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HEALTH
Access to Medical Notes
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will outline the position regarding access to medical notes by a patient's (a) next of kin and (b) other first degree relatives. [164919]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Access to health records of living patients is governed by the Data Protection Act 1998. Where a patient is a competent adult, access should normally only be given with the patient's consent. Special provisions apply for adults who are incapacitated and for children. Where a patient has died, access to their record is governed by the Access to Health Records Act 1990. The Act provides the right for a deceased person's personal representative and any person with a claim arising out of the patient's death to apply for access.
Ambulance Staff
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health at what age ambulance personnel are able to retire on a full pension; and if he will make a statement. [165477]
Mr. Hutton: Ambulance staff who are members of the national health service pension scheme and have two years or more pensionable service can retire from employment in the NHS at age 60 with immediate payment of pension. Ambulance staff with 40 years pensionable service will receive a full pension equivalent to half their final year's pensionable pay.
Blood Transfusion
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the roles are of (a) his advisory committees, (b) the serious hazards of transfusion body and (c) the National Patient Safety Agency in reducing the risks associated with blood transfusion. [163474]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The expert advisory committee on the Microbiological Safety of Blood and Tissues for Transplantation (MSBT) is responsible for providing the Government with advice on blood safety issues.
The Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) reporting system has two main objectives: to collect data on serious adverse events involving the transfusion of blood components; and to make recommendations to improve transfusion safety, based on the analysis of the collected data. The national medical co-ordinator of SHOT is a member of MSBT.
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The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) was established to improve the safety of national health service patient care by promoting an open and fair culture and by introducing a new national reporting and learning system for patient safety incidents. The reporting system is being implemented across the NHS during 2004.
The NPSA has worked with SHOT in establishing ways of reducing errors associated with bedside blood transfusions, in establishing the underlying causes of, and in identifying effective ways of collecting data on, these errors, to help ensure that they do not recur. The NPSA will be working with SHOT and others on establishing ways of preventing error, using interventions like bar-coding and tagging systems.
Cancer Services
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to improve the speed of access to radiography for cancer patients. [163996]
Miss Melanie Johnson: To reduce the amount of time patients have to wait for radiography, we are making major investment in replacement and additional scanners and linear accelerators, recruiting and training additional radiographers and streamlining care processes through the cancer services collaborative improvement partnership.
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will implement all of the recommendations contained in the National Audit Office report "Tackling Cancer in England: Saving More Lives". [164235]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The Department welcomes the National Audit Office report, "Tackling Cancer in England: Saving More Lives", and will take the report's recommendations into account as we further develop and improve cancer services. The report will be discussed in detail at a Committee of Public Accounts hearing scheduled for 16 June 2004. Sir Nigel Crisp, chief executive of the national health service and Professor Mike Richards, national cancer director, have been called to give evidence at the hearing. The Government will respond to the Committee's subsequent report in the form of a Treasury minute.
Child Alcohol-Related Problems
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children aged between 11 and 15 years were admitted to hospital in (a) Greater London and (b) each London borough owing to alcohol-related problems in each of the last six years. [162349]
Mr. Hutton: Figures are not available by London borough. The table shows data by health authority in the London area.
Notes:
1. Figures are not available for Greater London and each London borough and so data based on health authority (HA) of treatment has been provided. Due to organisational changes, information is given for North Thames and South Thames regional offices in the 1997–98 and 1998–99 data years and the London regional office in the 1999–2000 to 2002–03 data years.
2. Since North and South Thames regions cover a greater area than the London region, HAs clearly outside of London have been omitted from this list (HA Codes QAE, QAF, QAK, QAL, QAM, QAN, QAX, QAY, QEP, QEQ).
3. Data has been derived for 2002–03 based on regions and HAs that existed in 2001–02. This is an attempt to provide continuity in the data provided, but caution should still be applied when looking at trends over time.
4. Figures are grossed for both coverage and missing/invalid clinical data, except for 2001–02 and 2002–03, which are not yet adjusted for shortfalls.
5. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (7 prior to 2002–03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital.
6. Due to reasons of confidentiality, figures between 1 and 5 have been suppressed and replaced with '*'
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Department of Health.
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Chorley Hospital
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospital (a) nurses and (b) doctors were victims of violence from patients in Chorley hospital in each of the last five years. [163772]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Information is not collected on the identity of attackers. For information on the number of attacks on staff, I refer my hon. Friend to the response I gave him on 29 March 2004, Official Report, columns 1220–21W.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many consultants there were on average in the accident and emergency department in Chorley hospital in each of the last three years. [163733]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Information is gathered on a trust basis. Information for the Chorley and South Ribble National health service Trust and the Preston Acute NHS Trust for 2001 and the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for 2002 and 2003 is shown in the table.
| Number (headcount) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| England, as at 30 September | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
| Chorley and South Ribble NHS Trust | 3 | — | — |
| Preston Acute Hospitals NHS Trust | 5 | — | — |
| Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | — | 7 | 7 |
Source:
Department of Health medical and dental workforce census.
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