§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress he has made in developing indicators to reflect patient views on food and other issues in acute hospitals. [88762]
§ Mr. LammyNational health service performance ratings published in July 2002 included a number of performance indicators relating to acute inpatient survey data. In addition to this, the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) and the Department have recently announced a number of additional patient survey performance indicators for the next publication in 2003.
The CHI has now assumed responsibility for future publications of the performance ratings as well as the patient survey programme.
§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many acute hospitals have(a) closed and (b) opened since 1997. [88768]
§ Mr. HuttonInformation on hospital closures ceased to be collected in 1991 following the introduction of the national health service internal market and trusts.
What is usually referred to as a hospital closure often follows reprovision with the intention of providing higher quality care, in a more suitable setting for the benefit of patients.
Since May 1997, a total of 64 such major reprovision developments under the private finance initiative have been prioritised, of which 14 involving acute settings have now opened and a further nine are under construction. In addition, four major publicly funded schemes involving acute settings have also been given the go ahead of which three are now open. These, along with a number of medium size projects, comprise the NHS plan commitment to deliver over 100 new hospital schemes between 2000 and 2010.
§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the recommendation by the medical Royal Colleges that an acute hospital should serve a population of 500,000 people. [88182]
273WS
§ Mr. Hutton"Provision of Acute General Hospital Services" was published in July 1998 by a joint working party of the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Physicians of London and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. It suggested that the ideal unit for a fully comprehensive medicine and surgery is a hospital or integrated group of hospitals serving a population of 450,000 to 500,000. The effective size to provide most of the acute services for medicine and surgery was recommended to be one serving a population of 250,000 to 300,000. These recommendations were made some time ago now and thinking about how to organise services safely and effectively has moved on.
In particular, the NHS Plan, published in July 2000, set the direction for the future development of hospital services, and Shifting the Balance of Power sited responsibility for local health service with primary care trusts.
The Department of Health's configuring hospitals project has been examining the complex issues around configuration of acute hospitals over the past few months, and will publish a consultation document shortly. Ultimately, it is for local health services to decide, with their local populations, and in the light of relevant guidance and standards, how acute hospital services should be organised.
§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make a statement on the implications of the whole system redesign approach for the introduction of the European Working Time Directive to acute hospitals; [88358]
(2) what changes to working practices in acute hospitals will take place to accommodate the European working time directive. [88357]
§ Mr. HuttonThe Department is currently running 19 pilots exploring solutions to enable National Health Service trusts to implement the European working time directive (EWD) for doctors in training while protecting service delivery.
Details of the necessary changes in working practices are also set out in the HSC 2003/001 'Protecting Staff, Delivering Services—Implementing the European Working Time Directive for Doctors in Training'.