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Harefield Hospital, Middlesex

32. Mr. Wilkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many communications he has received since 1 January about the proposed closure of Harefield Hospital, Middlesex. [137668]

Mr. Denham: Approximately 270 communications regarding the future of Harefield Hospital have been received since 1 January 2000.

Community Pharmacies

33. Mr. Bill O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to provide assistance to community pharmacies; and if he will make a statement. [137669]

Ms Stuart: Community pharmacies providing services on behalf of the National Health Service receive fair and appropriate remuneration for those services. Pharmacies which dispense relatively few prescriptions, but which are more than one kilometre from the next pharmacy, may in addition qualify for subsidy payments under the Essential Small Pharmacies Scheme to bring their income from NHS services up to a target level.

Our future programme for community pharmacy is set out in "Pharmacy in the Future--Implementing the NHS Plan", a copy of which is in the Library.

Specialist Footwear

34. Mr. Hurst: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the availability of specialist footwear for working disabled people. [137670]

Mr. Hutton: We are committed to ensuring that everyone who wants to work has the opportunity to do so, and to overcoming the barriers which disabled people may face in entering into, or retaining, work. The Directive covering safety boots is the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Directive 89/686/EEC. This currently requires a testing process in which a product model would probably be destroyed. This is not possible for one-off, specially made products such as the safety boots many disabled employees are required to wear.

This problem has recently come to light and we are working urgently to resolve it within the European Community Personal Protective Equipment Directive Working Group. The group met in Brussels on 6 November and all member states agreed the principles for a short term solution. We are urgently considering the practical application of these principles. For the longer term, the United Kingdom has proposed changes to the Directive to take account of specially made products. This has been accepted by the group and further consideration and drafting is in hand.

Head Injuries

35. Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the provision of healthcare for those suffering from head injuries. [137671]

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Mr. Denham: Each year some 1,000,000 people with head injuries attend hospital. Treatment depends on the extent of the injury and can, where appropriate, include specialised rehabilitation. The aim of treatment is, wherever possible, to restore the person to the state of health they enjoyed before the injury happened.

Speech Therapy

36. Ms Oona King: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the extent of provision for speech therapy. [137672]

Mr. Denham: Information on patient contacts with speech and language staff in England is collected on the Department of Health return KT 29 and published annually. The returns for 1998-99 indicated that the number of face to face contacts between patients and speech and language therapy staff was 3.5 million and the number of new patients seen was 327,000. The information for 1999-2000 will be published at the end of November and a copy of the summary will be available in the Library.

Quality Protects

37. Siobhain McDonagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the Quality Protects initiative. [137673]

Mr. Hutton: The Quality Protects initiative is a key part of our programme for tackling social exclusion. It focuses on improving the life chances of some of the most vulnerable children in our society: children in care; children in need of protection and disabled children. On 20 October, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced the extension of the programme from its original three years to five years. The programme is supported by a special grant of £885 million over the five years. The NHS plan and the Department's Public Service Agreement set challenging new targets to narrow the gap in life chances between children in care and their peers through better outcomes for care leavers; higher educational attainment; reduced offending; and maximising the role of adoption.

Although there remains a long way to go, the initial evidence suggests that Quality Protects is beginning to deliver better opportunities for some of the most vulnerable children. 500 more children were adopted from care in 1999-2000 than the previous year--a 23 per cent. increase. More young people are remaining in care until they are 18. The number of re-registrations on child protection registers is down, as is the number of children de-registered who had been on the register for over two years. Children in care are experiencing fewer placement moves.

Hospital-acquired complications

39. Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of beds in NHS hospitals is occupied by patients who are being treated for (a) infections and (b) other complications acquired in hospital. [137675]

Mr. Denham: National prevalence studies suggest that at any one time around 9 per cent. of in-patients have an infection acquired since their admission to hospital. The impact on bed occupancy will vary from patient to patient as it will for any other complication which may arise

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during treatment of the condition for which the patient was admitted. Hence, centrally collected information does not provide the precise data requested.

Hospital Waiting Lists

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on his estimate of hospital waiting lists in the winter months. [137657]

Mr. Denham: Waiting lists over the winter months will reflect the planned priority the National Health Service gives to emergency admissions.

Vaccines

Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reasons the promise by the Minister for Public Health to write to the hon. Member for Lewes following the debate on 28 March concerning bovine materials in vaccines had not been met by 14 November. [138924]

Yvette Cooper: I am sorry that I have not been able to reply to the hon. Member earlier. I wanted to make sure that the information I sent was accurate and helpful. That has taken longer than expected. My written reply of 23 October 2000, Official Report, column 78W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Ms King), said that the MCA had advised that information provided by the manufacturers of the oral polio had been inaccurate and in that reply, I corrected some of the information given during the debate in Westminster Hall on 28 March. In the light of the new information we are also reviewing the advice given to Ministers on this issue to ensure that all the information given to Parliament is correct. I also asked the Committee on Safety of Medicines earlier this year to produce a comprehensive assessment of BSE-related issues in vaccines. We are committed to publishing the assessment.

"Voices" (Advertising Costs)

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department spent on advertising in the recent Government publication, "Voices". [135583]

Ms Stuart [holding answer 30 October 2000]: The Department of Health spent £3,281 on advertising in the Government publication "Voices".

Hearing Aid Service

Mr. Levitt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on progress made in reform of the NHS Hearing Aid Service. [138270]

Mr. Hutton: The Department is funding a project worth £4 million this year at 20 National Health Service hearing aid departments. The project will evaluate leading edge digital hearing aids for NHS patients and the associated service delivery changes arising from incorporating information technology based assessment and fitting procedures.

Three NHS hearing aid departments have started to fit digital hearing aids to NHS patients and a further 12 departments will do so before April; the remaining five departments will join the project in 2001-02.

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General Dental Council

Mr. Nicholls: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will use his powers under the Health Act 1998 to change the membership of the General Dental Council; what is the constitution of the present Council, as regards representation of dentists, professions complimentary to medicine and laymen; and if he will make a statement. [R] [138260]

Mr. Hutton: The General Dental Council currently comprises 50 members of whom 41 are dentists, six are lay people, three are doctors and one a professional complementary to dentistry. In consultation with the Department, the Council is working up proposals for a smaller Council with a much larger proportion of lay members. We will use powers under Section 60 of the Health Act 1999 to implement these changes. We plan to lay an Order before Parliament early in 2001.

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