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20 Oct 2008 : Column 72W—continued
Midwives: Training
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 26 June 2008, Official Report, column 483W, on midwives: training, whether the number of NHS midwifery training places commissioned for the 2007-08 academic year has been confirmed. [226316]
Ann Keen: The confirmed number of national health service midwifery training places commissioned for the 2007-08 academic year is 2,071.
The following table shows the number of NHS midwifery confirmed training places commissioned each year from 1996-97 to 2007-08.
| 1996-97 | 1999-2000 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
| Source: Quarterly Monitoring Returns. | |||||||||
Neurology: Manpower
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many neurologists are employed by the NHS; how many were employed in 1997; and if he will make a statement. [228295]
Ann Keen: The number of neurological consultants employed by the national health service was 278 (246 full-time equivalent (FTE)) in 1997. This figure had risen to 539 (486 FTE) by September 2007.
NHS
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people with a home address in (a) Scotland and (b) Northern Ireland were treated in NHS facilities in England in each year since 2006. [226859]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information is shown in the following table.
| Number of admissions to hospital where the patient's home address is in Scotland or Northern Ireland in 2005-06 and 2006-07 | ||
| Strategic health authority (SHA) of residence | 2005-06 | 2006-07 |
| Note: Total includes England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, other countries and unknown SHA of residence Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, The NHS Information Centre for health and social care. | ||
NHS: Finance
Norman Lamb:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health which NHS trusts are deemed financially challenged; what the cumulative deficit of each such trust is; what estimate has been made of the proportion
of turnover for 2008-09 that the deficit represents in each case; what support such trusts are receiving; and if he will make a statement. [227505]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department introduced a new working capital loans system in 2006-07. Instead of relying on brokerage as a source of funding or planned support, trust working capital requirements must now be financed by loans agreed with the Department and recorded in individual accounts. Organisations now have to address financial problems head-on and take steps to ensure that they live within their means. Deficits remain where they occur, and are transparent in final accounts at the year-end.
As a result of introducing the new loans system, there were 17 NHS trusts where the financial challenges are such that the Department either could not give a loan because the trust could not afford to meet the repayments, or where a loan was agreed, but the amount could be repaid only over a very extended timescale. Instead these trusts were advanced money as a short-term measure to cover their running costs while a rigorous review was conducted on their finances.
In the 2007/08 Quarter 4 edition of The Quarter (a copy of which has been placed in the Library), the Department announced that 10 of the original 17 trusts were no longer classified as financially challenged. This was a result of the trusts working extremely hard in conjunction with their strategic health authorities (SHA) and primary care trusts (PCT) to improve their underlying financial position. As a result they are now trading in balance and are able to produce sufficient surpluses going forward to operate as a sustainable organisation, both financially and in the provision of health care. All 10 of these organisations will have repaid their debt within five years
The remaining seven NHS organisations currently deemed as financially challenged trusts, and their forecast cumulative deficit for the end of the 2008-09 financial year, as a total and as a percentage of their forecasted 2008-09 turnover are given in the following table:
| £000 | |||||
| Organisation | Cumulative deficit position at the end of the 2007-08 financial year | Quarter 1 forecast outturn for the 2008-09 financial year | Forecast cumulative deficit position at the end of the 2008-09 financial year | Planned turnover 2008-09 | Forecast cumulative deficit position for 2008-09 financial year as percentage of 2008-09 forecast turnover |
As reported in the 2008-09 Quarter 1 edition of ‘The Quarter’, the Department is continuing to work with these organisations to identify sustainable operating and financial solutions as we go forward.
NHS: Information and Communications Technology
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health who is the senior officer responsible for Connecting for Health. [226275]
Mr. Bradshaw: Day-to-day responsibility for NHS Connecting for Health and the programmes and projects for which it is responsible lies with Martin Bellamy, director of programme and system delivery. Mr. Bellamy reports to Christine Connelly, the Department’s chief information officer for health, whose role is to develop and deliver the Department’s overall information strategy and to integrate leadership across the national health service and associated bodies, including NHS Connecting for Health.
NHS: Manpower
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) doctors, (b) nurses and (c) administrators were employed by the NHS in 2007-08. [228097]
Ann Keen: The last national health service workforce census showed that as of 30 September 2007, there were 127,645 doctors (excluding retainers, but including general practitioners), 376,737 qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff and 256,686 total clerical and administrative staff.
NHS: Pensions
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the value was of public-sector pensions in the NHS in each of the last five years; and what the cost to the public purse was of providing such pensions in each year. [228435]
Ann Keen: The information requested for England and Wales is given in the following table.
| 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
| Notes: 1. Total pension expenditure includes transfers out and refunds. 2. Total income received includes transfers in, and premature retirement costs. Source: NHS Pensions. | |||||
Organ Donors
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what percentage of donor hearts were found to be diseased or otherwise defective prior to transplantation in the latest period for which figures are available; [226860]
(2) what percentage of hearts removed from donors (a) were transplanted into recipients, (b) reached their destination hospital within four hours of ischaemic time and (c) were not transplanted into recipients in the latest period for which figures are available. [226861]
Ann Keen: Organs are offered to transplant centres for potential transplantation into patients on the basis of the information available about the donor. Transplant centres may decline organs based on the information supplied before they are retrieved.
Between April 2007 and March 2008 of the 444 hearts which were offered for transplantation, 317 were not accepted because they were damaged, had poor function or for a reason unrelated to the condition of the heart. Of the 127 hearts retrieved, only three were found to be unsuitable on arrival at the transplant centre.
As for the time between removal and perfusion of the heart to arrival at the recipient hospital in 116 of 127 cases, in over 99 per cent. of cases the organ reached the destination hospital in less than four hours.
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