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27 Jun 2005 : Column 1378W—continued
Outpatient Waiting Times (Lancashire)
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average wait is for an out-patient appointment in Lancashire. [6310]
Mr. Byrne: Information for primary care trusts in Lancashire is shown in the table.
Note:
Out-patient commissioner data
Source:
QM08R
Palliative Care
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many palliative care beds are included in the total allocation of high dependency beds in the NHS; [6838]
(2) what the average daily cost per palliative care bed was in the last period for which figures are available; [6839]
(3) how many palliative care beds for terminally ill patients there are in the NHS in England; [6840]
(4) what the total cost for patients in palliative care beds in England was in the most recent year for which figures are available; and what percentage that represents of the overall national budget for NHS hospital beds for that year. [6845]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answers 23 June 2005]: We do not routinely collect the data requested. Information in the Hospice Directory 2005, published by Hospice Information, states that there are 488 beds in national health service palliative care adult inpatient units.
There were 1,426 high dependency beds in the NHS on 13 January 2005—the latest census date. We do not collect data on how many of these are palliative care beds.
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Patient Records
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether Nationwide Clearing Service records pertaining to individual patients are available to hon. Members. [6842]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 23 June 2005]: The Nationwide Clearing Service (NWCS) provides a means of exchanging and processing data from national health service trusts and primary care trusts to the Department to support national performance management and strategic service planning.
Access to its database is strictly controlled and is available only to approved NHS organisations for individually specified purposes, in compliance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Physiotherapists
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many new (a) junior and (b) senior physiotherapy posts have been created in the last five years in the NHS. [6544]
Mr. Byrne: Information collected by the Department does not break down physiotherapists by grade. Information for the last five years on qualified physiotherapists employed in the national health service is shown in the following table.
Source:
Department of Health Non-Medical Workforce Census
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many senior physiotherapists are in post in the NHS in England; and what the establishment figure is; [6560]
(2) what plans she has to increase the number of junior physiotherapy posts in the NHS in England; and if she will make a statement; [6561]
(3) what assessment she has made of the ability of physiotherapy graduates to obtain employment in the NHS in England; and if she will make a statement. [6571]
Mr. Byrne: Information collected by the Department does not break down physiotherapists by grade. As at September 2004, there were 19,139 physiotherapists employed in the national health service, which represents an increase of 4,896 or 34 per cent. since 1997.
The Department is working closely with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, the NHS work force review team and NHS organisations to help junior physiotherapists to find first posts of employment. As a
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result, of this collaborative work, there is an action plan in place to ensure local managers have access to a range of strategies across recruitment, commissioning and skill mix. It is the responsibility of local NHS employers and strategic health authorities to ensure there are sufficient numbers of physiotherapists to meet service needs.
Primary Care Trust Populations (Lancashire)
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the population is of each primary care trust area in Lancashire. [6305]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested is shown in the table.
The data were collected in April 2004 for general practitioner-relevant populations as at April 2003. The data have been constrained to the Office for National Statistics 2003 mid-year population estimates, based on the 2001 census, but do not include armed forces and some prisoners.
Prisons
Mr. Laxton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will place in the Library a copy of the speech given by Dr. Mary Piper on 28 June 2004 at the Institute of Physics on the health needs of prisoners; and what the source was for the research referred to in the speech on rates of Hepatitis C in prison cohorts. [5197]
Ms Rosie Winterton: No transcript exists of Dr. Piper's speech but copies of the slides that accompanied it will be placed in the Library. The research to which Dr. Piper referred was reported in The Incidence of Hepatitis C Virus Infection and Associated Risk Factors among Scottish Prison Inmates: A Cohort Study"— J.K. Champion, A. Taylor, S. Hutchinson, S. Cameron, J.McMenamin, A. Mitchell and D. Goldberg. American Journal of Epidemiology 2004 159: 514–519.
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made in transferring responsibility for the provision of health care services in prisons to primary care trusts. [3708]
Ms Rosie Winterton:
On 1 April 2003, funding responsibility for primary health care services in publicly run prisons in England was transferred from the Home Office to the Department. From 1 April 2004, 18 national health service primary care trusts (PCTs) assumed commissioning responsibility for the primary health care services in 34 publicly run prison
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establishments in England. From 1 April 2005, PCTs assumed that responsibility for all but three of the remaining publicly run prison establishments in Leicester, Wellingborough and Wormwood Scrubs.
It has been decided not to change the arrangements for commissioning primary health services in the contracted prisons for the present. Contractors continue to have responsibility for the provision of primary care services in their establishments under terms specified in their contracts with the Home Office. However, a full strategic review is being conducted of the health care elements of the contracts to run privately managed prisons to ensure that they bind contractors robustly into the principle of equivalence with the NHS. Work is also under way with the Healthcare Commission to seek to develop a system of inspection of health services in privately managed prisons that is equivalent to that in the NHS.
Psoriatic Arthritis
Mr. Bruce George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of the funding announced on 11 May to increase patient centred research will be directed to psoriatic arthritis. [5983]
Mr. Byrne: Decisions on the allocation of the United Kingdom clinical research collaboration funding for experimental medicine will be based on the merits of the individual applications received from researchers.
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