§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the total(a) revenue and (b) capital expenditure on the Read codes version 3 in each of the last five years. [9410]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 22 October 2001]: The detailed information required is not yet available and will be placed in the Library as soon as it has been obtained from both the National Health Service Information authority and Leicestershire health authority.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the estimated(a) revenue and (b) capital expenditure planned to be spent on Read codes in financial years (i) 2001–02, (ii) 2002–03 and (iii) 2003–04. [9411]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 22 October 2001]: The estimated central revenue expenditure per year on Read codes is £600,000 for each of the years 2001–02, 2002–03 and 2003–04. The estimated central capital expenditure over the same period is zero.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what arrangements have been agreed for financial compensation from SNOMED if the SNOMED CT coding system is not delivered to the NHS on time. [9399]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 22 October 2001]: There are no plans to seek compensation because the third and final payment will not be made in full until SNOMED CT Release: June 2002 is delivered.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the total expenditure on coding departments in NHS trusts in the last financial year for which figures are available. [9401]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 22 October 2001]: The information requested is not available centrally.
Approximately 1,500 to 2,000 clinical coders are employed by national health service trusts.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what stage of development SNOMED clinical terms project has now reached; when he expects the project to produce a final version; and if he will make a statement. [9409]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 22 October 2001]: SNOMED CT is being developed collaboratively with the College of American Pathologists. The terms of the agreement underpinning this work are such that overall responsibility for product delivery is with the SNOMED International Authority, a committee of the College of American Pathologists.
An interim, internal product is scheduled to be delivered to the National Health Service Information Authority by 10 December 2001. SNOMED CT 'first release to support implementation testing' is scheduled to follow in January 2002. This first release is to enable a programme of evaluative work to be undertaken in the NHS and is synonymous with a beta release.
A subsequent release is scheduled for June 2002. The naming convention for releases is month-year, for example, this would be referred to as the June 2002 release. It is synonymous with a version 1. This will be the final version of the joint development project. Further releases are planned to follow every six months.
422W
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has made for compensation to be paid to NHS trusts and suppliers who have invested in Read based IT systems. [9414]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 22 October 2001]: No compensation is planned. National health service trusts have been forewarned that they will need to develop a strategy at local level for moving to the NHS preferred systems based on SNOMED CT. The pace of this migration will be the subject of further guidance as the results of the implementation testing programme become clear.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the target date for the SNOMED system to produce automatic mappings to ICD and OPCS codes. [9402]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 22 October 2001]: The development of SNOMED CT includes (for United Kingdom users) mapping tables from SNOMED CT to ICD10 and OPCS4 codes. It is intended that these tables will be fully populated for inclusion in the 'First Release' scheduled for January 2002.
A feasibility study is being carried out as part of SNOMED development work to investigate automated cross mapping. Full automation from terms to codes requires additional contextual information held in the clinical record. As such, automation will be dependent upon establishing the rules base and sophisticated electronic records.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what advice he has given existing users of Read codes about the use of legacy data following their adoption of the SNOMED clinical terms system. [9412]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 22 October 2001]: Subject to successful development and testing of SNOMED, clinical terms users and suppliers have been advised not to develop new Read code based systems from April 2003 and that users of existing systems, based on other coding schemes including Read codes, should develop a strategy at local level for moving to the national health service preferred system based on SNOMED clinical terms. SNOMED CT "First Release" will include guidance (documentation) on the use of legacy data in the context of SNOMED CT.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the total(a) revenue and (b) capital expenditure to date on (i) the SNOMED CT system, (ii) the SNOMED RT system and (iii) earlier version of the SNOMED system; and if he will make a statement. [9413]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 22 October 2001]: Involvement to date has focused on development of SNOMED CT and related expenditure is capital. The agreement commits the national health service to contributing $3 million for each of the three years beginning April 1999. The contribution is made up of the value of work supplied with any shortfall being a cash payment. Additional costs arise from funding NHS representatives on joint boards. For 2001–02 this was estimated to be approximately £160,000.
SNOMED RT was released by the College of American Pathologists in May 2000. Their total revenue and capital expenditure on this product is not known.
423WThe United Kingdom has no centrally collated information regarding the use of and expenditure on earlier versions of SNOMED.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when the Government received advice from CISCO about IT policy in the NHS; and if he will place copies in the Library. [9407]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 22 October 2001]: CISCO have, like other major national and international technology suppliers, been invited from time to time to provide advice to the Government. During the summer of 2001, CISCO carried out an "E-Compliant Network" study for the national health service. The report of this study was published on the website of the NHS Information Service. A copy will be placed in the Library.