| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
19 Mar 2008 : Column 1148W—continued
Hearing Impaired
Mr. Andy Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what provision is made for deaf people to access services provided by his Department through call centres. [194949]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department has a single public facing call centre. This has a textphone and accepts calls made using Typetalk.
Horton Hospital: NHS Treatment Centres
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the residual value guarantee is in respect of the independent sector treatment centre at Horton hospital in Banbury. [193684]
Mr. Bradshaw: The residual value guarantee in relation to the Norton NHS Treatment Centre (GC4 North Oxford), procured through Wave 1 of the independent sector treatment centre (ISTC) programme, is £15.1 million. The contract runs until 31 December 2010. The assets at Horton to be acquired upon payment of the residual value include the ISTC building.
All ISTC contracts have been through a robust procurement and approvals process, with value for money being one of the criteria.
Hospital Beds
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) targets and (b) guidelines have been set for trusts to deal with delayed discharge; and what penalty is paid by trusts for delayed discharge of (i) patients with mental health problems and (ii) other patients. [194733]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The ‘NHS Plan: A plan for investment—a plan for reform’ (Cm 48 18-1) contained the commitment to reduce widespread delayed discharges by 2004. Councils and their national health service partners have made significant progress in reducing delays in hospital. Between September 2001 and December 2007 the number of people over the age of 75 delayed in hospital reduced from 5,673 to 1,594, a reduction of 72 per cent. and total delays for the same period were reduced from 7,065 to 2,090, a reduction of 70 per cent. A copy of the NHS Plan is available in the Library.
Guidance on the implementation of the Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc) Act 2003, including the definition of, and procedures for notifying, delayed discharges was issued on 24 September 2003 as HSC 2003/009 and LAC (2003) 21. This guidance is still current and has not been amended.
NHS trusts to do not pay penalties for delayed discharges.
Hospitals: Parking
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will bring forward legislative proposals to end the practice of charging fees to patients with blue disability badges at hospital car parks in England. [194681]
Mr. Bradshaw: Charging for car parking is a matter for individual national health service bodies. If they did not charge for car parking then funds for the maintenance and operation of the car park would have to be diverted from patient services. The Department has issued guidance advising NHS bodies to consider the needs of disabled users when planning their car parks and to offer concessions or free parking to those who have to use their car parks regularly, which may include some blue disability badge holders. We have no plans to change these arrangements.
Hospitals: Waiting Lists
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his most recent estimate is of the average waiting time for an operation in the NHS; and if he will make a statement. [195033]
Mr. Bradshaw: The average (median) waiting time for inpatient admission at the end of January 2008 was 4.7 weeks.
Hypertension: Drugs
Sir Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how the cost-effectiveness of pulmonary arterial hypertension drugs is determined; and what assessments were made by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence of potential quality of life improvements offered by such drugs. [194215]
Dawn Primarolo: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) draws on a number of different sources of information to appraise the clinical and cost-effectiveness of drugs assessed through its multiple technology appraisals (MTA) process. The different sources of information are set out in more detail in NICE'S ‘Guide to the methods of technology appraisal’ which can be found at:
NICE'S appraisal of drugs for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension is currently out for consultation and the appraisal consultation document sets out in detail the evidence for NICE'S draft recommendations.
NHS: Email
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff registered for NHS mail in each month since its inception; and how many were active users in each month. [195261]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is in the following table.
| Total active users | Monthly registered accounts | |
| (1) The number of users registering for the service each month is a calculation based on: (current month active users) minus (last month active users). | ||
Palliative Care: South Yorkshire
Jeff Ennis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance on supportive and palliative care has been implemented in Barnsley East and Mexborough constituency. [194435]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: It is for individual primary care trusts (PCTs), including Barnsley PCT, within the national health service to commission services for their resident population, including end of life care, based on assessments of local needs and priorities. The NHS has been required to set out action plans to achieve compliance with the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommendations on supportive and palliative care. Implementation is being monitored by strategic health authorities (SHAs).
Information on the rate of progress locally can be obtained through the Yorkshire and the Humber SHA.
Prescription Drugs: Side Effects
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many people have been admitted to hospital due to adverse reactions to prescription drugs in each of the last 10 years; [194115]
(2) how many deaths were due to adverse reactions to prescription drugs in each of the last 10 years; [194116]
(3) how many recorded incidents of adverse reactions to prescription drugs there were in each of the last 10 years. [194117]
Dawn Primarolo: Reports of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are collected by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Commission for Human Medicines (CHM) through the spontaneous reporting scheme; the Yellow Card Scheme. Approximately 20,000 reports of ADRs are reported to the MHRA/CHM through this scheme each year. The scheme collects ADR reports from across the whole United Kingdom and includes all medicines, including those from prescriptions, over-the-counter or general retail sales. Reports are also received for herbal medicines and other unlicensed medicines.
The following table shows the number of spontaneous UK suspected ADR reports received by the MHRA between 1997 and 2007 which had a fatal outcome and resulted in or prolonged hospitalisation.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |