To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department has undertaken any analysis of the NHS’s performance relative to other countries’ health care systems in the last two years. (147536)

Yes. International comparisons of health care performance are analysed in support of policy-making and evaluation when such comparisons may be instructive.

The Department also studies international comparative analysis undertaken by others, such as that carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, The Commonwealth Fund and the Picker Institute.

We have commissioned specific reviews for particular policy issues, including “Health care outside hospital: accessing generalist and specialist care in eight countries, and Capacity planning in health care: reviewing the international experience”. These are publicly available at:

www.euro.who.int/Document/E89259.pdf

www.euro.who.int/Document/Obs/EuroObserver9_l.pdf

The Department has also published comparisons of performance on a range of indicators in the report “Health Profile of England”, which has been placed in the Library and is also available at:

www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/idcpig?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=22190&Rendition=Web

Tackling health inequalities is an international issue and was a key health theme for the United Kingdom presidency of the European Union in 2005. As part of the presidency, the UK commissioned “Health Inequalities: Europe in Profile”, which is available in the Library and at:

www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_4121584.pdf.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy that data collected through the Quality and Outcomes Framework of the new General Medical Services contract should require gender-specific information. (147555)

The data for the Quality and Outcomes Framework are collected by the Quality Measurement Analysis System (QMAS). QMAS does not have the technical capability to collect patient specific information.