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New Hospital (Romford)
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made on the new hospital planned for Oldchurch Park, Romford. [11656]
Mr. Hutton: Excellent progress has been made on this scheme since its national prioritisation in July 1999. The new hospital is still planned to be complete and operational in autumn 2005.
GM Crops
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the safety of genetically modified crops grown for human consumption. [11729]
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Ms Blears [holding answer 1 November 2001]: I am advised by the Food Standards Agency that all genetically modified crops approved for human consumption in the European Union following a rigorous safety assessment are considered as safe to eat as their non-modified counterparts.
Coquetdale Hospital
Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects work to start on the Coquetdale Hospital redevelopment at Rothbury, Northumberland; and if he will make a statement. [11675]
Ms Blears [holding answer 1 November 2001]: As negotiations on the site for the new Coquetdale Community Hospital at Rothbury are continuing, at this stage we are unable to give a date by which construction work will have commenced.
Residential Nursing Homes
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 23 October 2001, Official Report, column 159W, how many residential nursing homes have closed and beds been lost in Great Britain and Northern Ireland since 1 May 1997. [11944]
Jacqui Smith [holding answer 2 November 2001]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 23 October 2001, Official Report, columns 159–60W. The figures are for England only. Figures for other parts of the United Kingdom are matters for the devolved Assemblies.
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 23 October 2001, Official Report, columns 159-60W, which client groups have been included in the figures provided in written answers N115 and N113 tables 1 and 2. [11946]
Jacqui Smith [holding answer 2 November 2001]: The number of residential care homes, residential places in these homes and year on year changes, refer to the adult and older people client groups of: older people; younger physically/sensorily disabled adults; older mentally infirm adults; people with mental illness; people with learning disabilities and alcohol/drug misusers and other people. For residential care homes, information on client groups is based on the principal client group of the homes as defined for registration purposes and not of the client group of the places.
The number of nursing homes, registered nursing beds and year-on-year changes refers to all those available and includes those intended for children, older people, younger adults and for maternity usage and all of the primary registration categories. For nursing care homes, the allocation of homes and places is based on a combination of primary registration category (general nursing, people with learning disabilities, specialist nursing, maternity, mental health nursing, specialist mental health nursing, general specialities and other) and intended use (children, older person, other person).
Information by client group is available in the publications "Community Care Statistics 2000: Residential Personal Social Services for adults" and "Community Care Statistics 2000: Private Nursing Homes, Hospitals and Clinics". Copies of these publications are available
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in the Library and on the Department's website at www.doh.gov.uk/public/sb0028.htm and sb0107.htm respectively.
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his written answers of 23 October 2001, Official Report, column 159-60W, whether the figures provided include small residential homes of less than four beds. [11947]
Jacqui Smith [holding answer 2 November 2001]: The figures include residential care homes (and places) for small homes, defined as homes with less than four places, registered under the Registered Homes (Amendment) Act 1991.
Residential Care
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funds his Department allocated to local authorities for the uprating of the capital limit for residential care. [11676]
Jacqui Smith: Adequate provision was made in the personal social services expenditure settlement for 2001–02 to cover the costs of uprating the capital limits from April 2001 to restore them to their 1996 value.
Specialist Register
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what representations he has received concerning the ending of the transition period for entry of non-consultant career grades to the specialist register; and if he will make a statement; [12623]
- (2) what representation he has received on behalf of associate specialists within the National Health Service in relation to their inclusion on the specialist register. [12624]
Mr. Hutton: We have received a number of representations from medical professional bodies and from individual members of the profession on these issues.
As laid down in the NHS Plan, we are committed to increasing the number of consultants working in the National Health Service and it is important all available resources are harnessed. We are fully aware there is a pool of doctors within the non-consultant grades with the potential to become consultants. We are committed to removing unnecessary restrictions on the career progression of these doctors to ensure each is given the appropriate opportunity to demonstrate his or her potential.
NHS (Suspensions)
Dr. Richard Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the (a) NHS consultants, (b) general practitioners, (c) public health doctors and (d) managers presently suspended, indicating the durations of the suspensions; and what plans he has to shorten the length of these suspensions. [11249]
Mr. Hutton: In the quarter ended 30 September 2001, a total of 33 hospital doctors and dentists had been suspended for six months or longer. The information is not broken down as between consultants and public health doctors. Information is not collected centrally on managers. Currently, three general practitioners are
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suspended by the National Health Service Tribunal. New procedures and guidance are being developed which should reduce both the incidence and length of suspensions. In addition, NHS employers will be able to seek advice from the National Clinical Assessment Authority.
The NHS Tribunal is due to be abolished in December 2001. Health authorities (and later primary care trusts) will then be able to suspend or remove general practitioners from their lists where appropriate. Time limits will be applied to these suspensions.
Suicide
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the timetable is for completion of the national suicide prevention strategy. [11521]
Jacqui Smith: [holding answer 31 October 2001]: The Department is in the process of developing, under the direction of the National Director for Mental Health, Professor Louis Appleby, a coherent national suicide prevention strategy to ensure that we are doing all we can to prevent suicides. We hope to launch this strategy in spring 2002.
Private Health Care Provision
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to increase the involvement of the private sector in the provision of health care; and if he will make a statement. [10743]
Mr. Hutton [holding answer 31 October 2001]: As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State made clear on 24 October in his evidence to the Health Select
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Committee, the Department is working to improve collaboration between the National Health Service and the private sector. There are five aspects to this collaboration. First, £40 million is being made available to the NHS to buy treatment for NHS patients in the private sector over the coming months. Secondly, officials are working on a national framework agreement to build longer term relationships between the NHS and the private sector with a view to doubling the number of NHS patients treated in private hospitals to 100,000 a year from next year. Thirdly, the Department is exploring the possibility of contracts under which part of or indeed even entire private hospitals would become NHS providers of services for a number of years. Fourthly, Ministers will consider approaches from private sector providers to build privately owned diagnostic treatment centres which will perform operations purely on NHS patients. And finally we are exploring whether private sector providers in mainland Europe have spare capacity available to treat NHS patients. Three sites in south-east England are providing a test-bed for this new policy.
PFI Hospitals
Mr. Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many major hospital developments have been authorised under the Private Finance Initiative; how many of these are (a) completed and (b) nearing completion; what plans exist for expanding the number of these developments; and if he will make a statement. [12009]
Mr. Hutton: The table shows the major hospital developments which have been approved to go ahead under the private finance initiative. There are currently no plans to approve any further waves of major PFI schemes.
Notes:
The capital value of PFI schemes is approximate and defined as:
Total Capital Cost to the private sector includes the costs of land, construction, equipment and professional fees but excludes Value Added Tax, rolled up interest and financing costs such as bank arrangement fees, bank due diligence fees, banks' lawyers fees and third party equity costs. As PFI procures a service rather than the underlying asset, capital values shown are necessarily estimates.
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