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2 Feb 2005 : Column 990W—continued
Health Service Staff (Stoke)
Mr. Fisher: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) doctors, (b) nurses and (c) administrative staff are employed in the (i) Stoke-on-Trent North Primary Care Trust, (ii) Stoke-on-Trent South Primary Care Trust and (iii) North Staffordshire University Hospital Trust. [211706]
Dr. Ladyman: Table 1 shows the number of doctors, nurses and administrative staff at North Stoke Primary Care Trust (PCT), South Stoke PCT and the University Hospital of North Staffordshire National Health Service Trust.
Table 2 shows the whole time equivalents (WTEs) at each organisation.
(41)Excludes medical hospital practitioners and medical clinical assistants, most of whom are GPs working part time in hospitals.
(42)All practitioners includes general medical service (GMS) unrestricted principals, personal medical service (PMS) contracted GPs, PMS salaried GPs, restricted principals, assistants, GP registrars, GP retainers, salaried doctors (Para 52 SFA), PMS other, flexible career schemes and GP returners.
(43)HCHS administrative staff are made up of senior managers and managers and admin and clerical staff.
n/a—not available
Note:
GP WTE data has been estimated using the results from the GMP workload survey: full-time = 1.00 WTE, three quarter time = 0.69 WTE, Job share = 0.65 WTE, half time = 0.60 WTE.
Sources:
Department of Health GMS and PMS statistics.
Department of Health non-medical workforce census.
Department of Health medical and dental workforce statistics.
Healthy Living Initiatives
Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the contribution of (a) healthy living centres and (b) healthy lifestyle workers to public health; and if he will make funding available to ensure their continuation. [210088]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Healthy living centres (HLCs) support the work of statutory and voluntary organisations in reducing health inequalities and improving health in local communities. The Big Lottery Fund (BLF) and the Department have commissioned evaluations of the programme for the United Kingdom and England respectively. Interim findings are available on the BLF website at www.nof.org.uk. The final reports are due later this year.
The Department allocates no funding centrally to HLCs. Primary care trusts and other statutory bodies are able to support local HLCs from their allocations as part of their local delivery plans for health improvement.
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The health improvement workforce in the national health service provides leadership and training in health improvement, supporting local communities and developing a health-promoting NHS. However, healthy lifestyle workers, as such, do not form a recognised group which can be evaluated formally.
In the White Paper, Choosing Health", the valuable contribution of community-based workers is described, for example those in the voluntary sector. But such support is patchy and fragmented and therefore, from 2006, accredited NHS trainers will form part of the wider workforce geared towards prevention of ill health and as part of a comprehensive health improvement service. They will be providing support to people in disadvantaged areas and, progressively from 2007, across the country. The funding details will be published in due course.
Hearing Impairment
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent research he has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the value of Palantype speech to text reporting machines to hearing impaired people; and if he will make a statement. [200021]
Dr. Ladyman: None. However, the Department fully recognises the value to hearing-impaired people of speech-to-text technology.
Hepatitis C
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reasons no compensation is payable to the families of those who died before 29 August 2003 from Hepatitis C caused through NHS treatment with blood and blood products. [212098]
Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 31 January 2005]: The principle behind the Hepatitis C ex-gratia payment scheme is to target available resources to help alleviate the suffering of people living with the virus. The payments are not compensation aid; the scheme's eligibility criteria reflect this.
Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what expenditure is planned for the hepatitis C awareness campaign in (a) 2004–05 and (b) 2005–06. [213198]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Estimated central expenditure on hepatitis C awareness-raising will be £780,000 in 2004–05 and £1,500,000 in 2005–06.
Local Authority Caring Services
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many local authorities have sought determination from him in relation to which local authority is responsible for people for whom more than one local authority had a caring responsibility in each year since 2001; and how many decisions on such determinations he has made in each year. [210466]
Dr. Ladyman
[holding answer 24 January 2005]: The number of local authorities that sought determinations of ordinary residence" under section 32(3) of the
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National Assistance Act 1948, and the number of those determinations made in each year since 2001 are shown in the table.
| Number of applications made | Number of determinations made | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 5 | 1 |
| 2002 | 2 | 1 |
| 2003 | 5 | 5 |
| 2004 | 5 | 6 |
MRI (Alliance Medical)
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received about the MRI scanning service provided by Alliance Medical; and what proposals he has for monitoring this service. [209630]
Mr. Hutton: Representation has been received from the Society of Radiographers, the British Medical Association, hon. and right hon. Members and the public.
Contract monitoring is carried out regularly with Alliance Medical and a benchmarking audit of image quality and reports is to be undertaken in 2005. In addition, Alliance Medical figures for November 2004 show that 96 per cent., of respondents rated the service above average or excellent.
MRSA
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children (a) contracted MRSA infections in hospitals and (b) died from MRSA infections in each of the last seven years. [209262]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The Health Protection Agency's voluntary reporting system is the only national dataset providing information by age on cases of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus" (MRSA) bloodstream infections. This is shown in the table. The system does not distinguish between infections acquired in hospital and those acquired elsewhere.
| Number of reports | |
|---|---|
| 1997 | 28 |
| 1998 | 40 |
| 1999 | 60 |
| 2000 | 68 |
| 2001 | 66 |
| 2002 | 71 |
| 2003 | 81 |
Source:
Health Protection Agency.
Data on deaths from MRSA are not available, but a study by the Office for National Statistics, which reviewed death certificates from 1997–2002, revealed MRSA as a contributory factor or underlying cause for one child under 16 in each of the years 1997–2002.
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Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to ensure that district nurses are informed that a patient discharged from hospital contracted MRSA while in hospital. [210275]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Current professional guidance already recommends that general practitioners and other health service workers involved in the care of patients with methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus" infection and colonisation should be informed when they are being discharged.
Sir John Stanley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the rate of MRSA infection in the UK is; and what information he collects on the rate in other countries. [211030]
Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 27 January 2005]: Mandatory surveillance of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections in England started in April 2001 and the information requested is shown in the table.
| Period April to March | Number of MRSA bacteraemia reports | MRSA rate per 1,000 bed-days |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 7,250 | 0.17 |
| 2002–03 | 7,384 | 0.17 |
| 2003–04 | 7,647 | 0.18 |
Surveillance of healthcare associated infection in other countries in the United Kingdom is a matter for the devolved administrations.
We are not aware of any comparable international data for rates of MRSA bloodstream infections per 1,000 bed days.
Shona McIsaac: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of MRSA were reported at (a) Scunthorpe Hospital and (b) Diana Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby in each year for which figures are available. [211143]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Reported cases of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus" (MRSA) at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals national health service trust, which includes Scunthorpe Hospital and Diana Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby are shown in the table. Separate figures are not available for each hospital in the trust.
| Period | Number of MRSA bacteraemia reports | MRSA rate per 1,000 bed-days |
|---|---|---|
| April 2001 to March 2002 | 36 | 0.13 |
| April 2002 to March 2003 | 34 | 0.12 |
| April 2003 to March 2004 | 28 | 0.09 |
Source:
Reports under the mandatory MRSA bacteraemia surveillance system—Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Trust.
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