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30 Jun 2005 : Column 1761W—continued
Intensive Care (Enfield)
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) intensive care and (b) high dependency beds there were in Enfield in the most recent year for which figures are available. [7613]
Jane Kennedy: There are two hospitals in Enfield, Chase Farm, which is part of the Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals National Health Service Trust and North Middlesex university hospital, which is the only hospital in the North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust. Data on intensive care and high dependency beds is collected by trusts and the latest available data, as at 13 January 2005, is shown in the table.
| Hospital trust | Number of intensive care beds | Number of high dependency beds |
|---|---|---|
| Barnet and Chase Farm | 8 | 6 |
| North Middlesex University | 7 | 4 |
Meals on Wheels
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which social services authorities provide meals on wheels (a) cooked ready to eat, (b) frozen, (c) comprised of sandwiches and (d) cooked and chilled. [7205]
Mr. Byrne: Data is not centrally available in the form requested.
Mental Health Bill
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when she expects to publish her response to the pre-legislative security committee on the draft Mental Health Bill; [8345]
(2) when she expects to publish the final version of the Mental Health Bill. [8346]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department is currently considering the recommendations of the report of the joint committee on the draft Mental Health Bill and a response will be published shortly. Following the publication of the Government's response, a Mental Health Bill will be presented before Parliament as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Mental Health Services
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what arrangements are in place to ensure that people aged 65 years or over with mental health issues have access to (a) bereavement counselling, (b) assertive outreach teams, (c) crisis resolution teams and (d) community mental health teams; [6396]
(2) what reasons older people under the care of assertive outreach teams cease to receive the service when they reach of the age of 65. [7199]
Ms Rosie Winterton:
The needs of older people with mental health problems are the focus of a standard in the national service framework for older people (2001), which is designed to ensure that the right services are there to meet the needs of older people with mental
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health problems whether they live at home, in residential care or are being cared for in hospital. Where an older person has severe mental illness due to a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia, they will require the packages of care set out in the national service framework for mental health, and the same standards should apply as for working age adults. For these people care should be provided within the framework of the care programme approach. Bereavement counselling services should be accessible by people of any age through referral by a general practitioner.
The Department's guidance on functionalised community teams, Mental Health Policy Implementation Guide (2001)", explains that such services are commonly for adults aged up to 65 years. This guidance specifies that for crisis resolution teams there should be flexibility in every locality to decide to treat those who fall outside this age group where appropriate. For assertive outreach teams, the same guidance states that the boundaries between different health care services should be flexible to respond to different needs. The Mental Health Policy Implementation Guide" also makes clear that as long as there is evidence of benefit, assertive outreach can continue indefinitely. The Mental Health Policy Implementation Guide for Community Mental Health Teams (2002)" requires age limits to be determined in line with locally agreed protocols for transitions from adolescent to adult and adult to older adult services.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria were used to set the priorities for the National Service Framework for Mental Health, with particular reference to the age of sufferers; and what arrangements are in place to ensure that people with mental health problems continue to have access to services once they reach 65 years. [6398]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The national service framework for mental health (1999) concentrates on the mental health needs of working age adults up to 65 and touches on the needs of children and young people, highlighting areas where services for children and adults interact, for example the interface between services for 16 to 18-year-olds, and the needs of children with a mentally ill parent.
The needs of children and adolescents with mental health problems are the focus of a standard in the children's national service framework which gives guidance on what is envisaged in a comprehensive child and adolescent mental health service.
The needs of older people with mental health problems are the focus of a standard in the national service framework for older people (2001), which is designed to ensure that the right services are there to meet the needs of older people with mental health problems whether they live at home, in residential care or are being cared for in hospital. Where an older person has severe mental illness due to a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia, they will require the packages of care set out in the national service framework for mental health, and the same standards should apply as for working age adults. For these people care should be provided within the framework of the care programme approach.
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The Department's guidance on the care programme approach, Effective Care Co-ordination in Mental Health Services" (1999), requires services to have in place clearly identified plans and protocols for meeting the needs of younger and older people moving from one service to another. The priorities and planning framework for the national health service 2003–06 includes a target to ensure that protocols are in place across all health and social care systems for the care and management of older people with mental health problems.
The annual performance ratings of mental health trusts carried out by the Healthcare Commission in 2004 and by the Commission for Health Improvement in 2003 employed performance indicators on the availability of clear protocols for transition between children's, adults' and older people's mental health services.
Missed Appointments (Lancashire)
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients failed to turn up for (a) general practitioner and (b) hospital appointments in (i)Chorley and (ii) Lancashire in 2004–05. [7596]
Mr. Byrne: The total number of missed out-patient appointments for the year 2004–05 in England was 5,707,288, or 11.3 per cent. Data for individual national health service trusts are available in the Library.
The Department does not collect data on the number of missed general practice appointments, but there is some evidence to suggest the number of missed appointments are falling.
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MRI Scan
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time for a MRI scan is at each London hospital. [8204]
Jane Kennedy: The information requested is not collected centrally.
NHS Budget
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what her estimate is of the annual change in the NHS budget required to meet the higher cost associated with (a) an ageing population and (b) improved health care technology; and if she will make a statement. [8104]
Mr. Byrne: In the report Securing our long term health: taking a long term view", Derek Wanless reported that the impact of ageing on future health expenditure is likely to be small compared with other cost drivers. The report also states that medical technology, including drugs and equipment, would contribute two to three percentage points to the annual rate of growth in health spending in the future, compared to an average of two percentage points a year over the previous 20 years.
NHS Staff
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many full-time equivalent (a) administrative staff and (b) temporary staff have been employed at (i) Whittington hospital, (ii) Royal Free hospital Hampstead, (iii) North Middlesex university hospital and (iv) Haringey teaching primary care trust St. Ann's hospital in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [7761]
Jane Kennedy: The information requested is shown in the table. St Ann's hospital is part of the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust.
n/a=not applicable
Note:
Full-time equivalent figures are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Source:
Health and Social Care Information Centre Non-Medical Workforce Census.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what her estimate is of the total cost of suspending NHS staff in the most recent year for which figures are available; and what the average cost was of suspending one member of (a) medical staff and (b) non-medical clinical staff per annum for the most recent period for which figures are available; [5625]
(2) how many (a) medical and (b) non-medical clinical staff in the NHS have been (i) formally suspended and (ii) informally suspended from work in each year since 1997; and what steps she is taking to ensure that suspensions that occur are unavoidable; [5595]
(3) what the average length of time of suspensions from the NHS for (a) medical and (b) non-medical clinical staff was in the last year for which figures are available. [5596]
Mr. Byrne:
The information requested on formal and informal suspensions of medical and non-medical
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clinical staff and the length of those suspensions and their cost is not available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The National Audit Office provided information on clinical staff excluded from work in 2001 and 2002 in its report, The Management of Suspensions of Clinical Staff in NHS Hospital and Ambulance Trusts in England", which is available in the Library.
The most recent data collect by the National Clinical Assessment Service, now part of the National Patient Safety Agency, shows that, in the fourth quarter of 2004, 19 doctors were suspended for six months or more.
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