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Maternity Services: Compensation

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many maternity-related compensation claims there were in each year since 1995; [126166]

(2) how much her Department paid in compensation to patients in each year since 1995; and what proportion of such payments were for maternity-related claims. [126172]

Andy Burnham: The NHS Litigation Authority collects data on the obstetrics speciality, which includes maternity-related compensation claims. The following table shows how many claims there have been under the clinical negligence scheme for trusts (CNST) in each year since 1995, the number of obstetrics claims in each of those years, as well as total paid in compensation on all claims and total on all obstetrics claims. Claims are taken as the year in which the incident was reported to have occurred.

Payments made on settled claims and numbers of claims received by incident year for CNST obstetrics claims (including Category A( 1 ) claims) as at 28 February 2007
Incident year( 2)	Number of obstetrics claims received	Number of claims received	Damages paid on settled obstetrics claims	Damages paid on all settled claims	Damages paid - percentage obstetrics claims of all claims
1995-96	943	6,056	109,992,847	231,701,442	47.47
1996-97	975	5,958	114,298,044	219,068,052	52.17
1997-98	956	6,099	87,834,687	198,269,595	44.30
1998-99	913	6,196	71,266,303	204,880,312	34.78
1999-2000	782	5,622	65,123,682	169,943,116	38.32
2000-01	753	5,515	27,306,108	131,087,657	20.83
2001-02	641	5,069	11,456,127	104,175,586	11.00
2002-03	664	5,220	8,929,192	53,794,385	16.60
2003-04	609	4,591	2,966,080	21,882,270	13.55
2004-05	412	3,046	1,283,844	8,982,119	14.29
2005-06	238	1,821	309,507	1,877,238	16.49
2006-07	29	352	0	113,786	0.00
Total	7,915	55,545	500,766,421	1,345,775,557	37.21
(1) Category A claims are those that fell within the excess claim limit and were handled by individual trusts before the excess was removed in 2002. (2) Claims have been considered in the year that the incident occurred. Notes: 1. Claims may still be made for incidents that have yet to be reported within the stated years. 4. Category A claims were handled by individual trusts and reported to the NHS Litigation Authority. Therefore, the NHS Litigation Authority cannot 100 per cent. validate the accuracy of the data around these claims as the data was not produced by the NHS Litigation Authority.

Musgrove Park Hospital: Waiting Lists

Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time was for (a) in-patient, (b) day cases and (c) out-patient appointments in Musgrove Park hospital, Taunton, in each year since 1992. [128744]

Andy Burnham: The median waiting times for in-patient, day cases and out-patient appointments in the Taunton and Somerset national health service trust in each year since 1992 are shown in the following table.

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Provider based median waiting time information for Taunton and Somerset NHS trust, March 1992 to December 2006
	Median waiting time (weeks) for stage of treatment
	In-patient admission-ordinary	In-patient admission-day case	First out-patient appointment
March
1992	14.3	10.6	n/a
1993	14.2	10.4	n/a
1994	13.4	10.2	4.5
1995	11.8	8.8	5.2
1996	10.4	8.4	6.4
1997	14.8	10.2	6.5
1998	17.2	10.2	6.5
1999	17.3	9.8	6.6
2000	19.8	11.7	7.2
2001	16.9	11.4	6.6
2002	19.3	12.3	7.1
2003	11.0	9.8	8.3
2004	11.1	9.0	6.8
2005	9.4	7.1	6.5
2006	7.5	5.1	6.0
December
2006	6.1	4.8	5.2
Notes: No out-patient data was collected before the financial year 1993-94. In-patient waiting time based on median wait of those still waiting at end of period. Out-patient waiting times based on time waited for those seen during the quarter. Source: Department of Health, KH07 and QM08s

NHS Bodies and Premises: Inspections

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which organisations have the authority to conduct inspections of (a) NHS bodies and NHS premises and (b) her Department; and from where that authority is derived in each case. [107387]

Andy Burnham: A range of organisations have authority to conduct inspections in those areas, some of which fall within the responsibilities of the Secretary of State for Health, and others, such as the police, do not. The authority to conduct inspections is similarly derived from a range of sources.

NHS Direct

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what percentage of calls to NHS Direct were referred to (a) 999 and (b) an accident and emergency department in each quarter since December 2002. [127823]

Andy Burnham: The information is shown in the following table

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Financial year	Number of calls answered( 1)	Number of calls referred to 999 services by NHS Direct( 2)	Percentage of calls to NHS Direct which have been referred to 999	Number of calls referred to accident and emergency (A and E)( 3)	Percentage of calls to NHS Direct which have been referred to A and E
2002-03
Q4	1,609,663	52,765	3.3	105,230	6.5
2003-04
Q1	1,655,618	49,065	3.0	106,974	6.5
Q2	1,524,876	50,860	3.3	109,361	7.2
Q3	1,628,297	57,681	3.5	98,794	6.1
Q4	1,595,687	58,948	3.7	106,576	6.7
2004-05
Q1	1,596,680	58,583	3.7	104,427	6.5
Q2	1,550,490	56,105	3.6	94,873	6.1
Q3	1,688,245	62,673	3.7	94,189	5.6
Q4	1,748,935	62,000	3.5	91,395	5.2
2005-06
Q1	1,705,750	59,261	3.5	99,764	5.8
Q2	1,626,366	55,685	3.4	97,610	6.0
Q3	1,723,708	62,046	3.6	98,766	5.7
Q4	1,755,927	61,005	3.5	97,115	5.5
2006-07
Q1	1,654,436	50,458	3.0	97,575	5.9
Q2	1,501,597	46,989	3.1	92,483	6.2
Q3	1,447,940	49,528	3.4	84,922	5.9
(1) Definition of volume: calls answered-number of calls answered/handled after the introductory message. (2) Calls referred to ambulance or paramedic services. (3) Calls where patients are asked to attend an A and E department. Source: NHS Direct Special Health Authority

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