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19 May 2004 : Column 1023W—continued

Maternity Services

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he is taking to increase the number of midwives employed in (a) hospitals and (b) the community. [173580]

Mr. Hutton: The Government are implementing a range of measures to recruit more midwives, both in primary and secondary care. These include improving pay and conditions, encouraging the national health service to become a better, more flexible and diverse employer, increasing training, investing in child care and continuing professional development, attracting back returners and running national and local recruitment campaigns. As a result of these initiatives, there are more than 1,500 more midwives working in the NHS in England than in 1997.

NHS (Translation Costs)

Mr. Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what translation costs were incurred within the National Health Service in 2003–04. [172374]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer given 13 May 2004] This information is not held centrally.

NHS Land Sales

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Health who will receive the profits of sale of NHS land for housing where a foundation trust is not in existence. [169763]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 30 April 2004]: The receipts from the proposed transfer surplus National Health Service land to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will be added to normal capital allocations and passed out to the benefit of the entire NHS.

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the anticipated profits of sale of surplus NHS land for housing are expected to be; and how much front line service expansion this profit is expected to fund. [169816]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 30 April 2004]: Until negotiations on the precise terms of the transfer of the land to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister have been agreed, it will not be possible to say how much will be received for the surplus National Health Service land.

All of the receipts, once to hand, will be re-invested in the NHS.

NHS Staff

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many of those classified as (a) senior managers, (b) managers, (c) clerical and (d) administrative staff within the NHS (i) have medical training and (ii) do not have medical training. [171290]

Mr. Hutton: The information requested is not collected centrally.

North Bristol NHS Trust

Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the costs of (a) elective acute activity and (b) non-elective acute activity at North Bristol NHS Trust; how these compare with the tariff payments that he proposes to make for such services; what the effect
 
19 May 2004 : Column 1024W
 
on the money available to North Bristol NHS Trust would be if the payment by results policy was implemented immediately; and if he will make a statement on his plans for transition to the new arrangements. [169013]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 27 April 2004]: The Department annually collects retrospective cost and activity data from all English national health service trusts, including collections of elective in-patient, non-elective in-patient, and day case activity. The national tariff for 2004–05 includes some 550 or so healthcare resource groups (HRGs) covering activity in these categories. HRGs are groups of procedures and treatments that are clinically similar and involve similar use of resources.

Though the tariff is based on national average reported costs (Reference Costs), it is not meaningful to make direct comparisons between the two because of the prospective nature of the tariff. For example, the latest reference costs refer to 2002–03, and the tariff to 2005–06. However a realistic guide to the relative cost efficiency of a NHS Trust is given by the National Reference Cost Index (RCI). The RCI gives a single figure for each NHS trust which compares the actual cost of its activity with the same activity at national average cost. The 2002–03 RCI score for North Bristol NHS Trust indicates that across the board its activity costs are 26 per cent. above the national average. This reflects the significant extra unplanned expenditure incurred by the trust in that year.

Payment by results began in a small way in 2003–04, is extended in 2004–05, and becomes fully operational in 2005–06. There will be a further three-year transition period to full impact of the new system until 2008, during which the effect of the tariff will be phased to allow trusts to adjust local costs so as to be able to live within the tariff.

We anticipate there may be some NHS trusts that will not be able to reduce costs to the extent necessary. The numbers in this position are likely to be very few as new and better costing and HRG definitions are introduced, and when the system has been fine-tuned to take account of exceptionally expensive patients not well covered by the tariff. We also recognise that where organisations are recovering an accumulated deficit, recovery plans will need to be revisited in the light of transition.

Latest thinking on how these and a number of other operational issues might be resolved in practice is described in the Department's formal response to the latest round of consultation on payment by results, which will be published shortly. Final guidance will be issued later this year in time to inform the normal planning and contracting processes for 2005–06.

Obesity

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the obesity rate is for (a) all people, (b) under-25s and (c) over-25s in (i) the East Riding of Yorkshire and (ii) England. [171786]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The prevalence of obesity in children and adults, based on data from the Health Survey for England 2000–02, are shown in the table. No figures are available for the East Riding of Yorkshire.
 
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Prevalence of obesity in children and adults

	Total: England
Age (years)	Prevalence (percentage)	Bases
2–15	16.0	9,412
16–24	10.3	3,270
25+	24.2	5,835
16+	19.2	9,105

Source:
Health Survey for England.




 
19 May 2004 : Column 1026W
 

Organ Transplants

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many transplant operations took place on average in each year since 2001, broken down by type of organ. [164866]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The table shows data on organ transplants in the United Kingdom, April 2001 to March 2004, by financial year, organ and donor type with average over the three years.

	2001–02			2002–03
Organ	Cadaveric	Living	Total	Cadaveric	Living	Total
Kidney	1,264	372	1,636	1,337	379	1,716
Pancreas	7	—	7	11	—	11
Kidney/pancreas	41	—	41	48	—	48
Heart	154	6	160	147	10	157
Lung(s)	96	—	96	118	—	118
Heart/lung	21	—	21	21	—	21
Liver	654	7	661	692	7	699
Liver/kidney	5	—	5	13	—	13
Other	5	—	5	1	—	1
Total	2,247	385	2,632	2,388	396	2,784

	2003–04			Average over three years
	Cadaveric	Living	Total	Cadaveric	Living	Total
Kidney	1,330	450	1,780	1,310	400	1,710
Pancreas	12	—	12	10	—	10
Kidney/pancreas	45	—	45	45	—	45
Heart	164	—	164	155	6	161
Lung(s)	147	—	147	120	—	120
Heart/lung	9	—	9	17	—	17
Liver	676	10	686	674	8	682
Liver/kidney	10	—	10	9	—	9
Other	1	—	1	2	—	2
Total	2,394	460	2,854	2,342	414	2,756

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