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13 Mar 2009 : Column 785W—continued
Eating Disorders
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Government plan to increase the number of consultants specialising in the treatment of eating disorders. [262922]
Phil Hope: It is for local national health service employers to recruit their own staff to best meet the health care needs of their local population.
Hospitals: Transport
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) primary care trusts and (b) NHS hospital trusts contract with bus operators to run dedicated bus services to hospitals within their areas. [263044]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is not held centrally.
The hon. Member may wish to approach his local national health service organisations for further information.
Hospitals: Waiting Lists
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average hospital waiting time for each specialty was for each acute hospital trust in England in each quarter since 2007. [260430]
Mr. Bradshaw: The median referral to treatment waiting times by treatment function for each national health service acute trust in each month for which figures are available since 2007 are shown in the document, “Median by month acute trusts”, which shows data for each organisation as they were submitted to the Department in the relevant year, has been placed in the Library.
Nationally, the median referral to treatment time waited of patients who were admitted for treatment has come down from 18.8 weeks when data were first collected in March 2007 to 7.6 weeks in December 2008. Nationally,
the median referral to treatment time waited for non-admitted patients was 4.1 weeks in December 2008, compared to 7.4 weeks in August 2007 when data were first collected.
NHS Treatment Centres: Private Sector
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research he has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the future financial position of independent sector treatment centres. [262977]
Mr. Bradshaw: No research has been commissioned to date on the future financial position of independent sector treatment centres.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for the (a) renegotiation and (b) renewal of independent sector treatment centre (ISTC) contracts issued in the (i) first and (ii) second wave of the ISTC programme; and what involvement he expects (A) primary care trusts, (B) strategic health authorities and (C) other bodies to have in discussions on such contracts. [262978]
Mr. Bradshaw: Plans for the management of contract expiry including independent sector treatment centre wave 1 contracts are being developed. Consideration of Phase 2 has not begun, as the contracts will expire between 2011 and 2017. Decisions will be taken based on local service need and value for money. All of this will be considered as part of the process.
Primary care trusts as commissioners and strategic health authorities will have an important role in taking this work forward. No other bodies are currently involved.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the cost liabilities expected to arise from the independent sector treatment programme in the next five years. [262981]
Mr. Bradshaw: The total cost liability associated with the treatment of national health service patients arising from the independent sector treatment programme (ISTC) over the next five years is estimated to be £1,412 million. (This is the expected payment to ISTC Wave 1 and Phase 2 providers based on the contracted value of activity for the next five years from 1 April 2009).
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to bring into the NHS independent sector treatment centre (ISTC) facilities contracted in the (a) first and (b) second wave of the ISTC programme. [262982]
Mr. Bradshaw: There are no plans to bring national health service independent sector treatment centre (ISTC) facilities into the NHS at this stage. The ISTC providers are part of NHS capacity.
NHS: ICT
Mr. Stephen O'Brien:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much (a) capital and (b) revenue funding has been provided for the measurement of health outcomes in the NHS since the National
Programme for IT was first proposed; and what percentage of the NHS IT budget for 2008-09 has been allocated for this purpose. [263133]
Mr. Bradshaw: Measuring health outcomes and using that information to improve services is integral to the delivery of effective health care. For example, cancer registry data are used in the planning and delivery of services, and also on a wider scale for the development of national policy on public health interventions and for the prioritisation of research. The National Programme for IT infrastructure provides a vehicle for collecting, sharing and storing health outcomes data, among many other applications.
The specific information requested is not available as a separately identifiable reporting line within overall national health service expenditure.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) capital and (b) revenue expenditure has been incurred on the implementation of picture archiving and communication systems in England since the National Programme for IT was first proposed. [263134]
Mr. Bradshaw: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 9 March 2009, Official Report, columns 117-18W.
NHS: Standards
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for which routine surgical operations information on outcomes is collected in the NHS; and whether his Department proposes to introduce further outcome measurement in other routine surgical operations. [260362]
Mr. Bradshaw: There is no standard definition of ‘routine surgical operations’. The national health service collects information on surgical operations from a range of data sources, for example:
(i) There are limited clinical audit outcomes data on surgery for cancer (lung, head and neck, bowel, oesophago-gastric, mastectomy and breast re-construction), and heart disease (cardiac and paediatric surgery). Reports on these have been placed in the Library.
(ii) Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) is the national statistical records-based system for England for the care provided by NHS hospitals and for NHS hospital patients treated elsewhere. Each HES record—one for each period of care—contains clinical information about diagnoses and operation. There is no nationally agreed definition of ‘main procedure and intervention’. Each episode in HES has 24 procedure and intervention fields. The ‘main procedure and intervention’ should be the one that is the most resource intensive. Procedure and interventions are recorded using the latest version of the Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys: Classification of Interventions and Procedures, 4(th) Revision, OPCS-4.4 for 2008-09, and a copy of this has been placed in the Library.
The National Centre for Health Outcomes Development (NCHOD) has linked HES data with Office for National Statistics deaths data to develop indicators on deaths within 30-days of a coronary artery bypass graft and within 30-days of surgery for non-elective admissions (excluding diagnostic procedures and spells with cancer).
(iii) Patient Reported Outcome Measures—From 1 April 2009 all providers of NHS-funded care who are subject to the terms of the Standard NHS contract for acute services will be obliged to invite patients undergoing hip and knee replacements, groin hernia and varicose vein surgeries to complete patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) questionnaires.
The Department is actively exploring extending the use of PROMs into other clinical areas including long-term conditions. Any future decision to extend the use of PROMs will be based on a sound evidence base.
The Department is aware of a number of examples where local providers and regional networks are involved in other data collection exercises, including local PROMs collection, although there is no central register of these activities.
“High Quality Care for All” stressed quality as the organising principle of the NHS and the need for this to be supported by measurement. Therefore, the Department set out the vision for developing quality indicators across patient safety, effectiveness and patient experience including outcomes of care, PROMs and surgical outcomes, and using these to improve the quality of services in the NHS. This is described in “Measuring for Quality Improvement (MQI)—The Approach”. A copy of this document has been placed in the Library.
Prostate Cancer
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps the NHS Screening Programme will take to inform GPs about the prostate cancer risk management programme; [263371]
(2) when he expects the revised prostate cancer risk management programme to be published; [263372]
(3) what plans he has to (a) monitor and (b) evaluate the use of the revised prostate cancer risk management programme by GPs. [263373]
Ann Keen: A comprehensive strategy has been developed to inform general practitioners (GPs) of the revised prostate cancer risk management programme (PCRMP) when it is relaunched in summer 2009. This includes:
a medical press launch;
proactive educational programmes;
development of a slide set;
a road show using the slide set, co-ordinated by the British Association of Urological Surgeons;
a web cast;
making the PCRMP materials available on GP information technology systems;
a peer reviewed paper in a peer reviewed journal; and
a British Medical Journal e-learning module.
The Cancer Research UK Primary Care Education Research Group will undertake a detailed evaluation of the use and effectiveness of the revised PCRMP packs, as they did with the original packs.
Schizophrenia
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many community treatment orders have been issued for patients suffering from paranoid schizophrenia since 3 November 2008. [263236]
Phil Hope: The information requested is not available.
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 12 January 2009, Official Report, column 184W, on schizophrenia, which severe and enduring conditions are sufficient to make it inappropriate to allow a mental health patient a choice over his treatment. [263258]
Phil Hope: Each mental health service user should have an opportunity to be actively involved in agreeing their treatment plans wherever possible. This is not dependent on diagnosis, but may be affected by the severity of the condition at any particular time.
Suffolk Primary Care Trust: Consultants
Mr. Gummer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with the Eastern Region Strategic Health Authority on Suffolk Primary Care Trust's understatement of spending on management consultants. [262737]
Phil Hope: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has had no discussions with the East of England strategic health authority on Suffolk primary care trust’s understatement of spending on management consultants.
Home Department
Identity Cards: Marketing
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the national identity scheme 2008-09 budget is allocated for publicity and promotional purposes. [263205]
Mr. Malik: IPS has budgeted to spend approximately 0.25 per cent. of the 2008-09 budget for the national identity scheme for publicity and advertising.
Written Questions: Government Responses
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer of 28 November 2008, Official Report, column 2776W, on ministerial duties, when she plans to write to the hon. Member for Hornchurch with a substantive response; and what the reason is for the time taken to provide the information requested. [263496]
Jacqui Smith: I wrote to the hon. Member on 12 March. My Department makes every effort to answer all Members correspondence within a reasonable time scale. However, this is not always possible.
Innovation, Universities and Skills
Departmental Data Protection
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills whether his Department uses WPA2 encryption protocol on all its wireless networks. [259812]
Mr. Simon: Information is a key asset to Government and its correct handling is vital to the delivery of public services and to the integrity of HMG. The Security Policy Framework, the Data Handling Report and the National Information Assurance Strategy produced by the Cabinet Office provide a strategic framework for protecting information that Government handle and put in place a set of mandatory measures which Departments must adhere to.
It is not in the interest of the security of the Department, or that of the public, to disclose detailed information pertaining to the specific technical measures employed to protect our networks (wireless or other). Disclosing such information would enable criminals and those who would attempt to cause disruptive threats to the Department to deduce how to conduct attacks and therefore potentially enhance their capability to carry out such attacks.
The Department follows CESG guidance on the use of the Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) communications security protocols in order to protect wireless networks carrying protectively marked (up to RESTRICTED/IL3) traffic. The configuration and operation standards for WPA2 are set out in CESG’s Infosec Manual Y, Use of WPA2 Wireless Security in Government Systems. The Department also complies with HMG IA Standard No 4—Communication, Security and Cryptography for the encryption of data.
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills (1) if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department’s IT security hierarchy; [259814]
(2) what scanning for vulnerabilities his Department conducts of each of its IT devices; what method is used for IT device scans; and how many vulnerabilities have been detected as a result of such scans in the last 12 months. [259815]
Mr. Simon: Information is a key asset to Government and its correct handling is vital to the delivery of public services and to the integrity of HMG. The Security Policy Framework, the Data Handling Report and the National Information Assurance Strategy produced by the Cabinet Office provide a strategic framework for protecting information that Government handle and put in place a set of mandatory measures which Departments must adhere to.
It is not in the interest of the security of the Department, or that of the public, to disclose detailed information pertaining to electronic breaches of security of Department’s IT systems. Disclosing such information would enable criminals and those who would attempt to cause disruptive threats to the Department to deduce how to conduct attacks and therefore potentially enhance their capability to carry out such attacks.
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what IT security policy his Department has; what procedures are in place to ensure the policy is being followed; what his Department’s policy is on encryption of data when it leaves departmental premises; and what sanctions are in place for failure to comply with this policy. [259851]
Mr. Simon: Information is a key asset to Government and its correct handling is vital to the delivery of public services and to the integrity of HMG. The Security Policy Framework, the Data Handling Report and the National Information Assurance Strategy produced by the Cabinet Office provide a strategic framework for protecting information that Government handle and put in place a set of mandatory measures which Departments must adhere to.
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