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4 Jun 2007 : Column 298Wcontinued
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what definition she uses of universal GP opening hours, as referred to on page 23 of the Department of Healths research report, Our health, our care, our sayone year on. [137201]
Andy Burnham: The document Our health, our care, our say: One year on was prepared by Opinion Leader Research and reports a public event on 27 March 2007. The term universal opening hours was used in discussion by members of the public at that event and is not a statement of departmental policy.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will set out, with statistical evidence relating as closely as possible to Portsmouth, North constituency, the effects of changes to departmental policy since 1997 on Portsmouth, North constituency. [135342]
Caroline Flint: The Government have put in place a programme of national health service investment and reform since 1997 to improve service delivery in all parts of the United Kingdom. There is significant evidence that these policies have yielded considerable benefits for the Portsmouth, North constituency.
At the end of February 2007 the number of people waiting more than 26 weeks for in-patient treatment within Portsmouth City Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT) had fallen to zero from 1,005 in June 2002.
At the end of February 2007 the number of people waiting more than 13 weeks for out-patient treatment within Portsmouth City Teaching PCT had fallen to zero from 939 in June 2002, Portsmouth City PCT
funding has increased by over 31.5 per cent. (£47.1 million) in the three years from 2003-04 to 2005-06.
The PCTs funding will increase by 19.2 per cent. (£41 million) in the two years from 2006-07 to 2007-08. By 2007-08, the PCT will have reached its fair funding allocation target.
98.4 per cent. of patients attending the A and E department at Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust are seen within four hours.
99.7 per cent. of people referred urgently by their general practitioner see a cancer specialist within two weeks.
95.4 per cent. of cancer patient referrals are treated within two months.
Compared to 1997 Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust now has:
123 more consultants;
159 more doctors in training;
707 more nurses; and
164 more health care assistants.
A major £236 million private finance initiative redevelopment scheme is under way on the Queen Alexandra hospital site. Currently acute services are provided across three sites, the redevelopment of the Queen Alexandra hospital site will enable all acute services the trust provides to be housed on one site. To date £55 million of construction has been carried out.
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make an assessment of the effect of recent trends in immigration on the delivery of (a) maternity and (b) accident and emergency services in West Sussex. [136030]
Caroline Flint: It is for local primary care trusts in conjunction with other stakeholders, to make assessments of current and future health needs and to commission services accordingly.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many interventional cardiologists were practising in the NHS in each year since 2001; and if she will make a statement. [137910]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This information is not collected centrally. It is not possible to separately identify interventional cardiologists from the rest of the cardiology workforce.
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will assess the merits of introducing a policy of screening patients having routine check-ups or blood tests for hepatitis C. [136834]
Caroline Flint:
The prevalence of chronic hepatitis C infection in England is relatively low and it would not be appropriate to offer hepatitis C testing routinely to the general population. The Department has published
information and guidance for health professionals and the public, highlighting those groups considered to be at risk of hepatitis C infection and who should be offered testing or should consider being tested, for hepatitis C infection.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 30 April 2007, Official Report, column 1510W, on hospital wards (1) when she determined the timescale for publication; [137369]
(2) what comprehensive assessment of the situation was undertaken between 30 April and 9 May 2007. [137370]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The timescale for publication was decided over a period of weeks. A May publication was mooted in mid-April, but at this stage no specific date was confirmed. A final decision to publish on 10 May was made on 4 May.
The assessment leading to the report commenced in late November 2006, when strategic health authorities (SHA) were asked to review the situation in their areas. Between 30 April and 9 May, final checking of the information was undertaken, confirmed SHAs intention to publish local position statements.
Mr. Maples: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many patients have been located in mixed sex wards at the (a) Walsgrave, (b) Warwick, (c) Alcester, (d) Stratford-upon-Avon and (e) Ellen Badger hospitals since May 2006; [139514]
(2) what the reasons were for the location of patients in mixed sex wards at (a) Walsgrave, (b) Warwick, (c) Alcester, (d) Stratford-upon-Avon and (e) Ellen Badger hospitals since May 2006. [139756]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not collected centrally. However, standards of privacy and dignity are measured by the Healthcare Commission against two core standards, which require that:
(C13a) Staff treat patients, their relatives and carers with dignity and respect; and
(C20b) Health care services are provided in environments which promote effective care and optimize health outcomes by being supportive of patient privacy and confidentiality.
The boards of all national health service trusts in England are required to make public declarations annually on the extent to which they meet the core standards set by the Government. In 2005-06, the following NHS organisations all declared that they were compliant with the two privacy and dignity core standards detailed above:
South Warwickshire General Hospitals NHS Trust (responsible for the Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon hospitals);
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (responsible for Walsgrave hospital); and
South Warwickshire Primary Care Trust (formerly responsible for Alcester and Ellen Badger Hospitals).
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent estimate she has made of the capital cost of building a medium-sized district general hospital. [138420]
Andy Burnham: An indicative cost of building a medium-sized district general hospital is approximately £240 million (excluding VAT) which reflects the current business case approval level. The cost includes the capital construction cost for a new 418 bed hospital built on a green field site, together with supporting services such as operating theatres, out-patient department, accident and emergency services, catering, office accommodation, public areas, pharmacy, pathology and radiography. The cost also includes equipment costs and professional fees incurred. It does not include the running costs to make the hospital operational, such as staffing and other hard and soft facilities management services.
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the latest figures are for the incidence of acinetobacter baumannii in England; whether there is in place a system for (a) the reporting and (b) the investigation of all cases; whether a process for identifying acinetobacte r baumannii is undertaken as a matter of course; and if she will make a statement. [136390]
Caroline Flint: The Health Protection Agency (HPA) asks microbiology laboratories to report all cases of bloodstream infections caused by Acinetobacter species, this is the voluntary surveillance system.
The latest figures(1) of A. baumannii bloodstream infections under the HPAs voluntary reporting scheme for England are as shown.
Number of infections | |
Source: HPA |
Investigation of cases will be decided locally however in addition to voluntary surveillance the HPA also collects data on resistant organisms including Acinetobacter spp (species), and provides a reference service for investigating unusually resistant bacteria and the mechanisms responsible for their resistance, and seeks to identify options for treating infections.
The HPA has been involved in the investigation and characterisation of multi-resistant clones of Acinetobacter that have been associated with outbreaks in hospitals, particularly in London and south east England(2,)( )(3). The HPA has published guidance on the control of outbreaks of multi-resistant Acinetobacter(4).
The widely used commercial identification systems are often inadequate for the routine identification of
specific Acinetobacter spp. owing to their poor reactivity in these test systems. The level of species identification varies between hospital laboratories. Some laboratories may classify isolates only to Acinetobacter spp. level unless they have an ongoing problem with multi-resistant strains.
(1) Acinetobacter spp bacteraemia in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: 2005. Communicable Disease Report Weekly 2006; 16 (13 October 2006) http://www.hpa.org.uk/cdr/archives/2006/cdr4206.pdf
(2) JF Turton, ME Kaufmann, M Warner et al. A prevalent, multi-resistant clone of Acinetobacter baumanii in Southeast England. Journal of Hospital Infection 2004; 58: 170-179.
(3) JM Coelho, JF Turton, ME Kaufman et al. Occurrence of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumanii clones at multiple hospitals in London and Southeast England. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 2006; 44: 3623-3627.
(4) Interim guidance on the control of outbreaks of multi-resistant Acinetobacter. http://www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/acinetobacter_b/guidance.htm
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether one million NHS staff have received training in infection control, as referred to by her Department's Chief Nursing Officer in her speech to the Chief Nursing Officer's conference of 3 November 2004; and if she will make a statement. [137393]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Information about the number of national health service staff who have received infection control training is not held centrally.
Progression of infection control training is centred upon a number of activities at both the national and local level. The statutory Code of Practice for the Prevention and Control of Health Care Associated Infections lays on NHS bodies a duty to ensure that all staff are suitably educated in the prevention and control of these infections.
At the time of making the speech referred to, the Chief Nursing Officer was highlighting the importance of infection control training, in the context of the NHS Agenda for Change Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF), which was to be launched in December 2004.
In particular, under the KSF, staff at all levels must have a core health and safety dimension (which includes infection control) as part of their KSF outline. Delivery of this component of the KSF is a matter for local determination. A key resource, with potential to assist staff in fulfilling the KSF requirement is the NHS Infection Control Programme, which was published in September 2005 by the NHS Core Learning Unit. This is a free to access, on-line learning programme, aimed at all staff, which covers critical aspects of infection prevention practice.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total expenditure on advertising campaigns in support of the seasonal influenza immunisation programme was in (a) real and (b) cash terms in each year since 2000-01. [137322]
Caroline Flint: Total expenditure on advertising campaigns in support of the seasonal influenza immunisation programme in each year since 2000-01, broken down into real and cash terms is shown in the following table.
Flu campaignadvertising spend | ||
£ million | ||
Cash | Real | |
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many influenza vaccine doses have been secured for the winter of 2007-08; from which manufacturers this supply has been secured; and if she will make a statement. [131937]
Caroline Flint: The forecasts from the UK Vaccine Industry Group (UVIG) is that 15.75 million doses of flu vaccine will be available for the United Kingdom for the 2007-08 seasonal flu programme.
The Department does not purchase flu vaccine. It is the responsibility of general practitioners to order their vaccine direct from the supplier of their choice based on the number of eligible patients on their register. There are currently six suppliers of flu vaccine to the UK market and these are Sanofi Pasteur MSD, Novartis Vaccines (formerly Chiron Vaccines), GlaxoSmithKline, MASTA, Solvay Healthcare and Wyeth Vaccines.
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