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8 Mar 2006 : Column 1608W—continued
Blood Donation
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what her assessment is of the policy of the National Blood Service that prohibits gay and bisexual men from donating blood; [53528]
(2) whether the Department has estimated the change in the amount of blood that would be donated if the National Blood Service removed its ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood. [53529]
Caroline Flint:
We have a duty to ensure that any rules applied to blood donation by the National Blood Service (NBS) which is part of NHS Blood and Transplant, achieve a balance between risk reduction
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and security of supply. The latest statistics available indicate that gay and bisexual men are proportionately at a relatively higher risk of carrying HIV and a number of other sexually transmitted infections, many of which can be transmitted by blood.
The self exclusion criterion concerning gay and bisexual men has been reached following analysis of the data by the Joint UK Blood Transfusion Services and National Institute of Biological Standards and control professional advisory committee (JPAC), and the advisory committee on the microbiological safety of blood, tissues and organs for transplantation. The decision by the NBS is based on scientific grounds. The NBS donor exclusion criteria is reviewed annually in the light of updated epidemiology evidence.
We are unable to assess the impact to the blood supply if the self exclusion criteria was removed for gay and bisexual men. This is because some men will be aware of the donor exclusion criteria and self exclude themselves without reporting to blood donor sessions.
Breast Cancer
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many primary care trusts offer facilities for the rapid diagnosis of HER2 breast cancer. [55308]
Ms Rosie Winterton: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker) on 16 February 2006, Official Report, column 2293W.
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many primary care trusts offer Herceptin for the treatment of early stage HER2 breast cancers. [55315]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not collect information on the number of primary care trusts offering Herceptin for the treatment of early stage breast cancer.
Breastfeeding (Targets)
Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what national targets she has set for increasing the percentage of mothers breastfeeding. [45525]
Caroline Flint: The priorities and planning framework (PPF) 2003–06 required an increase in breastfeeding initiation rates by 2 per cent. points per year, with a particular focus on women from disadvantaged groups.
The national standards, local action health and social care standards and planning framework 2005–06 to 2007–08 states that performance against existing commitments from the PPF need to be met and maintained in the new planning round. In addition, to reduce inequalities in health outcomes all primary care trusts should work in partnership with local authorities to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration rates targeting those with the highest need.
Cancer
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients normally resident in West Lancashire have been treated for cancer in the past 12 months. [53397]
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Mr. Byrne: The information is not available in the format requested. However, the following table shows the data for 2004–05.
| Finished consultant episodes | Patient counts |
|---|---|
| 2,588 | 1,215 |
Notes:
Finished consultant episode (FCE):
1. An FCE is defined as a period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one health care 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 diagnoses count of episodes:
2. These figures represent a count of all FCE's where the diagnosis was mentioned in any of the 14 (seven prior to 2002–03) diagnosis fields in a hospital episode statistics (HES) record.
Diagnosis (primary diagnosis):
3. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (seven prior to 2002–03) diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital.
Secondary diagnoses:
4. As well as the primary diagnosis, there are up to 13 (six prior to 2002–03) secondary diagnosis fields in HES that show other diagnoses relevant to the episode of care.
Patient counts:
5. Patient counts are based on the unique patient identifier HES identification (HESID). This identifier is derived based on patient's date of birth, postcode, sex, local patient identifier and national health service number, using an agreed algorithm. Where data are incomplete, HESID might erroneously link episodes or fail to recognise episodes for the same patient. Care is therefore needed, especially where duplicate records persist in the data. The patient count cannot be summed across a table where patients may have episodes in more than one cell.
Ungrossed data:
6. Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data, that is the data is ungrossed.
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre
Care Homes
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many care home inspections were carried out by the Commission for Social Care Inspection between April and December in (a) 2004 and (b) 2005. [51684]
Mr. Byrne: I understand from the Chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) that the numbers of care home inspections carried out by CSCI for the years requested were as follows:
from the 1 April 2004 to 31 December 2004, CSCI carried out 28,225 inspections of care homes in England; and
from 1 April 2005 to 31 December 2005, CSCI carried out 28,725 inspections of care homes in England.
Cash Support
Rosie Cooper:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what interest rate is charged to (a) NHS authorities and (b) Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust for cash support; what the rate was in each of the past four years; and what estimate she has made of how much will be charged in (i) 2005–06 and (ii) 2006–07; [53310]
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(2) what estimate she has made of how much interest would be paid for cash support by Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust in (a) 2005–06 and (b) 2006–07 based on bank rates of interest. [53309]
Mr. Byrne: The NHS Bank operates a system of cash brokerage between strategic health authorities (SHAs). The NHS Bank is able to provide cash support to SHAs in need by taking cash from other SHAs that have surplus cash. Until this year, the principle was that any cash support received or provided would be returned in the following year, but there was no interest charge.
To encourage good financial management, the NHS Bank agreed that for cash brokerage in 2005–06 an interest payment will be required from SHAs receiving cash brokerage, and they have agreed to pay interest to those SHAs providing cash brokerage.
The charge on SHAs receiving cash brokerage is 10 per cent. and the interest to SHAs providing brokerage will be between five per cent, and 20 per cent. depending on the time of year when the cash is offered. No estimate has been made of the level of interest paid on any cash brokerage received next year.
The NHS Bank operates a cash brokerage system at SHA level. Any arrangements with national health service trusts or primary care trusts are for individual SHAs to manage. Information on what has been agreed locally is not held centrally.
Child Protection
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what types of services provided by the NHS are required to make checks against the Protection of Children Act list of the people employed in them. [44902]
Mr. Byrne: Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks are mandatory throughout the national health service for all eligible new staff. Eligible staff means all staff with access to patients in the normal course of duties. Employers are required to request the CRB to carry out an additional check against List 99 and the Protection of Children Act (POCA) list of persons barred from working with children, specifically for staff applying to work in posts subject to the POCA definition of working with children, as amended by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000.
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