| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Intermediate Care
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the National Service Framework for Older People Standard Three on Intermediate Care has been met in respect of intermediate care beds and supported intermediate care places. [80809]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Since 1999-2000, the national health service has delivered an extra 18,253 beds and places in intermediate care; 272 per cent. more than the combined target.
Laundry Services
Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which NHS hospitals have contracted out their laundry services; and what plans there are for further such contracting out. [73510]
Andy Burnham: Information is collected centrally on hospital trusts that have outsourced all or part of their provision of laundry services and where figures have been reported, these have been placed in the Library. The information represents the position as reported at 31 March 2005, which is the latest available.
The data were provided by national health service organisations on a voluntary basis and they are incomplete. It is for local trusts to determine the extent to which and service should be contracted out.
Ministerial Meetings
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance she issues to Ministers in her Department from (a) this House and (b) the House of Lords on responding to requests from hon. Members for meetings; and if she will take steps to increase the accountability of Ministers to hon. Members. [80027]
Ms Hewitt [holding answer 26 June 2006]: The Secretary of State for Health makes time available to meet hon. Members of all parties, as does her ministerial team from both the House and the House of Lords. She encourages hon. Members to approach parliamentary private secretaries who will facilitate and organise such meetings as required.
The Secretary of State for Health is pleased to learn that the hon. Member met the Minister of State for Health (Reform) on 26 June, following the postponement of two previous meetings due to diary pressures on both sides.
Ministers are fully accountable to Parliament for their policies, decisions and actions, as set out in the Ministerial Code.
Ministerial Visits (Accommodation)
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total cost was of overnight accommodation for (a) civil servants and (b) special advisers in her Department staying overnight in (i) mainland Great Britain, (ii) Northern Ireland, (iii) the Republic of Ireland and (iv) other countries in each of the last three years. [69212]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The majority of overnight accommodation is booked via the Department's agent Expotel Hotel Reservations. The costs for the last three years are:
| £ | |
The costs are not routinely broken down by location, or by civil servants and special advisers.
Information on other overnight accommodation is not collected routinely.
National Programme for Information Technology
Mr.
Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for
Health how much has been spent on the National Programme for
Information Technology, broken down by major
cost area; and what the total expenditure on the programme was
originally expected to be.
[74061]
Caroline Flint: The information requested is shown in the table
| Programme area | Contractor | Lifetime contract value (£ million) | Expenditure to 31 March 2006 (£ million) |
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether all consultants have been provided with a personal computer under the National Programme for Information Technology. [74063]
Caroline Flint: A target to provide consultants with networked desktop personal computer (PC) access to the NHS net had already been substantially achieved by the end of 2002, before the national programme was established.
Additionally, after the inception of the national programme, during 2003-04, the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency undertook an electronic reverse auction procurement on behalf of the programme to supply some 60,000 PCs, driving down the cost of providing personal computers to the staff of national health service organisations in both the short and longer term.
NHS Facilities
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the oral answer of 24 May 2006, Official Report, column 1477, what new NHS facilities were included in the cost of £32 million quoted by the Prime Minister. [80283]
Caroline Flint: The £32 million quoted is the cost of the Gloucestershire Royal hospital redevelopment scheme at the Gloucestershire Hospitals Foundation Trust, which opened in March 2005.
NHS IT Support
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding her Department provides to health trusts to spend on IT; and whether the funding is drawn from the same allocation as frontline patient services. [75134]
Caroline Flint: National health service trusts are paid for the provision of care services commissioned from them by primary care trusts (PCTs). The great majority of funding allocated to PCTs is not hypothecated for specific purposes. Exceptionally, £84 million was allocated for local implementation of the national programme for information technology (IT) in 2004-05, and a further £84 million in 2005-06.
Each NHS organisation is expected to use its resources in a way that delivers the best possible care for patients and value for money. Spending on modern information technology is vital to getting the best out of NHS staff and equipment, and makes them more effective quicker than any other investment. The NHS already spends about £1.2 billion each year on IT, and the Department has have always made it clear that it expects NHS trusts to follow the recommendations in the 2002 Wanless report to increase this over time. Monitoring progress towards achieving this is part of the Department's regular performance management arrangements for the NHS. It has therefore always been recognised that some national programme implementation costs, for example, on training and local hardware upgrades, will be borne locally over the programme's 10-year life.
Nursing Staff (Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust)
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average ratio of trained nursing staff to patients is in hospitals in the Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust. [79633]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Figures on staff to patient ratios are not collected centrally.
Older People Framework
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which local health care providers in England have not complied with National Senior Framework for Older People Standard Six in establishing an integrated falls service and risk management procedures. [80841]
Mr.
Ivan Lewis: Data collected by the Department indicated
that by April 2005 74 per cent. of integrated falls services were in
place. A national audit of falls and
bone health services produced by the Royal College of Physicians in
January 2006 found that 74 per cent. of trusts in England are part of a
co-ordinated, integrated, multi-professional, multi-agency service for
falls. Overall, the audit results suggested that most areas have the
infrastructure with the potential to identify need and for provision of
specialist falls assessment and
treatment.
Primary Care Trusts
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the cost was of setting up (a) Yorkshire Wolds and Coast primary care trust and (b) East Yorkshire primary care trust; how much the recent reorganisation of each trust cost; and if she will make a statement; [78991]
(2) how much she expects the reorganisation of primary care trusts to cost; and if she will make a statement. [78992]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The costs of establishing the Yorkshire Wolds and East Yorkshire primary care trusts (PCTs) were met from within the financial allocations to the health authorities and are therefore not identifiable.
Total costs of the reconfiguration of PCTs, announced on 16 May 2006, are dependant on a number of factors, including the number of new organisations, number of people in the new organisations, new pay ranges for very senior managers, as well as changes in estate costs following reconfiguration. For these reasons, it is not possible at present to give definite costs.
Public Health Screening Programmes
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what public health screening programmes were introduced in England in each year since 1979. [78016]
Caroline Flint: The following public health screening programmes have been introduced in England since 1979: congenital hypothyroidism (1981), cervical cancer (1988), breast cancer (1988), Down's syndrome (2001), newborn hearing (2001), sickle cell and thalassaemia (2002), Chlamydia (2002), diabetic retinopathy (2003), cystic fibrosis (2004) and bowel cancer (2006).
Sickness Absence
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will estimate the costs to the NHS resulting annually from sickness absence among health service employees. [77231]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The information requested is not collected by the Department.
Social Care IT
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to her Department’s report ‘Delivering 21st century IT support for the NHS’, what progress has been made on taking forward developments in social care IT. [75052]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Prime responsibility for implementing information technology support for social services lies with individual local authorities. However, with a view to delivering the aim of achieving appropriate integration of health arid social care information systems in England by 2010 the Department’s NHS Connecting for Health agency has undertaken a number of national initiatives to support local action. These include the establishment in 2005 of the electronic social care record board (ESCRB). The board has responsibility for overseeing national implementation of the electronic: social care record and ensuring consistency of its implementation by local authorities with social services responsibilities.
The board engages with the work of the national health service national programme for information technology to enable sharing of information across traditional boundaries. The board is providing advice and guidance, and will establish national standards for the electronic exchange of information between health, education and social care agencies in support of implementation of the electronic social care record, whilst recognising the independence of local authorities. It will ensure appropriate links are made with NHS electronic patient records and children's electronic information systems.
Under the auspices of the ESCRB, a study has been commissioned into the options for national implementation of the electronic single assessment process for older people. This is a prime example of shared activity between health and social care. Consultation has been undertaken with health, social care and supplier representatives, and a report is due later this year.
A variety of information systems and tools are now available to support this process. There have been successful local deployments of such systems by national programme suppliers notably in the programme's North East and Eastern clusters. They are subject to the same strict access controls as apply to national programme-delivered patient healthcare records, requiring the use by social workers of a smartcard with identification and a pass code, which can only be obtained upon verification of identity and through a formal user registration process. These systems have demonstrated the value of the technology and its potential to support the rapid development of integrated multi-agency working across all client groups.
In addition, allocations of the £25 million capital expenditure grant recently paid to local authorities by the Department for improving information management made specific reference to the single assessment process in the expectation that the grant will be used to facilitate integration of social care information in the implementation of the NHS care records service.
Stroud Maternity Unit
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what discussions she has had with the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) on the future of Stroud Maternity Unit; and what plans she has to consult formally with the RCM as part of the ongoing review of maternity services; [79689]
(2) what research her Department has commissioned into the (a) financial viability, (b) safety and (c) efficacy of independent maternity units since 1997. [79690]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Ministers have had no discussions with the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) on the future of Stroud maternity unit. On 12 June 2006, the Gloucestershire health community launched a 12-week public consultation on the future of national health service services in the county, including inpatient maternity services. Should the RCM wish to make a formal response to the consultation, it should do so via the consultation co-ordinator at Cheltenham and Tewkesbury Primary Care Trust. Further details can be found online at: www.healthingloucestershire.nhs.uk.
The Department has not commissioned any research into the financial viability, safety and efficacy of independent (non-NHS) maternity units since 1997. Independent maternity units should meet the standards set out by the Department’s “Independent health care: national minimum standards, regulations” document, which was published in February 2002.
The Department commissioned the national perinatal epidemiology unit (NPEU) to undertake a review of evidence about clinical, psychosocial and economic outcomes for women with straightforward pregnancies who plan to give birth in NHS midwifery-led birth centres, both freestanding and those alongside hospital obstetric units, and the outcomes for their babies. The findings, published as the “Report of a structured review of birth centre outcomes, M. Stewart etal, 2004”, are available on the NPEU’s website at:
www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/birthcentrereview/birthcentrereview_downloads/RevisedVersion7thJuly2005BirthReview2.pdf.
TB Vaccination
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the process is for a young person visiting a country where tuberculosis is prevalent to obtain a vaccination on the NHS. [78071]
Caroline Flint: The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine is recommended for those under 35 years who are going to live or work with local people for more than one month in a country where the annual incidence of tuberculosis is 40/100,000 or greater.
The BCG vaccine for this purpose is available free of charge on the national health service and can be obtained from the local chest clinic although it can be available from other sources depending on local arrangements.
Alternatively, the BCG vaccination can be given on a private basis from a travel clinic offering this service.
Waiting Lists (Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust)
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people are on waiting lists for (a) heart, (b) lung, (c) liver and (d) kidney operations in the Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust. [79624]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: This information is not available in the format requested. However, the table shows the number of patients waiting for in-patient admission for the Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust on a provider basis for the quarter ending March 2006.
| Quarter ending March 2006 of patients waiting for in-patient admission for the Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust on a provider basis | |
| Specialty | Patients waiting |
| Source: Department of Health KH07. | |
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many residents of Romford constituency are waiting for operations in hospitals within the Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust. [79637]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The number of patients waiting for an in-patient admission for the month ending April 2006, on a commissioner basis for Barking and Dagenham Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Havering PCT is 2,873 and 4,490 respectively.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |