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16 Mar 2009 : Column 892W—continued
Bone Marrow Disorders
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people are waiting for bone marrow transplants in (a) England, (b) the North East and (c) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency. [262912]
Ann Keen: The Department does not hold this information centrally.
Dementia
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 9 March 2009, Official Report, column 111W, on dementia, who the members of the new National Dementia Strategy Programme Board are; and if he will make a statement. [263348]
Phil Hope: The terms of reference and membership of the new National Dementia Strategy Implementation Programme Board have yet to be finalised. They will be considered at the final meeting of the old Dementia Strategy Programme Board, now to be held on 31 March. They will then be determined by Ministers before the information is placed on the dementia page of the Department's website.
Departmental Detergents
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to ensure that no cleaning products or ingredients of cleaning products used by his Department have been tested on animals. [261126]
Mr. Bradshaw:
The Department does not purchase directly any cleaning products. Our cleaning contractor
Resource has advised that its suppliers do have policies and a copy of these will be placed in the Library.
Departmental Disciplinary Proceedings
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff in his Department (a) were disciplined and (b) had their employment terminated as a result of a poor sickness record in each of the last 12 months. [262234]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department has formally disciplined fewer than five individuals in the last 12 months as a result of a poor sickness record, and dismissed fewer than five individuals in the last 12 months for that reason.
Because of the small numbers involved, it is the Department's practice not to provide the specific information requested on the grounds of confidentiality.
Similarly, there are a small number of cases which are currently at an informal stage of the disciplinary process.
Departmental Public Relations
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his Department's expenditure on contracts with public relations consultancies was in each of the last five years. [251254]
Mr. Bradshaw: Public relations companies are employed to support a very wide range of marketing and policy initiatives. This includes major public health behaviour change programmes (such as tobacco control, sexual health, flu immunisation, obesity prevention, hand and respiratory hygiene and drug and alcohol harm reduction programmes) in addition to communicating to the national health service workforce and supporting clinical campaigns. The following table also includes NHS Connecting for Health expenditure.
| Department of Health Expenditure on public relations consultancies 2004-09 | |||||
| £ | |||||
| 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09( 1) | |
| (1) Spend to date | |||||
The work commissioned through public relations companies includes a wide range of marketing activity including: advertorials, newsletter production, conference and event management, research, creation of content and photography and stakeholder relations activity.
Departmental Surveys
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 9 March 2009, Official Report, columns 137-38W, on departmental surveys, if he will place in the Library a copy of the results of the most recent staff survey undertaken by his Department. [263359]
Mr. Bradshaw: A copy of the document requested has been placed in the Library. This and the results of other staff surveys in the Department are now available and will, in future, be available on the staff survey page of the general civil service website.
Health Professions: English Language
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance he has issued to NHS trusts on English-speaking requirements for clinical staff. [263392]
Ann Keen: It is the responsibility of employers to ensure that the clinical staff they employ are able to safely and effectively communicate with colleagues and patients. NHS employers have issued guidance on their website about international recruitment and language competence.
Heart Diseases: Hertfordshire
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many men under the age of 35 years resident in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire had heart attacks in each of the last five years. [263067]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not available in the format requested. The available information is held by primary care trust (PCT) area. However, the Department is unable to provide the data for West Hertfordshire PCT as it is Hospital Episode Statistics' protocol to suppress the results of data collection where the total is less than six individuals for reasons of patient confidentiality.
However, the following table provides data from the East of England Strategic Authority (SHA) (which includes Hemel Hempstead and Hertfordshire). 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 | |
| Notes: 1. The East of England SHA 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 are therefore the combined figures of these three SHAs. 2. Finished admission episodes: a finished admission episode is the first period of in-patient 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 in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. 3. Primary diagnosis: the primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and seven prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) dataset and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital. 4. The ICD-10 codes used to identify heart attacks are as follows; I21—Acute myocardial infarction and I22—Subsequent myocardial infarction. 5. 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. 6. Data quality: HES are compiled from data sent by more than 300 national health service trusts and PCTs in England. Data are also received from a number of independent sector organisations for activity commissioned by the NHS in England. 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 | |
HIV Infection
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what programmes his Department is funding to encourage people with HIV to be advocates for HIV prevention. [263053]
Dawn Primarolo: The Department funds both the Terrence Higgins Trust and the African HIV Policy Network to deliver targeted work with the groups most affected by HIV, gay men and people from African communities, respectively. Both organisations will develop initiatives on positive prevention in 2009-10. National advocacy will be developed through the national programmes in partnership with other voluntary organisations consulting with key stakeholders in the community.
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people who attended a genito-urinary medicine clinic received an HIV test when they attended the clinic in each of the last five years. [263130]
Phil Hope: Data on HIV are only available on the number of tests performed not on the number of patients tested. Data on the number of HIV tests performed in genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics in England between 2003 and 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, are shown in the following table.
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| Notes: 1. The data available from the KC60 statutory returns are for diagnoses and services provided in GUM clinics only. Diagnoses and services provided in other clinical settings, such as general practice, are not recorded in the KC60 dataset. 2. The information provided has been adjusted for missing clinic data. 3. Data are unavailable for 2008. Source: Health Protection Agency, KC60 returns. | |||||
Memory Clinics
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will set a deadline for primary care trusts to take decisions on the (a) nature, (b) number and (c) funding of memory services. [263351]
Phil Hope: The decisions about local implementation of the National Dementia Strategy, including decisions on the development of memory services, will be a matter for individual primary care trusts and local authorities.
Mental Health Services
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many assertive outreach teams there were in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire in each of the last 10 years. [263064]
Phil Hope: The information is not held centrally in the format requested.
However, the total number of assertive outreach (AO) teams in the East of England strategic health authority (SHA) and for Hertfordshire Partnerships NHS Trust from March 2007 to present is provided in the following table. Earlier data is no longer accessible.
| Mental health services: Assertive outreach teams in East of England SHA and in Hertfordshire Partnerships NHS Trust from the year 2007 to present | ||
| Year ending March each year | East of England SHA | Hertfordshire Partnerships NHS Trust |
| Note: The Department no longer has an agreement with Durham University who provided the Department with data on the number of AOs prior to March 2007 and the database is no longer accessible. Source: Mental Health Strategies. | ||
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 5 March 2009, Official Report, column 1768W, on mental health services, (1) which professions deliver cognitive behavioural therapy; [263532]
(2) how his Department defines the term state of the art training in relation to cognitive behavioural therapy; [263533]
(3) what mechanisms are in place to assess the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy. [263534]
Phil Hope: Clinical psychologists, counselling psychologists, nurse therapists, primary care counsellors and other qualified mental health professionals are eligible to train in delivering cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for depression and anxiety disorders, high intensity therapy, as part of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme. Those without a core professional background are required to complete a knowledge, skills and attitudes portfolio to be eligible for training.
All those currently delivering CBT are required to be accredited by the BABCP (British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies), the United Kingdom’s leading organisation for CBT.
People from a wide range of backgrounds with a special interest in therapeutic approaches are eligible to train in delivering low intensity interventions.
IAPT programme training courses can be described as “state of the art” courses principally because they are based on the CBT competency framework, which was a piece of empirical science.
In addition, these training courses focus on clinical skills development for low and high intensity therapists; they have national curricula developed through expert and lay consultation; they are supported by clear national learning materials, and techniques developed in clinical trials are taught by experts in the relevant therapeutic discipline.
All the educational institutions delivering these courses around the country are subject to an accreditation regime that provides quality assurance.
The IAPT programme has one principal aim—to help primary care trusts (PCTs) implement the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines for people suffering from depression and/or anxiety disorders.
CBT is an evidence-based intervention and is recommended by NICE for the treatment of depression and/or anxiety disorders. However, all IAPT services are required to collect routine clinical outcomes at every session so that clinical teams can evaluate the effectiveness of the service and so patients can see and discuss their progress with their therapist. The data also enable PCTs and practice based commissioners to commission psychological therapy services for the outcomes they are expected to achieve.
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