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19 Apr 2004 : Column 227W—continued
Training
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) district nurses and (b) health visitors were in training in each year since 1997. [164865]
Mr. Hutton: The number of district nurses and health visitors in training in each year since 1997 is shown in the table.
| Health visitors | District nurses | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 627 | 603 |
| 1998–99 | 580 | 541 |
| 1999–2000 | 598 | 573 |
| 2000–01 | 695 | 560 |
| 2001–02 | 580 | 521 |
| 2002–03(91) | 664 | 569 |
(91) Forecast
There has been significant growth in the number of community service nurses other than health visitors and district nurses. Since 1997 there has been an increase of 11,974(61.9 per cent.) in such nurses.
These figures reflect that changing nature of the nursing workforce and the increasing skill mix in community nursing teams. Health visiting teams are also increasing their skill mix through initiatives that are
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promoting integrated children's services where health visitors work as part of Sure Start and other community children's teams.
It is the responsibility of primary care trusts to determine how they use the extra growth money allocated, to deliver on both national and local priorities.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much he estimates it costs to train (a) 250 district nurses and (b) 250 health visitors. [164868]
Mr. Hutton: The contract for training community nurses does not differentiate between different branches of nursing, such as district nurses and health visitors.
Based on the average cost of the contract it would cost £5.9 million to train 250 district nurses and 250 health visitors.
Treatment Centres
Mr. McLoughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria organisations had to satisfy to be invited to bid for independent sector treatment centre contracts; what stages the evaluation process consisted of; who evaluated the competing providers; and what qualifications each had to enable them to carry out the evaluation. [164604]
Mr. Hutton: All independent sector providers that expressed an interest in response to advertisements in the Official Journal of the European Communities were asked to complete and return a pre-qualification questionnaire. Detailed analysis of the information in the questionnaire enabled the selection of a group of short-listed bidders based on their financial standing and ability to deliver high quality clinical services. This group was invited to submit bids for the contracts to manage and run the proposed new treatment centres. The subsequent selection of the preferred bidders followed careful evaluation of the submitted bids. The evaluation criteria included clinical quality, infrastructure, information management and technology, human resources, legal, financial, speed of mobilisation and delivery, and value for money. There was a structured scoring mechanism against each of these criteria and total scores assessed between bidders.
The national implementation team co-ordinated the evaluation of submitted bids. Bids were evaluated and ranked by specialist teams consisting of members of the national implementation team, their advisers and local national health service sponsors and experts. The national implementation team is part of the new commercial directorate of the Department of Health and brings together staff with a range of the clinical, commercial and legal skills relevant to the procurement of clinical services.
Mr. McLoughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which organisations have been invited to bid for independent sector treatment centre contracts; and what specific experience each organisation has in running surgical facilities providing orthopaedic procedures and major joint replacement programmes. [164605]
Mr. Hutton:
Announced preferred bidders for the independent sector treatment centre programme are: Netcare UK, Mercury Healthcare Ltd., Care UK
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Afrox, Anglo Canadian Clinics, Nations Healthcare, Birkdale Clinic, New York Presbyterian, Capio UK and Interhealth Care Services (UK) Ltd. All likely preferred bidders are subject to final contract negotiation and agreement and schemes will only proceed if they provide the required level of value for money for national health service commissioners.
Contractual closure has also been reached on four of the schemes. One, a fixed site treatment centre at Daventry, managed and run by the Birkdale Clinic; the second, a mobile cataract theatre, run and managed by Netcare UK; the third a fixed site treatment centre at Trent, managed and run by Care UK Afrox; and the fourth a fixed site treatment centre at Bradford, managed by Nations Healthcare.
The selection of the preferred bidders followed careful evaluation of the submitted bids. This evaluation included a clinical assessment and preferred bidders have demonstrated that they are competent to provide the services for which they have bid.
Tuberculosis
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the mortality rate for TB was in each year since 2000. [161100]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The mortality rate for tuberculosis in each year from 2000 is shown in the table.
| Male | Female | |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | -0.69 | 0.41 |
| 2001 | -0.69 | 0.41 |
| 2002 | -0.80 | 0.40 |
Note:
Rates per 100,000 for England and Wales, directly age-standardised to the European Standard Population.
Source:
ONS
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of TB there were in England in the last period for which figures are available, broken down by (a) age, (b) sex, (c) ethnicity and (d) patient's country of origin. [161140]
Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 15 March 2004]: The information requested is shown in the tables.
The following data are taken from the 2001 Enhanced tuberculosis surveillance.
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| TB cases | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Born in the UK | 1963 | 30.60 |
| Born abroad | 3490 | 54.40 |
| Place of birth not reported | 961 | 15.00 |
| Ethnicity | TB cases | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| White | 1,804 | 28.10 |
| Black Caribbean | 186 | 2.90 |
| Black African | 1,003 | 15.60 |
| Black other | 32 | 0.50 |
| Indian | 1,060 | 16.50 |
| Pakistani | 1,019 | 15.90 |
| Bangladeshi | 169 | 2.60 |
| Chinese | 82 | 1.30 |
| Other (including mixed ethnic group) | 486 | 7.60 |
| Ethnic group not reported | 573 | 8.90 |
Urine-based Therapies
Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment has been made of the possibility of urine-based drug therapies providing a route for human-to-human transmission of (a) CJD and (b) other diseases. [162496]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The possibility of urine based drug therapies providing a route for human-to-human transmission of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and other diseases has been considered by the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) and at a European level by the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products (CPMP). There is no evidence of human-to-human infection of CJD caused by urine based drug therapy and epidemiological evidence does not suggest a risk for urine-derived medicinal products from patients with sporadic CJD. However, as a precautionary measure, the CSM has advised that urine from a country with one or more cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (vCJD) should not be used as a source of human urine to produce medicinal products for the United Kingdom.
All UK medicinal products are manufactured in accordance with European regulatory guidelines and it is a requirement that all urinary derived products use validated manufacturing process which are capable of
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providing assurance that the risk of viral infectivity is minimised. These requirements are assessed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority for all urinary derived products. Bacterial infection should not be an issue, as these products are for injection and are therefore required to be sterile.
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