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16 Apr 2007 : Column 317W—continued
Acute Beds: East Sussex
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many acute hospital beds per head of population there were in each year since 1997 in (a) Eastbourne and (b) East Sussex. [130947]
Andy Burnham: The information is not available in the requested format. It is not possible to provide data for the number of beds at acute trusts by resident population or specific catchment areas. The following table contains the average daily number of acute hospital beds at East Sussex Hospitals National Health Service Trust.
| Acute beds | |
| Notes: East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust was formed via the merger of Eastbourne Hospitals NHS Trust and Hastings and Rother NHS Trust. Source: KH03 | |
Living Wills
Mr. Laxton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will establish a central database or register for living wills. [130550]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Government have demonstrated the importance they attach to allowing people to make their own decisions about health care by including provisions for advance decisions to refuse treatment in the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). Such advance decisions are currently sometimes called living wills. The Government’s intention have always been to allow as much flexibility as possible for those making advance decisions and, therefore, there is no standard form for an advance decision. This makes issues around the formal registration of advance decisions complicated.
The MCA code of practice recommends that people think about whether they want their health care record to reflect that they have made an advance decision. We will consider the practicalities of how this option might be realised within the context of the new national health service care records service.
Air Ambulance Services: Drugs
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether air ambulances are required to cover the cost of their own drugs. [131761]
Andy Burnham: Since 1 April 2002, the costs of clinical staff on air ambulances should be met by the national health service. Any decision to provide funding for drugs administered by air ambulance clinical staff would, however, be a matter for the local NHS ambulance trust.
Alcohol Abuse: Young People
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) specialist treatment and (b) follow up care is available for under-18 year olds admitted to hospital with an alcohol-related diagnosis. [129900]
Caroline Flint: Dependent on their individual circumstances, the vast majority of young people admitted to hospital are admitted following an acute episode of drunkenness. They may not have a substantial alcohol problem requiring treatment, but the hospital team treating them would assess this. Depending on their age and maturity, they may be referred to adult alcohol treatment services or to the local child and adolescent mental health services to address any counselling or mental health needs. If they are developing severe health problems as a result of their alcohol misuse, they would be assessed by the specialist hospital team best placed to treat their particular health conditions.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of measures to reduce alcohol abuse by under 18 year olds; and if she will make a statement. [129901]
Caroline Flint: The Government are determined to reduce the harm caused to young people by alcohol misuse and are committed to educating young people on the very real harm it can cause. We are preventing the sale of alcohol to children by strengthening enforcement of the law on retailers and working with the industry to reduce under-age sales of alcohol—while continuing to educate young people about the harms, both physical and social, of alcohol abuse. Alcohol education is now part of the national curriculum. Updated guidance makes it clear that alcohol education should be about sensible drinking and reducing harm. This includes encouraging schools to look at the influence of the media on attitudes towards alcohol.
The Government have a high profile alcohol campaign, Know Your Limits, aimed at 18 to 24-year-old binge drinkers, warning them of the harms associated with binge drinking.
Ambulance Services: Standards
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment she has made of the effect of ambulance service reconfigurations on response times. [131672]
Andy Burnham: No assessment has been made. Annual national health service ambulance trust performance data for 2006-07 are due to be published this summer.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will provide a breakdown of how the £25 million allocated to help improve category A ambulance response times has been spent; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of that expenditure. [131673]
Andy Burnham: Information on how the £25 million capital incentive scheme monies have been spent is not held centrally.
Currently the clock starts for measuring response times when key information has been obtained from the caller. From April 2008, the clock will start earlier, when the call is connected to the ambulance control room. Response time standards will remain the same. The incentive scheme was designed to help ambulance trusts make the capital investments required to maintain response times from April 2008. It is therefore too early to make an assessment of the effectiveness of that expenditure.
Blood: Contamination
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what potential conflicts of interest were notified to the Permanent Secretary by departmental Ministers between 1997 and 1999 in connection with the handling of compensation claims related to the supply of contaminated blood products by the NHS. [127259]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 13 March 2007]: The Department has no record available relating to notification of conflicts of interest for the period in question. To look into this any further would incur disproportionate cost.
Body Mass Index
Mr. Ruffley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what her Department's estimate is of the average body
mass index in (a) England, (b) the East of England, (c) Suffolk, (d) Bedfordshire, (e) Cambridgeshire, (f) Essex, (g) Hertfordshire and (h) Norfolk. [127869]
Caroline Flint: Information is not available in the format requested. The most recent data available on the mean body mass index (BMI) for adults and children in England is from the 2005 Health Survey for England (HSE).
Table 1 sets out the mean BMI for adults in England in 2005.
| Table 1: Mean body mass index for adults( 1) , England 2005 | |
| Percentage /number | |
| (1) Aged 16 and over. Source: Health Survey for England 2005: Headline figures. The Information Centre. | |
Table 2 sets out the mean BMI for children by age in England in 2005.
| Table 2: Mean BMI for children by age, England 2005 | |||||||||
| Percentage/number | |||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| Percentage/number | ||||||||
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Total | |
| Notes: 1. Figures for children aged 0 and 1 are not given due small sample sizes. 2. The unweighted sample base for this category is below 50. Source: The Health Survey for England 2005: Headline Figures. The Information Centre. | ||||||||
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