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Autism
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assistance the Department provides to parents whose children are diagnosed with autism. [82815]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: In April 2001, the Department awarded a three-year grant to the National Autistic Society for their parenting skills project “help!”. This developed a training programme for parents of children of any age who have recently received a diagnosis of an autistic spectrum disorder. It provides essential, timely information and practical strategies to help parents understand and manage their child’s condition and give them the knowledge and confidence to plan for their future.
Parents who are carers of children with autism are entitled to an assessment of their needs by local councils. Under the carers grant, worth £185 million in 2006-07, councils can provide carers with direct services, breaks and direct payments for carers’ services, according to their assessed level of need.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will commission research into early diagnosis of autism through analysis of the placenta. [83246]
Andy Burnham: No. The Department funds research to support policy and to provide the evidence needed to underpin quality improvement and service development in the national health service. The main agency through which the Government supports medical and clinical research is the Medical Research Council (MRC). The MRC is an independent body funded by the Department of Trade and Industry via the Office of Science and Innovation.
The MRC always welcomes high quality applications for support into any aspect of human health and these are judged in open competition with other demands on funding.
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the Department spent conducting research into autism in each of the last five years. [83818]
Andy Burnham: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) on 17 May 2006, Official Report, column 1092.
Breast Cancer
Dr. Naysmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether central funding is available for new hormonal treatments for early breast cancer as set out in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s Appraisal Consultation Document. [82528]
Andy Burnham: There is no specific central funding available for these treatments.
Provision is made within national health service allocations for the estimated impact on the NHS of published guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
Carers
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the time taken by local authorities in assessing the needs of those caring for disabled relatives; and what support her Department gives to local authorities to make such assessments. [84645]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000 gives carers the right to a carer's assessment. It is for councils to ensure that assessments are carried out in a timely manner to ensure that carers do not wait unnecessarily for a needs assessment or services.
Choose and Book Service
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the (a) robustness, (b) ease of use and (c) reliability of the choose and book system. [75308]
Andy Burnham: To ensure robustness, the performance of the choose and book system was tested before implementation and is re-tested as changes are made. The test results have all been within agreed service levels.
The service was designed to be as user friendly as possible. Ease of use is regularly assessed in partnership with regional user groups as well as national groups such as the national clinical reference panel and the design steering group. Potential improvements are identified by these groups with changes delivered in subsequent releases of the software. Local benchmarking suggests that choose and book has excellent usability when the local configuration is correct.
Over the last 12 months, choose and book has been available to general practitioners more than 99 per cent., of the time and agreed service levels are being met.
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment she has made of the effects of the implementation of choose and book; [77060]
(2) what assessment she has made of the impact of choose and book on general practitioners surgeries; and if she will make a statement. [77061]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: As at 3 July 2006, 568,611 patients had been referred through choose and book, with the referral information available electronically to commissioners and providers. The Department receives regular feedback on the effects of the system through a range of channels, which suggests that patients who receive the service welcome it. As with the implementation of any such system, change is required of those who administer it but we do not expect the choose and book service to increase the overall workload for general practitioner practices.
Mr.
Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of
State for Health by what date the choose and book system was expected
to have achieved 100 per cent. roll-out when it was first announced;
what targets have been
issued since then; whether those targets have been met; and what
percentage roll-out had been achieved on the last date for which
figures are available.
[75131]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The aim of the national health service improvement plan in 2004 was for 100 per cent., e-booking by the end of December 2005. This became unachievable due to subsequent developments in the technical requirements of the service and the greater implementation challenge that these represented. We now expect to reach a choose and book utilisation level of 90 per cent., of general practitioner referrals by the end of March 2007. As at 2 July 2006, utilisation stood at 20.4 per cent.
All eligible
acute providers in England are now live and accepting bookings through
choose and book.
Bookings are made through either an integrated patient admission system
or indirectly bookable services
functionality.
Clostridium Difficile
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) males and (b) females in (i) Southend-on-Sea, (ii) Essex and (iii) England and Wales were infected with clostridium difficile infections in each of the last three years, broken down by age. [81279]
Andy Burnham: Data for Southend on Sea and Essex are not available. However, data from the voluntary reporting scheme run by the Health Protection Agency for Eastern England and England and Wales is shown in the following table.
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005( 1) | 2003 | 2004 | 2005( 1) | 2003 | 2004 | 2005( 1) | ||
| (1)The
data for 2005 is provisional and all data are subject to change due to
late
reporting. Notes: 1. The data on cases reported in babies (less than one year) should be treated with caution. They may not represent infections because asymptomatic carriage is common in babies. 2. The data was extracted on Tuesday 27 June 2006. | ||||||||||
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