Written question asked by John P Smith (Labour) on Monday, 1 February 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 3 February 2010. It was answered by Ann Keen (Labour) on Monday, 8 February 2010 on behalf of the Department of Health.

NHS: Finance

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the financial cost to acute NHS trusts which do not meet the 2010 National CQUIN goal to reduce avoidable death, disability and chronic ill health from venous thromboembolism (VTE) by providing a VTE risk assessment for 90 per cent. or more of adult inpatients on admission to hospital.

Answer: The goal on carrying out venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk assessment for at least 90 per cent. of admitted patients is one of two nationally mandated goals within acute hospital commissioning for quality and innovation (CQUIN) schemes for 2010-11. These two national goals must be linked to around 0.3 per cent. of a trust's income. If a trust achieves both goals it will earn this money non-recurrently on top of the actual outturn value of its contracts. The weighting of the financial value between the two national CQUIN goals is agreed locally, but if they were equally weighted at 0.15 per cent. this could typically equate to a payment of between £200,000 and £1 million linked to VTE risk assessment, depending on the size of trust. Failure to achieve the goal will mean that the trust cannot earn this CQUIN payment from its commissioners. The CQUIN framework applies to providers on NHS Standard Contracts funded by the national health service in England.

Secondary information