§ Lord Ashley of Stokeasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether there has been any significant improvement in disability equipment since the National Audit Commission's report. [HL5144]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathThe NHS Plan set targets to integrate health and social care community equipment services and to increase by 50 per cent the number of people who can benefit from such services by 2004. A National Implementation Support Team has been established to help local National Health Service and social services organisations through the transition from separate to integrated services, encouraging and supporting them to make appropriate investment in equipment services to meet the NHS Plan targets. Team members report that good progress is being made in some areas; £30.75 million has been invested in modernisation of hearing aid services. Almost one-third of the country will be covered by digital sites by March 2003. Initial evaluation of the pilot study showed significant benefits for people provided with digital hearing aids as part of a modernised service.
§ Lord Ashley of Stokeasked Her Majesty's Government:
What machinery has been established to monitor the quality of disability equipment. [HL5148]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathThe Medical Devices Agency MDA) has specific responsibility on behalf of the Secretary of State to safeguard public health where medical devices are involved. Disability equipment comes within this oveall remit.
All incidents reported to the MDA concerning the quality or safety of equipment are considered, and if the investigtion highlights a need for an improvement in design, usage or servicing information for a piece of equipment, appropriate action is taken with the manufacturer/supplier concerned.
The MDA has also issued comprehensive guidance to health services relating to the management of medical devices including the provision of appropriate 178WA reporting procedures. This guidance has now been incorporated into the new NHS controls assurance standards for medical devices to give all health services basic standards in this area.
Framework agreements facilitated by the National Health Service Purchasing and Supply Agency (NHS PASA) are undetaken in line with public procurement regulations and incorporate clauses requiring adherence to the Medical Devices Regulations in relation to CE marking and the relevant European (where available) or British standards.
NHS PASA has procedures in place in various commodity areas requesting NHS trusts etc to provide feedback information on the quality of suppliers performance and goods/services which can then be utilised to identify recurring issues. These are then discussed with the supplier or details are passed on to the MDA where appropriate, to overcome the issues wherever possible.