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20 Mar 2006 : Column 137W—continued
Voluntary Organisations
Dr. Francis: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with which voluntary organisations the Department has a formal national compact agreement. [50265]
Mrs. McGuire:
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend, the Member for Wythenshawe and Sale, East (Paul Goggins) on 27 February 2006, Official Report, column 107W.
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HEALTH
Accident and Emergency Departments
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 31 January 2006, Official Report, columns 449–50W, how many people attended A&E walk-in centres in (a) 2003–04 and (b) 2004–05 in (i) England and (ii) the Countess of Chester hospital. [57515]
Mr. Byrne: A&E Walk in Centres" describes data on all national health service walk in centres collected through Quarterly Monitoring of Key Standards and Targets: Accident and Emergency, England (QMAE). 1,381,841 and 2,031,430 attendances at NHS walk in centres were reported in England through the QMAE data set in 2003–04 and 2004–05 respectively. Attendances are defined as visits to a walk in centre that result in the attender being seen by a clinician. There is not and never has been an NHS walk in centre at the Countess of Chester hospital so it is not possible to supply the data requested in respect of this service.
Advertising and Marketing Campaigns
Frank Dobson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent by her Department in 2005–06 on advising the NHS on advertising and marketing by individual hospitals. [56782]
Mr. Byrne: To date, there has been no specific expenditure on advising the national health service on advertising and marketing by individual hospitals. The Department's advice to the NHS on this issue is contained within paragraphs 4.19–4.21 of The NHS in England: The operating framework for 2006–07", which was published on 26 January 2006.
Frank Dobson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much has been spent by the NHS in 2005–06 on advice and preparation for advertising and marketing campaigns for individual hospitals; [56783]
(2) what estimate she has made of the amount to be spent on advertising and marketing by individual hospitals in 2006–07. [56784]
Mr. Byrne: This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 31 January 2006, Official Report, columns 454–55W, on departmental advertising campaigns, if she will list the amounts spent on the campaigns listed in each of the past five years. [50971]
Mr. Byrne: The table shows the amount of expenditure on major information campaigns and advertising commissioned by the Department's communications directorate in the past five years.
20 Mar 2006 : Column 139W
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the NHS has spent on radio advertising in each of the past five years for which figures are available. [59427]
Mr. Byrne: We are unable to give figures for how much the national health service has spent on radio advertising in each of the past five years, as this information is not held centrally.
The table shows how much the Department has spent on Departmental radio campaigns for the five years 2000–01 to 2004–05.
| Amount spent on advertising (£) | |
|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 3,074,277 |
| 2001–02 | 2,271,833 |
| 2002–03 | 2,032,252 |
| 2003–04 | 2,124,034 |
| 2004–05 | 3,744,051 |
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 6 February 2006, Official Report, column 976W, on hospitals, when she expects to issue guidelines for advertising by hospitals. [54242]
Mr. Byrne: All advertising should present accurate and fair information about services. No activity should be undertaken which undermines the reputation of the national health service. These initial principles to safeguard patients and the public are already set out in The NHS in England: the operating framework for 2006–07".
The Department are now working with key stakeholders such as the NHS Confederation, the Foundation Trust Network, NHS Partners and the Healthcare Commission to develop further guidance, which will be published later in the year.
Ambulance Services
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will assess the performance of Tees, East and North Yorkshire ambulance service in meeting national standards for answering emergency calls in rural areas in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [57866]
20 Mar 2006 : Column 140W
Mr. Byrne: The table shows the response times by category of call for emergency incidents dealt with by the Tees, East and North Yorkshire ambulance service national health service trust (TENYAS) as a percentage for the past five years. In 2004–05, TENYAS exceeded the national performance requirements for responding to category A emergency incidents.
(39)Presenting conditions which may be immediately life threatening (category A) should be responded to within eight minutes irrespective of location in 75 per cent. of cases.
(40)A fully equipped ambulance should attend incidents classified as category A within 14/19 minutes of the initial call, 95 per cent. of the time, unless the control room decides that an ambulance is not required.
(41)Presenting conditions which may be serious (category B) should be responded to within 14 minutes (urban) or 19 minutes (rural) in 95 per cent. of cases.
(42)Prior to 1 October 2004, it was also required that non-urgent (category C) calls received a response within 14 minutes (urban) or 19 minutes (rural) in 95 per cent. of cases. Since 1 October 2004, category C calls have been managed locally.
Notes:
(a) Category B/C calls in the period April 2004 to September 2004(43).
(b) Category B calls in the period October 2004 to March 2005.
Source:
NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre return KA34.
Audiology
Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she is taking to reduce audiology waiting lists. [46365]
Mr. Byrne:
The modernising hearing aids programme introduced several initiatives to increase the capacity to deliver national health service audiology services. These included the national framework contract public private partnership to bring in additional independent sector capacity; the development of a new degree to help to address the shortage of audiologists and; the introduction of Hearing Direct to provide follow-up care and advice for some hearing aid users.
20 Mar 2006 : Column 141W
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 16 January 2006, Official Report, column 1064W, to the hon. Member for Worthing, West (Peter Bottomley) on hearing services, how regularly she intends to publish the monthly commissioner-based data for waiting times and activity for pure tone audiometry; and if she will make a statement. [52965]
Mr. Byrne: Monthly commissioner-based data will be published. As with many new data collections, it may take a number of months of collection before the data are of sufficient quality to be publishable.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information is collected from NHS trusts on waiting times for pure tone audiometry. [54632]
Mr. Byrne: Since January 2006, the Department collects information monthly on the number of patients waiting for pure tone audiometry, by time band; and on the amount of activity carried out during the month. The Department plans to commence routine publication of this data from the spring to inform 18-week preparations.
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