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British Medical Association

Mr. Callaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he last met British Association officials; and what matters were discussed. [5848]

Mr. Malone: Officials acting on behalf of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State regularly meet representatives of the British Medical Association and discuss a range of issues.

Dental Services

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the community dentistry budget for England for each year since 1990. [4236]

Mr. Malone: Expenditure on community dental services between 1990-91 and 1993-94 is given in the table. Separate expenditure figures for the CDS are not available centrally for later years. The level of future expenditure on the community dental service is a matter for health authorities, as the local purchasers of health care, to decide.

Expenditure on community dental services
England

YearExpenditure (£ million)
1990-9161.156
1991-9267.653
1992-9375.770
1993-9478.545

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were seen by the community dental services in age ranges (a) nought to four years, (b) five to 15 years, (c) 16 to 64 years and (d) 65+ years since 1990.[4240]

Mr. Malone: Data are collected only in the categories shown in the table:

Community dental service: count of all occasions on which a patient was in contact with a member of the community dental service and was given treatment or advice, from 1990-91 to 1994-95
England

Ages1990-911991-921992-931993-941994-95
All ages2,412,3432,565,0962,652,5442,481,9632,498,494
0 to 4215,080229,225226,420206,758210,275
5 to 151,893,2441,984,8232,033,6031,876,9241,857,330
16 to 64232,474267,530294,250298,341323,468
65 and over71,54583,51898,27199,940107,421

1. Figures represent a count of each and every occasion on which a patient was in contact with a member of the community dental service. Figures therefore may include an element of double counting. The number of individual patients seen will be smaller than this.

2. This table will include some patients who were seen in screening or preventive programmes.


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Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients have been waiting more than four months for dental surgery in the (a) South Thames, (b) North Thames, (c) South West and (d) Oxford and Anglia regions. [4239]

Mr. Malone: The information requested is not available centrally.

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentistry check-ups his Department recommends children should receive during primary school. [4237]

Mr. Malone: The community dental service is advised to screen the teeth of children in state-funded schools at least three times in each child's school life, or more frequently in areas where dental health is generally poor.

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many domiciliary visits were made by members of the community dental services in (a) 1993-94, (b) 1994-95, and (c) 1995-96. [4241]

Mr. Malone: This information is not collected centrally.

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the incidence of dental disease in children under five years in the (a) South Thames, (b) North Thames, (c) South West and (d) Oxford and Anglia regional health authorities. [4238]

Mr. Malone: This information is not collected centrally.

NHS Pay Negotiations

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many working hours were spent by the management of each NHS trust on pay negotiations in (a) 1994-95, and (b) 1995-96; and what is the estimated cost to each trust of this working time. [4244]

Mr. Malone: The information requested is not available centrally.

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS trusts had not concluded pay negotiations for the year 1996-97 on 1 October 1996. [4245]

Mr. Malone: On 1 October we knew of 37 pay settlements in the 429 national health service trusts in England. The latest information is that 120 have settled.

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Waiting Times

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list by health authority the number of people who waited 30 minutes or longer between arrival in out-patient clinics and the start of their consultation with the doctor for each quarter since 1 January 1995. [4243]

Mr. Horam: Information on the percentage of people who waited 30 minutes or longer in an out-patients department is shown in the patients charter quarterly monitoring returns. Copies have been placed in the Library.

From 1 April 1996, health authorities submit quarterly performance data to the centre by exception only. Information for all health authorities will only be collected for the quarter ending 31 March 1997.

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the average waiting time between receipt of referral letter and initial out-patient consultation for patients with suspected (a) breast cancer, (b) prostate cancer, (c) testicular cancer, (d) liver cancer, (e) skin cancer, (f) oral cancer, (g) lung cancer and (h) childhood cancer for each of the first two quarters of 1996 and each year since 1990. [4242]

Mr. Horam: This information is not available centrally.

NHS Management Trainees

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS management trainees on the national training scheme there were in each of the last five years; and how many of those trainees were offered full-time employment at the end of their course. [4233]

Mr. Malone: Records on the number of management trainees on the 1992 NHS management training scheme in England are not held centrally.

Of 68 trainees who completed the scheme starting in 1993, 63 accepted offers of appointment in the NHS. Of 60 trainees who have so far completed the scheme starting in 1994, to date 46 have accepted offers of appointment in the NHS.

Of the trainees currently on the scheme, 58 started in 1995 and 40 started in 1996.

Private Finance Initiative

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the cost of legal fees incurred by private finance initiative schemes for the health service for the last two years. [4167]

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Mr. Horam: Information on legal fees incurred by private finance initiative schemes in the national health service is not held centrally.

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the total cost of consultancy fees incurred by private finance initiative schemes for the last two years. [4168]

Mr. Horam: Information on consultancy fees incurred by private finance initiative schemes is not held centrally.

Ms. Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the total value of NHS information technology contracts being tested through the private finance initiative for (a) 1994-95, (b) 1995-96 and (c) 1996-97. [4182]

Mr. Horam: There have been 11 private finance initiative schemes with an information technology element in the national health service with a whole life cost of £1 million or over approved since 1995. The total capital value of these schemes is £57.3 million. Information on all information technology schemes currently testing for PFI is not held centrally.

Tuberculosis

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of tuberculosis were diagnosed per health authority in (a) 1994-95, (b) 1995-96 and (c) 1996-97. [4185]

Mr. Horam: Information on the numbers of notifications of tuberculosis, excluding chemoprophylaxis, are not available in the form requested. Numbers of notifications to the Office for National Statistics are published by local authority in the publications "MB2 Communicable Disease Statistics" annually and "MB2 Infectious Disease Statistics" quarterly. Copies are available in the Library. Approximate numbers of notifications of tuberculosis, excluding chemoprophylaxis, for regional health authorities for 1994 and for regional offices for 1995 and the first two quarters of 1996 are as follows:

Tuberculosis notifications (excluding chemoprophylaxis) by regional health authority(77)

1994 numbers
Northern184
Yorkshire400
Trent459
East Anglia76
North-west Thames851
North-east Thames916
South-east Thames427
South-west Thames265
Wessex128
Oxford180
South Western139
West Midlands730
Mersey103
North Western551


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