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12 Sep 2007 : Column 2079W—continued
Medical Treatments
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his letter of 27 July to the hon. Member for Wellingborough, what the evidential basis was for his statement that Mrs. Waterer has had the treatment Avastin made available to her. [155129]
Alan Johnson: The evidential basis was the hon. Member's comments to the House, on 12 July 2007, Official Report, column 1627.
Midwives: Gloucestershire
Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many full-time equivalent midwives there were in (a) Cheltenham and (b) Gloucestershire in each year since 1997. [155164]
Mr. Bradshaw: Information is not held centrally in the format requested. Information about number of full-time equivalent midwives at the Gloucestershire hospitals national health service foundation trust is provided in the following table.
| NHS hospital and community health services: r egistered midwifes at Gloucestershire hospitals NHS foundation trust as at 30 September each specified year | |
| Full-time equivalent | |
| Number | |
| Notes: 1. Full-time equivalent figures are rounded to the nearest whole number. In 2002 Gloucestershire Royal NHS trust and East Gloucestershire trusts merged to form Gloucestershire hospitals NHS foundation trust. 2. Figures prior to 2002 are therefore listed as a combination of the two former organisations. Source: Information Centre for health and social care Non-Medical Workforce Census | |
NHS: Manpower
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) doctors, (b) nurses and (c) dentists were employed in the NHS in (i) full-time equivalent terms and (ii) headcount terms in (A) 1979, (B) 1997 and (C) the most recent period for which figures are available. [155240]
Mr. Bradshaw: This information is shown in the table.
NHS: Maternity Pay
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many trusts have waived their rights to recovery of maternity pay as set out in part 3, section 15.30 of Agenda for Change: NHS terms and conditions of service handbook, January 2005; [155247]
(2) what studies his Department has carried out into the cost implications of NHS trusts waiving their rights to recovery of maternity pay as set out in part 3, section 15.30 of Agenda for Change: NHS terms and conditions of service handbook, January 2005. [155248]
Alan Johnson: We do not hold information centrally on trusts waiving their right to recovery of maternity pay as set out in part 3, section 15.30 of ‘Agenda for Change: NHS terms and conditions of service handbook, January 2005’ and no studies have been undertaken on this issue.
NHS: Sick Leave
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what studies his Department has undertaken into the cost of sick leave to the NHS. [155246]
Alan Johnson: Data on sickness absence are collected as a part of the Department's routine monitoring and has been a part of the Department's productive time programme. An indicator on sickness absence is included in the Better Care Better Value Indicators. The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement included managing sickness absence as one of the ways of improving efficiency and productivity in their publication ‘Delivering Quality and Value: Focus on Productivity and Efficiency’.
NHS: Working Hours
Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the variety in the interpretations and determinations of the European Working Time Directives in relation to hospital staff in England; and if he will make a statement. [155269]
Alan Johnson: The Government are fully committed to the implementation of the European Working Time Directive (EWTD), as part of health and safety law.
The EWTD was implemented for the vast majority of national health service staff groups in 1998 in accordance with regulations. The Government negotiated an extension to the EWTD for doctors in training to enable phased implementation from August 2004.
The Department is sponsoring NHS national workforce projects to support local EWTD implementation for doctors in training through a range of pilots including cooperative solutions, team working, handover and escalation and 24:7 working. The pilots take in a wide variety of organisations to look at solutions which are transferable across the NHS. There is ongoing evaluation of the pilots to share lessons learned as early as possible.
Northwick Park Hospital: Maternal Mortality
Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the conclusions of the Healthcare Commission were on the contributory factors to maternal deaths at Northwick Park following the merger with Central Middlesex; and how many births there were at Northwick Park (a) before and (b) after the merger. [155270]
Alan Johnson: The findings of the Healthcare Commission into the maternity deaths at Northwick Park have been placed in the Library and are available on the Healthcare Commission's website:
The information requested on the number of births at Northwick Park before and after the merger with Central Middlesex Hospital NHS Trust is not held centrally. However, the amount of births at North West London Hospital NHS Trust since 1999 is shown in the following table. Data were not provided in 2001-02 due to data issues associated with this Trust.
| Count of finished consultant (birth) episodes at North West London Hospital NHS Trust 1999-2006 | |
| Birth Episodes | |
| (1) Data not available due to data quality issues Notes: A finished consultant episode is defined as a period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Please note that the figures do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have had more than one episode of care within the year. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics | |
Prescriptions: Standards
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether mechanisms are being put in place to ensure that strategic health authorities are integrating approaches to prescribing across primary and secondary care so that there is consistency between general practitioners’ and consultants’ choices of drugs with regard to patients discharged into primary care as recommended by the National Audit Office’s report, Prescribing Costs in Primary Care; [155160]
(2) what mechanisms are being put in place to ensure that strategic health authorities are integrating approaches to prescribing across primary and secondary care so that patients discharged into primary care are not continued on their course of drug treatment for longer than necessary, as recommended by the National Audit Office’s report Prescribing Costs in Primary Care. [155161]
Alan Johnson: Medicines management and prescribing have long been recognised as key elements of both primary care trust and acute trust business and it is important that these organisations liaise effectively on these issues. This can be achieved through Area Prescribing Committees (APCs). The Department recently commissioned the National Prescribing Centre to update their guidance document, which was published in May this year, with the aim of reinforcing the role of APCs.
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what mechanisms are being put in place to ensure that strategic health authorities are integrating approaches to prescribing across primary and secondary care so that patients discharged into primary care have their medicines reviewed regularly, as recommended by the National Audit Office’s report Prescribing Costs in Primary Care. [155162]
Alan Johnson:
There are a wide range of mechanisms in place in primary care to assist healthcare professionals in reviewing patients’ medication use, for example medicines use reviews, repeat dispensing and National Prescribing Centre initiatives, such as the medicines management collaborate scheme. The recent
National Audit Office report on prescribing costs in primary care places further impetus on undertaking these types of activities.
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