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NHS Investment (North Staffordshire)
19. Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on new investment in the NHS in North Staffordshire. [137654]
Mr. Denham: North Staffordshire Health Authority received a £29 million cash increase in their allocation for 2000-01, and will again benefit from a further
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£29 million cash increase to their 2001-02 allocation. North Staffordshire has also benefited from extra investment including:
- £0.85 million from the A&E Modernisation Fund for a new Medical Assessment Unit;
- £80,000 from the Dental Care Development fund;
- £328,800 for seven Investing in Dentistry grants;
- £0.3 million for smoking cessation projects;
- £6 million for Health Action Zone initiatives;
- £28 million for a PFI Mental Health Facility currently under construction.
Antibiotics (Prescribing)
20. Mr. Ronnie Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidelines he issues to general practitioners on the prescribing of antibiotics. [137655]
Mr. Hutton: The Department of Health does not intervene in the individual prescribing decisions of general practitioners. However the Department issued Health Service Circulars 1999/049 and 2000/02 to the National Health Service, which gave advice on the monitoring and optimising of antimicrobial prescribing.
Intensive Care Beds
21. Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the number of intensive care beds in national health service hospitals in England and Wales. [137656]
Mr. Denham: On 15 July 2000, in England, there were 2,343 open and staffed adult critical care beds of which 1,496 were used for intensive care. It is planned that at least 2,700 beds are available this winter--this will be about 340 more than was available last winter.
The position in Wales will be a matter for the devolved Assembly.
Gravesend Community Hospital
23. Mr. Pond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on progress in the development of the new Gravesend Community Hospital. [137659]
Ms Stuart: The South East Regional Office of the NHS Executive has approved a strategic outline business case submitted by the Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley Primary Care Trust, in partnership with social services, for the development of new community facilities on the site of the existing Gravesham and North Kent Hospital.
PFI-funded Hospital Building Programmes
24. Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effect of PFI-funded hospital building programmes on the number of NHS beds available in the areas affected. [137660]
Mr. Denham: Bed numbers at new hospitals are decided by local commissioners and clinicians well before the decision on whether to use PFI or the traditional public capital route to actually build them.
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However, in the light of the National Beds Inquiry, we have reviewed all schemes over £10 million nearing approval stage, under construction or completed--both PFI and publicly funded--to examine the balance between in-patient general and acute beds and the planned provision of intermediate care services.
Emergency Hospital Admissions (Rural Areas)
25. Mr. Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the ability of the health service to meet national clinical standards for acute hospital emergency admissions in remote rural areas. [137661]
Ms Stuart: Advances in healthcare and changes to the practice of medicine, particularly the increasing sub specialisation of doctors, results in changes to the way healthcare is delivered to patients. The Government are keen to see that patients have access to services at as local a level as possible but against this desire must be balanced the need to ensure that patients receive the highest levels of clinical care, wherever that care is provided. It is up to local health communities to determine the best way to provide the highest standards of clinical care for their patients.
Spongiform Encephalopathies
26. Mr. Efford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department is undertaking into transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. [137662]
Yvette Cooper: Since 1996 the Department has commissioned, or is the process of commissioning, over 50 research contracts in the fields of epidemiology, strain typing, diagnostics, blood and blood products, and the decontamination of surgical instruments.
The Government, including their research councils, have spent some £70 million on transmissible spongiform encephalopathy research since April 1997. A further £29 million is planned for projects under way in the current financial year.
Nurses
27. Mr. Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to increase the number of nurses working in the NHS. [137663]
Mr. Denham: The Department is improving recruitment and retention by encouraging the NHS to become a better employer, increasing training commissions, attracting former staff back to the NHS, encouraging flexible retirement, and supporting more effective, collaborative international recruitment.
GP Training
28. Ms Rosie Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on GP training. [137664]
Mr. Denham: I am happy to do so. In April this year we introduced a modernised system for general practitioner training, which is already producing more and better trained GPs. Numbers in training have risen in each year since 1997, and the NHS Plan sets targets for continued growth. This year we are spending over
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£100 million on GP training, which also supports the continuing professional development of GPs after they have completed their formal training.
GMC Disciplinary Procedures
29. Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has held with the GMC on its disciplinary procedures against doctors in private practice since the coming into force of the Care Standards Act 2000. [137665]
Mr. Denham: The Department, at ministerial and official level, has regular contact with the General Medical Council (GMC). We have recently (3 August) amended the Medical Act 1983 to give the GMC powers to deal quickly and more effectively with doctors whose fitness to practice comes into question, and are working closely with them to introduce revalidation of doctors.
These achievements are part of our overall package of reforms to protect patients from incompetent doctors, and the regulation, for the first time, of private doctors under the Care Standards Act is a further step in providing patients with proper safeguards. To ensure that we are putting in place a proper robust system of regulation for private doctors discussions have been held, and are continuing, with the GMC among others. We see the regulation of private doctors as ensuring that patients can have confidence that any information they get about the service being provided is accurate, that there are proper quality assurance systems in place and if the patient is unhappy about the treatment provided they will have access to a formal and effective complaints procedure. Where the National Care Standards Commission has concerns about the quality of care being delivered by a private doctor it will be able to withdraw registration to prevent the doctor from practising in those premises and inform the GMC.
Of course, the GMC has an important role in the development of all the standards to which independent healthcare providers will be regulated, and are therefore part of the External Consultation Group which we have established to help the Department in developing these standards.
Doctor Shortages
30. Mr. Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on measures he is taking to increase the number of GPs practising in the UK and to reduce the patient:GP ratio in areas where there are shortages of doctors. [137666]
Mr. Denham: In England, the NHS Plan commits us to deliver at least 2,000 extra general practitioners and 450 more GPs in training by 2004. New Personal Medical Services schemes, will be developed to attract doctors to disadvantaged communities. The NHS Plan also makes proposals to change the financing of health authorities to give them greater ability to attract new doctors in areas of shortage.
Drugs Bills
31. Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his policy is towards patients for whom the anticipated drugs bill exceeds £10,000 per annum. [137667]
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Ms Stuart: We have no policy of distinguishing between patients on the basis of whether their medicines cost more than £10,000 per annum.
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