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24 Feb 2009 : Column 661W—continued
NHS: Dental Services
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on what date he expects the conclusions of his Department’s independent review of NHS dentistry to be published. [257561]
Ann Keen: We expect the findings of the independent review team will be published in early summer 2009.
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what monitoring procedures are in place to ensure that primary care trusts are providing sufficient NHS dentistry services. [257982]
Ann Keen: The Dental Services Division of the Business Services Authority collects data on the numbers of patients who receive national health service care or treatment from a dentist one or more times during a 24-month period broken down by primary care trust. The latest data are contained in ‘NHS Dental Statistics for England Quarter 1: 30 June 2008’, a copy of which has already been placed in the Library.
NHS: Finance
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what capital expenditure allocations to NHS organisations have been agreed for (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11; which organisation will receive the funding in each case; and what the purpose of the funding is in each case. [255341]
Mr. Bradshaw: Information on the amounts of capital resources so far allocated to strategic health authorities, national health service trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in 2008 to 2009 has been placed in the Library.
The allocations data provided show the total capital resources allocated up to the end of Quarter 3, December 2008. Allocations include capital funding for locally prioritised capital expenditure and programme capital for centrally announced initiatives and reflect adjustments for capital grants to third parties.
Some organisations are showing a negative capital allocation. Negative allocations can arise where there are planned asset disposals and the selling organisation does not plan to reinvest the total value of the disposal in capital assets in the selling organisation's books in the year of disposal.
Allocations for 2009-10 are being set as part of NHS trusts' and PCTs' financial plans. This financial planning process is ongoing. 2010-11's capital allocations for NHS trusts and PCTs will be set under a similar process.
The Department does not hold information on the capital investment plans of NHS foundation trusts.
NHS: Infectious Diseases
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has carried out on the effectiveness of Clinell in the elimination of bacteria and viruses in NHS hospitals. [257304]
Ann Keen: The Department has not undertaken any research on the efficacy of Clinell in preventing viral and bacterial infections in hospitals. However, the Rapid Review Panel has concluded that more research and development is required before Clinell wipes are ready for evaluation in practice.
NHS: Sick Leave
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average number of sick days taken per member of staff was in each NHS trust in each of the last five years. [256367]
Ann Keen: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available has been placed in the Library.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to reduce levels of sick leave in the NHS. [256449]
Ann Keen: National health service employing organisations are responsible for taking appropriate local action to reduce levels of sick leave.
The Department recently published ‘The NHS Constitution’ which included a pledge to staff in the
NHS “to provide support and opportunities for staff to maintain their health, well-being and safety”. A copy of the publication has already been placed in the Library.
To support work on this pledge there will be a review of the health and well-being of the NHS work force as part of the Government's response to Dame Carol Black's report on the health of the United Kingdom's working-age population.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimates his Department has made of the cost of sick leave to the NHS in the latest period for which figures are available. [256450]
Ann Keen: Sickness absence in 2005 was reported to amount to 4.5 per cent. of available working time. It was estimated that each 0.1 percentage point reduction would give a theoretical saving of £35 million.
NHS: Wheelchairs
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average cost to the NHS of a motorised wheelchair for someone without arms and legs is; and if he will make a statement. [257501]
Phil Hope: Each wheelchair will need to be specifically tailored to each user's needs, and so the price will vary accordingly.
NHS Supply Chain has a framework agreement to supply motorised wheelchairs to the national health service. Prices on this framework agreement range from £865 to £5,400.
Personal Injury: Compensation
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 27 January 2009, Official Report, column 411W, on personal injury: compensation, (1) on how many occasions a check produced evidence of error or misleading information in 2007-08; [255769]
(2) on how many occasions a check led to prosecution in 2007-08. [255770]
Mr. Bradshaw: In 2007-08, the Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) undertook 60,440 checks on the initial statements of insurers and their agents where no NHS treatment was recorded in respect of the NHS injury costs recovery scheme. From these checks, 5364 claims were subsequently identified as having either inpatient or outpatient treatment where costs are recoverable under the scheme.
The CRU initiates these checks at the beginning of the recovery process to ensure that claims will be correct when it comes to settlement. There were no resulting prosecutions in 2007-08.
Rapid Review Panel
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the operational cost of the Rapid Review Panel was in the last 12 months; [257302]
(2) what the average time taken by the Rapid Review Panel to complete a review of a potential new product for use in the NHS is; [257303]
(3) what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Rapid Review Panel in reducing infectious diseases in NHS hospitals. [257410]
Ann Keen: The operational costs of the Rapid Review Panel (RRP) for the last 12 months were £24,210.
The RRP meets quarterly and the deadline for applications is approximately four weeks prior to the meeting date. Once the panel has met the reports are published on the RRP’s website within two weeks. Thus, the time taken to review a product will vary according to when the application was made in relation to the meeting date but generally a product will be reviewed within three months.
It is not possible to directly link the RRP work to infection rates as their role is to identify whether or not products submitted to the RRP have the potential to help the national health service reduce infections. However, the panel has undertaken 235 assessments since its first meeting and eight products have demonstrated sufficient basic research and development, validation and recent in use evaluations to enable the RRP to make a recommendation that the product should be made available to NHS bodies. Of these eight products, seven have been made available to the NHS by the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency via the NHS Supply Chain and will be contributing to their programmes to reduce infections.
Screening: Diabetes
Dr. Richard Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what guidance his Department has issued on steps to be taken on the identification of an abnormal result in a test carried out under the national screening programme for diabetic retinopathy; [256776]
(2) what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the national screening programme for diabetic retinopathy in reducing the risk of sight loss among people with diabetes. [256781]
Ann Keen: The English national screening programme for sight threatening retinopathy (NSP) was established to support local delivery of diabetic retinopathy screening. It has published guidance on the steps to be taken on the identification of an abnormal result in a test carried out under the national screening programme for diabetic retinopathy. This guidance is contained in the NSP’s workbook, a copy of which has been placed in the Library.
The NSP has also set national quality standards for screening programmes to measure the effectiveness of all screening programmes, also available in the Library. These include standards for the timely referral, assessment and treatment of patients with screen positive results and the reduction of new blindness due to retinopathy. The effectiveness of local screening programmes against these standards is being assessed as part of the external quality assurance process being undertaken by the NSP. In addition, the NSP is developing a project which aims to determine which type of delivery of the programme is most effective in the detection of sight threatening diabetic retinopathy.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Dr. Kumar:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of (a) syphilis, (b) HIV infection and (c) gonorrhoea have been diagnosed in (i) England, (ii)
the North East and (iii) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency in each of the last 10 years. [257541]
Dawn Primarolo:
Data on diagnoses of syphilis, HIV and gonorrhoea in genito-urinary medicine (GUM)
clinics are only collected by strategic health authority (SHA). Data for syphilis, HIV and gonorrhoea for England and the North East SHA since 1998 to 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, are given in the following table.
| Infection | Area of diagnoses | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| (1) Includes individuals diagnosed in the North East, where smaller geography is not reported. (2) Figures between 1 to 4 have been masked to protect deductive disclosure in accordance with Office for National Statistics guidelines. Notes: HIV 1. Numbers will rise as further reports are received. 2. Diagnoses are from reports received to end June 2008. 3. Data include individuals who have an existing infection as well as those who have a newly acquired infection and therefore the data do not present incidence of infection. 4. Areas when presented are area of diagnoses and not of residence, there is evidence that a large proportion of individuals are diagnosed outside of their PCT of residence. Syphilis and Gonorrhoea 1. The data available from the KC60 statutory returns are for diagnoses made in GUM clinics only. Diagnoses made in other clinical settings, such as general practice, are not recorded in the KC60 dataset. 2. The data available from the KC60 statutory returns are the number of diagnoses made, not the number of patients diagnosed. 3. The information provided has been adjusted for missing clinic data. 4. Data are unavailable for 2008. 5. Syphilis figures include diagnoses of primary and secondary infection only. Source: Health Protection Agency, HIV and AIDS new diagnoses and KC60 returns. | |||||||||||
Slaughterhouses
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many abattoirs have closed in each of the last five years. [257421]
Dawn Primarolo: According to the Food Standards Agency, the total number of abattoirs in the United Kingdom that have ceased operating in each of the last five years is as shown in the following table:
| Year | Number closed |
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