DARZI'S ADMISSION AN ASTONISHING FAILURE - LAMB

11.22.32am GMT Thu 31st Jan 2008

Commenting on Lord Darzi's admission that the Government's target to abolish mixed sex wards cannot be met, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb said: "This is an astonishing admission of failure on an issue of crucial importance to patients. The Government has flip-flopped on this manifesto commitment for over 10 years.

"We now have a clinician blowing the gaff on a political commitment which appears to have no substance.

"Today Lord Darzi also admitted that the medical training budget was not ring-fenced, despite assuring the house only days ago that it was. Just what are we to believe?"

Notes

1. At Question Time in the House of Lords today, Lord Darzi said "the only way we're going to have single sex wards within the NHS is to build the whole of the NHS into single rooms." He claimed this is "an aspiration that cannot be met."

2. An investigation by the health service's chief nurse in May 2007 found more than 16% of NHS acute hospital trusts were still struggling to provide single-sex accommodation.

3. A Healthcare Commission report from March 2007 found 55% of mental health inpatients had to share sleeping accommodation or bathrooms with members of the opposite sex.

4. In 2006, Patricia Hewitt said 99% of trusts provided single-sex accommodation in general wards, including single-sex bathrooms and toilets.

5. On Wednesday 16 January 2008 the following question was asked in the House of Lords:

Baroness Tonge: My Lords, will the Minister give us an assurance that in future the Government will ring-fence money given to trusts for the training of doctors, and not allow it to be used for paying off their deficits?

Lord Darzi of Denham: My Lords, the funding for the multiprofessional educational and training budgets that the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, refers to is about £4.3 billion a year, an increase of about 3.6 per cent. I certainly guarantee that that budget will be ring-fenced for education and training needs. The budget for medical education has increased from nearly £590 million in 1997 to about £1.6 billion. That is an increase of 170 per cent in the funding for training opportunities for medical doctors.

Lord Darzi has subsequently written to Baroness Tonge with the following:

You asked for my assurance that in future the Government will ring-fence money given to trusts for the training of doctors, and not allow it to be used for paying off their deficits. I said the funding will be ring-fenced. This is not the case, the Multi-professional Education and Training (MPET) budget is not ring-fenced. However, although it is not ring-fenced, in 2007-08 a new Service Level Agreement (SLA) and accountability framework for the MPET budget was issued by the Department setting out the priorities for investment of education and training resources. This will ensure that key areas of investment will be protected including expanding medical student numbers, investment in shortage medical specialities and shortage non-medical professions.

6. In June 2007 the following question was asked in the House of Lords.

Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes:

What progress they are making in phasing out mixed-sex wards in National Health Service hospitals.

The Minister of State, Department of Health(Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My Lords, single-sex accommodation should be the norm for elective care and remains the ideal for all admissions. We have made that clear in this year's NHS operating framework. In emergencies, the need to admit has priority. Some 99 per cent of trusts provide single-sex sleeping accommodation in wards other than A&E admission units and critical care.