Written question asked by Sandra Gidley (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 6 November 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 17 November 2003. It was answered by Stephen Ladyman (Labour) on Monday, 17 November 2003 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many primary care trusts include the development of an integrated continence service in their health improvement programme.

Answer: Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many primary care trusts include the development of an integrated continence service in their health improvement programme. [137936] Dr. Ladyman: We do not collect this information centrally. Health improvement programmes have now been replaced by local delivery plans (LDPs). Each national health service trust is now responsible for creating its own business plan, which shows how it will deploy its resources to deliver on both national and local priorities and fit within the plans of its primary care trust (PCT) commissioners. These local plans will not be analysed centrally. Strategic health authorities (SHAs) will bring together those PCT plans into a comprehensive LDP for their area. In general, the SHA-level local delivery plan will be the only plan the Department will formally sign- off. The LDP that is submitted to the Department addresses the Priorities in the Planning and Performance Framework (Improvement, expansion and reform: The next three years' priorities and planning framework, 2003-06). Formal monitoring only covers those priorities and will not provide detail of individual service provision like continence services. The national service framework for older people includes a milestone that, by April 2004, all local health and social care systems should have established an integrated continence service.

Secondary information