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28 Feb 2008 : Column 1882W—continued
Ambulance Services: Standards
Sir John Stanley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many turnarounds took more than an hour in each ambulance authority in England during the last year for which figures are available. [189425]
Mr. Bradshaw: This information is not collected centrally.
Antenatal Care
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what percentage of women did not receive the number of antenatal appointments recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the last year for which figures are available, broken down by maternity unit. [188177]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not collected centrally.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) were commissioned by the Department to produce this guideline (published in 2003) to define the type of antenatal care to be provided, including recommendations for the baseline care for pregnant women and national quality standards for the type, quantity and provision of antenatal care including screening programmes to support all women in receiving equitable care based on current best practice. This guideline is currently being revised and due to be published in March 2008. When
published, it will include an assessment tool that will assist professionals in how to identify those women for whom additional care is recommended.
Arthritis: Drugs
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 13 December 2007, Official Report, column 865W, on arthritis: drugs, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the trend since 2004 in (a) the number and (b) the net ingredient cost of prescription items dispensed in the community. [185598]
Dawn Primarolo: Since 2004 the number of prescription items dispensed in the community, in England and the net ingredient cost (NIC) of these drugs, for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, as listed at paragraphs 10.1.1 (Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), 10.1.2 (Corticosteroids) and 10.1.3 (Rheumatic disease suppressant drugs) of the British National Formulary, have shown different trends in both use and cost. Some of the drugs listed are prescribed for other medical conditions.
Factors likely to have contributed to the observed trends include:
withdrawal of some medicines within the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug group;
specific medicines coming off patent;
the publication of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance on newer disease-suppressing drugs.
Community Nurses: Disadvantaged
Linda Gilroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to develop a Family Nurse Programme in the UK; and if he will make a statement. [186187]
Ann Keen: The joint Department of Health and Department for Children, Schools and Families Family Nurse Partnership intervention, supports vulnerable first time young mothers from the 16th week of pregnancy until the child is aged two years. It is being piloted across in England at 10 sites. 20 new pilot sites will be approved in March 2008.
The position in the rest of the United Kingdom is a matter for the devolved Administrations.
Departmental ICT
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the (a) start date, (b) original planned completion date, (c) current expected completion date, (d) planned cost and (e) current estimated cost is for each information technology project being undertaken by his Department and its agencies; and if he will make a statement. [180569]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information technology (IT) projects currently being undertaken by the Department, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency are shown in the following table.
The IT projects currently being undertaken by Connecting for Health are shown as follows:
| Connecting for health( 1) | ||
| Programme area | Contractor | Lifetime contract value (£ million) |
| (1 )There is no single national start or completion date for the national programme for information technology as a whole, or for its individual systems and services. The aim is to achieve substantial integration of health and social care information systems in England under the national programme by 2010. Clearly systems will need to be upgraded in the light of new technology and new national health service requirements beyond that date. The approach, in line with best practice, is to implement new services incrementally, avoiding a ‘big bang’ approach, and providing increasingly richer functionality over time. The value of the original contracts let in 2003-04 for the core components of the national programme amounts to £6.2 billions over ten years, and this has not increased. | ||
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 21 January 2008, Official Report, column 1689W, on departmental public expenditure, for what reason the expired vaccines were not used, broken down by type of vaccine. [Official Report, 26 March 2008, Vol. 474, c. 2MC.][188507]
Dawn Primarolo: Changes in vaccination policy can result in changes to the vaccines offered in the routine childhood immunisation programme. While we aim to keep vaccine wastage to a minimum, such policy changes can lead to some vaccines being written off if they are no longer used in the routine programme.
The reasons why expired vaccines were not used are listed as follows.
Some BCG vaccine was written off following the change in BCG vaccination policy in 2005. The programme changed from a universal to targeted programme, leading to a reduction in demand.
In 2005 demand for MMR vaccine increased following the mumps outbreaks in older teenagers. For a short period, the suppliers could only provide additional supplies of MMR vaccine destined for other countries, and hence with different product labelling than UK stock. Even though the vaccine itself was identical to UK licensed product, the labelling difference meant that the vaccine was not licensed for use in the UK. Once further supplies of UK licensed vaccine were received, the unlicensed MMR vaccine was no longer used, leading to write off.
In 2004 vaccines containing live oral polio were removed from the childhood programme and replaced with three new combination vaccines containing an inactivated polio vaccine. This resulted in the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTaP) vaccine; and the tetanus and diphtheria (Td) vaccine becoming redundant.
In 2003 a major Hib catch up campaign was launched using a single antigen Hib (haemophilus influenzae type B) vaccine. This vaccine is not used routinely in the childhood programme, and some stock left over from the Hib catch-up campaign date expired in 2006-07.
Departmental Visits Abroad
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many overseas visits by officials in his Department took place in each of the last 10 years; which countries were visited; and how much was spent on such visits in each such year. [181608]
Mr. Bradshaw: Information on the number and cost of these visits would incur disproportionate cost to obtain. However, all official travel is undertaken in accordance with the Department’s travel policy and the “Civil Service Code”.
Information on the Government’s annual publication about overseas travel by Cabinet Ministers can be found at:
This list includes details about the number of officials accompanying the Minister when non-scheduled travel is used for the trip. Copies of lists covering information going back to the 1997-98 financial year are available in the Library.
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