HC Deb 30 October 2003 vol 412 c361W
Keith Vaz

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the 2003–04 budget is for Northwick Park Hospital, Kenton; what the level of staffing is at the intensive therapy unit at the hospital; how many respiratory consultants there are at the hospital; how many patients have died in the ITU at Northwick Park hospital since 1 January; and what plans there are to move the high dependency unit closer to the ITU at Northwick Park Hospital. [133483]

Mr. Hutton

Northwick Park is one of the hospital units that form North West London Hospitals National Health Service Trust. The Trust's baseline budget for 2003–04 is £239 million.

Information on the level of staffing at the intensive therapy unit at Northwick Park Hospital is not collected centrally. Information from North West London Hospitals NHS Trust is that the intensive treatment unit (ITU) at Northwick park has nine nurses, one outreach nurse, an ITU junior doctor on call at all times (six on full shift rota, comprising four clinical fellows), one anaesthetic senior house officer, one anaesthetic specialist registrar. One additional anaesthetic resident registrar covers obstetrics, theatres and intensive care unit. One anaesthetic consultant is dedicated to intensive care unit cover.

In addition, physiotherapists are on call at all times. A daily dietetics ward round is carried out and speech and language therapists are available if necessary.

Information on medical staff within respiratory medicine is collected by NHS trust rather than by individual hospital unit and is shown in the table.

Hospital medical staff within the respiratory medicine specialty at North West London Hospitals NHS Trust
Numbers (headcount)
September 2002 June 2003
All staff 20 1
of which
Consultant 6 7
1 denotes not applicable. June 2003 data is taken from the mini census which collected consultants only.

Note:

Data as at 30 September or 30 June.

Source:

Department of Health medical and dental workforce census

Information from North West London Hospitals NHS Trust is that there have been 73 deaths in the ITU since January 2003. There are no current plans to move the high dependency unit closer to the ITU at Northwick Park.