§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment has been made about the cost to(a) individual NHS trusts and (b) his Department of requiring trusts to compile data about the ethnicity of patients making complaints; and how many staff are involved; [42210]
1050W(2) what proportion of patients requested to give details about their ethnicity subsequent to making a complaint about treatment by an NHS trust have returned their survey form having ticked the decline to state box; [42206]
(3) which NHS trusts have been instructed to compile data about the ethnicity of patients making complaints; [42209]
(4) if he proposes to publish the findings of his Department's instructions to NHS trusts to compile data regarding the ethnicity of patients making complaints; [42204]
(5) what the purpose is of the instructions from his Department to NHS trusts requiring complaint departments to compile data about the ethnicity of persons making a complaint since April 2001; [42208]
(6) how he proposes to use the data collected from NHS trusts regarding the ethnicity of patients making complaints. [42205]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 11 March 2002]: The cost of the implementation of ethnic category data has only been estimated in terms of staff-days. It is estimated that up to two staff-days will be needed in each health authority and trust to extract the information from their existing systems in order to complete the two returns KO41A and B. In addition, it is expected that each Primary Care Trust will require up to two staff-days in total to complete the new K041C central return.
The collection of ethnic category data on written complaints will be valuable in gauging fair and equal access to health care across ethnic groups. Where monitoring shows unequal outcomes between different minority ethnic groups, public authorities will be required to take action to promote greater equality and to prevent discrimination whether direct or indirect. In the longer term, data collected on written complaints will be used to inform service improvements as well as give practice managers and the service as a whole more qualitative information around access to health care services.
All trusts and health authorities have been asked to complete ethnic category details of complainants and staff complained against for the first time in the 2001–02 annual NHS Complaints Monitoring Collection.
The Department publishes the results of its annual complaints monitoring exercise every year in "Handling complaints: monitoring the NHS complaints procedures". The 2001–02 data, which will include ethnic data, should be published in late autumn 2002.