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26 Nov 2008 : Column 2104W—continued
NHS: Drugs
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of drugs prescribed within the NHS in England were preventative in the most recent period for which figures are available. [239560]
Dawn Primarolo: The Department does not hold the information requested.
NHS: Finance
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects the NHS to have fully implemented the health resource group coding system. [238268]
Mr. Bradshaw: Healthcare Resource Groups (HRGs) are a secondary healthcare classification of groups of procedures and treatments that are clinically meaningful, and are expected to use similar amounts of resource. They have been used to benchmark costings between providers of national health service care for more than 10 years.
HRGs are generated from the content of the patient record, and use a combination of administration, procedure and diagnoses primary classifications to describe the care received by a patient.
The latest iteration of HRGs, known as HRG4, was designed with substantial clinical involvement over a number of years. It has been used by the NHS in England for costing since April 2006.
NHS: ICT
Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what contribution the NHS IT Cerner system makes to hospital trusts’ returns to the Department of Health. [236770]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Cerner system allows all hospital trust returns to be made to the Department, with the sole exception of direct reporting from the system of 18 week wait patient pathway data, for which trusts have alternative arrangements. This additional facility has been built into a software release that has been tested and is due for future release.
Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the NHS IT Cerner system at Worthing and Southlands Hospital Trust reliably makes available at handover between nursing shifts and doctors’ shifts (a) patients’ names and numbers, (b) the ward, bay and bed of each patient, (c) the consultant in charge of each patient, (d) information on what is wrong with, or the condition of, each patient and (e) (i) a list of patients by ward and bed for nurses’ handover and (ii) a list of patients by consultant for doctors’ handover, each with the information in categories (a) to (c) above with lines of space between records to allow writing by nurses or doctors. [236771]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Cerner system provides all these data on line. Problems experienced at the Worthing and Southlands hospitals trust have involved the ability to print the data, and in a form acceptable to local national health service staff. Necessary modifications to facilitate this were delayed as a result of contract negotiations with the supplier between May and July 2008. These were installed in the system within the last week.
Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health by what means under the NHS IT Cerner system’s Power Chart (a) a doctor transfers a patient’s case between consultants and (b) a modification or alteration can be made to a diagnosis without deleting and re-entering the patient’s data. [236791]
Mr. Bradshaw: The transfer of care is initiated by the consultant and recorded in the system and has historically been done using a function called transfer in facility, which simultaneously provides for the transfer between wards. The ability to complete these actions in the powerchart facility has been enabled within the last week.
In the current version of the Cerner system, modification of existing diagnosis information is not possible, although there is a facility to copy existing information and allow updating of relevant information. The functionality to allow direct modification is expected to be available in the next major software release.
NHS: Inflation
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what mechanisms his Department uses to measure the rate of inflation as it applies to NHS costs. [238539]
Mr. Bradshaw: Between 1992-93 and 2003-04, the Department used the NHS inflation index to measure the rate of inflation specific to the NHS. The NHS inflation index is constructed using five sub-indices; these cover expenditure on Hospital and Community Health Sector (HCHS) pay, HCHS prices, HCHS capital, Family Health Services (FHS) and ‘other’.
The overall NHS inflation index is not available from 2004-05 onwards due to the introduction of new contracts for general medical services in 2004-05, pharmaceutical services in 2005-06 and general dental services in 2006-07 which provide flexibility for practitioners to expand the range of services they offer to patients. These new contracts mean that there are insufficient data to continue producing the FHS index.
The Department continues to measure HCHS inflation using the pay, prices and capital indices.
NHS: Labour Turnover
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of (a) NHS nurses and (b) NHS doctors who left their employment with between two and five years experience in (a) 2005, (b) 2006, (c) 2007 and (d) 2008 to date. [234832]
Ann Keen: The estimated headcount number of national health service doctors and nurses leaving the English NHS for the years 2005 and 2006 is shown in the following table.
| Joiners in 2006 | Leavers from 2005 | Joiners in2007 | Leavers from 2006 | |
| Source: NHS Information Centre Medical and Non Medical workforce censuses http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/workforce/nhs-turnover | ||||
Data for 2007 and 2008 have not yet been collected. No data are available to show how many of the leavers shown in the aforementioned table left the NHS with between two and five years experience.
NHS: Mental Health Services
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether mental health service users will be guaranteed a choice of hospital under the proposed NHS Constitution. [239577]
Ann Keen: The draft constitution states that
“you have a right to make choices about your NHS care. The options available to you will develop over time and depend on your individual need”.
In the handbook to the draft constitution it states that directions will be given by the Secretary of State under section 8 of the NHS Act to require primary care trusts to ensure that patients have a right to choose their providers. A copy of the handbook has been placed in the Library. Directions will specify services covered, exceptions and whether mental health service users are included. We have recently consulted on the draft constitution and the final constitution will be published in due course.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the guaranteed choice of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence approved treatments as outlined in the NHS constitution will apply to mental health treatment guidelines. [239579]
Dawn Primarolo: The proposed NHS constitution right applies to all drugs and treatments that are recommended in technology appraisal guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and covered by the associated funding direction.
NHS: Procurement
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what procurement guidance his Department provides to NHS trusts on in-house bids received during a tendering process for clinical support services. [238427]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department published a PCT Procurement Guide for Health Services in May 2008. The Guide supports NHS Commissioners in deciding whether and how to procure health services through formal tendering and market-testing exercises. It is one of the system management tools and guidance documents and it is referenced in the Principles and Rules for Cooperation and Competition.
Copies of both documents have been placed in the Library and are also available at:
PCT Procurement Guide for Health Services:
Principles and Rules for Cooperation and Competition:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_081098? IdcService=GET_FILE8idID=156035&Rendition=Web
NHS: Public Participation
Mr. Meale: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will consider providing funding for the establishment and operation of a national association of local involvement networks. [237867]
Ann Keen: We have always made clear that the drive to strengthen the voice of patients, users and the public is local: local people and communities influencing their local services.
Local involvement networks (LINks) are independent and have the power to develop their own priorities and agendas based on feedback from their communities. We recognise, however, that they need to develop relationships with a number of stakeholders to fulfil their statutory role effectively. There is nothing to prevent LINks using some of their funding to establish local, regional or national networks if they so wish. We do not believe this is a decision for Government but rather a matter for LINks themselves.
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will bring forward proposals to increase the budgets for local involvement networks to reflect the number of activities they will undertake. [239299]
Ann Keen: I refer my right hon. Friend to the answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Mr. Meale) on 20 May 2008, Official Report, column 202W.
Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will provide indemnity to members of local involvement networks in undertaking their scrutiny functions; and if he will make a statement. [239552]
Ann Keen: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to the hon. Member for Mansfield (Mr. Meale) on 20 May 2008, Official Report, column 202W.
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