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16 Jun 2006 : Column 1534W—continued
Children's Hospices
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) pursuant to the written statement of 5 June 2006, Official Report, column 10WS, on children's hospices, whether additional funding will be provided for non-hospice-based children's palliative care services; [77451]
(2) when she anticipates funding for children's hospices to start; how much of the funding announced will be distributed in (a) 2006-07, (b) 2007-08 and (c) 2008-09; whether this funding will be sourced from the Department of Health's central budget; which hospices will receive funding; and what the mechanism will be through which the funding will be allocated. [77452]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Children's hospices play a valuable role in the provision of palliative care for disabled children and young people or those with complex health needs and their families and I am pleased that we have been able to provide additional funding to them. But they are only one aspect of children's palliative care. We want to see children and their families have a real choice as to where they receive their care so that they can live as normal a life as possible for as long as possible. Our White Paper, “Our health, Our care, Our say”, expects primary care trusts to ensure that the right model of service is developed by undertaking a review to audit capacity and delivery of integrated pathways against national service framework standards and then to agree service models, funding and commissioning arrangements with their strategic health authorities. The White Paper also restates the Government manifesto commitment to increase funding for end of life care which includes palliative care for children and young people. We will make an announcement about funding this manifesto commitment as soon as we can.
We announced that £9 million per year would be available to voluntary children's hospices for the next three years starting from this financial year and it will be centrally funded. This will enable services funded by the Big Lottery Fund to continue, pending the outcome of a review of children's hospice services and their funding arrangements. We will publish funding criteria and arrangements for allocation as soon as possible.
Chlamydia
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of Chlamydia there have been in each primary care trust in each of the last five years. [77149]
Caroline Flint: Data on the number of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV infection are published in Mapping the Issues: HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Infections in the United Kingdom: 2005. The report is available at: www.hpa.org.uk/hpa/publications/hiv_sti_2005/pdf/MtI_FC_report.pdf
A copy has been placed in the Library.
Clinical Negligence
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answers of 4 April 2006, Official Report, column 195W, on clinical negligence, and 25 April 2006, Official Report, column 1080W, on the NHS Litigation Authority, what the reason is for the difference in the answers in relation to whether information on the funding arrangements of claimants is collected by the Litigation Authority. [76306]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 12 June 2006]: My previous reply sought to clarify the position set out in my reply on 4 April 2006 to question 62399 concerning whether information on the funding arrangements of claimants is collected by the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA).
The NHSLA record the legal funding arrangements of claimants when legal proceedings are issued. As a defendant organisation, they will not necessarily know about the funding status of claims that are pre-litigation. Claimants are not required to declare funding arrangements until the litigation process is entered. Information held by the NHSLA on the funding arrangements of claimants is therefore necessarily incomplete.
Community Hospitals
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the timetable is for further guidance identified in the letter sent to strategic health authorities of 16 February entitled “Moving care closer to home”; what impact this will have upon current proposals to reduce provision of community hospitals in Gloucestershire; and how the Secretary of State will ensure that proposals have been fully consulted upon with the people affected by service changes. [76034]
Caroline Flint: The further guidance identified in the letter sent to strategic health authorities (SHAs) on 16 February entitled “Moving care closer to home” will be published in the coming weeks. It will outline the next steps to be taken in relation to the commitments on community hospitals made in the White Paper “Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services”.
The guidance includes information on patient and public involvement, specifically when making changes to community services. However, the principle that making decisions on local healthcare provision, including the closure of community or cottage hospitals, is a matter for primary care trusts and SHAs will remain.
Complementary Medicine
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what complementary medicine is provided by the NHS; and if she will make a statement; [76802]
(2) if she will estimate how much the NHS has spent on providing complementary medicine to patients in each year since 1997; [76803]
(3) what guidelines are issued to general practitioners concerning referrals to complementary medicine practitioners; and whether there are requirements for the effectiveness of complementary therapies to be scientifically substantiated. [76805]
Caroline Flint: The Government consider that decision making on individual clinical interventions, using either complementary or more orthodox treatments, is a matter for local national health service providers and practitioners. There are therefore no centrally held records on what complementary medicines are provided by the NHS or how much is spent on their provision.
When making any clinical decision, general practitioners are expected to consider safety and effectiveness. In 2000, the Department produced an information pack for both primary care groups and primary care clinicians to provide a basic source of reference on complementary medicine and to support individual clinical judgment.
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research has been funded by the NHS on how cost-effective complementary medicine is; and what the conclusions were. [76804]
Andy Burnham: Over 75 per cent. of the Department’s total expenditure on health research is devolved to and managed by national health service organisations. Details of individual projects, including a number concerned with complementary medicine, are available on the national research register at www.dh.gov.uk/research The register contains no record of NHS-funded research on how cost-effective complementary medicine is.
Computer Sciences Corporation
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the implications of the announcement by the Computer Sciences Corporation of a reduction of 1,200 jobs across the UK on its contract with the NHS in the north west and the north Midlands. [71624]
Caroline Flint: The Department's NHS Connecting for Health agency has sought and received assurances from the Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) that plans to restructure its workforce in the United Kingdom will have no impact on the company's ability to comply with its contractual obligations as local service provider for the national programme for information technology's north west and west Midlands cluster area.
The company has provided the agency with the following statement:
“CSCs current programme of staff reductions will not have any detrimental impact on CSC's work to support the national programme. CSC is fully committed to the national programme, shares the vision, and is determined to continue building on the successes achieved to date. CSC has further strengthened and enhanced the management team this year and fully expects to see the programme at the forefront of its priorities throughout the lifetime of the contract. CSC believes that this intent is demonstrated by the substantial
number of projects already deployed, and the current user base of some 30,000 NHS staff. The head of CSCs NHS programme would be quite willing to meet with the MP for Blackpool South to provide further background and confidence.”
Major rollout of new services and systems is well under way in the cluster area, and the pace and scale of deployments continues to accelerate.
Connecting for Health
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the (a) budget and (b) outturn was for Connecting for Health in (i) 2004-05 and (ii) 2005-06; and what the proposed outturn is for 2006-07. [75128]
Caroline Flint: The Department's NHS Connecting for Health agency came into being on 1 April 2005. The agency's primary responsibilities are for delivering the national programme for information technology, and maintaining the critical business systems previously provided to the national health service by the former NHS Information Authority. Outturn running cost expenditure for 2005-06 was £144 million against a budget of £178 million. The equivalent budget for 2006-07 is £168 million.
The pace and scale of deployment of new national programme systems and services is accelerating on a weekly basis, and the budget increase over 2005-06 mainly reflects targets for continuing expansion through the year in support of the Department's plans for developing, procuring and implementing integrated information technology infrastructure and systems in all NHS organisations in England by 2010. In the course of the coming year we anticipate, for example, that choose and book will be effectively deployed, full deployment of release one of the electronic prescription service, further upgrading of NHS care records service software providing ever richer functionality, and complete roll-out of the new broadband connections across the NHS by the end of the financial year.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will publish the progress statistics alongside targets on the Connecting for Health website. [75130]
Caroline Flint: National programme for information technology cluster deployment statistics are already routinely published on the NHS Connecting for Health website, and updated in a form which provides a comprehensive, at-a-glance snapshot of progress to date. They can be found at:
www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/delivery/servicemanagement /statistics/service
A summary of NHS Connecting for Health programme and management activity targets is contained in the agency's annual business plan. The 2005-06 business plan is published on the agency website at:
http://www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/publications/busplans
A copy of the 2006-07 business plan will be published shortly.
If suggestions are received for publication of further national programme performance statistics, and how these compare with those of other information technology service delivery organisations, they will be considered.
Correspondence
Mr. Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she will reply to the letter of 4 May 2006 from the hon. Member for Walsall, North concerning constituents. [78029]
Ms Rosie Winterton: A reply was sent on Wednesday 14 June 2006.
Cystic Fibrosis
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of services for people with cystic fibrosis. [77234]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: We have made no assessment of the effectiveness of services for those living with cystic fibrosis.
Dentistry
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether she has received representations from dentists who have not been paid by their primary care trust for work undertaken under a new general dental services contract or a new personal dental services agreement. [76968]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Primary care trust (PCT) payment functions for dentistry are exercised on PCTs’ behalf by the NHS Business Services Authority (Awdurdod Gwasanaethau Busnes y GIG) Dental Practice Division (BSA DPD). The BSA DPD reports that the vast majority of payments due to dentists since 1 April 2006 have been paid correctly and on the due date. Where dentists have made representations about incorrect or missing payments the BSA DPD has contacted the relevant PCT, checked that the dentist is entitled to payment, and corrected the position.
Detailed Care Record
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health who will have access to an individual's detailed care record; and across which NHS boundaries. [75133]
Caroline Flint: Local national health service organisations have the responsibility for determining which of their staff may access the detailed care records available within the particular deployment of new information technology systems to that organisation. Sophisticated tools are being developed and provided by NHS Connecting for Health to enable local organisations to restrict access to records to those staff involved in an individual's care in accordance with the guidance provided in the Department's publication “Confidentiality: NHS Code of Practice”.
NHS Connecting for Health is implementing e-Government interoperability framework (eGif) level three standards for the registration and authentication of staff. This provides a high level of assurance that only bona fide personnel have access to the care record service. eGif level three requires a face-to-face meeting, and the provision of official documentation and authentication to systems, using a two-factor approach. NHS Connecting for Health use a smartcard and a passcode.
When fully deployed, NHS Connecting for Health-delivered systems will utilise a number of separate mechanisms, including consent/dissent, legitimate relationships, role-based access and sealed envelopes. Consent/dissent provides for patients to formally opt-out of sharing their clinical data. Legitimate relationships restrict access to only those clinicians involved in the patients care. Role-based access identifies the staff role and only allows access to the relevant part of the record, for example, restricting the access a receptionist has to clinical details. Sealed envelopes allow a patient to restrict access further to particularly sensitive parts of their record.
These controls have been designed to put the patient at the heart of care rather than having restrictions based on NHS organisational boundaries.
Initially, as systems begin to be rolled out, access to an individual's detailed care record will still be restricted to the originating organisation. This will gradually be extended to local health communities and eventually across larger areas as the scope of the access controls are extended and the systems capable of utilising them are deployed.
In addition the NHS care record service specifies strict audit requirements that log which individuals have accessed which records. This will provide an unprecedented level of traceability and assurance, and is in very marked contrast to the significant risk of casual and unauthorised inspection associated with current paper-based and electronic systems.
More information can be obtained from www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/technical/security.
Drug Addiction
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has made of how many children aged (a) 0 to 11, (b) 12 to 16 and (c) 17 to 18 years are dependent on (i) cannabis, (ii) nicotine, (iii) heroin and (iv) crack cocaine in (A) England, (B) each English region and (C) the Tees Valley. [73652]
Caroline Flint: The data requested is not collected centrally.
John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have undergone treatment for drug addiction in programmes designed to get them off drugs entirely and immediately, as opposed to harm reduction and other similar programmes, in each year since the Government's drug strategy was introduced; and how many came off drugs, including substitute prescribed drugs, completely in each year. [71997]
Caroline Flint: Information about drug services is not collected in a way that allows us centrally to identify treatment programmes in England designed to get drug mis-users off drugs immediately as opposed to an approach of harm reduction and stabilisation. The majority of programmes which are designed to get drug users off drugs entirely and immediately are provided within inpatient treatment, but successful completion of an in-patient programme does not necessary mean immediate abstinence from all drugs.
As part of comprehensive local drug treatment provision we would expect there to be a mix of services to meet the individual needs of all drug mis-users. The Government's overall objective has not changed and remains for as many problem drug mis-users as possible to become drug free over time.
John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have undergone treatment for drug addiction in each year since the Government's drug strategy was introduced; and how many came off drugs, including substitute prescribed drugs, completely in each year. [71998]
Caroline Flint: The number of individuals recorded as in contact with structured drug treatment services for the past two years is shown in table one:
| Table 1 | |
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