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Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust: Finance

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 29 November 2007, Official Report, column 724W, on Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust: finance, if he will place a copy of the NHS Operating Framework for 2008-09 in the Library. [188510]

Mr. Bradshaw: A copy of “The Operating Framework for the NHS in England 2008-09” is available in the Library. This document is also available on the Department’s website at:

27 Feb 2008 : Column 1760W

www.18weeks.nhs.uk/cms/ArticleFiles/gm5hdlexqmhakbqwzzxfb32t19102005124130/Files/NHSOperatingFramework07-08_141207.pdf

Neurology

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many neurosurgeons on average are on call each morning after midnight in England. [178724]

Ann Keen: This information is not collected centrally.

Workforce planning is a matter for local determination as service planners are best placed to assess the local neurology needs of their local population.

NHS: Industrial Health and Safety

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the financial cost of workplace accidents in the NHS in (a) loss of staff hours and (b) other costs in each of the last three years. [182848]

Ann Keen: The information is not available in the format requested. However, the following tables show the number of injuries to workers reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)⁽¹⁾ in public hospitals, including national health service trusts⁽²⁾, in England between 2004-05 and 2006-07.

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Severity of injury	Employment status	Count	Estimated cost (£)
2004-05
Fatal injuries	Self-employed	0	0
	Employee	0	0
	Total	0	0
Non-fatal major injuries	Employee	997	38,384,500
	Self-employed	4	154,000
	Total	1,001	38,538,500
Over-3-day injuries	Employee	6,827	37,548,500
	Self-employed	3	16,500
	Total	6,830	37,565,000
Total			76,103,500
2005-06:
Fatal injuries	Self-employed	0	0
	Employee	0	0
	Total	0	0
Non-fatal major injuries	Employee	1,002	38,577,000
	Self-employed	5	192,500
	Total	1,007	38,769,500
Over-3-day injuries	Employee	7,247	39,858,500
	Self-employed	4	22,000
	Total	7,251	39,880,500
Total			78,650,000
2006-07( 3) :
Fatal injuries	Self-employed	0	0
	Employee	1	1,435,000
	Total	1	1,435,000
Non-fatal major injuries	Employee	1,045	40,232,500
	Self-employed	2	77,000
	Total	1,047	40,309,500
Over-3-day injuries	Employee	7,026	38,643,000
	Self-employed	2	11,000
	Total	7,028	38,654,000
Total			80,398,500
(1) Injuries are reported and defined under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995. These include injuries to employees and self-employed people (workers). The information available under RIDDOR 95 includes three categories of severity of injury to workers: fatal injuries, defined major injuries and other injuries leading to more than three days absence (over-3-day). (2) Identified by Standard Industrial Classification 1992 (SIC92) code 85.111, which covers activities of hospitals with or without NHS trust status. Such activities are: medical and surgical technical care activities such as diagnosis, treatment; operations, analyses, emergency activities, etc; accommodation activities such as boarding, meals, etc; and This includes short or long term hospital activities of general and specialised hospitals, sanatoria, preventoria, asylums, mental hospital institutions, rehabilitation centres, leprosaria and other health institutions which have accommodation facilities, including military and prison hospitals. The activities are chiefly directed to in-patients and carried out under the direct supervision of medical doctors. This classification excludes: health activities for military personnel in the field (code 75.22); private consultants’ services to in-patients (code 85.12); dental activities without accommodation (code 85.13); and ambulance and rescue activities (code 85.14). (3) Provisional. Note: Results are not adjusted to reflect reporting levels. The overall unit cost to society of an incident is divided into its component costs: human costs; cost of lost output; and resource costs. The HSE estimates the cost of fatal accidents in the workplace to staff to be £1,435,000. That figure is £38,500 for non-fatal major injuries and £5,500 for other injuries requiring over three day's absence.

NHS: Managers

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance his Department issues to NHS trusts on the recruitment and remuneration of chief executives. [187091]

Ann Keen: National health service trusts are independent employers in their own right and are responsible for employment decisions about their staff, including chief executives and other executive directors, in accordance with general employment law and human resources (HR) best practice.

NHS Employers is the body that provides HR advice and guidance to NHS organisations.

There are separate arrangements for foundation trusts. “The NHS Foundation Trust Code of Governance” published by Monitor sets out a common overarching framework for the corporate governance of NHS foundation trusts and complements the statutory and regulatory obligations on them.

The NHS chief executive wrote to NHS trusts and primary care trusts in October 2006 restating the importance of external assessors in the recruitment of senior staff. The letter can be found at:

www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Lettersandcirculars/Dearcolleagueletters/DH_4139976

NHS trusts may pay their staff such remuneration and allowances, and employ them on such terms and conditions, as they consider appropriate.

The Department introduced a “Pay framework for very senior managers in strategic and special Health Authorities, Primary Care Trusts and Ambulance Trusts” in 2006 (updated in 2007), copies of which are available in the Library. Although it does not apply to NHS trusts, they are free to adopt its principles.

NHS: Pensions

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when his Department plans to publish the NHS Pension Scheme and NHS Compensation for Premature Retirement Scheme Resource Accounts 2006-07. [187086]

Ann Keen: The NHS Pension Scheme Resource Accounts for the 2006-07 year were laid before Parliament on 22 October 2007.

NHS: Recruitment

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department paid the NHS Confederation to provide the NHS jobs website in the latest period for which figures are available. [185600]

Ann Keen: The Department has allocated £12.5 million in 2007-08 to NHS Employers for the provision of a range of services, including NHS Jobs and its website. The NHS Employers Organisation is part of the NHS Confederation.

NHS: Reorganisation

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which of his Department's officials are working on the NHS next stage review; and what the main areas of responsibility relating to the review of each are. [184564]

Ann Keen: The national health service next stage review is core business for all civil servants in the Department. National working groups have been set up to consider emerging issues which will require action at a national level, including quality improvement, innovation,
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workforce, leadership, primary and community care strategy. Further work is also being carried out on systems and incentives, informatics and the case for a NHS constitution.

More information on these groups is available on the “Our NHS, our future” website at

www.nhs.uk/ournhs.

Palliative Care: Wirral

Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of palliative care services in Wirral; and if he will make a statement. [184954]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Primary care trusts (PCTs) are responsible within the national health service for commissioning and funding services for their resident population, including end of life care. It is their responsibility, working with the relevant clinical managed networks and key local stakeholders, including those in the voluntary sector, to consider these issues, taking into account evidence from their local population-based needs assessments. Strategic health authorities are responsible for monitoring the PCTs in their area to ensure they are effective and efficient. This includes the provision of end of life care services.

The Government are committed to improving care and people's choices at the end of life, regardless of
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their condition or their location. We are taking this work forward through the development of a national end of life care strategy for adults, this country's first. The strategy will deliver increased choice to all adult patients, regardless of their condition, about where they live and die. It will help to take forward the commitments in the election manifesto and in the white paper “Our health, our care, our say”.

Development of this strategy is being supported by the NHS next stage review, led by Lord Ara Darzi. The next stage review is producing reports on eight key areas of care, including end of life care. Publication of the End of Life Care Strategy has been delayed until summer 2008, to allow the findings of the next stage review to inform and strengthen the national strategy.

Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total capital value is of each private finance initiative scheme overseen by his Department which has reached financial close, broken down by scheme; and, for each such scheme, (a) over what period repayments will take place and (b) what the total cost of repayment will be, expressed in (i) real terms and (ii) cash terms. [184561]

Mr. Bradshaw: The information is shown in the following table.

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