Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
29 Nov 2006 : Column 796Wcontinued
We have made no assessment of which primary care trusts and strategic health authorities have reviewed their local epilepsy plans in light of the National
Sentinel report. All local health bodies are expected to have plans to ensure they can implement the NSF for long-term conditions, and their performance towards implementation will be assessed by the Healthcare Commission. In addition, all health professionals are expected to comply with NICE clinical guidelines on the treatment of epilepsy.
We have had no discussions with the Royal Colleges on the need to inform those living with epilepsy of the risks associated with this condition. However, the NICE guidance on epilepsy specifically mentions the importance of providing information about the individuals relative risk of SUDEP. This information should be part of the counselling checklist for adults with epilepsy and their families and/or carers.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether she plans to continue to publish the number of compulsory redundancies made by NHS organisations in England at six-monthly intervals. [101712]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department plans to publish the number of compulsory redundancies made by the national health service organisations on a quarterly basis.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the total cost of providing (a) cleaning and (b) catering services to NHS hospitals in each financial year since 1997-98. [101685]
Andy Burnham: The information is in the following table.
£ million | ||
Total expenditure on cleaning services | Total gross cost of patient catering services | |
(1) The data provided was collected from the NHS on a mandatory basis with the exception of the patient catering services cost for 2004-05 and 2005-06 which was provided voluntarily. The figures for these years are therefore not complete and not directly comparable with previous years. Notes: 1. Both services include the salary and non-salary component costs. The cost of patient catering services excludes the cost of catering services provided to staff. 2. The data provided has not been amended centrally and the accuracy and completeness of this data is the responsibility of the provider organisation. |
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the service level agreements setting out expected outcomes to be delivered from the NHS that are being drawn up by the 10 strategic health authorities will include standards for patient care in the areas of (a) dermatology and (b) sexual health. [100659]
Caroline Flint: Contracts or service level agreements are agreed between primary care trusts (as commissioners) and service providers, which include national health service foundation trusts, and independent and third sector providers. Strategic health authorities are not party to these agreements.
Among other things the contract will require primary care trusts and providers to agree local standards for quality improvement and patient experience. There will be no specific requirement to include dermatology and sexual health in these standards, but it is likely that some organisations will focus on these areas.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the impact on patient safety of her Department's recent guidance on reducing the tariff rate for emergency spells above a set threshold. [101929]
Andy Burnham: The reduced emergency tariff is intended to manage financial risk between commissioners and providers of care, and thereby ensure the continued delivery of high-quality services to patients. No such assessment is needed.
Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how she plans to reflect the impact of A8 migrants in the allocation of funds to primary care trusts. [105843]
Andy Burnham: Migration is taken account of within the population base used for revenue allocations to primary care trusts (PCTs). For allocations post 2007-08, the advisory committee on resource allocation (ACRA) is looking again at the population base for revenue allocations.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what plans the Royal Free NHS Trust has to expand services at Edgware hospital; and if she will make a statement; [100834]
(2) what progress has been made with the reconfiguration of the estate of the Royal Free Hospital Trust; and if she will make a statement; [100746]
(3) if she will ensure that the principles set out in the joint statement on Barnet, Enfield and Haringeys clinical strategy are included as one of the options in the formal consultation on its strategy; and if she will make a statement; [100840]
(4) if she will review the catchment area of the Royal Free Hospital, with a view to extending it northwards in Barnet; and if she will make a statement. [100841]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Clinical Services Strategy is currently going through an involvement exercise looking at the way in which services are provided. This will involve Barnet, Chase Farm, North Middlesex and the Royal Free Hospitals. Formal consultation is currently scheduled to commence in February 2007.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the Royal Free Hospital trusts financial position; and if she will make a statement. [100836]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The following table shows the 2005-06 final outturn position and the 2006-07 month 3 and month 6 forecast outturn positions for the Royal Free Hospital national health service trust.
Organisation name: Royal free Hampstead NHS trust | |
£ (000) | |
Sources: 2005-06 audited summarisation schedules 2006-07 monthly financial monitoring returns |
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what consideration she is giving to the relocation of the Royal national orthopaedic hospital, Stanmore onto the Royal Free Hospital trust site; and if she will make a statement. [100839]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: NHS London is currently evaluating all the options and will make its recommendations in due course.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reasons some school nurses are employed by NHS trusts rather than primary care trusts. [101727]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The majority of school nurses are employed by primary care trusts. A small number are employed by hospital trusts for historical reasons or because the hospital is the main provider of child health services.
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which (a) organisations, (b) institutions and (c) private companies have access to data stored on the NHS care records on the Spine computer system. [101013]
Caroline Flint: Access to records will not be permitted to organisations not involved in delivering care to national health service patients. Individuals who are involved in providing care will be able to access relevant systems and records as required by their role, but only if they have a current secure smartcard and valid pass code. No one should be able to access clinical data unless they are working in a team that is providing care to the patient concerned or checking the quality of care provided.
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what safeguards are in place to correct errors in patient records in the NHS care records on the Spine computer system. [101014]
Caroline Flint: Individuals have the right to have factual errors corrected and this is normally accommodated by national health service staff making a note of the error and adding correct details to a record. Removing entries from records is not straightforward for medico-legal reasons as the record is often the only evidence that patients and clinicians have to challenge or defend actions taken. However, the Department will shortly be consulting on new clinically-led processes for correcting errors in the NHS care records service.
Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will set a Public Service Agreement target to reduce the prevalence of TB in England. [103166]
Caroline Flint: Decisions on future public service agreement targets across Government for the next planning period covering the years 2008-09 to 2010-11 will be made in due course.
Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many specialist TB nursing posts there are in the NHS; how many such posts are vacant; and if she will make a statement. [103167]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Information is not collected centrally on specific nursing specialties. Workforce planning is a matter for local determination, based on service need.
Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment her Department has made of the priority given by those commissioning services to the diagnosis and treatment of TB; and if she will make a statement. [103168]
Caroline Flint: Commissioners are responsible for commissioning services appropriate to their assessment of local needs within the resources available.
The Department is developing a toolkit to help the national health service to implement the key points of the Chief Medical Officer's action plan Stopping Tuberculosis in England (October 2004) through effective commissioning and delivery of services. The toolkit, which will be finalised shortly, will recommend that TB services should follow the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence clinical guideline published March 2006 when diagnosing and treating patients with TB.
Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many TB clinical networks have been established in England. [103169]
Caroline Flint:
The development of clinical networks for tuberculosis services are the responsibility of local service providers and primary care trusts. There are no
comprehensive national data on the number of tuberculosis clinical networks currently established in England.
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time was for breast cancer genetic test results in (a) England and (b) Lancashire in the last period for which figures are available. [106221]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not collect data centrally on waiting times for genetic tests for inherited forms of breast cancer.
However, the Government recognise that some patients have experienced long waits for genetic tests in the past and this will have caused stress and anxiety. This is unacceptable.
So, to improve access and cut waiting times, the genetics White Paper Our Inheritance, Our Futurerealising the potential of genetics in the NHS, published in June 2003, committed up to £18 million for NHS genetics laboratories in England. This major investment is boosting capacity and supporting modernisation in genetics laboratories, thus helping them meet the rising demand for genetic tests.
To ensure that this investment resulted in real patient benefit, the White Paper set out new standards for genetic test turnaround times, to be achieved by the end of 2006. These are:
within three days where the result is needed urgently, for example, for prenatal diagnosis;
within two weeks where the potential genetic mutation is already known, for example, because another family member has already been tested; and
within eight weeks for unknown mutations in a large gene.
This money was allocated during the last two financial years (2004 to 2006), and laboratories are working hard to get their new facilities up to speed to meet these standards.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients the NHS treated for lung disease at Walsgrave Hospital in each year since 1997. [104189]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The information is not available in the format requested. The following table provides the count of finished consultant episodes with primary diagnosis codes associated with lung disease for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust for 1998-99 to 2004-05.
Next Section | Index | Home Page |