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3 Sep 2007 : Column 1883W—continued
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the number of (a) primary care trusts and (b) NHS trusts which routinely use nationally validated malnutrition screening tools for patients who present to health services; [153400]
(2) what assessment he has made of levels of adherence by (a) NHS organisations and (b) general practice surgeries to section 1.14.2.2 of the guidance issued on 22 February 2006 by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence on nutritional support in adults, to screen for malnutrition (i) all hospital inpatients on admission, (ii) all outpatients on first attendance and (iii) all people on initial registration at general practice surgeries; [153401]
(3) what steps he is taking to encourage the use of malnutrition screening tools in healthcare settings. [153403]
Dawn Primarolo: The Department does not monitor the use of malnutrition screening tools centrally.
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence clinical guidelines are classified as developmental standards in the national health service quality standards framework “Standards for Better Health”. NHS organisations are expected to take full account of them in developing services, but the pace of
implementation will vary according to local circumstances and priorities.
Core Standard C15b of the “Standards for Better Healthcare”, assessed by the Healthcare Commission, includes a requirement that, among other things,
“The healthcare organisation should ensure that the nutritional status of patients is assessed at appropriate points in their care, for example, upon admission to hospital.”
The National Patient Safety Agency, who have responsibility for supporting the implementation of policy on hospital food and nutrition, are actively promoting the comprehensive screening of patients on admission to hospital.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent estimate he has made of the number of bed days occupied by patients in a year as a consequence of undernourishment. [153411]
Dawn Primarolo: According to the Hospital Episode Statistics, the count of bed days during 2005-06 for finished episodes where the primary diagnosis was malnutrition in national health service hospitals in England was 6,083.
Schools: Travel
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many travel advisers have been recruited for schools. [152253]
Kevin Brennan: I have been asked to reply.
The Government have funded local authorities to ensure that adequate school travel adviser provision is in place. We do not collect information about the number of school travel advisers recruited by local authorities.
Tuberculosis: Vaccination
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he has taken to reduce the gap between the funding required for the research and development of the new tuberculosis vaccine and the funding available to it. [152396]
Ian Pearson: I have been asked to reply.
Research on new TB vaccines is being undertaken in a number of countries by a range of different research groups. In the UK, the Medical Research Council (MRC) spend on TB vaccines in 2005-06 was £1.9 million (four projects). It also provided funding of £0.4 million for four underpinning projects.
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