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18 Jun 2009 : Column 473W—continued
| Count of finished consultant episodes for congenital heart disease* for those aged 16 and over by paediatric cardiology specialty and hospital provider, 2007-08. Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector | ||
| Hospital provider code | Hospital provider name | Total e pisodes |
| Notes: Consultant main specialty This defines the specialty under which the consultant responsible for the care of the patient at that time is registered. Care is needed when analysing Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data by specialty, or by groups of specialties (such as “acute”). Trusts have different ways of managing specialties and attributing codes so it is better to analyse by specific diagnoses, operations or other patient or service information. Ungrossed data Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (i.e. the data are ungrossed). Finished Consultant Episode (FCE). A finished consultant episode (FCE) is defined as a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. FCEs are counted against the year in which they end. The figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or in different stays in the same year. 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 HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was admitted to hospital. *The following ICD-10 codes have been used: Q20—Congenital malformations of cardiac chambers and connections Q21—Congenital malformations of cardiac septa Q22—Congenital malformations of pulmonary and tricuspid valves Q23—Congenital malformations of aortic and mitral valves Q24—Other congenital malformations of heart. Data quality HES are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS 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 data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. Small numbers To protect patient confidentiality, figures between 1 and 5 have been suppressed and replaced with “*” (an asterisk). Where it was possible to identify numbers from the total due to a single suppressed number in a row or column, an additional number (the next smallest) has been suppressed. PCT/SHA data quality PCT and SHA data were added to historic data years in the HES database using 2002-03 boundaries, as a one-off exercise in 2004. The quality of the data on PCT of treatment and SHA of treatment is poor in 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99, with over a third of all finished episodes having missing values in these years. Data quality of PCT of general practitioner (GP) practice and SHA of GP practice in 1997-98 and 1998-99 is also poor, with a high proportion missing values where practices changed or ceased to exist. There is less change in completeness of the residence-based fields over time, where the majority of unknown values are due to missing postcodes on birth episodes. Users of time series analysis including these years need to be aware of these issues in their interpretation of the data. Hospital providers A provider code is a unique code that identifies an organisation acting as a health care provider (e.g. NHS trust or PCT). Hospital providers can also include Treatment Centres (TC). Treatment Centres (also known as Diagnostic Centres) provide elective (planned) surgery for a range of conditions, mainly for day surgery or short-term hospital stay patients. Some Treatment Centres are attached to hospital trusts and HES enables data for these to be separately identified from the rest of the health care provider's data. It does this by adding TC to the trust code; if there is more than one per Trust T1, T2, T3 etc. are suggested unless already in use by the trust. Activity performed in the remainder of the trust is identified by the health care provider code being followed by an 'X'. Hospital providers beginning with an 'N' indicates an independent sector health care provider. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for health and social care. | ||
Hillsborough Stadium: Disclosure of Information
Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress his Department has made in identifying files and documents it holds relating to the Hillsborough disaster that can be released. [279538]
Phil Hope: The Department, in partnership with other Departments, is currently developing a Government-wide approach in close liaison with local agencies in South Yorkshire and beyond.
Influenza
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance his Department has issued on the provision to local authorities of influenza pandemic preparedness plans produced by (a) primary care trusts, (b) hospital trusts, (c) health protection units and (d) local resilience forums; and what guidance has been issued on co-operation between health authorities and local authorities on (i) overview and (ii) scrutiny of such plans. [280039]
Gillian Merron: All departmental guidance, whether produced primarily for the health or social care sector, emphasises the need for multi-agency planning and response.
Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) and Influenza Planning Committees (IPCs) are multi-agency groups, with representatives from primary care trusts (PCTs), local authorities (human resources, emergency planners, adult and children’s social care leads, coroners), acute hospital trusts, health protection units, independent and third sector providers, and the police. Multi-agency Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs), chaired by a chief executive, may also approve final pandemic flu plans.
PCTs have lead responsibility for pandemic planning and response locally. It is the role of the PCT to consult with its partner local authority and to share plans. Some local authority social care departments have a joint pandemic flu plan with their local PCT.
The Department has produced guidance for PCTs stating the duty on national health service organisations to consult local overview and scrutiny committees if they are considering substantial variations in local health services. However, it is for individual local authorities to present such plans to relevant overview and scrutiny committees.
The Department has also produced comprehensive guidance for social care commissioners and providers and these also emphasise the importance of joint working. Copies of the guidance, which consists of nine modules (eight of which have been published) have been placed in the Library.
Intensive Care
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the likely effects of an influenza pandemic on demand for intensive care beds; and whether he has made an estimate of the number of such beds likely to be required for the purposes of treating influenza patients during such a pandemic. [278490]
Gillian Merron: The number of critical care beds required in a flu pandemic will depend upon a range of factors such as the clinical attack rate, the most ‘at risk’ population and the number of flu victims requiring intensive care. An estimate has, therefore, not been made.
In the “Managing Demand and Capacity in Health Care Organisations (Surge)” guidance, we have advised that, within their local flu contingency plans, acute hospitals will aim to double the number of critical care beds available (i.e. increase them by 100 per cent.), but that this will have an impact on the level of care that will be provided. Meeting the immediate demand could be achieved by reallocating staff from non-emergency areas of care in order to support the delivery of critical care to meet this increased demand, should it become necessary.
A copy of the current “Managing Demand and Capacity (Surge)” guidance has been placed in the Library.
Knee Replacements
Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time for knee replacement operations was in (a) Halton, Cheshire and (b) England in each year since 2001. [279535]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Median time waited (days) for knee replacement operations(1) for Halton and St. Helens Primary Care Trust (PCT) of residence (2006-07, 2007-08), Halton PCT (2001-02 to 2005-06) and England are shown in the following table.
(1) The main procedure is the first recorded procedure or intervention in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and is usually the most resource intensive procedure or intervention performed during the episode.
| Median t ime waited (days) | |||
| Primary Care Trust of residence | Regional | National (England) | |
| Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for health and social care | |||
Learning Disability: Employment Services
Angela Watkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department provides support to organisations which offer assistance to individuals with learning difficulties in securing jobs. [280415]
Phil Hope: “Valuing Employment Now—Real Jobs for People with Learning Disabilities”—a new cross-government strategy to radically improve employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities in England, will be published very shortly.
Mental Health Services
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to assess the adequacy of provision of mental health services for people of each (a) age group, (b) sex and (c) race. [280902]
Phil Hope: The responsibility for service provision by the national health service, including mental health care, and for ensuring that this meets the healthcare needs of local communities rests with each primary care trust. To support them in this, we are running through the national mental health development units programmes of work promoting race equality, age equality and gender equality.
The National Service Framework for mental health (NSF) draws to an end in 2009. The Government and key stakeholders are seeking a new, equally powerful approach to help strategic health authorities deliver their regional visions and to build on the achievements of the NSF through the New Horizons programme.
We will publish an equalities impact assessment of the New Horizons consultation document when this is published later this summer. The equality impact assessment is intended to ensure that New Horizons address the inequalities that different groups in society experience, both in accessing services and in levels of mental health, and will inform the national direction of travel from 2010.
NHS
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which NHS organisations he has visited in the last three months. [278494]
Phil Hope: Visits to national health service organisations by the Secretary of State for Health between 1 March 2009 to 31 May 2009 are shown in the following table.
| NHS o rganisation | Date |
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