§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people suffered a traumatic head injury in Northern Ireland in each of the last five years. [152420]
§ Angela SmithTraumatic head injuries cover a broad spectrum of severity of injury including those who do not present at hospital, those who attend Accident and Emergency Departments but are not admitted, those who are admitted for treatment and those who die before reaching hospital. Information is available only on those admitted to hospital. The table as follows provides figures on the number of admissions to hospital in Northern Ireland where the primary diagnosis is for head injury and, of these, the number of admissions where the primary diagnoses are fractures to the skull or facial bones or intracranial injuries. Information is provided for the last five years for which data are available.
938W
Total number of Admissions to Hospital1 with injuries to the head for the years 1998–1999 to 2002–2003 Years All head injuries Skull fracture or intracranial injury 1998–1999 7,273 2,573 1999–2000 7,126 2,407 2000–2001 7,027 2,284 2001–2002 7,236 2,352 2002–2003 6,874 2,399 1 Deaths and Discharges are used as an approximation for Admissions Source:
Hospital Inpatients System
§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for what reason the Department for Employment and Learning decided to provide no further funding to the ReConnect training facility for people with acquired brain injury. [152421]
§ Jane KennedyIn December 2003, the Department for Employment and Learning advised ReConnect that its application for ESF assistance, under the second round of applications for the Programme for Building Sustainable Prosperity, was unsuccessful.
The Department runs an open competition for such funding. On this, as in the previous round, there were more acceptable projects than budget available to meet their bids. Applications are scored, by selection panels, against the requirements of the Programme's measures and the funding available is allocated to those which score highest. The ReConnect application did not score highly enough to receive an allocation.
Unsuccessful bidders have a right of review, for which the closing date was 30 January 2004. A request for review has been received from this project, which is due to be heard in early February 2004.
§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the total expenditure has been on providing community-based training and rehabilitation for people with acquired brain injury in Northern Ireland by(a) the Department for Employment and Learning and (b) the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. [152422]
§ Jane KennedyThe information is as follows:
(a) Department for Employment and Learning (DEL)
In the last eight years, ERDF and ESF assistance of £5.1 million and DEL match funding of £520,000 has been paid to two organisations providing community-based training where participants have included people with acquired brain injury.
It is not possible to disaggregate the share of funding which might be attributed to the number of participants with acquired brain injury.
(b) Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety
The information is not collected centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.