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Written Answers to Questions

Tuesday 6 July 2004

HEALTH

Catheters

20. Laura Moffatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effect of the use of silver alloy urinary catheters on rates of infection. [182201]

Miss Melanie Johnson: We have commissioned Thames Valley University to update the national guidelines on infection control and a report is expected in August. This will include recommendations for preventing hospital acquired infections associated with the use of short-to-medium indwelling urethral catheters, including those coated with silver alloy.

Health Inequalities (Barnsley)

21. Mr. Illsley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to reduce health inequalities in Barnsley. [182202]

Miss Melanie Johnson: I was fortunate to visit Barnsley in February to see for myself the good progress that is being made to reduce health inequalities—particularly around smoking cessation services, reducing teenage pregnancies and increasing access to Sure Start facilities.

Primary care trusts (PCTs) are responsible for using their funds to meet national and local priorities for improving health, tackling health inequalities and modernising services. Over the current three-year allocation period Barnsley PCT will receive a total increase of £64 million, an increase of 31 per cent.

Cancer Treatment

22. Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on waiting times for cancer treatment. [182203]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The NHS Cancer Plan sets out our strategy to reduce cancer waiting times. Our ultimate goal is that no one should wait longer than one month from urgent referral to the start of treatment except for clinical reasons or because of patient choice. We hope to achieve this goal by 2008.

South West Oxfordshire PCT

24. Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he (a) took and (b) requested be taken to change the decision of South West Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust in respect of the Ophthalmology Treatment Centre Chair in 2003. [182205]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Ministers do not get involved in the decision-making of primary care trusts (PCTs). The Board of South West Oxfordshire PCT decided
 
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to reverse their earlier decision and support the Ophthalmology Treatment Centre following additional information provided by the PCT's Chief Executive.

Consultants' Contract

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many consultants have signed the new consultants' contract. [182196]

Mr. Hutton: As at the beginning of June, 80 per cent. of consultants who had expressed an interest in working under the new the contract had received final job plan offers and 35 per cent. had accepted them. Consultants are moving on to the new contract at a rate of over 800 a week.

Orthopaedic Surgery

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to extend patient choice in respect of orthopaedic surgery. [182200]

Mr. Hutton: Patients waiting more than six months for orthopaedic surgery are already being offered the choice of faster treatment in an alternative hospital.

By August this choice will be available to patients across the national health service in England.

By December 2005 patients will have the choice of four to five hospitals at the time their general practitioner refers them to hospital.

LIFT Programme

Andy Burnham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on progress with the local investment finance trust (LIFT) programme. [182204]

Mr. Hutton: 42 local investment finance trust projects are currently going ahead. 13 of these had signed contracts by 1 July. All but one of the remaining 29 have appointed preferred bidders, and several of them are expected to reach financial close soon. We have recently invited the national health service to submit further applications for LIFT projects.

Agency Staff

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many agency (non-NHS) (a) doctors and (b) nurses have been employed by the North West London NHS Trust in each year since 1997. [172824]

Mr. Hutton: This information is not collected centrally.

Agenda for Change

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action his Department will take to ensure that job profiles under the Agenda for Change for community (a) nurses and (b) allied health professionals will be adequately tested. [181194]

Mr. Hutton: We are currently testing the impact of the whole package of pay reform, including the application of job profiles, across 12 early implementer sites to ensure that the new system, which is underpinned by a job evaluation framework, provides a fair and
 
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comparable basis of employment for all staff groups including allied health professions and community nurses.

The United Kingdom health departments, national health service unions and employer representatives are now reviewing the emerging evidence from the sites and the conclusions from this review are likely to be known in July.

Alder Hey

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether sucraid (a) has been and (b) is prescribed at the Alder Hey Children's Hospital. [181829]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Allergies

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what services health authorities in Crosby provide for allergy sufferers. [181070]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The information is not collected centrally. It is for local primary care trusts to decide how to use their funding allocation to meet the needs of their local populations.

Blood Transfusion

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what conclusions have been reached on the efficacy of leucodepletion in preventing vCJD infections through blood transfusions. [163477]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Expert advice is that, if variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) is transmissible through blood, there is a possibility that white blood cells may carry the greatest risk of transmitting vCJD. As a precautionary measure, leucodepletion of all blood components was implemented in October 1999. If there is any infectivity in the blood of vCJD patients, even without leucodepletion, it is too low to measure by the methods currently available.

Brain Tumours

Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has undertaken into brain tumours in the last five years, with particular reference to childhood brain tumours. [181364]

Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 29 June 2004]: The Department is providing funding for a specialised research network on paediatric oncology. The network is led by the United Kingdom children's cancer study group (UKCCSG). The UKCCSG is currently running sixteen trials on brain and nervous system tumours in children. These trials are being run through the national cancer research network, which is funded by the Department. Details can be found at www.ncrn.org.uk. In addition, the Department funds the UK childhood cancer research group at the University of Oxford, which is responsible for the national registry of childhood tumours including brain tumours.
 
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The Department is also directly funding various research projects that are relevant to brain tumours including:

a study at the University of Birmingham's institute of child health into the relationship between molecular genetic abnormalities and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy biochemical profiles in childhood brain tumours;

research on the risk of brain tumours in relation to the use of mobile phones.

The national health service research and development programme on new and emerging applications of technology has funded a project on "Robotic Instrumentation Applied to Novel Therapy for Brain Disorders" and is currently funding another project entitled "Diffusion tensor imaging: a potential tool for improved definition of brain tumour margins and targeted therapy".

The majority of funds for research and development in the NHS are allocated to and managed by NHS organisations. Details of individual projects, including several relevant to childhood brain tumours, can be found on the national research register at www. dh.gov.uk/research.

Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to increase and improve the training available to (a) general practitioners, (b) nurses, (c) junior doctors, (d) therapists and (e) opticians regarding the symptoms of different forms of brain tumours. [181320]

Mr. Hutton: It is not practicable or desirable for the Government to prescribe exactly the content of training that any individual doctor, nurse, therapist or optician will receive. These are matters for the relevant independent regulators, competent authorities or professional bodies. Additionally it is the duty of all health professionals to keep up to date in the sphere of their own practice.

The Department issued "Referral guidelines for suspected cancer" in 2000 to help general practitioners to identify those patients who are most likely to have cancer and who therefore require urgent assessment by a specialist. These guidelines include a section on brain tumours. The guidelines are currently being updated by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence and are due to be published next year.

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