To ask the Secretary of State for Health what public consultation has taken place on the introduction of Corporate and Transactional Shared Services in Lancashire and Cumbria. (107576)

Formal consultation with local overview and scrutiny committees is being undertaken by the national health service. This is part of an ongoing programme of engagement with local stakeholders.

The former Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority also commissioned engagement work to be undertaken by MORI in summer 2006 with the public and local clinicians, to find out what is important to patients in Cumbria and Lancashire and to use this information to help develop the clinical assessment and treatment service.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health who took the decision to introduce Corporate and Transactional Shared Services in Lancashire and Cumbria. (107577)

The local strategic health authority, jointly with its commissioners, took the decision to introduce the clinical assessment and treatment service into Cumbria and Lancashire as a response to the need of the local health economy to invest in additional capacity and at the same time improve care pathways and value for money.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the effects of introducing Corporate and Transactional Shared Services on NHS hospitals trusts in Lancashire and Cumbria. (107578)

Introducing the clinical assessment and treatment service is part of a redesign of the care pathway and is expected to reduce the number of patients referred to acute trusts who do not need the specialist skills of secondary care or an elective procedure as part of an integrated modern clinical pathway.

An assessment of the scheme’s impact on key stakeholders is currently being undertaken by local primary care trusts.