HC Deb 21 January 2003 vol 398 cc280-2W
Mr. Andrew Turner

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the non-NHS hospitals in(a) the Isle of Wight, (b) Sussex, (c) Hampshire, (d) Dorset and (e) Wiltshire which are accredited to provide (a) cancer services, (b) coronary care services and (c) orthopaedic services to NHS patients. [90682]

Ms Blears

The Department does not have a list of accredited private and non-National Health Service hospitals. Contracts for these private sector services are negotiated locally and as such the information requested is not collected centrally.

Information has been provided by the relevant Strategic Health Authorities and is shown in the table.

Ms Blears

The transferring laboratories are expected to become part of existing or developing national health service pathology laboratory networks and to have access to appropriate channels of co-ordination, both with NHS laboratories and with those in the proposed Health Protection Agency.

Chris Grayling

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the change in cost to the NHS of procurement for former PHLS laboratories of microbiology equipment and consumables following the end of central procurement on 1 April. [90076]

Ms Blears

In order to maintain the current benefits and economies of scale that have been achieved through national Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) contracts, these contracts will be continued during 2003–04.

During the next few months, the PHLS will be working closely with the National Health Service Purchasing and Supply Agency, in consultation with NHS trusts, to review these contracts and produce recommendations to the Department of Health on future supply options.

This will ensure that the savings achieved by the PHLS central procurement are not lost as a result of the transfer of public health laboratories to the NHS.

Chris Grayling

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the risk that the achievements of the modernisation and reform programme within the PHLS laboratory network will be affected following their transfer to local NHS trusts; and what action has been taken to minimise these risks. [90097]

Ms Blears

The transfer of Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) laboratories to national health service trusts is intended to contribute to raising the standards of microbiology in the NHS as a whole and to build on the standards they have reached. PHLS staff and management have been closely involved at each stage of the process to ensure that any risks inherent in the transfers are identified and managed.

Chris Grayling

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if it is his policy to privatise the residual PHLS organisation after 1 April. [90137]

Ms Blears

The Public Health Service Laboratory Service Board is an executive non-departmental public body, created by primary legislation. Until changes are made to primary legislation, it will continue in being with responsibility for production of media for microbiology laboratories.

Chris Grayling

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment he has made of the risk that the IT systems supporting the work of those public health laboratories transferring to NHS trusts will collapse; and what action has been taken to minimise these risks; [90096]

(2) what steps he is taking to unbundle the IT networks that link the PHLS laboratories that will be transferred to the NHS. [90074]

Ms Blears

All the existing information technology systems will remain in place for the time being and no networks will be unbundled unless the regional public health microbiologist and the national health service trust(s) are satisfied that this is in the interests of both the NHS and of public health. NHS trusts will only introduce alternative systems after the risks have been assessed

Many of these networks also connect these laboratories with the central and regional laboratories that are intended to be transferred to the Health Protection Agency and they will need to be retained in order to support continuing public health functions.

Chris Grayling

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the risk that those public health laboratories transferring to NHS trusts will reduce their commitment to public health work for CCDCs, local authorities and the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre; and what action has been taken to minimise these risks. [90092]

Ms Blears

The transferring laboratories will maintain the current level of commitment to reporting and other public health work. The following actions are being taken to support the commitment to public health.

The laboratories are being transferred with the same level of funding, which will be maintained for at least the first two years and it is expected that these developments will strengthen the public health microbiology outputs of the national health service.

Each laboratory that transfers to a NHS trust will have a public health microbiologist, who will work with consultants in communicable disease control, local authorities, the communicable disease surveillance centre and other public health agencies. Service level agreements are being prepared to maintain this work.

In due course the inspector of microbiology will ensure that standards of microbiological practice are maintained throughout laboratories in the NHS and the Health Protection Agency, including appropriate attention to public health activities.

Chris Grayling

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the risk that those public health laboratories transferring to NHS trusts will lose the surge capacity necessary to deal with outbreaks; and what action has been taken to minimise these risks. [90094]

Ms Blears

We do not anticipate any of the laboratories losing their surge capacity, as the appropriate level of funding and staffing will be transferred with the laboratories.

The new role of regional public health microbiologist will enhance the capacity to co-ordinate surge capacity within public health regions, and interim appointments are now being made to these posts.

The chief executive of the national health service has written to the chief executives of the receiving NHS trusts emphasising the need for the transfer process to be as smooth and efficient as possible. Maintenance of the existing functional arrangements such as the provision of surge capacity is clearly an important part of the transfer process.