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Pharmacists
Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures he is taking to alleviate the clawback of settlement discount to pharmacists from wholesalers when that discount has not been received by pharmacists. [29575]
Mr. Malone: None. The discount clawback system is based on an assessment of discounts received by all pharmacists for drugs and appliances dispensed against NHS prescriptions. The incentive for individual pharmacists is to achieve at least the average level of discount for the value of items dispensed.
Mr Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures he is taking to protect community pharmacists in the event of the breakdown of resale price maintenance. [29576]
Mr. Malone: The review of resale price maintenance on medicaments being undertaken by the Director General of Fair Trading is a matter for the director general. Representations concerning the viability of community pharmacies and other aspects of the review should be made direct to him.
20 May 1996 : Column: 81
Goods and Services
Mrs. Roche: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department paid to the private sector for goods and services in 1995-96. [29456]
Mr. Horam: From an examination of the payment records of the Department and its agencies, it is estimated that payments of about £130 million were made to the private sector for goods and services in 1995-96.
Community Pharmacists
Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures he is taking to speed up payments to community pharmacists. [29574]
Mr. Malone: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Mr. Viggers) on 12 December 1995, column 580.
Medical and Surgical Services
Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the Government's current policy on the concentration of individual medical and surgical services, other than cancer services, at fewer hospitals. [29744]
Mr. Horam: Each individual case will be considered on its merits balancing the loss of choice, access, competition and responsiveness that may follow concentration against any gains in quality of patient care or economies of scale where these cannot otherwise be achieved.
The Department has issued guidance, HSG (94)55, on the subject "The Operation of the NHS Internal Market: Local Freedoms, National Responsibilities", copies of which are available in the Library. We have also commissioned a short study into concentration and choice in acute services from a team led by Trevor Sheldon of the centre for reviews and dissemination in York.
Hospitals (Training Centres)
Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made as to which hospitals in the north-west are insufficiently large to be registered as training centres. [29745]
Mr. Malone: None; the Department does not register hospitals for training purposes. Training posts or programmes for junior doctors are approved by the relevant medical royal colleges.
Vitamin K
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he has taken to license oral vitamin K for infants. [30009]
Mr. Malone: The Medicines Control Agency has had extensive discussions about the licensing of oral vitamin K. Currently, no marketing authorisation for oral vitamin K for infants has been granted. Information about all applications for a marketing authorisation for a medicinal product is confidential and no information can be released until the announcement is made in the London, Belfast and Edinburgh gazettes that a marketing authorisation has been granted.
20 May 1996 : Column: 82
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to issue guidance on the use of intra-muscular vitamin K for infants. [30010]
Mr. Horam: The chief medical officer and chief nursing officer issued guidance on the use of intramuscular vitamin K for infants in December 1992. They await the results of departmental commissioned research, expected during 1996, to inform further guidance.
Hip Replacements
Sir David Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hip replacement operations were performed in 1995 on the national health service; how many were on patients from general practitioners fundholder practices; and how many patients had waited (a) more than and (b) less than one year. [29768]
Mr. Horam: The latest available information relates to 1993-94 and is shown in the table.
| General practitioner fundholder | District health authorities funded | Other | Totals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency | 348 | 21,519 | 650 | 22,517 |
| Planned | 154 | 467 | 17 | 638 |
| Booked and waiting list cases | ||||
| Less than one year | 6,451 | 20,317 | 1,498 | 28,266 |
| More than one year | 1,059 | 4,250 | 159 | 5,468 |
| Time not known | 365 | 1,285 | 110 | 1,760 |
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics--Data in this table is grossed for both coverage and unknown/invalid clinical data.
Vehicles (Child Restraints)
Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will discuss with the Department of Transport the requirement on national health service trusts to implement a policy of child restraints in all vehicles used for the transport of children. [29550]
Mr. Norris: I have been asked to reply.
There are several hundred NHS trusts in England which, although accountable to the Secretary of State for Health, have considerable autonomy over their day-to-day operations. Some trusts may have their own guidelines on child restraints, although I have no details on this. However, the Department of Health has informed me that it has no plans to issue any specific guidelines.
Safety of Medicines
Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 14 March, Official Report, column 751, if he will give a breakdown of the sum of £821, 986 devoted to running the spontaneous adverse drug reaction reporting scheme in 1994-95. [26256]
Mr. Malone [holding answer 24 April 1996]: This figure relates to the budget allocated to the ADROIT--adverse drug reactions on-line information
20 May 1996 : Column: 83
tracking--group of the Medicines Control Agency, which is responsible for the day-to-day running of the United Kingdom's spontaneous adverse drug reaction reporting scheme. Of this amount, £612,482 relates to the basic salary of staff working within the unit--excluding national insurance and pension contributions--and £209,504 relates to the costs of running and maintaining the ADROIT database for the financial year 1994-95. This database records all reports of adverse drugs reactions received from doctors and pharmaceutical companies.
20 May 1996 : Column: 84
NHS Paperwork
Mr. Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the report of the efficiency scrutiny into the burden of paperwork in NHS trusts and health authorities will be published. [30012]
Mr. Dorrell: I will be publishing the report on Tuesday 21 May. Copies will be available from the Vote Office and Library from 11am on that day.