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5 Nov 2008 : Column 520W—continued
Figures are not provided for 2003-04 for data quality reasons. The current NDTMS data collection began in April 2004 and although some data was collected retrospectively for the period 2003-04 this is incomplete.
Elderly: Abuse
Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department has made of the number of vulnerable older people who have undergone physical or physiological abuse in residential care homes in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [229245]
Phil Hope:
The information requested is not held centrally. However, residential care homes are required by the care home regulations and national minimum standards to record all allegations and incidents of
abuse, together with the follow-up actions taken. Where harm or risk of harm occurs, care homes have a legal duty to make a referral to the Protection of Vulnerable Adults list. Care home managers should also be aware of their local authority safeguarding arrangements and make appropriate referrals to the Adult Protection Co-ordinator.
On 16 October the Government launched a public consultation on the review of the local safeguarding guidance ‘No Secrets’. This guidance provides a framework for councils to work with the police, the national health service and regulators to tackle abuse and prevent it from occurring. A copy of the consultation document ‘Safeguarding Adults: A consultation on the Review of the ‘No Secrets’ Guidance’ is available in the House of Commons Library and the DH website
Work is under way to develop an annual data collection of adult abuse referrals in England. The NHS Information Centre (IC) for health and social care is leading the work, and has now undertaken a pilot collection from 40 local authorities. The data are currently being analysed. Subject to the outcome of the pilot, the IC expects to be able to implement a data collection across all councils during 2009-10.
The Government acknowledge that more information is needed about the experiences of vulnerable adults in care homes. That is why on 27 March 2008, the Department and Comic Relief announced £2 million funding for a new joint research initiative investigating the dignity and safety of older people being cared for in institutional settings. This will explore the experience of older people, and the staff who care for them, in settings such as care homes, intermediate care and hospitals. It builds on the earlier research and is likely to run until April 2011. The tender exercise for this is currently under way.
Gender Variant People
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many copies of his Department’s guidance for GPs, other clinicians and health professionals on the treatment of gender variant people and related leaflets have been printed; what the budget for distribution of the documents is; what criteria were used for the dissemination of the documents to (a) commissioners of services, (b) general practitioners and (c) other clinicians and health professionals; and if he will make a statement. [231300]
Dawn Primarolo: This information is not collected centrally. The Department’s guidance for general practitioners and other professionals on the care of gender variant people, first published in May 2008, has been placed in the Library.
Health Centres
Mr. Lansley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2008, Official Report, column 64W, on health centres, what arrangements his Department has made for primary care trusts to fulfill their obligations under the GP-led health centres programme in cases where a trust has
already put out to tender for a GP-led health centre and does not have a valid requirement for a further centre. [231061]
Ann Keen: The national GP Patient Survey demonstrates that in all primary care trusts (PCTs) there remains a level of patient dissatisfaction in accessing general practitioner (GP) services. This year patients identified a 2 per cent. reduction in satisfaction with access to their GP. Each primary care trust will therefore benefit from the development of a new GP-led health centre that will allow any patient to access a GP from 8 am to 8 pm, seven days a week without having to change their normal registration with their existing practice. It will also allow more choice for patients in how they can access primary care services. We are looking to PCTs to come up with innovative solutions that meet their health care needs.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2008, Official Report, column 64W, on health centres, for what reason primary care trusts were not able to submit in their contribution to the GP-led health centre programme any proposed centre where the call for tender had already been issued. [231062]
Ann Keen: We have asked strategic health authorities to ensure that primary care trusts are guided by the principle that their plans for these new services should be in addition to any services that have already been commissioned.
Health Education: Finance
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has spent on advertising campaigns on (a) smoking, (b) binge drinking and (c) drug awareness in each of the last five years. [231221]
Dawn Primarolo: The following tables show expenditure on smoking, binge drinking, and drug awareness advertising in the period from 2003-04 to 2007-08.
| Expenditure on smoking advertising | |
| £ million | |
The current alcohol campaign was launched in October 2006.
| Expenditure on alcohol harm reduction advertising( 1) | |
| £ million | |
| (1) Department of Health contribution to campaign run jointly with Home Office. | |
| Expenditure on drugs education advertising | |
| £ million | |
| (1) Department of Health contribution to campaign run jointly with Home. | |
Health: Hertfordshire
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people living in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire have been diagnosed with (i) coronary heart disease, (ii) diabetes and (iii) food-related allergies. [232597]
Ann Keen: The Department does not collect information in the form requested. However, the national Quality and Outcomes Framework, which many general practices participate in, records the number of people recorded on certain practice disease registers. Such registers exist for both coronary heart disease (CHD) and diabetes.
The CHD register includes all patients who have had coronary artery revascularisation procedures such as coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). However, patients with Cardiac Syndrome X will not generally be included in the CHD register.
The diabetes register includes patients aged 17 years and over with diabetes mellitus. As the care of children with diabetes mellitus is generally under the control of specialists, the diabetes register generally excludes those patients age 16 and under.
We are unable to supply this information for Hemel Hempstead or Hertfordshire but have supplied information for the health areas that best fit; namely West Hertfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) for Hemel Hempstead and West Hertfordshire and East and North Hertfordshire PCTs combined to represent Hertfordshire.
Information is shown in the following table.
The Department does not collect any data on food related allergies.
| 2007-08 | |
| Patient register | Number of patients |
|
West Hertfordshire PCT and East and North Hertfordshire PCTs | |
Hepatitis
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the prevalence of hepatitis B in each strategic health authority area. [232446]
Dawn Primarolo: The Health Protection Agency Centre for Infections is not able to produce estimates of the prevalence of hepatitis B at strategic health authority level.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance his Department (a) has issued and (b) plans to issue to health commissioners on hepatitis B services. [232454]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave him on 6 October 2008, Official Report, columns 422-24W.
Maternity Services
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 14 October 2008, Official Report, columns 1172-76W, on maternity services, what the value is of the combined total damages of (a) all settled claims and (b) settled claims that arose from maternity care, awarded under the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts. [231948]
Ann Keen: The NHS Litigation Authority has supplied the information requested, as of 30 September 2008, in the following table:
| Specialty | Total damages (£) |
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 14 October 2008, Official Report, column 1176W, on maternity services, how many of the midwife-led units were (a) situated alongside consultant-led units and (b) stand-alone units. [231949]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not collected centrally. However, information published as part of the Healthcare Commission’s review of maternity services in England (January 2008) shows that of the 82 midwife- led units, 57 are stand alone units and 25 are situated alongside consultant-led units.
Medical Records
Mr. Bacon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) by what means a GP practice may transfer the medical records of patients who leave its catchment area and register with another practice; [232355]
(2) how many primary care trusts permit the transfer of patient records between GPs’ practices (a) by electronic means, (b) on paper only and (c) by both paper and electronic means; [232356]
(3) what his Department's policy is on the practice of electronic transfer of patient records between GPs outside of the GP2GP system; [232357]
(4) how many primary care trusts convert electronic patient records into paper documentation for the purposes of transfer between GPs practices; how many of those are known to have made errors in the transcription of such documents; and how many such errors are known to have been made in the last three years. [232358]
Mr. Bradshaw: A practice must transfer the patient health record via the local primary care trust (PCT) as this is required by Regulations. In most cases this will involve transfer of the Lloyd George paper records but where the PCT has agreed this could be achieved by an electronic copy. Practices can also transfer a copy of the electronic record to a patient’s new practice by a GP2GP electronic health record transfer. No information is collected centrally on the numbers of PCTs that transfer records by electronic, paper or by both these means.
GP2GP is the recognised, secure method of transferring patient records between general practitioner (GP) practices and some 4,800 practices have the ability to transfer records by GP2GP at the present time. The GP2GP project is working closely with those clinical system suppliers who are currently non-compliant to extend the scope of this service which brings benefits for patients and for doctors by enabling patient information to be securely transferred and available much quicker than before.
Where it has been agreed by the PCT that patient records may be transferred in an electronic format or indeed on paper, robust information governance standards must be applied to ensure the safe and secure transfer of the record. The national health service chief executive, has written to all NHS trust chief executives to confirm the information governance standards that must apply to patient data.
Information is not collected centrally on how many PCTs convert electronic patient records into paper
documentation for the purposes of transfer between GP practices, nor the frequency that this occurs or on the number of transcription errors.
Methadone
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were prescribed methadone in (a) the UK, (b) the North East, (c) Tees Valley district and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency in each of the last 10 years; and what percentage of those prescribed methadone in the UK in each of the last 10 years were aged (i) under 18, (ii) between 18 and 25, (iii) between 26 and 40 and (iv) over 40 years at the date of first prescription. [229857]
Dawn Primarolo: The Department does not hold information on the number or age of patients treated with a particular drug. However we are able to provide two related sources of data covering the north east. These are the number of methadone prescriptions and the number of people receiving specialist prescribing treatment for drug misuse.
However, the number of items prescribed and dispensed for methadone is in the following table. Information is only held for the last 60 months and is based on the national health service organisation that most closely represents the areas requested.
Methadone can be used to treat more than one condition—it is licensed for use in opioid dependence, as an analgesic and as a cough suppressant.
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