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NHS: Finance
Damian Hinds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much income the NHS received from (a) Bounty and Patientline/Hospedia, (b) each of the top five by income partner organisations and (c) other third party organisations in each year since 1997. [70755]
Mr Simon Burns: The Department does not hold information on national health service income received from individual companies in respect of local contracts with NHS organisations, including Bounty and Hospedia (formerly Patientline).
Damian Hinds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much (a) direct and (b) indirect revenue the NHS received from parking charges in each year since 1997. [70758]
Mr Simon Burns: The information is not available in the format requested as the Department does not hold data on direct and indirect revenue the national health service received from parking charges. However, the Department did historically collect some data on income from staff, patient and visitors from parking charges.
From 2001-02 to 2007-08, the Department collected annual data from national health service trusts on car parking provision and any associated charges, through the Estates Returns Information Collection. In 2004-05, the collection of these data was moved from a mandatory to a voluntary basis. In order to lessen the burden on the NHS to provide central returns, the collection of voluntary data items ceased after the 2007-08 period and therefore the collection of data on car parking was discontinued after the 2007-08 collection period. The Department does not hold data on this subject after that period.
The data which are available for each year from 2001-02 to 2007-08 are shown in the following table:
| Total income from staff, patients and visitors | |
|
|
£ million |
The information provided has been supplied by the NHS and had not been amended centrally. The accuracy and completeness of the information is the responsibility of the provider organisation.
The provision of hospital car parking and any associated charges are decided locally by individual trusts to help cover the cost of running, maintaining and securing a car park. All NHS trusts should have exemption and concessionary schemes in place to ensure that patients and carers who visit hospital regularly are not disadvantaged. They should also have sustainable public transport plans in place for staff and visitors. Local policies should include fair concessions for all patients whose health care needs require extended or frequent
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access to hospital. Patients on low incomes are entitled to recover travel costs, including car parking charges, under the Hospital Travel Costs Scheme.
Obesity: Children
Anne Marie Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans his Department has to reduce levels of childhood obesity; and what recent progress has been made in reducing those levels. [71261]
Anne Milton: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Karen Lumley) on 6 September 2011, Official Report, columns 582-83W.
Palliative Care: Standards
Dr Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the quality of hospice and palliative care provision in England. [70630]
Paul Burstow: We are committed to improving the quality of all services provided to patients, including those approaching the end of life. The Mandate and National Health Service Outcomes Framework will drive quality improvement throughout the NHS.
The end of life care Quality Standard being developed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence will set out the evidence-based characteristics of a high quality service for end of life care, which will help commissioners and providers to improve the quality of services.
We are commissioning a national survey to ask bereaved relatives about the deceased's experience of care, as well as asking them about their own experience. The survey, which should be complete by March 2012, will inform a new indicator on end of life care within the patient experience domain of the NHS Outcomes Framework, as well as informing local service improvement activity.
We have made no recent assessment of the quality of hospice and palliative care provision.
Pregnancy: Death
Mr Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to reduce the number of deaths of women from conditions directly or indirectly related to pregnancy. [71082]
Anne Milton: There has been a significant reduction in the United Kingdom's maternal death rate—from 13.95 per 100,000 maternities in the triennium 2003-05 to 11.39 in 2006-08.
The Department has made the provision of safe, high quality maternity services, focused on improving outcomes for women and babies, a priority in the NHS Outcomes Framework for 2011-12.
The Department encourages early access to maternity services and has included the maternity 12-week early access indicator as one of the measures for quality in the NHS Operating Framework for 2011-12. This will enable those women who can be identified as being at increased risk of complications to receive additional support and monitoring from an early stage.
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Private Finance Initiative: Suffolk
Dr Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the outstanding private finance initiative debts are for (a) Ipswich Hospital, (b) the West Suffolk Hospital and (c) Suffolk Primary Care Trust; [70634]
(2) what the outstanding future financial liabilities are for (a) Ipswich Hospital, (b) the West Suffolk Hospital and (c) Suffolk Primary Care Trust. [70635]
Mr Simon Burns: Information on the total amount owed by each organisation in respect of bank overdrafts, current and long term loans, obligations under finance leases, private finance initiative (PFI) and Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) arrangements, is shown in the following table.
| NHS Future Financial Liabilities as at 31 March 2010 | |
|
|
2009-10 (£000) |
| Source: Audited Summarisation Schedules, 2009-10 | |
Outstanding future financial liabilities' could be interpreted in a number of ways in relation to the finances of national health service organisations. We have interpreted this to mean the total amount reported by each NHS organisation in their Statement of Financial Position in respect of bank overdrafts, current and long term loans, obligations under finance leases, PFI and LIFT arrangements. These are the items most readily identified with the term ‘financial liabilities' in accounting terminology.
The figure for Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust includes a liability on the trust's books in respect of a PFI hospital of £28,642,000. Under international financial reporting
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standards, PFI assets are recorded on the Statement of Financial Position with a corresponding liability.
Information on the annual Unitary Payments made under every signed health sector PFI contract over the lifetime of the contract can be found on the HM Treasury website at:
www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/pfi_signed_projects_list_march2011.xls
The health sector schemes are clearly marked “DH-Acute (i.e. Hospitals)”—that for Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust has the Project ID number 315. As described above, there are no PFI schemes at West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust or Suffolk Primary Care Trust. The table includes information on payments already made (i.e. for financial years preceding 2011-12) and estimated for the remaining contract period.
The Unitary Payment is paid by the national health service body to the private sector counterparty to the contract and covers all the services provided under the contract—initial construction, so the capital costs (repayment of principal and financing); building maintenance; and in many cases the non-clinical support services such as cleaning, laundry, catering, portering and security. The payments are subject to meeting agreed performance and quality standards and the estimated amounts include an annual uprate assumption for inflation of 2.5% for future years.
Transplant Surgery: Reading
Alok Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients in Reading West constituency were assessed as needing an organ transplant in each of the last five years. [70887]
Anne Milton: The information requested is provided in the following table.
| Reading West constituency solid organ transplant list statistics, by financial year | ||||||
|
|
Status | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 |
| Notes: 1. ‘Active' means the patient is currently in a state to receive a transplant. 2. ‘Suspended' means they are temporarily unable to receive a transplant (though they ultimately need one) as they are too ill, away, etc. Source: NHS Blood and Transplant | ||||||
Varicose Veins: Health Services
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance he has been issued to health trusts on the provision by the NHS of endovenous laser treatment; and if he will make a statement. [70904]
Mr Simon Burns: Guidance is available from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on the safety and efficacy of endovenous laser treatment of the long saphenous vein, and on the circumstances in which general practitioners should consider referring patients with varicose veins to specialist services. The Department's elective care commissioning pathway for varicose veins, published in 2009, refers to NICE's referral guidance and to the use of endovenous laser treatment as a possible alternative to surgery for some patients.