§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health by which procedures he collects activity information disaggregated by(a) private hospitals, (b) private beds in NHS hospitals and (c) NHS hospitals. [50062]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 16 April 2002]: The Department collects hospital activity information by several mechanisms, including Hospital Episodes Statistics and the Service and Financial Framework Return.
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) provide information on in-patient care delivered by national health service hospitals in England and are compiled from data sent by over 300 NHS trusts. The HES database includes information about the treatment of private patients in NHS hospitals. Information from HES may be downloaded free of charge from www.doh.gov.uk/hes.
The Service and Financial Framework Return (SaFFR) is the mechanism for monitoring the delivery of all NHS targets in the NHS Plan and the NHS Plan Implementation Programme. Data are collected quarterly from primary care trusts and include data on all NHS-funded activity, whether or not it takes place in NHS hospitals.
Some elements within the SaFFR ask for information that distinguishes activity carried out within the NHS from activity commissioned from non-NHS organisations. However, no information is collected solely in relation to activity in private hospitals (as distinct from other independent provider organisations). The Department has also carried out a survey of NHS health authorities and trusts on the acute elective activity they commissioned from the independent sector last year, and will make available key results shortly.
The Department does not collect information about activity in private hospitals for private patients.