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24 Mar 2005 : Column 1067W—continued

Occupational Code Definitions

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the reclassification of NHS occupational code definitions for managers at Watford general hospital; and if he will list other (a) hospitals and (b) NHS hospital trusts where the same reclassification has taken place. [223043]

Dr. Ladyman: The non-medical workforce census is an annual census, which collects all non-medical staff directly employed by the national health service as at 30 September each year. Data are collected at NHS trust and primary care trust level in England.

The census includes the number of administrative managers and senior managers employed in the NHS. These and other staff are classified using a three-digit occupation code, using guidance contained in the occupation code manual.

In order to provide accurate information, organisations periodically review the codes assigned to their staff. West Hertfordshire NHS Trust, which includes Watford general hospital, conducted reviews in 2001 and 2002. While the census can identify where year-on-year changes have been made, we cannot accurately identify all the changes that are due to reclassification rather than staff movements.
 
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Organ Donation

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether it is his Department's policy to permit live donors to donate their organs to recipients who are not known to them. [222814]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Human Tissue Act, passed in November 2004, prevents the live donation of organs other than in accordance with regulations to be made by the Secretary of State. It is intended that regulations allow donation to persons unknown to the donor, subject to the scrutiny and approval by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA). It will be a matter for the HTA to prepare guidance on the necessary procedures to be followed. These regulations and guidance will be subject to consultation and parliamentary scrutiny.

Osteopathy

Mr. Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether osteopathy is available on the national health service; and whether a charge is made. [223230]

Mr. Hutton: It is for primary care trusts (PCTs) to commission services in order to meet the needs of their local population, taking into account evidence for the safety and effectiveness of the treatment, and the availability of properly qualified and regulated practitioners. The profession of osteopathy is regulated by the General Osteopathic Council. Information on the detail of services commissioned by PCTs is not centrally collected.

Patient Throughput

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how he measures patient throughput in hospitals; and what the level of patient throughput has been in each year since 1991, broken down as in Table 3.9.2 of the Department's response to the Health Select Committee's 2004 public expenditure questionnaire. [222811]

Mr. Hutton: The data requested are shown in the table. Throughput is calculated as the number of finished consultant episodes divided by the number of available beds.
Patient throughput: 1990–91 to 2003–04

	All specialties (excluding day only)	General and acute	Acute	Geriatric
1990–91	28	36	46	10
1991–92	30	39	49	12
1992–93	32	41	50	13
1993–94	34	43	53	15
1994–95	36	44	53	15
1995–96	38	47	56	17
1996–97	40	48	57	18
1997–98	42	51	60	18
1998–99	43	52	61	19
1999–2000	44	53	61	19
2000–01	45	53	62	19
2001–02	45	53	62	19
2002–03	47	55	64	20
2003–04	50	58	67	21

	Mental illness	Learning disability	Maternity	Day only
1990–91	4	2	60	n/a
1991–92	4	3	64	n/a
1992–93	5	3	67	n/a
1993–94	5	3	72	n/a
1994–95	6	4	79	n/a
1995–96	6	4	81	n/a
1996–97	6	6	82	n/a
1997–98	6	7	72	n/a
1998–99	6	7	79	n/a
1999–2000	7	6	82	n/a
2000–01	6	6	88	n/a
2001–02	6	7	85	n/a
2002–03	6	7	92	n/a
2003–04	6	6	100	n/a

 
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Personal Care

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the total number of people means-tested for their personal care in January 2004 (a) who are now receiving free NHS continuing care and (b) who will receive free NHS continuing care in each of the next five years. [223253]

Dr. Ladyman: We do not collect the necessary data on which to base an estimate.

PFI Projects

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total projected cost is of private finance initiative projects which have reached Strategic Outline Case or beyond. [223569]

Mr. Hutton: Detailed information on the projected cost of private finance initiative health contracts signed to date has been placed in the Library. This information is only held centrally for projects with a capital value of £10 million or greater.

It is not possible to include details of the unitary payments for schemes yet to reach financial close as they are not finalised and are commercially sensitive.

Pharmaceutical Products

Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of existing arrangements for product recall following the discovery of counterfeit pharmaceutical products in the supply chain. [223804]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Counterfeit medicines are classified as defective medicines and as such subjected to the existing arrangements for conducting and notifying product recalls.

The existing arrangements for product recalls are used on a regular basis for recalls and product safety notifications. In 2004, two suspected counterfeit products in the supply chain were recalled using the existing arrangements which operated effectively.

Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions his Department has had with representatives of parallel importers of pharmaceutical products on how repackaging carried out by them may impact on the ability to recall products. [223805]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Site inspections of parallel importers are regularly conducted by good manufacturing practice inspectors to ensure they have
 
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adequate systems for repacking medicines. Site inspections examine batch records, traceability and recall systems.

If a site has not recently been involved in a recall, the inspector may ask the site to carry out a dummy recall to ensure suitable systems are available, in accordance with the European Commission's guide to good manufacturing practice.

Pharmacies (Leicester, South)

Mr. Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many pharmacies there have been in Leicester, South in each year since 1997. [223650]

Dr. Ladyman: Information about the number of community pharmacies by constituency is not collected centrally. However, data are available and published by primary care trust (PCT). Leicester, South is served by Leicester City West PCT and Eastern Leicester PCT.

Information prior to 2002 is available by health authority (HA). Leicester, South sat within Leicestershire HA. Table 1 shows the number of community pharmacies by HA, table 2 by PCT.
Table 1: Number of community pharmacies by HA: 1997–98 to 2001–02

	Leicestershire HA
1997–98	193
1998–99	193
1999–2000	190
2000–01	190
2001–02	190

Table 2: Number of community pharmacies by PCT: 2002–03 to 2003–04

	Leicester City West PCT	Eastern Leicester PCT
2002–03	23	52
2003–04	23	52

Source:
Information is collected for PCTs via the annual PHS1 data collection. The latest published data available on general pharmaceutical services in England and Wales (1993–94 to 2003–04) were published in January 2005.
See: www.publications.doh.gov.uk/public/so0505htm.

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