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11 Mar 2009 : Column 511W—continued
Heart Diseases
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many men under the age of 35 years resident in (a) West Chelmsford constituency and (b) England had heart attacks in each of the last five years. [261766]
Ann Keen: The following table provides data from the East of England strategic health authority (SHA) (which includes West Chelmsford constituency). We are unable to break the data down into individual constituencies. The East of England strategic health authority was formed in 2006-07 by a merger of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire; Essex; and Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. Figures for 2003-04 to 2005-06 were calculated by summing these three together. It shows the number of males under the age of 35 years old who were admitted to hospital due to a heart attack:
| Finished admission episodes | ||
| East of England SHA( 1) | England | |
| (1) Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire; Essex; and Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire prior to 2006-07 Notes: Finished admission episodes: A finished admission episode is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Finished admission episodes are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. Primary diagnosis: The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and 7 prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital. The ICD-10 codes used to identify heart attacks are as follows: I21—acute myocardial infarction I22—subsequent myocardial infarction 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 HES record. Data quality: HES are compiled from data sent by more than 300 national health service 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 via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), the NHS information centre for health and social care. | ||
Hospital Wards
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 25 February 2009, Official Report, columns 874-5W, on hospital wards: gender, what milestones he has set between now and June for the project; and how he will assess the effects of the changes following their implementation. [260829]
Ann Keen: A number of milestones have been agreed that relate both to the Department's programme plan for eliminating mixed sex accommodation and to the use of the associated ‘Privacy and Dignity' fund.
The milestones for the Privacy and Dignity fund are:
strategic health authority (SHA) plans will be submitted to the Department by 9 March 2009;
departmental ratification of the plans (which are to set out specific projects and timelines for improvements in the SHA regions) will take place in order to release the funds from 1 April 2009; and
local improvements and changes must be implemented by the end of June 2009.
SHAs will report to the Department every two weeks following the submission, and approval, of their local plans, confirming actions taken and variance from the planned milestones. The Department will also require a report from each SHA confirming the delivery of the plan by the beginning of July 2009.
Use of the privacy and dignity fund is likely to be informed by the requirement set out in the Operating Framework for the NHS 2009-10, that
“PCTs are expected to work with their local providers to deliver substantial and meaningful reductions in the number of patients who report that they share sleeping or sanitary accommodation with members of the opposite sex”.
PCTs are asked to ensure plans will be published by the end of March 2009.
The programme for eliminating mixed sex accommodation comprises four workstreams; to raise the focus, develop metrics assurance, facilitate spread of good practice and deliver targeted support. The key milestones themselves include:
establishment of an operations team and a broader programme governance infrastructure (February 2009);
compilation of a communications strategy (March 2009);
begin improvement team's engagement with trusts requiring support (March 2009)
publishing a root cause analysis toolkit for local use by the NHS (April 2009);
‘sharing good practice' event, (by end June 2009); and
phased handover of improvement activity to local health community arrangements (from June 2009 onwards).
The Department: will consider the outcome of inpatient surveys in assessing the success of these changes.
Malnutrition
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) pursuant to the answer of 26 February 2009, Official Report, column 1028W, on malnutrition, what the statistical margin of error would be if the General Practice Research Database sample were used to project a population-wide figure; [262545]
(2) how frequently the analysis referred to is undertaken; and if he will make a statement. [262546]
Dawn Primarolo: The General Practice Research Database (GPRD) is a collection of data from general practices selected to be as geographically demographically representative as possible of the UK. The age and gender distribution is similar to that as detailed by the Office for National Statistics on the basis of census data. GPRD practices are provided with recording guidelines against which data quality is monitored.
The GPRD contains records of patients recorded as suffering from malnutrition under a range of different terms, known as ‘Read Terms'. There are many thousands of Read codes in total, and 24 separate codes relating to malnutrition. This range of different codes is designed to allow the general practitioner (GP) to record the condition at different levels of specificity of disease.
The Read code used is at the discretion of the GP and is based on their diagnosis of the patient's condition
The data as previously given are a reasonable population based estimate of the level of malnutrition, as recorded within primary care data, based upon the GPRD sample size.
The analysis undertaken to count the number of such cases, in the GPRD, is not done routinely. It was done in response to a specific request. The analysis could be repeated at any time in the future.
Maternity Services: Finance
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the tariff uplift breakdown for 2009-10, published by his Department on 5 February 2009, under which headings the additional funding his Department has provided for maternity services is included. [262638]
Ann Keen: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave him on 3 March 2009, Official Report, column 1478W.
Mental Health Services
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what effect he expects the NHS Constitution will have on levels of access to National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence-approved psychological therapies; and if he will make a statement. [261980]
Ann Keen: The NHS Constitution sets out that patients have the right to drugs and treatments that have been recommended by a National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal, if their doctor says they are clinically appropriate. This includes psychological therapies appraised by NICE. The right is underpinned by a statutory funding direction, in place since January 2002, which requires primary care trusts to make funding available for drugs and treatments recommended in a NICE technology appraisal, normally within three months of publication of the appraisal.
NHS: Lost Property
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the total cost of equipment (a) lost by and (b) stolen from the NHS in 2007-08. [262006]
Ann Keen: The information is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
NHS: Negligence
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was paid by the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) to the 11 firms on the NHSLA panel for clinical cases for their services (a) on behalf of the NHSLA and (b) provided to claimants in each year since 1996-97. [262044]
Ann Keen: The NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) panel solicitors do not provide services to claimants therefore the amount paid by the NHSLA for clinical cases for their services provided to claimants is zero.
Providing data specifically for panel solicitors or for years prior to 1999 would be at disproportionate cost because the information is not readily accessible. Additionally, it is difficult to compare using information prior to 2002-03 because excess levels were operated on schemes, which means the data held do not cover all claims.
However, the NHSLA has provided the following table. The NHSLA does not have defence costs recorded prior to 1999 due to a change in accounting systems. Additionally, the NHSLA only records data by year for overall defence costs, which include barrister and medical expert fees alongside panel solicitors’ fees.
| NHSLA defence legal costs paid per year by scheme | ||||
| £000 | ||||
| Clinical negligence scheme for trusts | Existing liabilities scheme | Ex-regional health authorities | Total clinical | |
| (1) The NHSLA operated excess levels on two clinical schemes whereby trusts themselves handled and funded claims below the excess levels. The NHSLA does not hold data related to these claims. Excess levels for each of the two schemes were removed in the marked years and outstanding claims below excess were then fully funded by the schemes. These years therefore include reimbursement by the NHSLA of legal costs already paid by trusts against those claims. It will also include legal costs associated with solicitors not on the NHSLA’s panel because trusts were originally handling some of those claims themselves and will have appointed their own solicitors. | ||||
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many clinical negligence cases were open on the NHS Litigation Authority database at the most recent date for which figures are available; and how many of them are being funded by (a) legal aid, (b) conditional fee agreements, (c) before the event insurance, (d) private means and (e) other means. [262745]
Ann Keen: The information requested was obtained from the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) and is provided in the following table. Claimants are not required to provide details of their funding arrangements, but the NHSLA records this where it is known.
| Number of clinical negligence claims open as at 28 February 2009 | |
| Claimant funding | Total |
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many clinical negligence cases were brought in the last year for which figures are available; and how many of them were funded by (a) legal aid, (b) conditional fee agreements, (c) before the event insurance, (d) private means and (e) other means. [262746]
Ann Keen: The information requested was obtained from the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) and is provided in the following table. Claimants are not required to provide details of their funding arrangements, but the NHSLA records this where it is known.
| Number of clinical negligence claims received in 2007-08 as at 28 February 2009 | |
| Claimant funding | Total |
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