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5 May 2004 : Column 1616W—continued
Hip Operations
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hip operations in (a) North Yorkshire and (b) Sheffield he calculates could be done for £30,000 on the basis of the costs of such operations since January. [140571]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Figures are not available for the costs of such operations for the period commencing January 2003. However, based on the average cost for the financial year 2001–02, eight primary hip replacement operations could be carried out for £30,000 in national health service trusts in North Yorkshire. Six primary hip operations could be carried out for £30,000 in Sheffield.
Source:
Reference Costs 2002, Department of Health.
Hospitals (Alert Status)
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospitals were on (a) red alert and (b) amber alert status in the last month; and if he will make a statement. [167408]
Mr. Hutton: This information is not held centrally. The Department does not use the terms amber or red alert. Some acute trusts use the terms to indicate how busy they are and consequently what escalation procedures need to be taken to reduce pressures. Such escalation procedures are locally agreed and activated by the trusts themselves. The Department does not routinely collect information on when escalation procedures are activated.
Immigrant Medical Inspections
Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what additional and earmarked funds are made available to support the medical inspection of immigrants at (a) Heathrow and (b) other ports in England; and which bodies are in receipt of those funds; [156837]
(2) what costs towards the medical inspection of immigrants service are met (a) from central Department of Health budgets, (b) through budgets held by the Health Protection Agency and (c) by primary care trusts from their standard allocations. [156838]
Miss Melanie Johnson: No data are collected centrally on the costs to the national health service of providing medical inspectors to carry out medical examinations of prospective entrants to the United Kingdom.
Some other costs associated with medical inspection were met by the Department of Health, up to and including 2002–03, as shown in the table. From 2003–04, the budget from which these costs are met has passed to the Health Protection Agency.
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A Cabinet Office review is considering the issue of imported infections and immigration, including health screening. We will consider when this review is completed whether any changes are needed to funding arrangements in support of medical inspection.
Port | Who is reimbursed | Total for 2002–03 | What is reimbursed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | London borough of Hillingdon | 2,005,768 | Rent and administration costs, including clerical staff |
| Gatwick | Crawley borough council | 753,597 | Rent and administration costs, including clerical staff |
| Stansted | Uttlesford district council | 81,004 | Rent and administration costs, including clerical staff |
| Manchester | Manchester City council | 49,528 | Rent and administration costs, including clerical staff |
| Dover | Maidstone Weald PCT (meeting expenses previously met by the local authority) | 35,195 | Administration costs, including clerical staff |
| Waterloo | Home Office | 5,745 | Rent and utilities |
| Hull and Goole | Hull and Goole Port health authority | 4,888 | Rent and utilities |
| Newhaven | Brighton and Hove City primary care trust (meeting expenses previously met by the local authority) | 1,340 | Rent and utilities |
Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how port health responsibilities are reflected in the funding formula for primary care trusts; [156840]
(2) whether primary care trusts hosting ports were subject to the same level of top slice as other primary care trusts when the Health Protection Agency was first established. [156849]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Revenue funding is allocated to primary care trusts (PCTs) on the basis of a weighted capitation formula which is used to calculate PCTs' target shares of available resources based on population size, age distribution and additional need and the cost of providing services. The formula does not take into consideration specific responsibilities such as port health. An explanation of resource allocation is in the booklet, "Resource allocation: weighted capitation formula". Copies of this booklet are available in the Library.
The 2003–04 baselines for all PCTs were adjusted to take account of functions to be transferred to the Health Protection Agency, before the allocations were made for that year.
Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost in 2003–04 to the Hillingdon Primary Care Trust is for (a) employing staff at the Health Control Unit at Heathrow and (b) other added burdens created by the airport; and what additional central moneys are provided to cover these costs. [156842]
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Miss Melanie Johnson: Hillingdon primary care trust estimates the cost of employing the clinical staff at Heathrow airport Health Control Unit at around £750,000 in 2003–04. It is not possible to disaggregate accurately other costs associated with the airport. No additional central moneys are provided to cover these costs.
Immunisation
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has commissioned into (a) treatment of brain damage as a whole and (b) treatment of brain damage caused by immunisations. [166824]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The Department funds the national health service research and development programme, which aims to identify NHS needs for research and to commission research to meet those needs. Commissioning is undertaken through national programmes of research such as the health technology assessment (HTA) programme and new and emerging applications of technology (NEAT) programme.
The HTA programme published "General health status measures for people with cognitive impairment: learning disability and acquired brain injury" in April 2001 as a monograph on the HTA website at www.ncchta.org after a project of a similar name completed at the University of York. The project cost just over £35,000. The NEAT programme has six projects with some bearing on treatment for brain damage; two have just ended. The total cost of the six projects is just over £1 million.
There is no ongoing specific research into the treatment of brain damage caused by immunisations.
The Medical Research Council (MRC), the main agency through which the government supports medical and clinical research, spent £835,000 in 2001–02 on brain injury research. The MRC also has a large portfolio of research relevant to the workings of the brain in both its normal and damaged state. The MRC supports a large amount of basic underpinning work on how the brain responds to injury of all types (including stroke) and neural regeneration, which will inform research on rehabilitation after traumatic brain injury.
Inappropriate Prescribing
Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the doctors struck off by the General Medical Council's Professional Conduct Committee in each of the last 10 years for inappropriate prescribing of drugs to drug addicts, the year they were struck off, and the town or city in which their surgery or clinic was situated. [169293]
Mr. Hutton: This information is not collected centrally, but can be obtained from the General Medical Council, which is an independent statutory body.
Inventures
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the current status is of Inventures; when staff are to be transferred to a new company; and if he will make a statement. [169126]
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Mr. Hutton [holding answer 27 April 2004]: The future of Inventures and its employees is still being considered. For the time being, Inventures retains its current status as the trading arm of NHS Estates, an Executive agency of the Department.
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