§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that national prosthetic services attracts the appropriate calibre of qualified personnel. [5330]
§ Jacqui SmithAll professional staff in prosthetic services are highly skilled graduates. The team is made up of multi-professional members including doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and, importantly, prosthetists. All the staff are graduates and have to be state registered.
Qualification for prosthetists are B.Sc. Honours; entry onto the courses is at Strathclyde and Salford Universities. Once students qualify, they are state registered by the Council of Professions Supplementary to Medicine (CPSM). Prosthetic service contracts negotiated by the National Health Service Purchasing and Supply Agency generally stipulate the minimum number of days a prosthetist will be allocated to continuing professional development. This is normally around one day per month.
432WOther staff groups including physiotherapists and occupational therapists are provided by the NHS for these services. All staff have a professional obligation to keep themselves up to date and maintain and develop their skills.
§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that the national prosthetic service is adequately funded. [5328]
§ Jacqui SmithProsthetic services are currently commissioned and funded by health authorities who base their resource allocation on local need.
The National Health Service Purchasing and Supply Agency, supported by the Department, has commenced work on the development of a commissioning guide for prosthetic services. This will provide a tool for commissioners to ensure that funding is utilised in the most effective way and highlight to them the most important factors required for a user focused service.
§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that patients requiring modern prosthetic limbs have access to a high quality, well fitting and comfortable choice. [5329]
§ Jacqui SmithPatients who require artificial limb components have available to them through their national health service limb centre the widest possible range of limb componentry. The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency who negotiate the contract on behalf of the NHS source these products from manufacturers across Europe and North America. The NHS PASA contract has some 18,000 lines available to NHS rehabilitation centres. If any new products become available from contracted suppliers, the NHS PASA contract has the flexibility to add these throughout the contract term. There is an emphasis in contracts on continuing professional development to ensure that prosthetic staff are able to deliver the highest quality service to their patients.
New products such as gel liners/silicone liners, and techniques such as computer aided design and computer aided manufacture for fitting limbs are already being used by some trusts across the country to maximise comfort and fitting. Modernisation of this sort will be evaluated and where appropriate will expand to all centres.
§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that the quality of prosthetic services available to patients in the UK are of at least an equal standard to those available in(a) the rest of Europe and (b) in North America. [5364]
§ Jacqui SmithProsthetic services have moved from providing a "limb fitting service" to an "amputee rehabilitation service". Disablement service centres (DSCs) now treat users in a more holistic manner. This has resulted in the development of a whole package of care and has given more involvement to occupational therapists, physiotherapists and counsellors in the service. The United Kingdom is at the forefront of this multi-professional approach.
Many DSCs prescribe state of the art components. The UK was the first country in the world to develop and 433W adopt an intelligent prosthesis. Another important feature of the UK service is that product prescription is impartial, based on clinical need, whereas in some countries commercial considerations are taken into account.
The delivery of prosthetic services around the world is far more fragmented than in the UK. For example England delivers prosthetic services from 33 DSCs which means that the service benefits from the concentration of expertise and economies of scale.
The UK prosthetic service is well structured, provides good value for money and delivers a coherent service.
A recent Government development is the introduction of silicon cosmesis, as outlined in HSC2001/01 and LAC (2001)1. We have made available £0.5 million in 2001–02 and ££;.5 million and –2.0 million in 2002–03 and 2003–04 respectively to be invested in silicone cosmesis. The National Health Service Purchasing and Supply Agency have undertaken a tendering exercise to
434W
Scheme Capital value (£ million) Consortia Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust 94 Carillion Construction1 Carillion Services Ltd.2 Carlisle Hospitals NHS Trust 65 AMEC1 Building and Property Group2 South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust 45 Taylor Woodrow1 Healthcare Group2 Greenwich Healthcare NHS Trust 93 Kvaerner Construction1 ISS Mediclean/Kvaerner Rashleigh/Weatherfoil2 Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust 65 Bovis1 RCO/Bovis Building Management2 North Durham Health Care NHS Trust 61 Balfour Haden JV1 Initial/Haden2 Norfolk and Norwich NHS Trust 158 Laing1 Serco2 South Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust 66 Alfred McAlpine1 WS Atkins/Sodexho1 Bromley Healthcare NHS Trust 118 Taylor Woodrow1 Taylor Woodrow/ISS Mediclean2 Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust 54 Bouygues1 Ecovert South2 Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust 87 Bovis1 RCO/Bovis2 Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust 64 Alfred McAlpine/1 Sodexho/WS Atkins2 South Durham Healthcare NHS Trust 41 Shepherds1 Jarvis/ISS Mediclean2 South Tees Acute Hospitals NHS Trust 122 Mowlem1 Aqumen FM2 Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust 96 Carillion Construction1 Carillion Services Ltd.2 King's Healthcare NHS Trust 64 Costain/Skanska1 Sodexho2 Leeds Community NHS Trust 47 Carillion/Weaver Construction1 Bradford and Northern Housing Association2 St. George's Hospital NHS Trust 49 Gleeson1 Chesterton2 University College London Hospitals NHS Trust 404 AMEC/Balfour Beatty1 Building and Property Group2 Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust 22 Bilfinger and Berger/Haden Young1 MandW Zander2 West Middlesex University Hospitals NHS Trust 60 Bouygues1 Ecovert2 Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust 137 Sir Robert McAlpine1 Building and Property2 West Berkshire Priority Care NHS Trust 30 Kier1 ISS2 1 Constructor 2 FM provider make these products available on the NHS during August 2001. This was announced by my predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (Mr. Hutton), in March 2001.