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12 Oct 2006 : Column 856W—continued
Private Finance Initiative Hospital Schemes
Mr. David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the owners of all private finance initiative hospitals. [91950]
Andy Burnham: In a typical national health service private finance initiative contract, the NHS trust will grant a headlease or a license to its private sector partner under a PFI contract, but retain the freehold interest on the land to be developed. Ownership is a complex area in leased or licensed operations, but we interpret it to relate to the rights and responsibilities involved in providing services to the NHS trust over the concession period, not the underlying asset itself. Information on the private sector owners of the 83 PFI concessions signed with NHS trusts to date are held locally by each NHS trust; to collect this information centrally would incur disproportionate cost.
Mr. David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much made from private finance consortiums selling equity stakes has been passed on to public authorities in private finance initiative hospitals. [91951]
Andy Burnham: National health service trusts do not directly benefit from the sale of equity stakes in private finance initiative schemes by project companies, although any profits made by the private sector are subject to taxation.
Radiotherapy
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the answer of 4 September 2006, to the hon. Member for Northavon (Steve Webb), Official Report, columns 2068-69W, when she began developing a radiotherapy episodes statistics system; when she expects the development of this system to be completed; what data will be recorded as part of this system; whether this data will be made available publicly; and whether she expects the data this system collects to be able to be used to measure waiting times for radiotherapy. [91804]
Ms Rosie Winterton: A pilot study was conducted in 2004 to test the feasibility of collecting radiotherapy episode statistics and the development of the RES system began from then. The RES project collects information on patient treatment and usage of radiotherapy machines from radiotherapy centres, and links this with hospital records data extracted from the national hospital episode statistics (HES) database, using information such as hospital length of stay, diagnosis and procedures performed.
The linked patient record from the RES system enables us for the first time to track the patient pathway for patients who are admitted for hospital care and episodes of radiotherapy treatment. It will allow us to see different patient care patterns, and develop and share national comparative information that has not been available before.
The RES information is collected voluntarily and we are currently standardising the content and definitions of the data collected, so that we can move to improved collection of information in spring 2007. Modifications to the software are also being introduced for the end of 2007. Currently the RES system is at a relatively early stage of development and it is not possible say at this stage say when results from the project will be available. At this time the RES system is unable to accurately measure waiting times for radiotherapy, but as the quality and completeness of information improves, it should be able to measure waiting times.
Royal Surrey County Hospital
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations her Department has (a) made and (b) received in relation to the potential closure of services at, or relocation of services from, the Royal Surrey County hospital in Guildford. [92395]
Caroline Flint: The Department has received approximately 20 letters on this subject. NHS south east coast has kept the Department informed about its “Creating an NHS fit for the future” programme and will continue to do so as the project progresses.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (Tests)
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many tests for (a) HIV, (b) chlamydia, (c) gonorrhoea, (d) syphilis, (e) genital warts and (f) genital herpes have been undertaken by the NHS in each year since 1979. [92391]
Caroline Flint: Data on the number of tests carried out for each of theses infection is not currently collected centrally.
Tuberculosis
Mr. Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she will publish the tuberculosis research strategy. [91852]
Caroline Flint: The Department has no plans to do so at present.
The UK Clinical Research Collaboration, which was set up in April 2004, has established a strategic planning group on microbiology and infectious disease, including tuberculosis. The group met for the first time in January 2006 and is due to report by spring 2007. We will consider what further steps should be taken in the light of that report.
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence programme to identify ineffective treatments being used by the NHS will examine the Mantoux skin test for tuberculosis; [92411]
(2) if she will issue a reminder to NHS trusts that NICE guidance recommends the use of interferon gamma tests for diagnosis of tuberculosis infection in immunocompromised patients; [92412]
(3) what assessment she has made of compliance with NICE clinical guidelines on diagnosis of tuberculosis; [92413]
(4) if she will issue guidance to the NHS on the use of interferon gamma tests to diagnose latent tuberculosis in HIV/AIDS patients; [92414]
(5) what guidance and support she has offered to NHS trusts on implementation of NICE guidelines on diagnosis of tuberculosis. [92416]
Mr. Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment she has made of the reasons for the time taken to introduce interferon gamma tests for tuberculosis; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of such an introduction on (a) NHS finances and (b) patient safety; [91855]
(2) what steps have been taken by her Department in response to the NICE guideline development group’s recommendations for a study to assess whether interferon gamma tests are more effective and acceptable than tuberculin skin tests; and if she will make a statement. [91857]
Caroline Flint: The Department has been developing a toolkit to help the national health service to implement the key points of the chief medical officer’s tuberculosis action plan through effective commissioning and delivery of services. The toolkit will recommend that TB services should always follow the NICE clinical guidelines when treating patients including those with HIV or those who are otherwise immunocompromised. The NICE guidelines contain clear recommendations on the appropriate use of Mantoux tests and interferon gamma tests. Economic modelling was undertaken with various strategies from no action to a two-step strategy with either tuberculin skin tests (TST, which cover both Heaf and Mantoux tests) followed by interferon gamma testing, or serial interferon gamma tests. Of these options, the model provided most support, on grounds of cost-effectiveness, for a two-step approach with an initial TST, followed by an interferon gamma test to confirm positivity. The guideline development group members also supported this because of clinical utility and feasibility.
Based on this, the Health Protection Agency is developing more detailed practical guidance about the use of gamma interferon tests. It is expected that this guidance will be available to the NHS before the end of 2006.
The NICE guideline was published in February 2006 and it is too early to assess how widely its recommendations are being implemented. NICE plans to evaluate its implementation tools, including that for TB, shortly.
Unsafe Food
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) illnesses, (b) hospitalisations and (c) deaths have been caused in England by unsafe food in each year since 2000. [91469]
Caroline Flint: The estimated number of (a) illnesses, (b) hospitalisations and (c) deaths in England and Wales due to indigenous food-borne disease from 2000 to 2005 are given in the following table.
| Total cases | Hospitalisations | Deaths | |
| (1 )Estimates for 2001 and 2002 are not available. Notes: Estimates for England only are not available. Estimates have been rounded to the nearest 1,000 for total cases, 100 for hospitalisations and 10 for deaths. Figures were estimated by the Health Protection Agency using the methodology described in Adak G K, Long S M, O’Brien SJ. Gut 2002, 51;832-841. This methodology uses available surveillance data, special survey data, and hospital episode statistics to estimate the burden of foodborne disease in England and Wales. | |||
Waiting Times
Mr. Paul Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the waiting time for a bone marrow transplant is in each NHS trust in England. [90072]
Caroline Flint: NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for managing blood supplies in England and north Wales as well as running the British bone marrow register. This is one of three registers in the United Kingdom. The national blood service, which is an operating division of NHSBT, recruits blood donors from the general public and potential bone marrow donors are recruited from the active blood donor populations.
Data are not collected on waiting times for bone marrow transplants. This is due to the way the bone marrow registers operate. The BBMR receives around 30 worldwide search requests per day, which equates to about 3,000 a year. However, using the search requests it is difficult to quantify how many people actually require a transplant since it is not known if these
searches are for people awaiting a transplant or searches for patients who have no immediate need for a transplant, but who may do should their condition deteriorate.
However, for those patients who do receive a bone marrow transplant from a BBMR donor the average waiting time from the search to receipt of the bone marrow is 133 days. This delay is mainly due to the health of the patient and the transplant centre timetable.
Mr. Paul Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the process is for bone marrow transplants in England; and if she will make a statement. [90073]
Caroline Flint: There are currently three bone marrow registries in the United Kingdom and these are linked to an international register bone marrow donors worldwide (BMDW). BMDW is an internet-based database which is available to transplant centres to assess the potential number of donors and on which registry they are found. A search for a suitable tissue- match will take place across the bone marrow registries.
Once a suitable donor has been found (this involves tissue typing a number of potential donors to ensure as a good a match as possible), either the donor will be asked to attend an apheresis clinic for approximately a week, where they will receive injections (three injections are given at the donor's home prior to the final one at the apheresis clinic in a national blood service centre) to boost stem cells, prior to a stem cell donation. Alternatively, the donor will be invited to attend a British bone marrow register nominated hospital where the bone marrow will be collected under anaesthetic.
After the stem cells have been donated, they are given to the patient in the form of a stem cell infusion, in a similar way to which a blood transfusion is given. The stem cells migrate to the bone marrow where they form a new immune system.
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people resident in (a) England and (b) Wales had been waiting more than six months for an NHS in-patient operation in an English hospital at the end of (i) July and (ii) August 2006. [92981]
Andy Burnham: The information requested is shown in the table.
| Number of patients waiting over 26 weeks for inpatient admission | ||
| Jul 2006 | Aug 2006 | |
|
Commissioner based. ie patients for whom English commissioners are responsible | ||
| Source: Monthly monitoring return | ||
Home Department
Cycling Offences
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions have taken place in the principal cities of England and Wales in each of the last three years of cyclists for failing to display, during hours of darkness, (a) front lights, (b) rear lights and (c) front or back lights. [92224]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested is provided in the following table. It is not possible to identify on the basis of principal cities for England and Wales as the data held centrally are not collected at that level of detail.
From the table, it is also not possible to separate those who were prosecuted for failing to display pedal cycle lighting from those who were prosecuted for reflector offences. Of those who were prosecuted for failing to display pedal cycle lighting we cannot further separate those who were prosecuted for (a) front lights, (b) rear lights and (c) front or back lights.
Court proceedings data for 2005 will be available in mid November 2006.
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