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11 Nov 2009 : Column 450W—continued
NHS: Drugs
Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what drugs used in the NHS are known to have teratogenic effects; and if he will make a statement. [297456]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Drugs can have harmful effects (teratogenic effects) on the foetus at any time during pregnancy, with the period of greatest risk being from the third to the eleventh week of pregnancy.
The safety, efficacy and quality of each new medicine is thoroughly evaluated as part of the licensing procedure. European guidelines define the types of tests which should be undertaken, including those that assess the potential harm to a developing foetus.
The available information is reflected in the product information for each medicine which contains a specific section that summarises the information in relation to safety of use during pregnancy. This is kept under review to ensure patients and prescribers are given accurate up to date information. A summary source of this information is appendix 4 of the British National Formulary (BNF). The BNF is provided free to prescribers and pharmacists within the NHS.
NHS: Information and Communications Technology
Mr. Bacon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the projected lifetime costs are in respect of each contractor under the national programme for IT in the NHS; and how much each such contractor had been paid on the latest date for which figures are available. [299189]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Relevant information is contained in the following table.
| National programme for IT by key elements: Projected lifetime costs and expenditure to 31 March 2009 | ||
| £ million | ||
| Core c ontracts | Projected lifetime costs( 1) | E xpenditure to 31 March 2009( 1) |
| Notes: 1. Figures in the two columns are not directly comparable. The projected lifetime costs are shown at 2004-05 prices, and final outturn will be higher due to inflation in subsequent years. Those for expenditure to 31 March 2009 are resource outturn figures. 2. In 2006, Accenture made arrangements to voluntarily novate the company's contract to another existing supplier under the programme. Of the £179 million Accenture had received to that point the company retained £110 million for work completed. £52 million represents the value, for accounting purposes, of moneys repaid as at 31 March 2009. | ||
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the expenditure on the implementation of the iSOFT Lorenzo care record service at (a) the South Birmingham Primary Care Trust, (b) University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, (c) Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, (d) Hereford Hospitals Trust and (e) Five Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust. [298291]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Expenditure incurred in implementing computerised record systems at national health service trusts has two components. A one-off 'deployment charge' is paid when the trust has accepted the system, and there will be local costs associated with preparation, deployment and support.
The agreed deployment charge for full deployment of all bundles of service, when complete, at the South Birmingham PCT, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust, and Five Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust is £4.758 million in each case. For Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust the agreed charge is £8.090 million. Information is not held centrally about the local costs, which will vary from trust to trust.
These figures are at contract base-year values, exclude indexation, and do not reflect actual payments made to date.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding his Department plans to give to NHS trusts to enable them to purchase applications developed through the NHS interoperability toolkit; and from which budgets such funds will be drawn. [298292]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The national health service interoperability toolkit is intended to allow and encourage trusts to build or procure innovative new applications at the local level that are able to use information from core systems supplied through the national programme for information technology. NHS organisations have always been expected to pay for any additional assets and services that they request or require over and above the national programme standard functionality. There will therefore be no additional funding to enable trusts to purchase toolkit-compliant applications.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of users expected to be using (a) the Cerner Millennium care records system and (b) the iSOFT Lorenzo care records system by the end of November 2009. [298293]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Numbers of users will depend on progress achieved in deployment of the systems concerned by that date.
NHS: Standards
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS hospitals have made payments to primary care trusts consequent on a failure to meet a target; which targets were not met; and how much was paid in each case. [298296]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The information requested is not held centrally.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on how many occasions the Care and Quality Commission has carried out inspections of (a) acute trusts and (b) private healthcare providers to ensure compliance with the Care and Quality Commission's core standard C4b in the last 12 months. [298968]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: As part of the 2008-09 Annual Health Check, the Care Quality Commission inspected five acute trusts in relation to core standard C4b.
Private health care providers are not subject to core standards.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of (a) acute trusts and (b) private healthcare providers were found to be compliant with the Care and Quality Commission's core standard C4b at the time of their most recent inspection by the Commission. [298969]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: As part of the 2008-09 Annual Health Check, the Care Quality Commission judged 151 out of 169 acute trusts to be compliant with core standard C4b.
Private health care providers are not subject to core standards.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS targets have been discontinued in each of the last six months. [299686]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Department constantly reviews the appropriateness of the performance indicators it uses. As a result, in his interim report "High Quality Care for All: Our Journey So Far" published on 30 June 2009, Lord Darzi recommended dropping the maximum 26-week inpatient standard and 13-week outpatient standard as these have been superseded by achievement of the 18 weeks standard. We are currently consulting on this issue.
Pleural Plaques
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many people have been diagnosed with pleural plaques in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the north-east and (d) England in each year since 1997; [298064]
(2) how many people have required treatment for pleural plaques in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the north-east and (d) England in each year since 1997. [298092]
Ann Keen: The only information available, relating to the number of in-patient admissions to hospital with a primary diagnosis of pleural plaques, is given in the following table. Information is given for the strategic health authority and primary care trust areas matching most closely those requested. Information on the number of people diagnosed with pleural plaques as a result of consultations in primary care or in hospital out-patient clinics is not available. In the great majority of cases pleural plaques result in no symptoms and do not require treatment.
| Count of admissions( 1) into hospital where there was a primary diagnosis of pleural plaque( 2) in England, North East Strategic Health Authority of treatment( 4) and South Tyneside Primary Care Trust of responsibility( 3) from 1997-98 to 2008-09, activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector | |||
| England | North East Strategic Health Authority of treatment | South Tyneside Primary Care Trust of responsibility (5KG) | |
| Notes: (1) 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. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. (2) 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 IC10 diagnosis code for pleural plaque is 392. (3) Primary Care Trust (PCT) of Responsibility A derived field providing the primary care trust responsible for the patient. Commissioning responsibility for individual patients rests with the PCT with whom the patient is registered. This means that patients with a GP in one PCT area may reside in a neighbouring or other area but remain the responsibility of the PCT with whom their GP of registration is associated. PCTs are also responsible for non-registered patients who are resident within their boundaries. (4) Strategic Health Authority (SHA) of Treatment This field is derived from the hospital provider code (procode). It indicates the SHA area within which the treatment took place. 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. Data quality HES are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and PCTs in England. Data is 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. Assessing growth through time HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. The quality and coverage of the data have improved over time. These improvements in information submitted by the NHS have been particularly marked in the earlier years and need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. Some of the increase in figures for later years (particularly 2006-07 onwards) may be due to the improvement in the coverage of independent sector activity. Changes in NHS practice also need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. For example, a number of procedures may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and may no longer be accounted for in the HES data. This may account for any reductions in activity over time. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for health and social care | |||
Prescription Drugs
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what timetable he has set for his Department's consultation on generic substitution; and what the scope of that consultation will be; [299190]
(2) what recent discussions he has had with pharmaceutical companies on generic substitution. [299191]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: We are currently refining our proposals for the implementation of generic substitution. The start date for the consultation process has not yet been agreed but we still expect this to start later this autumn. We expect the consultation period will last 12 weeks and the exact timetable for implementation will therefore be influenced by the outcome of this consultation.
In order to inform proposals, departmental officials have been discussing the introduction of generic substitution with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, the Ethical Medicines Industry Group, the British Generic Manufacturers Association, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and the General Practitioners' Committee of the British Medical Association.
Primary Care Trusts: Public Relations
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance his Department issues to primary care trusts on their expenditure on public relations. [298304]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Primary care trusts are allocated a budget annually and must decide as individual trusts how to prioritise this. There is no guidance given to trusts on the amount of money they should spend on public relations activities as this is a matter that should be decided locally.
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