Earl Howeasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their policy on gathering performance data on routine audiology and hearing aid services; and whether they have any plans to enhance the in formation collected for performance management. [HL4007]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathInformation on the number of ear, nose and throat (ENT) out-patient attendances, broken down by clinical specialty, is contained inOut-patients and Ward Attenders, England a copy of which is available in the Library.
Information on the number of ENT day case and ordinary admissions by clinical specialty is contained in Ordinary and Day Case Admissions for England, a copy of which is available in the Library.
The Department of Health collects data on waiting times by specialty for first out-patient appointments following general practitioner written referral, including audiological medicine and ENT services.
Also, information on the hospital episode statistics database for the latest complete year (1997–98) contains approximately 11 million records detailing individual episodes within National Health Service trusts in England. It covers all specialties, including ENT and audiological medicine, and includes private patients treated in NHS hospitals. Information is recorded on the number of finished consultant episodes (FCE). An FCE represents a completed period of in-patient treatment under the care of individual hospital consultant.
There are currently no plans to change the information collected for performance management.