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3 Nov 2004 : Column 313W—continued
Childhood Vaccinations
Angela Watkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what arrangements are in place for parents who wish their babies to receive each childhood vaccination separately. [194213]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The Department provides the combined childhood vaccine because it provides the most effective protection against a number of potentially serious diseases. Single vaccines are not provided on the national health service as they leave the child at risk of infection for a longer period of time. Also, some single antigen vaccines are not manufactured.
Consultants
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many consultancy firms or companies have been retained by the Department since June 2001; what the projects are for which each has been retained; and what the total is of the fees paid or incurred in each case. [193420]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not hold centrally a record of individual contracts, nor does it have similar details for its agencies. To secure such details could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Publications (Access)
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of publications issued by his Department are available in (a) Braille, (b) autoprint, (c) large print and (d) easy read format. [194303]
Ms Rosie Winterton:
Where we assess that a publication will have wide interest, including consultation documents and public facing information, materials are produced as standard in alternative formats on, or as close as possible, to the initial
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publication launch date. Many of the Department's public facing materials are produced in large print format (conforming to Royal National Institute for the Blind guidelines) as a matter of course.
Additionally, the Department undertakes to produce all publications in alternative formats upon request. Alternative formats may include Braille, audio-cassette, British Sign Language video, compact disc, large print format and versions for people with learning difficulties.
Documents are simultaneously published on the Department's website, which conforms to Government guidelines and W3C (World Wide Web consortium) accessibility standards at level "A".
Recently, the Department's website has been speech enabled with software which reads webpages aloud, highlighting text as it goes. This makes content more accessible for those who are dyslexic; have learning difficulties; for whom English is not their first language and those with mild visual impairment.
The Department does not centrally record information about individual requests and subsequent production of alternative formats and so it is not possible to provide figures on the numbers of publications available in each format.
Energy/Carbon Strategy
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the energy/carbon strategy by NHS estates will be published; and how it has taken into consideration the role of good quality combined heat and power plant. [193826]
Mr. Hutton:
The NHS Estates document entitled "Carbon/Energy Management in Healthcare—Best practice advice for the NHS in England on the meeting
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of mandatory carbon/energy targets", will be published at the end of November 2004. A copy will be placed in the Library.
The document will contain a checklist of actions for new build programmes, or refurbishments, advising the national health service to consider installing combined heat and power plant (CHP) to maximise efficiencies, benefit from exemptions from the Climate Change Levy and contribute towards the Government CHP target (10,000 more CHP plants by 2010).
Epidermolysis Bullosa
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps are being taken to improve (a) awareness of and (b) training on epidermolysis bullosa for health professionals; and if he will make a statement. [194234]
Dr. Ladyman: The Department is not responsible for setting curricula for health professional training. However, we do share a commitment with statutory and professional bodies that all health professionals are trained, so that they have the skills and knowledge to deliver a high quality health service to all groups of the population with whom they deal.
The General Medical Council's Education Committee published recommendations on undergraduate medical education in 2002. It states that graduates must know and understand normal and abnormal function including the natural history of human diseases and disease presentations.
We are committed to improving services for patients with genetic diseases, such as epidermolysis bullosa. The Department published a £50 million strategy to harness the potential of advances in genetics for the benefit of national health service patients in June 2003. The White Paper "Our Inheritance, Our Future—Realising the potential of genetics in the NHS" set out the Government's commitment to developing genetics knowledge, skills and provision within the NHS.
Free Eye Tests (Cleethorpes)
Shona McIsaac: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many pensioners in Cleethorpes constituency have had free eye tests since they were introduced. [194184]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Figures for the number of sight tests by constituency or pensioners are not collected centrally.
The following table shows the number of national health service sight tests paid by South Humber Health Authority (HA) for the years ending 31 March 2000 to 2003 and the two primary care trusts (PCTs) that now cover the old South Humber HA area for the year ending 31 March 2004.
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HIV
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) men and (b) women living in the Greater London area are HIV positive. [195371]
Dr. Ladyman: The survey of prevalent diagnosed HIV infections showed there were 13,131 men and 5,972 women of all ages with diagnosed HIV infection living in London in 2003.
Hospital Infections
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff members the Skipton Fund are employing to respond to the applications for help from those infected with Hepatitis C; and if he will make a statement. [193651]
Miss Melanie Johnson: There are four members of staff employed by the Skipton Fund. In addition, support services, including financial assistance, are provided by the staff members of the Macfarlane Trust.
Long-term Care
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 21 October 2004, Official Report, column 927W, on long-term care, whether the study established what proportion of those people (a) were discharged to their own homes with no further need for personal care at that time, (b) were discharged to their own homes with further domiciliary care provided, (c) were admitted to hospital and (d) died. [194238]
Dr. Ladyman: The study involved a longitudinal follow-up of a sample of people admitted to residential or nursing care. It revealed that after 42 months had elapsed some 0.9 per cent. of the original sample had been discharged to private households (it is not possible to split (a) and (b) ), 0.4 per cent. had been admitted to hospital and 67 per cent. had died.
Data taken from "Survey of Admissions to Residential and Nursing Home Care—final report of the 42 month follow-up" by Bebbington, Darton et al, Discussion paper 1675, Personal Social Services Research Unit, University of Kent—August 2000.
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