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22 Mar 2005 : Column 746W—continued

Food Hygiene Regulations

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representation he has received on his proposals for a remedial action notice within new food hygiene regulations; in what circumstances he would expect it to be used instead of the Emergency Prohibition Notice; and if he will make a statement. [221873]

Miss Melanie Johnson: I am advised by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) that concerns have been raised, largely by some meat industry stakeholders, about the use of the Remedial Action Notice in response to the FSA's consultation on new food hygiene legislation.

The proposed Remedial Action Notice would directly replace the existing Regulation 10 notice in current meat hygiene legislation. These notices are expected to be served in situations where requests for corrective measures to reduce the risk of contamination and consequent risk to public health have been ignored by the operator. Examples of where they might be used in slaughterhouses are:

to promptly and effectively prohibit the use of a piece of equipment; impose conditions on, or the carrying out of a process; require the rate of production to be reduced or even stopped; or require the detention of any animal or food of animal origin for the purposes of examination.

Emergency Prohibition Notices and Orders are currently issued under the Food Safety Act 1990, and provision for Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notices and Orders has been made in the draft Food Hygiene (England) Regulations. The current notices and orders are used where there is a real and imminent risk to health and the new provisions will replicate that requirement.

The FSA is considering the issues raised in the consultation to determine if the proposed legislation needs to be revised.

Food Poisoning

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were diagnosed as suffering from food poisoning in each year since 2001; and if he will make a statement. [221685]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The number of notified cases of food poisoning in England and Wales reported to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) each year since 2001 is shown in the table. These numbers have shown a decrease each year since 2001.

	Notified cases of food poisoning in England and Wales
2001	85,468
2002	72,649
2003	70,895

Notified cases of food poisoning are not considered to be a reliable indicator of food-borne disease due to considerable under-reporting of all notifiable diseases. Very few notified cases will be based on evidence supporting the suspected association with food.
 
22 Mar 2005 : Column 747W
 

Based on laboratory reports and multiplication factors derived from a large study of infectious intestinal disease ¹ , the HPA estimated that, in 2000, there may have been as many as 1.3 million cases of food-borne illness acquired in England and Wales, of which around 370,000 consulted a doctor ² . In that year, only 86,528 cases of food poisoning were notified. The HPA has not carried out a similar estimate for subsequent years.

¹ A Report on the Study of Infectious Intestinal Disease in England, 2000, The Stationery Office, ISBN 0–11–322308–0.

² Adak G K, Long S M, O'Brien S J. Gut 2002; 51:832–841.

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the principal cause of food poisoning in England was in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [221686]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Notified cases of food poisoning are based on clinical diagnoses; therefore, it is not always possible to confirm the cause of the illness. However, estimates made by the Health Protection Agency (HPA); ¹ have indicated that the main microbiological cause of food poisoning is Campylobacter".

Data for 2001–03 on the number of laboratory-confirmed cases of illness in England and Wales caused by the five major food-borne bacteria also indicate that Campylobacter" caused the greatest number of cases in each year.

Final figures for 2003 provided by the HPA are shown in the following table and suggest that the number of laboratory-confirmed cases of Campylobacter" in England and Wales in 2003 decreased by 22 per cent. compared with the figures for 2001. Reliable data for 2004 are not yet available.

¹ G K Adak, S M Long, S J O'Brien—Trends in indigenous food-borne disease and deaths in England and Wales 1992–2000. Gut 2002, 51:832–841.

Laboratory-confirmed cases of Campylobacter in England and Wales

	Number
2001	44,368
2002	37,316
2003	34,593

Foreign Patients

Mr. Forth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1)how much has been charged by the NHS in each of the last five years to non-UK and non-EU (a) nationals and (b) embassies; [223454]

(2) what percentage of NHS patients treated in the last year for which figures are available were (a) UK nationals, (b) EU nationals and (c) non-EU nationals. [223455]

Mr. Hutton: Successive Governments have not required the national health service to provide statistics on the number or nationality of overseas visitors treated under the provisions of the NHS (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989, as amended, or on the costs of treatment. It is therefore not possible to provide the information requested.
 
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Great Ormond Street Hospital

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what deficit is projected for the Great Ormond Street hospital in the 2004–05 financial year. [222011]

Dr. Ladyman: The North Central London strategic health authority reports that the Great Ormond Street Hospital National Health Service Trust is forecasting they will achieve financial balance for the current financial year.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of MRSA infection have been recorded at the Great Ormond Street hospital in each of the last 10 years. [222013]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Data on Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections are only available by national health service trust since April 2001.

The table shows the published data for the last three and half years for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust.

	Number of MRSA bloodstream infection reports
April 2001 to March 2002	7
April 2002 to March 2003	13
April 2003 to March 2004	4
April 2004 to Sept 2004	1

Health Funding (Leeds)

Mr. Best: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the level of funding per head of population in eachprimary care trust in Leeds was in the last year for which figures are available; and what assessment his Department has made of inequality of healthcare provision in the city. [222879]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The table shows the allocations per weighted head of population in each primary care trust (PCT) in Leeds for 2004–05.
£

PCT	2004–05 allocation per weighted head of population
East Leeds	1,077.31
Leeds, North East	1,044.27
Leeds, North West	1,001.55
Leeds, West	1,052.69
South Leeds	1,010.21

Source:
Department of Health.

Service planning to address inequalities in service provision is agreed between PCTs and their strategic health authorities and not with the Department.

Health Services (York)

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS (a) in-patient and (b) day patient beds there were in York in (i) 1996–97 and (ii)2004–05. [222231]

 
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Miss Melanie Johnson: The information requested is shown in the table.

	Organisation	In-patient beds	Day patient beds
1996–97	York health services national health service trust	1,171	32
2003–04(29)	York hospitals NHS trust(30)	778	43
2003–04	Selby and York PCT(30)	375	0

⁽²⁹⁾The latest data available are 2003–04
⁽³⁰⁾Following the transfer of community and mental health services to Selby and York PCT in 2001, the York health services NHS trust renamed itself York hospitals NHS trust.
Source:
Department of Health.

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients had been waiting 13-weeks or longer for outpatient treatment at York health services NHS Trust at (a) April 1997 and (b) the latest date for which figures are available. [222232]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The table shows the number of patients not yet seen at the end of the quarter who have experienced a wait of over 13-weeks for a first outpatient appointment at York health services national health service trust in March 1997 and from 2002, at York hospitals NHS trust.

		Number
March 1997(31)	York health services NHS trust	2,058
December 2004	York hospitals NHS trust(32)	645

⁽³¹⁾The information given is for March 1997, as the data are collected quarterly.
⁽³²⁾Following the transfer of community and mental health services to the Selby and York primary care trust, the trust was renamed York hospitals NHS trust.
Source:
QM08 quarterly return.




 
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Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many finished consultant episodes there were in (a) total and (b) each speciality at York hospitals NHS trust in each year since 1996–97; and how many (i) hip replacements and (ii) cataract operations were carried out in that NHS trust in each year. [222269]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The information requested is shown in the tables.
Table 1: Count of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) York hospitals national health service trust, 1996–97 to 2003–04

	Total FCEs
1996–97	60,956
1997–98	61,177
1998–99	65,143
1999–2000	62,296
2000–01	62,631
2001–02	63,523
2002–03	64,015
2003–04	69,699

Notes:
Finished consultant episode (FCE)
An FCE is defined as a period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Please note that the figures do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the year.
Grossing
Figures are grossed for both coverage and missing/invalid clinical data, except for 2002–03 and 2003–04, which are not yet adjusted for shortfalls.
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Department of Health




Table 2: Count of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) by main specialityYork hospitals NHS trust, 1996–97 to 2003–04

Main speciality		1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04
100	General surgery	7,290	6,929	7,618	7,620	7,493	7,440	8,034	8,727
101	Urology	4,390	4,319	4,441	4,432	4,860	4,719	4,817	5,345
110	Trauma and Orthopaedics	4,375	4,274	4,560	4,468	4,660	4,649	5,158	5,566
120	Ear Nose & Throat (ENT)	2,211	1,833	2,134	2,166	2,193	2,301	2,050	2,041
130	Ophthalmology	1,923	1,885	2,175	2,288	2,253	2,272	2,290	2,534
140	Oral surgery	1,215	1,268	1,351	1,368	1,244	1,223	1,354	1,409
141	Restorative Dentistry	422	397	364	333	336	339	0	0
160	Plastic surgery	0	0	0	0	0	0	*	—
170	Cardiothoracic Surgery	0	0	*	0	0	0	0	0
180	Accident and Emergency (A&E)	1,361	731	460	134	—	*	29	7
190	Anaesthetics	1,174	2,345	2,469	2,292	1,906	1,918	1,882	1,879
300	General Medicine	10,604	10,961	11,591	12,002	12,888	14,076	15,561	16,536
303	Haematology (clinical)	814	1,043	1,310	1,391	938	824	667	684
330	Dermatology	132	113	170	148	127	103	75	62
360	Genito-urinary Medicine	0	*	0	0	0	0	0	*
370	Medical oncology	0	*	*	126	348	269	190	165
400	Neurology	441	409	404	397	429	510	520	670
410	Rheumatology	290	351	318	265	190	184	172	256
420	Paediatrics	3,290	3,321	3,741	4,168	3,908	4,158	4,124	4,651
430	Geriatric medicine	4,311	4,561	5,254	5,021	5,216	5,448	6,160	7,756
502	Gynaecology	13,553	13,471	13,524	9,622	9,726	9,748	9,310	9,738
610	General practice with maternity function	200	125	516	1,829	1,772	1,418	1,581	1,631
620	General Practice other than Maternity	519	522	480	437	411	370	0	0
700	Mental Handicap	174	53	60	34	31	38	0	0
710	Mental Illness	1,288	1,223	1,166	771	821	687	0	0
711	Child and Adolescent Psychiatry	72	64	54	47	57	51	0	0
715	Old Age Psychiatry	838	904	854	745	744	696	0	—
800	Radiotherapy	*	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
810	Radiology	0	0	*	*	0	0	*	*
822	Chemical Pathology	67	72	121	190	80	80	38	40
824	Histopathology	0	0	0	*	0	0	0	0
Total		60,956	61,177	65,143	62,296	62,631	63,523	64,015	69,699

Notes:
Finished consultant episode (FCE)
An FCE is defined as a period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Please note that the figures do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the year.
Speciality
Care is needed when analysing HES data by speciality, or by groups of specialities (such as Acute). Trusts have different ways of managing specialities and attributing codes so it is better to analyse by specific diagnoses, operations or other recorded information.
Grossing:
Figures are grossed for both coverage and missing/invalid clinical data, except for 2002–03 and 2003–04, which are not yet adjusted for shortfalls.
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Department of Health





 
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Table 3: Count of finished consultant episodes with a hip replacement (OPCS4 codes W37-W39 and W46-W48) or cataract operation (OPCS4 codes C71-C72 and C74-C75) as a main or secondary operationYork hospitals NHS trust, 1996–97 to 2003–04

	Hip replacements	Cataract operations
1996–97	424	1,010
1997–98	366	1,035
1998–99	435	1,337
1999–2000	426	1,448
2000–01	459	1,392
2001–02	468	1,361
2002–03	506	1,220
2003–04	542	1,529

Notes:
Finished consultant episode (FCE)
An FCE is defined as a period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Please note that the figures do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the year.
All operations count of episodes
These figures represent a count of all FCEs where the procedure was mentioned in any of the 12 (four prior to 2002–03) operation fields in a HES record. A record is only included once in each count, even if an operation is mentioned in more than one operation field of the record.
Grossing
Figures are grossed for both coverage and missing/invalid clinical data, except for 2002–03 and 2003–04, which are not yet adjusted for shortfalls.

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients were treated at York NHS walk-in centre in 2004. [222270]

Miss Melanie Johnson: In 2004, York national health service walk-in centre treated 37,566 patients.

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