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21 Feb 2005 : Column 315W—continued

LIFT Scheme

Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1)when the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) Scheme to fund general practitioners' surgeries was announced; [216469]

(2) when the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) Scheme came into operation. [216470]

Mr. Hutton: We announced our intention to set up the National Health Service Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) programme in the NHS Plan, published in July 2000, and explained in detail how LIFT would operate in the NHS LIFT prospectus issued in July 2001. The first wave of LIFT projects was given the green light in November 2001 to proceed to procurement. The first LIFT building was opened to patients on 14 September 2004 at Manor Park in East London.

Mental Health

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people he estimates are suffering from depression in Lancashire. [215511]

Miss Melanie Johnson: This information is not collected centrally.

Mixed-sex Wards

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) wards, (b) medical assessment units and (c) surgical assessment units in NHS hospitals in England are operated on a mixed-sex basis. [216521]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information is not available in the format requested.

The provision of single-sex accommodation is measured as compliance with three objectives we have set, requiring national health service trusts to provide single-sex sleeping areas, separate bathroom and toilet facilities for men and women, and where appropriate, safe facilities for the mentally ill.

Compliance is measured annually at trust level, and information at ward level is therefore not available. Nationally, 97 per cent., of NHS trusts are fully compliant with our standards.
 
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We do not collect information on compliance in specialised areas of a hospital such as medical or surgical assessment units, where the need to provide urgent treatment may take precedence over the strict separation of men and women. No area of a hospital is exempt from the need to protect the privacy and dignity of patients, but no hospital will turn a patient away because a bed is not available in an area appropriate to that patient's gender.

Departmental Costs

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost of staff mobile phone bills was in each year since 1997. [214891]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The cost of Departmental mobile phone bills for each financial year since 2001–02 is shown in the table. Figures for the years 1997–98 to 2000–01 are not available.

Financial year	Costs (£)
2001–02	270,000
2002–03	280,000
2003–04	304,000
2004–05	301,000

Healthy Living

Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with the Deputy min Minister about future funding for healthy living centres and healthy lifestyles workers. [213077]

Miss Melanie Johnson: I have had no discussions with my right hon. Friend the Deputy min Minister about future funding for healthy living centres or healthy lifestyles workers.

Learning Disabilities

Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many village and intentional communities have been established for people with learning disabilities since the publication of his Department's White Paper, Valuing People", (2001) and its statutory guidance. [216910]

Dr. Ladyman: This information is not held centrally.

MRSA

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the infection rates of MRSA have been by age groups in (a) the London borough of Havering, (b) Greater London and (c) the United Kingdom for the past five years. [209439]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The Health Protection Agency's voluntary reporting system is the only national dataset providing information on methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections by age.

Information is not available by London borough. Available data for the London region and England, Wales and Northern Ireland is shown in the following tables.
Table 1: Rates of MRSA bloodstream infections by age group: London region, 1999 to 2003 (number of cases per 100,000 population)⁽¹⁷⁰⁾

Age group	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Up to 1	13.40	15.56	10.07	11.70	22.34
1 to 4	0.50	1.02	—	2.11	1.06
5 to 9	0.84	0.85	0.87	—	0.44
10 to 14	0.45	1.35	0.90	0.45	—
15 to 44	2.93	3.64	3.27	3.39	4.67
45 to 64	13.87	20.15	17.91	19.41	25.93
65 to 74	52.71	55.40	56.62	67.12	67.32
75 plus	108.89	123.55	124.45	132.27	139.09
Overall rate	13.34	15.64	16.35	18.72	19.24

Source:
⁽¹⁷⁰⁾ Health Protection Agency.



 
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Table 2: Rates of MRSA bloodstream infections by age group: England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 1999 to 2003 (number of cases per 100,000 population)⁽¹⁷¹⁾

Age group	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Up to 1	5.87	5.89	6.88	6.73	10.52
1 to 4	0.64	0.64	0.73	0.95	0.76
5 to 9	0.25	0.14	0.15	0.15	0.21
10 to 14	0.09	0.42	0.17	0.22	0.11
15 to 44	1.50	1.78	2.38	2.44	2.55
45 to 64	5.82	7.94	8.68	9.08	10.21
65 to 74	18.99	23.89	28.15	28.00	29.21
75 plus	32.31	41.50	52.28	56.01	63.48
Overall rate	6.24	7.99	9.68	10.20	11.10

Source:
⁽¹⁷¹⁾ Health Protection Agency.

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many MRSA cases there were in each Government Office region in each year since 1997. [211948]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Regional data for the time
 
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period requested are only available from the voluntary reporting scheme for methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections, run by the Health Protection Agency. The data is shown in the following table.
MRSA bloodstream infections reported through voluntary reporting system in England

Region	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
East Midlands	131	135	208	316	451	433	390
East of England	286	364	442	495	632	619	627
London	439	407	451	535	569	680	702
North East	43	138	143	152	181	235	337
North West	15	294	367	365	465	472	501
South East	182	390	408	568	738	771	812
South West	353	191	300	374	481	540	593
West Midlands	219	395	498	763	819	771	868
Yorkshire and Humber	344	206	187	327	396	494	655

Source:
Health Protection Agency.

Orthopaedic Surgery (Ashford Hospital)

Mr. Wilshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the delay to his plans to privatise routine orthopaedic surgery at Ashford (Middlesex) hospital; [215139]

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on progress with the proposed independent diagnostic and treatment centre to be established at Ashford hospital. [216527]

Mr. Hutton: Detailed negotiations with private sector provider Capio to create an integrated service orthopaedic treatment centre at Ashford (Middlesex) hospital are ongoing. They were delayed for a time whilst detailed costings for the proposed scheme were developed and agreed. This work was completed at the end of January and a way forward should be agreed by the end of February.

Paediatric and Congenital Services Report

Mr. Best: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make a statement on the recommendations of the paediatric and congenital services report; [214907]

(2) when he plans to implement the recommendations of the paediatric and congenital services report. [214908]

Dr. Ladyman: I understand the questions relate to the report of the paediatric and congenital cardiac services review group, which considered health care services and treatment for children with congenital heart disease in the light of the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry. The group reported that all paediatric cardiac centres were providing high standards of care for children and made a number of recommendations to preserve these standards. This report and the Government's response was published in December 2003 and a copy is available in the Library.
 
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The Government accepted and commended these recommendations to national health service primary care trusts, strategic health authorities and the Healthcare Commission, apart from one recommendation, the effect of which would have been to immediately close centres providing a high level of service, but which were carrying out less than a minimum of 300 operations per year. There was no evidence within the report to support this measure, nor has there been any since. Responsibility for commissioning national clinical audit of paediatric cardiac surgery and congenital heart disease transferred to the Healthcare Commission, previously the Commission Healthcare Audit and Inspection, in April 2003.

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