§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many(a) NHS trusts and (b) health authorities have failed service reviews conducted by the Commission for Health Improvement; and if he will make a statement; [76004]
(2) how many service reviews within (a) NHS trusts and (b) health authorities have been conducted by the Commission for Health Improvement; and if he will make a statement. [75995]
§ Mr. HuttonThe Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) has power to undertake special investigations into particular areas of concern in the delivery of health care. To date, the CHI has completed seven investigations
Five in Acute Trusts;One relating to matters arising from the employment of a locum doctor in a NHS Trust;One relating to issues arising from the case of a Loughborough GP.A further three investigations are underway.
The CHI was set up on 1 November 1999 to meet our aim of improving the quality of patient care in the National Health Service. An important aspect of this
Health Authority of residence 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 QA2 Hillingdon HA 353 347 357 356 362 QA3 Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster HA 471 454 425 355 384 QAG Kingston & Richmond HA 433 300 419 361 303 QAJ Merton, Sutton & Wandsworth HA 1,117 1,033 976 832 756 QAR Brent & Harrow HA 684 538 491 507 647 QAV Ealing, Hammersmith & Hounslow HA 1,458 1,335 1,424 1,143 1,035 Total 4,516 4,007 4,092 3,554 3,487 Notes:
* ICD-10 (diagnosis) codes used are as follows:
J45 Asthma
J46 Status asthmatics
The Health Authorities in this table are all of those which cover West, North West and South West London. Some HAs may also include eastern parts of London (such as Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth HA).
Data in this table are grossed for both coverage and unknown/invalid clinical data
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Department of Health
Asthma has a genetic element. The predisposition to develop asthma is inherited with an increased risk if one or both parents have asthma. In addition environmental factors interact with the genetic predisposition to cause asthma to develop as a symptomatic condition.
Many different genes have been shown to be associated with allergy and asthma susceptibility, and different environmental factors are likely to influence outcomes in different ways depending on the underlying genotype.
Interaction between genes and environment in asthma is therefore a major focus of research in the asthma field. To this end, the national asthma campaign is making a large investment over the next two years funding a task force to address issues of causation. The task force will review the current evidence in this area and assess the feasibility of large scale, definitive studies to answer these questions.
544Wwork is a rolling programme to complete a clinical governance review of 500 NHS organisations by 2004. As at 1 October 2002, CHI has completed 175 clinical governance reviews across a range of NHS bodies of which 173 are NHS trusts and two health authorities.