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23 Feb 2009 : Column 204W—continued
There was a peak in media activity, including stakeholder engagement exercises, in 2007-08 when external resources were procured to supplement in-house resources and to support local national health service organisations in press activity covering local deployments, particularly picture archiving and communications (digital imaging) systems, and to also help meet the Public Accounts Committee recommendation from June 2006 on increasing stakeholder engagement. These activities, in addition to supporting the public information programme in summary care record early adopter areas, accounted for an increase in costs.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the Department has spent on legal fees relating to the NHS IT programme in the last 12 months. [256711]
Mr. Bradshaw: In the calendar year 1 January-31 December 2008 £3.969 million, excluding VAT, was paid to lawyers for services received by NHS Connecting for Health in relation to its role in delivering the NHS IT programme, and maintaining the critical business systems previously provided to the national health service by the former NHS Information Authority.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisers
Mr. Stephen O'Brien:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether special advisers in his Department count time taken in answering calls from
hon. Members as part of their contracted hours of work; [256552]
(2) what briefings special advisers in his Department have prepared using IT systems provided by his Department in the last six months; and to whom the briefings were distributed. [256558]
Mr. Bradshaw: Special advisers carry out all elements of their role in accordance with the code of conduct for special advisers.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health from which budget his Department's £100 million Privacy and Dignity Fund will be provided; and upon what criteria such funding will be allocated. [255301]
Ann Keen: The £100 million Privacy and Dignity Fund is being made available from the Department's unallocated central contingency for 2009-10. It is expected that the funding will be allocated based on plans received from strategic health authorities.
Departmental Redundancy
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2009 , Official Report, column 1370W, on redundancy, what estimate he has made of the annual payroll savings resulting from staff exit schemes in (a) 2005-06, (b) 2006-07, (c) 2007-08 and (d) 2008-09 excluding the cost of severance packages; and what estimate he has made of the equivalent figures for 2009-10. [254462]
Mr. Bradshaw: The actual cost of the salaries of staff leaving the Department through exit schemes is set out in the following table:
| Total actual salaries cost (£) | |
| (1) To date. | |
No estimate has been made for 2009-10.
Departmental Sick Leave
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff in his Department were on sick leave for (a) over 30 days, (b) over 50 days and (c) over 100 days in each of the last five years. [256326]
Mr. Bradshaw: The number of staff on sick leave for the periods requested are presented in the following table.
| Calendar year | 31 to 50 days sick leave | 51 to 100 days sick leave | Over 100 days sick leave |
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff in his Department were recorded as having been on sick leave for over 12 months on 31 December in each of the last five years. [256628]
Mr. Bradshaw: The number of employees in the Department recorded as having been on sick leave for over 12 months on 31 December in each of the last five years is presented in the following table:
| Number of employees on sick leave for over 12 months on 31 December | |
Departmental Translation Services
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many language translators are employed in (a) each of his Department's executive agencies and (b) its non-ministerial department; and what the cost of translating services provided by such people was in the latest period for which information is available. [257158]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department: and its agencies do not employ language translators. The Department and its agencies purchase translation services from the Central Office of Information and approved suppliers. These services are purchased locally by directorates where required.
Drugs: Rehabilitation
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department has made of the number of patient drug treatment programmes which had the capacity to treat (a) nationwide, (b) in each region and (c) in each of the five smallest geographical areas for which figures are available in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [251248]
Dawn Primarolo: We do not centrally collect information on the capacity of drug misuse treatment services.
However, as part of their remit to improve the availability and effectiveness of drug treatment, the national treatment agency for substance misuse through the annual drug treatment planning process ensures that all 149 local drug partnerships are commissioning and providing a comprehensive range of drug treatment services that meets the needs of their drug misusing populations.
General Practitioners
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what accountability provisions there are for GPs in the new contract; what requirements there are for GPs to provide explanations for instances where (a) misdiagnosis and (b) other forms of mistreatment have occurred; and who is responsible for ensuring that such requirements are met. [254217]
Mr. Bradshaw: It is for primary care trusts (PCTs) to ensure that those providing NHS primary medical services meet the terms of their contract. There are requirements for those contracts set out in the National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) Regulations 2004, the National Health Service (Personal Medical Services Agreements) Regulations 2004 and the National Health Service Act 2006: Alternative Provider Medical Services Directions 2008. Where a contractor fails to comply with the terms of their contract, the PCT may issue a remedial notice giving the contractor a specified time within which the concerns should be remedied. Where the contractor takes no steps to remedy the matter, the PCT may terminate the contract. In certain circumstances, the PCT may impose sanctions on the contractor.
There are no contractual requirements for general practitioners (GPs) or GP practices to provide explanation for instances where misdiagnosis and other forms of mistreatment have occurred.
Under the terms of their contract, GPs are obliged to operate a complaints procedure which allows patients to raise concerns about any matter connected to the provision of services under the contract. Under this procedure, all complaints must be properly investigated and the complainant given a written summary of the investigation and its conclusions. There are also requirements set out in the regulations and directions referred to regarding the qualification of persons who perform services, conditions for employment and engagement of those persons, training, level of skill, appraisal and assessment.
Professional guidance published by the General Medical Council (GMC) includes an obligation for doctors to share with patients, in a way they can understand, the information they want or need to know about their condition, its likely progression, and the treatment options available to them, including associated risks and uncertainties and to respond to patients’ questions and keep them informed about the progress of their care.
The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), which rewards GP practices for achieving quality indicators, includes an indicator (Education 4) to reward practices for undertaking a minimum of 12 significant event reviews in the last three years. A significant event occurs when a patient may have been subjected to harm, had the circumstances/outcome been different (near miss). Each review case must consist of a short commentary setting out the relevant history, the circumstances of the episode and an analysis of the conclusions to be drawn. The practice is required to report to the PCT on its analysis and the PCT is expected to discuss the reviews as part of its QOF assessment visit.
The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has developed a form to help health care staff report patient safety incidents. These are any unintended or unexpected incidents which could have or did lead to harm for one or more patients receiving NHS-funded health care. NPSA recommend that it should be used as soon as possible after the incident has happened.
Subject to the outcome of consultation, it is planned that the Care Quality Commission will register all GP practices to a consistent set of essential quality and safety criteria. Registration of primary care practices would help both to drive up the quality of practice-level clinical governance and to enable PCTs to concentrate on overseeing a small number of poor-quality practices.
General Practitioners: Finance
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2009, Official Report, columns 144-45W, on general practitioners: finance, in which practices the minimum practice income guarantee comprises more than 25 per cent. of total NHS income. [254160]
Mr. Bradshaw: The list of all those practices with General Medical Services minimum practice income guarantee comprising more than 25 per cent. of their total income is as follows.
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