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4 Nov 2009 : Column 1034W—continued
NHS: Sick Leave
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many working days were lost through employee sickness in the National Health Service in each strategic health authority area in each of the last five years. [297104]
Ann Keen: After the 2005 report, the sickness absence survey was discontinued. Electronic copies of earlier records are not available. Results of the last two surveys on sickness absence from 2004 and 2005 have been placed in the Library.
NHS: Training
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department has commissioned a training programme for clinicians to enhance the quality of discussion with patients on treatments not routinely funded on the NHS, as recommended by his Department's National Cancer Director in his November 2008 report on improving access to medicines for NHS patients. [297420]
Ann Keen: The Cancer Research UK Sussex Psychosocial Oncology Group has been commissioned to take forward the recommendation, by Professor Mike Richards (National Cancer Director), that the Department should commission a training programme for clinicians to enhance the quality of discussion with patients on treatments not routinely funded on the national health service.
Nurses: Students
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many student nurses are working in Lancashire Primary Care Trust; and what the average number of student nurses working in a primary care trust was in the latest period for which figures are available. [296754]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not collected centrally. However, this information might be available direct from the primary care trusts that serve the Lancashire area.
Pain
Jeff Ennis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) males and (b) females have been diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome in each of the last five years. [297220]
Ann Keen: The information requested on the number of males and females diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome in the national health service is not collected. The NHS Information Centre collects data on the number of patients admitted in England NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector with complex regional pain type II (previously known as causalgia). The information is in the following table.
| Count of finished consultant episodes( 1) where the primary or secondary diagnosis was Causalgia (G56.4) by gender, 2004-05 to 2008-09, activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector | ||
| Financial year | Male | Female |
| (1) A finished consultant episode (FCE) is defined as a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FCEs are counted against the year in which they end. It should be noted that 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. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for health and social care. | ||
Patients' Rights
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will encourage the National Clinical Audit and Patients' Outcomes programme to conduct an audit of dignity for patients in hospital and other care settings. [296993]
Ann Keen: The National Clinical Audit Advisory Group, which advises the Department on the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes programme (NCAPOP), has set out advice on the criteria to be used to prioritise topics for new national clinical audits. This is available from the Department's website:
The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, which manages the contracts for the NCAPOP, has recently issued an invitation to tender for a one-year development project designed to develop a methodology to underpin a future national audit of food and nutrition in health and social care, an important aspect of dignity.
Prostate Cancer: Health Services
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the answer of 13 May 2008, Official Report, columns 1552-7W, on prostate cancer staff, which cancer networks (a) have met and (b) are on target to meet the milestones set out in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence's guidance on improving outcomes. [297197]
Ann Keen: The majority of cancer networks have now fully implemented the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance on Improving Outcomes in Urological Cancer.
Four networks are yet to implement the guidance. These networks are: Mount Vernon Cancer Network; Greater Manchester and Cheshire Cancer Network; Surrey West Sussex and Hampshire Cancer Network and Greater Midlands Cancer Network.
Mount Vernon Cancer Network is expected to implement the IOG by the end of 2009, Greater Manchester and Cheshire Cancer Network by September 2010 and Surrey West Sussex and Hampshire Cancer Network by March 2010. Greater Midlands Cancer Network is preparing an action plan which is expected by the end of 2009.
Swine Flu: Vaccination
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what arrangements his Department has made for informing GP surgeries of the dates upon which their allocation of swine influenza vaccine will be received; and if he will make a statement. [297111]
Gillian Merron: In the letter of 15 October 2009 from the Chief Medical Officer to all general practitioners (GPs), a copy of which has been placed in the Library, the arrangements for checking delivery dates of swine flu vaccine were clearly identified. GPs were informed that they would be able to find out the expected day of delivery of their first supplies of swine flu vaccine by checking with their primary care trust immunisation co-ordinator or by consulting the website themselves at:
Tuberculosis: Health Services
Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what proportion of primary care trusts in England are part of a local multi-disciplinary clinical network for tuberculosis; [297304]
(2) what steps the NHS takes to assign consultants with appropriate experience to the care of patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. [297305]
Gillian Merron: The organisation of local national health service services and ensuring appropriate experience of consultants treating multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), and the organisation of local multi-disciplinary networks is a matter for local NHS management.
In recognising that many TB clinicians will not have experienced treating an MDR case, the Department funded the British Thoracic Society (BTS) initially to form a national advice network to offer advice and share good practice on treating MDR cases. We also recommend in the TB Toolkit for commissioners and service providers published in June 2007 that MDR-TB cases be discussed within this group and advice should be sought on a regular basis on continuing patient management.
Advice is provided through a virtual community of TB experts, including chest physicians, infectious disease physicians, paediatricians, public health physicians, a specialist nurse and four directors of the health protection agency laboratories where drug sensitivity for tuberculosis is undertaken (Newcastle, Birmingham, Cardiff and London).
In forming the advice network, The BTS extended the remit to include all aspects of TB, and not just MDR-TB. The TB Toolkit also recommends that in low incidence areas where fewer that 10 cases per year are seen for case management to be discussed on a multidisciplinary team basis. The BTS network is available to anyone that wishes to access it.
The all party parliamentary group on Global TB published the results of two surveys of TB nursing staff and TB consultants in July 2009. They found that 68 per cent. of the respondents from TB consultants indicate that the acute trusts they work for is part of a TB network.
International Development
CDC
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what financial arrangements were in place for the seeding of CDC Group plc's sub-Saharan power assets in the new $750 million infrastructure fund announced by his Department on 6 October 2009; and whether a profit share was earned by the private equity company Actis for this transaction. [297549]
Mr. Douglas Alexander [holding answer 3 November 2009]: On 6 October 2009, Actis announced a new £750 million infrastructure fund. CDC contributed a number of sub-Saharan African assets to this fund. The transfer value of these assets was established by agreement between CDC and Actis, with independent valuation advice provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The specific information requested is subject to commercial confidentiality provisions in the various legal agreements.
Carried interest or profit share will be payable to the fund manager, pursuant to the contractual obligation between Actis and CDC.
Tanzania: Overseas Aid
Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much humanitarian aid was provided by the Government to Tanzania in each of the last five years for which figures are available; on what projects such aid was spent in each of those years; what process is used to monitor expenditure on such projects; and what evaluation has been made of the outcomes of that expenditure. [296726]
Mr. Thomas: The total amount of bilateral programme aid provided by the Department for International Development (DFID) to Tanzania in the last five years is as follows:
| £ million | |
Information about individual projects is available on the DFID website at:
Projects and their outcomes are monitored on a regular basis by a designated lead adviser and programme manager. In addition, an annual review process assesses the performance of the project against a five-point scale and will lead to action where necessary to ensure that the project continues to meet its overall objectives. All projects are also subject to a completion report which provides a formal evaluation of the project and its impact.
Tanzania: Politics and Government
Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment his Department has made of standards of governance in Tanzania. [296727]
Mr. Thomas: The Department for International Development office in Dar es Salaam has a team dedicated to assessing standards of governance in Tanzania and to supporting efforts to improve these. Each year donors and the Government of Tanzania undertake a formal assessment of governance as part of the review of budget support. The last such review was conducted in November 2008.
Northern Ireland
Devolution
10. Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether there will be a residual power for the Government to intervene in relation to a decision by a Northern Ireland Justice Minister to repatriate a foreign prisoner on medical or other grounds following the proposed devolution of responsibility for criminal justice and policing; and if he will make a statement. [296676]
Mr. Woodward: The repatriation of foreign prisoners will become the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Minister for Justice after the devolution of criminal justice and policing. Decisions on the grounds of national security will, however, remain excepted.
Prisoner Release
11. Mr. Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what recent steps he has taken to strengthen mechanisms for the supervision of offenders following their release from prisons in Northern Ireland. [296677]
Paul Goggins: Earlier this year, I announced the introduction of electronic tagging, strengthening the capacity of the criminal justice system to manage offenders in the community. This is working well and has improved the ability of the police and the probation service to monitor those on bail or licence.
Dissident Republicans
12. Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what recent assessment he has made of the level of activity of dissident Republicans in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement. [296678]
Mr. Woodward: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier to the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend, East (James Duddridge).
Local Government Reorganisation
13. Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what progress has been made on reorganisation of local government in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement. [296679]
14. Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what recent representations he has received on reorganising local government in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement. [296680]
Paul Goggins: I refer the hon. Gentlemen to the answer I gave earlier to the hon. Member for Upminster (Angela Watkinson).
Christmas
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many Christmas functions arranged by his Department and its agencies (a) he, (b) officials of his Department and (c) officials of its executive agencies (i) hosted and (ii) attended in 2008; and if he will make a statement. [295447]
Mr. Woodward: Northern Ireland Office (NIO) Ministers hosted and attended four Christmas receptions.
These events were attended by over 1,500 cross-community representatives from the criminal justice, policing, military, charity and voluntary sectors across Northern Ireland. The total cost was £37,534.53.
The Northern Ireland Office works in partnership with a range of organisations in the course of delivering the Department's objectives on political development, policing and justice. This includes working with strategic partners within the policing and criminal justice field, engagement with community groups and interests around Northern Ireland, working closely with the Irish Government and engaging with key opinion formers abroad. The NIO also helps promote community cohesion and celebrates successes in Northern Ireland by making Hillsborough Castle accessible to community groups, charities, the armed forces, veterans, and others working in the policing and justice fields.
The Secretary of State did not attend in an official capacity any Christmas functions arranged by the Department's external agencies.
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