Question: Childhood obesity
'What is the government doing through the NHS to prevent problems of childhood obesity and lack of exercise? Can we expect to see more about the importance of nutrition and health through our local services?'
Answer: Patricia Hewitt
'Childhood obesity is a serious issue which the government is determined to tackle on a number of fronts including increasing levels of physical activity and encouraging children – and their families – to eat more healthily. We are running several exciting programmes to teach children about the benefits of a healthy diet:
The '5-a-day programme' which aims to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables people eat as well as making them aware of all the health benefits. A NOP World survey found that over a quarter of children and their families reported that they were eating more fruit at home after joining the scheme
We are providing nearly two million children in thousands of schools across the country with a free piece of fruit or a vegetable every school day through our School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme
We have made pedometers available to thousands of schoolchildren to tackle obesity and increase physical activity
Question: Postcode lottery
'Can you explain how you think it's fair that elective surgery in this country is governed by PCTs ? It's a postcode lottery and it seems grossly unfair.'
Answer: Patricia Hewitt
'NHS services such as elective care are organised by PCTs locally because they better understand the needs of the community than officials in Whitehall. However, in order to ensure that people across the country receive the high quality care they expect from their NHS there are common national standards.
'The NHS now works to national standards of a maximum wait for an outpatient appointment of thirteen weeks and six months for admission to inpatient treatment. The latest figures show that these standards were met throughout the country for all but a tiny number of patients at the end of December. These national standards for NHS patients compare with maximum waits of three and four times as long in 1997.
'Within the safety net provided for patients by these national standards, PCTs and local hospitals are encouraged to go even further and the vast majority of patients are seen much quicker than the maximum.'
Question: Hospice care
'Hospices for adults in England and Scotland receive only around a third of their funding from the government with the remainder coming mainly from local fundraising. We have an ageing population so palliative care is going to become more and more important. Do you intend to give hospices more government support?'
Answer: Patricia Hewitt
'We have made a great deal of progress in specialist palliative care services in England.
'From 2003/04 we have invested an additional £50m per year in specialist palliative care, including hospices; this meets the commitment in the NHS Cancer Plan. About half of this extra investment has gone to the voluntary sector, mainly hospices, and has so far helped to fund 28 new palliative medicine consultants, 133 new clinical nurse specialists and 38 new specialist palliative care beds.
'Over 500,000 adults die in England each year. Although hospice care is essential, we know that over 50 percent of those asked have said that they would like to be cared for at home should they be terminally ill. However, at present only 20 per cent manage to do so. We want to give more people the choice to be treated at home when they are dying, while also recognising the wishes of family members caring for dying relatives.
'In 2004 we launched the End of Life Care initiative, which will see an extra £12m invested over 3 years to train staff working in general practices, care homes and on hospital wards so that all adult patients nearing the end of life, regardless of their diagnosis, will have access to high quality palliative care.
Question: IVF treatment
'Please can you ask Tony Blair why before he was elected again he promised that every woman under the age of 35 would be eligible for one cycle of IVF on the NHS. But as soon as he was elected my county council (Hampshire) pulled all funding for this?'
Answer: Patricia Hewitt
'We recognise the distress that infertility causes many people. When NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence) produced the fertility guideline in February 2004, we advised Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to begin implementing the guideline by offering a minimum of one full cycle of IVF by April 2005 to those eligible couples.
'The primary responsibility for implementing NICE guidelines rests with the NHS locally. NICE guidelines are one of a range of factors that PCTs must take into account when deciding which treatment services to provide for their local community.
'Last February, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Infertility carried out their own survey of IVF provision on the NHS. 71% of PCTs responded and of these 80% were already providing one full cycle or had taken the steps to achieve this.'
Questions: Physios
'About 5 years ago the government started a huge drive to train up more physiotherapists which even prompted the creation of several new physio colleges. Unfortunately, the increase in students has not been reflected by an increase in junior physiotherapist positions. Physios spend years training at huge cost to the taxpayer and then find no jobs are available in the NHS. They are needed, so why aren't they found positions?'
Answer: Patricia Hewitt
'We recognise the role physiotherapists have in delivering a range of NHS services and this is reflected in the investment we have made in increasing the physiotherapy workforce over recent years. We have seen the rate of vacancies lasting three months or more for physiotherapists falling by almost half over the last three years.
'We are aware of the difficulties experienced by some newly qualified physiotherapists when seeking their first post in the NHS and we continue to work with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), and other key stakeholders including the NHS Workforce Review Team (WRT), on this issue.
'As a result of this collaboration, a Physiotherapy Graduate Action Plan was issued on 23 May 2005, which identified ways in which key stakeholders could address the issues locally and implement some practical solutions. This included enhancements to NHS Jobs to enable physiotherapy graduates to register their details and for the system to then automatically alert them to vacancies.'
