants
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many civil servants, broken down by grade, there
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are in the Department and the agencies for which the Department is responsible; and what the figures were in January 1997. [150268]
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Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is shown in the table.
| Responsibility level (grade) | Department of Health | NHS Estates Agency | NHS Pensions Agency | Medicines and Health Care Regulatory Authority | NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency | Total number of staff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior Civil Service | 265.3 | 3 | 1 | 71.9 | 10 | 351.2 |
| Level 6 | 160.8 | 22 | 2 | 55.3 | 12 | 252.1 |
| Level 7 | 527.9 | 62 | 2 | 73.6 | 74.6 | 740.1 |
| Senior Executive Officer | 141.1 | 9 | 9 | 74.1 | 8 | 241.2 |
| Higher Executive Officer | 738.9 | 24.8 | 22.8 | 100.6 | 139.5 | 1,026.6 |
| Executive Officer | 603.3 | 25.6 | 62.8 | 153.9 | 45.3 | 890.9 |
| Administrative Officer | 413.2 | 11.5 | 144.5 | 111.2 | 16.8 | 697.2 |
| Administrative Assistant | 43.7 | 1.7 | 14.3 | 17.8 | 4.2 | 81.7 |
Notes:
1. The information in the table represents staff in post at 1 October 2003 and is the Mandate data provided to the Cabinet Office; the published data may vary. Similar information for January 1997 is not available.
2. In the publication Civil Service Statistics 1997, Table 1A, the total number of staff in post at 1 April 1997 in the Department of Health was 4,696, 1,013 of whom worked in the Department's agencies.
Commission for Health Improvement
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost was of the Commission for Health Improvement (a) in the last 12 months and (b) since its inception. [148825]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The budget granted for the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) for 2003–04 is £35.2 million.
Previous years figures are published in CHI's annual accounts since inception in 1999–2000. Since inception, CHI's costs total about £99 million.
Continence Services
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many finished consultant episodes for paediatric continence there were in each (a) NHS region and (b) strategic health authority in each of the last five years; [152824]
- (2) what assessment he has made of the availability of integrated paediatric continence services. [152825]
Dr. Ladyman: The information requested on finished consultant episodes has been placed in the Library. Data are not currently available by strategic health authority for all the years requested. Figures have therefore been provided based on the previous health authority and regional areas.
Information on the availability of paediatric continence services is not collected centrally.
Coronary Angiograms
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many coronary angiograms were undertaken by each NHS hospital trust in England in each of the last three years; and how many of these were (a) second and (b) third interventions. [150730]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Information on the number of coronary angiograms that were undertaken by each National Health Service hospital trust in England has been placed in the Library.
The figures are sourced from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Department of Health. They have suppressed numbers between one and five and used a dash to indicate "not available" for trusts that did not exist or did not provide data in any of the three years. Note that due to mergers and organisational changes, data quality varies between the trusts listed.
Information on second and third interventions is not available.
Elderly People (Malnutrition)
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many elderly people were diagnosed as suffering from malnutrition in (a) Portsmouth and South East Hampshire and (b) in England, in each of the last five years; and what his Department's policy is for tackling malnutrition. [152349]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Malnourishment is caused by an imbalance of nutrients, particularly energy intake which impacts on body weight. Eating a balanced diet and keeping physically active helps people to maintain a healthy body weight.
Table 1 shows the count of finished admission episodes for national health service hospitals in Portsmouth and South East Hampshire (1998–99 to 2000–01) and Isle of White, Portsmouth and South East Hampshire where the primary diagnosis is malnutrition and the age of admission was 65 plus.
| Finished admission episodes | |
|---|---|
| 1998–99 | 0 |
| 1999–2000 | 1 |
| 2000–01 | 1 |
| 2001–02 | 1 |
| 2002–03 | 3 |
Table 2 shows the count of finished admission episodes for NHS hospitals in England from 1998–99 to 2002–03 where the primary diagnosis is malnutrition and the age of admission was 65 plus.
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| Finished admission episodes | |
|---|---|
| 1998–99 | 114 |
| 1999–2000 | 98 |
| 2000–01 | 109 |
| 2001–02 | 128 |
| 2002–03 | 112 |
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Department of Health.
In the NHS Plan (2000) the Government made a commitment to reduce under nutrition by developing a hospital nutrition policy to improve the outcome of care of patients by 2004. A number of measures and strategies are in place to manage, monitor and screen patients for under nutrition in hospitals, residential care and the wider community. Nutritional screening is recommended for the care of specific groups, such as those outlined in the national service framework for older people (2001).
Fluoridation
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has undertaken into the possible effects on the health of the elderly of fluoridating water. [151769]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Fluoride is ingested throughout life as a normal component of food and water. Many of the numerous published studies of the effects of fluoride in animal tests and in human populations shed light on the effects of lifetime ingestion of fluoride. They include studies on diseases which are commoner at older ages, such as cancer and hip fractures. There are no known adverse effects on health outcomes from the usual range of fluoride intakes in the United Kingdom. There is however growing evidence from a number of studies that the protection from tooth decay derived from the fluoridation of water continues into old age.
Health Statistics
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list health statistics which are collected by ethnic minority grouping. [151908]
Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 4 February 2004]: The Department of Health encourages ethnic data collection at the primary care level, but these data are not available centrally.
Key health statistics collected by ethnic group and publicly available are listed:
- Health Survey for England
- Hospital Episode Statistics, data are collected by ethnic group but are not publicly available
- Morbidity Statistics from General Practice
- NHS workforce censuses: medical and dental, non-medical
- Personal Social Services User Experience Survey
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Office for National Statistics
- 2001 Census
- Annual Local Area Labour Force Survey
- General Household Survey
- Millennium Cohort Study
- Mortality Statistics
- Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity Among Prisoners
Commission for Health Improvement
- National Survey of NHS Patients
Department of Work and Pensions-
- Family Resource Survey
Hospital Beds (Hampshire)
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS (a) general and (b) acute hospital beds there are in the (i) Portsmouth and (ii) South East Hampshire area; and how many were available (A) one year ago and (B) in 1997. [151992]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Information on the number of general and acute beds is collected annually from each national health service trust and primary care trust and is published on the Department of Health website at www.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity
Information is not available for the geographical areas of Portsmouth and South East Hampshire, as data are only collected by PCT and NHS trust.
Information Technology
Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what cost savings have been made in his Department since the introduction of the Information Technology Procurement Centre of Excellence; and how these were calculated. [151049]
Ms Rosie Winterton: A centre of excellence was established within the Department of Health in June 2003 to integrate the essential functions which underpin the successful delivery of all types of acquisition-based programmes and projects. As cost benefits will not accrue until improvements start to take effect, it is too early to measure cost savings. All centres of excellence are currently developing future plans, and as part of this process, measurement of savings will be defined.
Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what audit mechanisms are in place to determine whether all IT hardware and software products are being properly utilised in his Department. [151054]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department of Health has outsourced support for its information technology (IT) infrastructure including desktop computers, to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). CSC conduct periodic audits of IT hardware and software to ensure compliance with software licensing requirements and best value for money, taking into account the total cost of ownership.
The Department of Health allows its employees and people working on behalf of the Department reasonable personal use of its IT equipment; usage is monitored in accordance with the Information Commissioner's "Code of Practice: Monitoring at Work and the
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Department's Acceptable Use of IT Policy". Breaches of this policy may lead to disciplinary action including dismissal.
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