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21 Oct 2008 : Column 310W—continued
The following table shows the number of admissions to hospital where the primary diagnosis refers to pleural plaques for residents of South Tyneside Primary Care Trust (PCT), North East Strategic Health Authority (SHA) (formerly Northumberland, Tyne and Wear SHA and County Durham and Tees Valley SHA, prior to 2006-07) and England for 1997-98 to 2006-07. This is not the same as how many people have required treatment for pleural plaques as not everyone in need of treatment is admitted to hospital. Also, the number of admissions does not necessarily represent the number of patients as a patient may be admitted to hospital more than once.
| South Tyneside PCT | North East SHA (Northumberland, Tyne and Wear SHA and County Durham and Tees Valley SHA prior to 2006-07) | England | |
| Notes: 1. Small numbers: Due to reasons of confidentiality, figures between 1 and 5 have been suppressed and replaced with ‘*’ (an asterisk). Where it was possible to identify numbers from the total due to a single suppressed number in a row or column, an additional number (the next smallest) has been suppressed in order to protect patient confidentiality. 2. Quality of care: Data derived from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) cannot be used in isolation to evaluate the quality of care provided by NHS trusts. There are many factors that can affect the outcome of treatment and it is beyond the scope of HES to adequately record and present all of these. 3. Ungrossed data: Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (i.e. the data are ungrossed). 4. Finished admission episodes: A finished admission episode is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one health care provider. Finished admission episodes are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. 5. Primary diagnosis: The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and seven prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital. The ICD-10 codes used to identify Pleural plaques are: J92.0—Pleural plaque with presence of asbestos. J92.9—Pleural plaque without asbestos. 6. Number of episodes in which the patient had a (named) primary diagnosis: These figures represent the number of episodes where the diagnosis was recorded in the primary diagnosis field in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. 7. Data Quality: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in England. Data are also received from a number of independent sector organisations for activity commissioned by the English NHS. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. 8. Assessing growth through time: HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. During the years that these records have been collected by the NHS there have been ongoing improvements in quality and coverage. These improvements in information submitted by the NHS have been particularly marked in the earlier years and need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. Some of the increase in figures for later years (particularly 2006-07 onwards) may be due to the improvement in the coverage of independent sector activity. Changes in NHS practice also need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. For example, a number of procedures may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and may no longer be accounted for in the HES data. This may account for any reductions in activity over time. | |||
Medical Equipment
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library copies of (a) national guidance and circulars and (b) representations received from NHS organisations on the disposal of crutches. [227511]
Phil Hope: The Health Technical Memorandum 07-01: Safe Management of Healthcare Waste has been placed in the Library and is available on the Department's website at:
National health service organisations are required to develop their own waste disposal policies in line with the national waste strategy for England.
The Department has received no representation from NHS organisations on the disposal of crutches.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2008, Official Report, column 1175W, on medical equipment, if he will publish the toolkit developed by The Transforming Community Equipment and Wheelchair Services Programme to enable local authorities and their health partners to calculate the true cost of their decontamination and recycling. [228427]
Phil Hope
[holding answer 20 October 2008]: We have decided not to publish the toolkit because it cannot stand alone—support is necessary in order to use it effectively. When a local authority (LA) engages with the programme to explore implementing the model,
support will be provided by the national team responsible for the Transforming Community Equipment and Wheelchairs Services project.
Currently 53 LA and NHS partnerships have the toolkit, out of the 78 that have currently expressed an interest in working more closely with the programme. This means 53 organisations have either completed the exercise or are in the process of collecting their information. The remaining 25 organisations are not at the stage where they have set up their project yet, but are expected to do so in due course.
Medical Treatments Abroad
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that UK citizens who opt to have (a) medical and (b) dental treatment carried out in other EU states receive a sufficient level of practitioner expertise. [226852]
Dawn Primarolo: Unless the national health service explicitly takes responsibility for the standards of care for treatment it offers a patient, it is the standards, regulation and inspection processes of the country of treatment, not those of the NHS that apply.
Midwives: Manpower
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many midwives were employed by Havering Primary Care Trust (a) in 1997 and (b) at the latest date for which information is available. [227769]
Ann Keen: Information on the number of midwives employed midwives by Havering Primary Care Trust in the years 1997 and 2007 can be found in the following table.
| NHS hospital and community health services: Qualified midwifery staff in the Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust as at 30 September each specified year | |
| Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust | Number |
| Note: In 2000 acute services from Redbridge Healthcare NHS Trust merged with Havering Hospitals NHS Trust to form Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust. Data quality: Work force statistics are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in England. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data. Processing methods and procedures are continually being updated to improve data quality. Where this happens any impact on figures already published will be assessed but unless this is significant at national level they will not be changed. Where there is impact only at detailed or local level this will be footnoted in relevant analyses. Source: The NHS Information Centre for health and social care Non-Medical Workforce census. | |
Midwives: Redundancy
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS midwives have received redundancy notices in the last two years. [228108]
Ann Keen: The number of national health service midwives to receive compulsory redundancy notices in the last two years is shown in the following table:
| Period | Total number of compulsory redundancies for midwives | Total number of compulsory redundancies (all groups) |
Mobile Phones: Health Hazards
David Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will commission further research into the possible effects of mobile telephones on health. [228085]
Dawn Primarolo: The Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) programme has been under way since 2001.
The first set of results were published by the MTHR in 2007. Its overall conclusions were that
“none of the research supported by the programme and published so far (23 papers) demonstrates that biological or adverse health effects are produced by radiofrequency exposure from mobile phones.”
The committee recognised that some concerns still remain and proposed a further programme of work. Three studies in this second phase are already under way. Details can be found on their website at:
The Health Protection Agency's (HPA) Radiation Protection Division provides advice on mobile phones technology and health to government and the general public. The HPA monitors the scientific literature on mobile phone technology and health in support of its advice.
Further information can be found on the following web page:
http://www.hpa.org.uk/webw/HPAweb&;Page&HPAwebAuto ListName/Page/1158934607786?p=1158934607786
MRSA: Havering
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients have contracted MRSA in hospitals in Havering in the last five years. [227762]
Ann Keen: The latest information available held by the Department on the number of cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) reported to the Health Protection Agency by Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust is shown in the following table.
| Number of reports to the HPA | MRSA rate per 10,000 bed days | |
NHS Direct: Operating Costs
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average cost to the public purse of a telephone call to NHS Direct was in each year since the service was established; and how many calls were made to NHS Direct in each such year. [228109]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is available from 2004-05 onwards, when NHS Direct was established as a national service. The information is available in the following table.
| Total calls to the 0845 4647 service answered ( Thousand ) | Cost per call (£) | |
NHS: Compensation
Mr. Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been paid in compensation to patients by each London-based hospital trust in each of the last three years. [227824] [Official Report, 4 December 2008, Vol. 485, c. 1MC.]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is in the following table and was obtained from the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) website. The data cover compensation paid out to patients under the NHSLA's Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts and Existing Liabilities Scheme. Further information can be found in the NHSLA's published factsheets, available on their website at:
| Compensation paid by year | |||
| £ | |||
| NHS Trust | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
| (1) Before 2007-08, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust was Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust and St Mary's NHS Trust. | |||
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