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19 Mar 2007 : Column 724W—continued
Childbirth: Midwives
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of babies born in England were delivered by midwives in each year since 1995. [126171]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The data is set out in the table.
| Percentage delivered by midwives | |
Clostridium Difficile
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance her Department has issued to hospitals on the means to prevent transmission of clostridium difficile; and if she will make a statement. [124526]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department has issued the following guidance specifically for the management and control of Clostridium difficile:
A professional letter on health care associated infections including particularly infection caused by Clostridium difficile was issued to all Chief Executives of national health service acute trusts, primary care trusts and strategic health authorities on 7 December 2006. This letter set out the policies and clinical practices needed to control Clostridium difficile and also included very simple operational guidance for managers.
A high impact intervention on Clostridium difficile was added to our delivery programme “Saving lives: a delivery programme to reduce healthcare associated infections including MRSA” in June 2006. This tool will help to reduce infections.
A joint professional letter from the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Nursing Officer went out to NHS Trusts in December 2005 reminding them of the importance of this infection and listed the key actions to control Clostridium difficile and highlighted the guidance available(1, 2). The letter has been placed in the Library and is at:
In addition we have asked the Health Protection Agency to review the extant guidance issued in 1994. This revised national guidance should be ready in the spring.
All those providing health care services need high standards of hygiene to prevent infections. Specific measures to control Clostridium difficile are restriction, where possible, of broad spectrum antibiotics, isolation of patients and enhanced environmental cleaning.
Both a simple guide to Clostridium difficile and the National Clostridium difficile Standards group: Report to the Department of Health, are available in the Library and on the Department’s website at:
National Clostridium difficile Standards Group: Report to Department of the Health February 2003 http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/06/76/51/04067651.pdf
(1) Clostridium Difficile Infection, Prevention and Management A Report by a Department of Health/PHLS joint working group. 1994 http://www.hpa.org.uk/
(2) Guidelines for optimal surveillance of Clostridium difficile infection in hospitals Brazier JS and Duerden BI. Guidelines for optimal surveillance of Clostridium difficile infection in hospitals. Comm.Dis.Pub.Health. 1998:1;(4) 229-230.
Dental Services: Finance
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total amount of revenue resource was allocated to each primary care trust in England to provide NHS dental services in 2006-07. [127959]
Ms Rosie Winterton: A table listing the primary dental service resource allocations for 2006-07 for all primary care trusts (PCTs) in England as at 31 July 2006 is available in the Library. This set out the net allocations awarded to PCTs and the assumed gross budgets based on illustrative assumptions about levels of patient charge income for each PCT. Strategic health authorities agreed with their PCTs locally how these allocations would be redistributed within the new PCT areas that took effect from 1 October 2006.
Dietary Supplements: EC Law
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will press the European Food Safety Agency (a) to publish a timetable for assessment of evidence dossiers submitted to it under the terms of the food supplement directive and (b) to make it its policy to announce decisions on individual applications as soon as they have been made. [128032]
Caroline Flint: At a recent meeting with part of the United Kingdom food supplements industry, a number of concerns were raised regarding dossiers submitted for an opinion by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in relation to the food supplements directive. It was agreed at the meeting that these concerns would be raised with EFSA and this will include the timetable for assessing dossiers and the publication of decisions on individual applications.
Doctors: Foreign Workers
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many (a) junior doctors and (b) fully qualified doctors of (i) European Economic Area (EEA) nationality and (ii) non-EEA nationality have been newly employed by the NHS since July 2006; [122175]
(2) how many (a) junior doctors and (b) fully qualified doctors of non-European Economic Area nationality are employed by the NHS; and how many were employed by the NHS in each of the last five years. [122178]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This information is not collected centrally.
Drugs: Rehabilitation
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the next round of funding for delivering drug treatment strategies as part of the public health programme is expected to be announced. [117968]
Caroline Flint: The Department's press release announced the allocations to primary care trusts for the pooled drug treatment budget for 2007-08 on 26 January 2007. A copy of the press release has been placed in the Library.
East of England Strategic Health Authority: Acute Beds
Mrs. Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the impact of the acute services review on major capital development programmes in the East of England strategic health authority area; and if she will make a statement. [126425]
Andy Burnham: Any proposals for the reconfiguration of services are a matter for the national health service locally. There is a well-established and well understood process for managing consultations on such changes so that patients, the public and local stakeholders can help to inform the local debate.
Eastbourne Hospital
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many accident and emergency admissions were received at Eastbourne District General hospital in each of the last five years. [125477]
Andy Burnham:
Information is not collected at the level of individual hospitals. Available information on the number of admissions via accident and emergency (A&E) departments at East Sussex Hospitals National
Health Service Trust is shown in the table. Information on the number of attendances at A&E is a separate collection.
| Admissions via A&E | |
| (1) Admissions via all A&E types were first collected in Q1 2003-04. Data after this date are for all A&E types, prior to this the figures are for admissions via major (type 1) A&E only. (2) 2006-07 data are for Q1, Q2 and Q3 only. Source: Department of Health, QMAE dataset | |
Eating Disorders
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people between the ages of (a) 10 to 16, (b) 17 to 23 and (c) 24 to 30 years were diagnosed with eating disorders in each of the last 10 years. [125163]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This information is not available in the requested format. Information is available from 2002-03 onwards about the number of finished consultant episodes following a primary diagnosis of an eating disorder, by gender, and for the age ranges 0 to 14 years, 15 to 59 years, 60 to 74 years and over 75 years and is shown in the table.
| Number of finished consultant episodes for patients with a primary diagnosis of an eating disorder, by year and gender, for the national health service in England 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 | ||||||||
| 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | |||||
| Year/age range | Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female |
| Note: A finished consultant episode is a period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. Please note that the figures represent the number of treatment episodes provided, but do not represent the individual number of patients seen, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the year. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) The Information Centre for Health and Social Care. | ||||||||
Emergency Bed Days
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 19 February 2007, Official Report, columns 36-7W, on emergency bed days, for what reasons she has not published data relating to 2005-06; and if she will publish this data. [123157]
Andy Burnham: Emergency bed days data for 2005-06 is shown in the following table. I regret the information was not included in the previous answer due to an administrative error.
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