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NHS Logistics Authority
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when the NHS Logistics Authority will be outsourced; [85626]
(2) if she will name those persons whom she has (a) met and (b) consulted in connection with the outsourcing of the NHS; when each such meeting took place; and what was discussed at each; [85627]
(3) whether the outsourcing of the NHS Logistics Authority was tendered for in the Official Journal of the European Union; and what the reasons were for that decision; [85628]
(4) what cost savings she expects to make through the outsourcing of the NHS Logistics Authority; and on what rate the contractor will make a profit in running the authority; [85629]
(5) whether the IT systems of the NHS Logistics Authority will be transferred to the outsource company. [85630]
Andy Burnham: In the autumn of 2003, the Department conducted the procurement and supply chain review. It identified the significant value brought to the national health service through the supply chain activity managed by the NHS Logistics Authority and the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency. The review recommended that this valuable service must develop and expand, allowing the NHS to obtain even greater benefits.
The
Department looked at a number of options for delivering the needed
development, investment and expansion, and concluded that the best
potential opportunity might exist in a new partnership with the
independent sector. This reflected the Government’s belief that
partnerships between the public and independent sectors can be used
successfully to develop essential services in the NHS and
elsewhere.
Therefore in August 2004, in accordance with European Union procurement regulations, a notice was published in the Official Journal of the European Union announcing the Department was considering a potential private sector partnering of the supply chain functions of logistics and certain procurement functions of NHS PASA.
This process has been governed by clear public procurement regulations and in March the full business case received ministerial approval and it was stated that subject to final commercial negotiations a contract would be signed with DHL. If approved by Ministers, an announcement will be made soon. Under the terms of the contract, the infrastructure would transfer to DHL.
Details of the proposed cost savings are commercial in confidence at this time but it is estimated that they should be three times greater than the savings that could be achieved in-house.
Since the process began, ministers have met with staff, the unions (UNISON and DTUS), union shop stewards, local Members of Parliament and suppliers. All have sought reassurance that the outsourcing would be in the best interests of staff and the NHS. In addition, ministers have consulted with both legal and commercial advisors.
NHS Managers
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 28 June 2006, Official Report, columns 462-3W, on NHS managers, (1) what the change in the number of managers employed in the NHS in England was between 1 April 1997 and 1 April 2006; [84487]
(2) if she will clarify how many managers were employed in the NHS on 1 April (a) 1997 and (b) 2006. [84488]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of managers employed in the national health service in England in 1997 and 2005 at 30 September each year was 22,173 and 39,391 respectively. Information for 2006 is not available but will begin to fall with the reduction in strategic health authorities, primary care trusts and ambulance trusts. Managers in 2005 were less than 3 per cent., of the NHS workforce.
NHS Modernisation Agency
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what work has been done with the NHS Modernisation Agency since 2002 to change working practices so that IT is used effectively, as set out in her Department's publication Delivering 21st century IT support for the NHS. [75122]
Caroline
Flint: A consultation document, “Delivering 21st
Century IT support for the NHS: National Specification for Integrated
Care Records Service—consultation draft”, issued in July
2002, outlined the requirements for a national patient care
records service and the national standards and specification which would
underpin it. Its purpose was to provide an initial review of electronic
patient records and to describe a direction of travel for the whole
range of information technology standards in the national health
service. Nearly 200 initial responses were received from organisations
and individuals, and these were taken into account in drawing up the
specification for a care record service used in the procurements phase
during 2003. A broad spectrum of NHS stakeholders was then engaged to
review the specification, including leading clinicians, practitioners,
policy advisors, health informaticians, and
managers.
Following the closure of the Modernisation Agency in 2004-05 (as a result of the Department's arms length body review) a service implementation directorate has been established within NHS Connecting for Health whose purpose is to help to maximise the value gained from investment in the national programme. This is done by providing support and guidance to the NHS to realise benefits and achieve performance improvement through synergy with other change programmes and system reform, in particular through effective education, training and development. The emphasis is to optimise the use of technology to manage knowledge and information to improve care and treatment, safety and clinical governance, and to re-design processes, supported by appropriate information technology, to improve patient, clinician and managerial satisfaction.
Examples of work done to date in pursuit of these objectives include establishment of an integrated service improvement programme (ISIP) to promote and support the planning and delivery of this kind of transformational change across the NHS. ISIP is focused on helping the national programme for information technology (NPfTT) products to be adopted and exploited by clinicians and managers rather than be seen as peripheral to other NHS priorities and primarily the domain of the IT community.
In addition, the do once and share programme, initiated in March 2005 and involving over 6,000 clinicians, has been set up to minimise unknowing duplication of effort, and to help clinical specialist networks plan improvements in care that will be made possible by the NPfTT. Forty-four national action teams have been established supported by National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, specialist libraries, and the Healthcare Commission to distil the current best practice derived from the NHS's knowledge bases into fifty national care pathways representing current best practice. By the end of June 2006 thirty-nine of the action teams will have produced their final reports, which will enable the distilled knowledge to begin to be integrated into national electronic care pathways.
NHS
Connecting for Health has also been working with the NHS to compile
programme-wide national programme implementation guidance. The guidance
is intended to act as an entry point to all NPfTT
implementation-related guidance for programme and project managers in
NHS trusts, but is also useful to many other groups including
clinicians, human resources, and training professionals. The purpose of
the guidance is to provide a structured and consistent
mechanism for implementation, and to describe the critical tasks
necessary to maximise benefits from the changes being enabled by NPfTT,
irrespective of the type of implementation a local health community is
undertaking.
The guidance, the first version of which was issued in 2004, is published on the NHS Connecting for Health website at
www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/implementation
NHS Pensions Agency
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the future of the NHS Pensions Agency in Fleetwood. [87796]
Ms Rosie Winterton: NHS Pensions Agency, now part of NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), is currently partially contractorised, with most support services including information and technology, provided by Paymaster (1836) Ltd. The contract with Paymaster contains an options clause to extend the existing contract with the current provider to embrace a range of options and these are currently being considered.
NHSBSA will make the options appraisal work available to the trade unions shortly. After a period of consultation, the NHSBSA will identify which option offers the best solution.
NHS Performance
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to her answer of 13 July 2006, Official Report, column 2073W, on NHS Performance, whether she expects to use her powers under section 97 of the National Health Service Act 1977, as amended, to make adjustments to primary care trust (PCT) and strategic health authority (SHA) allocations when total planned transfers from PCTs to SHAs have been finalised. [87689]
Andy Burnham: Strategic health authorities (SHAs) will take the lead locally in developing and implementing a service and financial strategy for managing the financial position within their locality. This will include the creation of local reserves.
It is for SHAs locally to determine the level of contribution to, and application of, these reserves. The level of contribution determined will reflect local financial circumstances, but the underlying principle will be fairness.
Transfer of contributions from primary care trusts (PCTs) to SHA reserves will be made by inter-authority transfers under section 97 of the National Health Services Act 1977. Those PCTs which make a contribution will not lose out, because the money contributed will be repaid.
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 18 July to question 82500, on NHS performance, what the impact was of each of the factors listed in the original question on the resource allocation of each primary care trust. [88273]
Andy Burnham [holding answer 24 July 2006]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 20 July 2006, Official Report, column 669W.
NHS Spine
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information the NHS Spine contains on each patient; and what rights patients have to withhold their data. [88785]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 25 July 2006]: I refer the hon. Member to the replies given to the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley) on 6 July, Official Report, columns 1249-50W, and to the hon. Member for Northavon (Steve Webb) on 24 August.
When a patient seeks or is referred for medical treatment, this will necessarily involve the provision of information by the patient to the clinicians involved. Good clinical management requires that health care professionals keep a record of key information about their patients, and national health service organisations are required to ensure that the information is held securely, and that confidential information is not shared inappropriately. Patients do not, however, have the right to determine the media on which patient records are kept, the physical location of the information or who manages the information systems involved.
NHS Treatment (Eligibility)
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate she has made of the number of people who are not eligible for free treatment who have received free NHS services in (a) Guildford and Waverley primary care trust, (b) Surrey and (c) England in each year since 1997; and what estimate she has made of the costs in each area in each year [87909]
(2) what mechanisms are in place to reclaim the cost of using the NHS from those who are ineligible to use it. [87910]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Entitlement to access free national health service hospital treatment is based on whether someone is ordinarily resident in this country, not on British nationality or the past or present payment of national insurance contributions or UK taxes. Anyone who is not ordinarily resident is subject to the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989, as amended. These regulations place a legal duty on NHS hospitals to establish whether a person is ordinarily resident, or exempt from charges under one of a number of exemption categories, or liable for charges, and to make and recover a charge for the full cost of treatment to those found liable to pay. The onus is on the patient to provide satisfactory evidence to support a claim for exemption from charges.
Where it is
established that charges apply they cannot be waived for any reason.
NHS trusts are instructed to take all reasonable measures, based on the
circumstances of each individual case, to pursue overseas visitors'
debt. Nevertheless, we have also made very clear to NHS trusts that
immediately necessary treatment, needed to save life or prevent a
condition
from becoming life-threatening, should always be provided without delay,
with charging issues dealt with as soon as reasonably
practicable.
Successive Governments have not required the NHS to provide statistics on the number of overseas visitors seen or treated under the provisions of these regulations or on the costs of treatment. It is therefore not possible to provide the information requested on how many chargeable overseas visitors have received free NHS treatment, nor on the costs involved.
NHS Trusts (Final Accounts)
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 2 November 2005, Official Report, columns 1151-2W, on NHS trusts (final accounts), what the equivalent figures are for 2005-06. [88523]
Andy Burnham: National health service trusts final accounts for 2005-06 will not be available until autumn 2006. The provisional 2005-06 outturn position for all NHS organisations (strategic health authorities, primary care trusts and NHS trusts) has been placed in the Library.
NICE
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the impact of the 2003 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance on the use of drug-eluting coronary stent technology on (a) outcomes for patients and (b) repeat revascularisation procedures. [87832]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department has not made an assessment of the impact of the 2003 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance on the use of drug-eluting coronary stent technology on outcomes for patients and repeat revascularisation procedures. Furthermore, data on outcomes for patients and how many have required repeat revascularisation procedures are not collected centrally.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions she has had with the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence on the status of the review of guidance on the use of drug-eluting coronary stent technology; and if she will make a statement. [87833]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department has had no discussions with the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on the status of their review of guidance on the use of drug-eluting coronary stent technology. I understand that NICE is currently reviewing this guidance and expects to issue revised guidance to the national health service in October 2006.
Non-NHS Staff
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent on non-NHS staff by each London (a) primary care trust and (b) strategic health authority in each year since 1997. [87496]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The following tables show data on non-national health service staff costs by primary care trusts from 2003-04 to 2004-05, and strategic health authorities for 2003-04 to 2004-05 within London. These are the only full years for which this information is available for PCTs in London.
| Non-NHS staff costs for PCTs and SHAs in London | ||
| PCT spend on non-NHS staff (£) | ||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | |
| SHA spend on non-NHS staff (£) | ||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | |
| Sources:
PCT annual financial returns from 2000-01 to 2004-05 SHA annual
financial returns from 2002-03 to
2004-05 | ||
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