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25 Nov 2002 : Column 138W—continued
Mental Health (Deaf People)
Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average length of detention was for deaf people detained under the Mental Health Acts in the last year for which figures are available. [82702]
Jacqui Smith: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Mental Health Bill
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will publish his mental health bill; and if he will make a statement. [83303]
Jacqui Smith: A draft Mental Health Bill and consultation document was published on 25 June 2002. The consultation exercise closed on 16 September and we are currently considering almost 2000 replies. We intend to introduce a Bill as soon as Parliamentary time allows.
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New Treatments
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his policy is regarding NHS provision of new treatments recommended by a consultant clinician before these have been assessed by NICE. [81770]
Mr. Lammy: National health service bodies should use existing arrangements to access the publicly available evidence and to determine local policies for the managed entry of new interventions, as set out in Health Circular HSC 1999/176.
NHS Dentists
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will rank the primary care trusts in order of the number of vacancies available on NHS dentists' lists at the last date for which information is available. [81673]
Mr. Lammy: Most general dental practitioners (GDPs) working in the national health service general dental services are self-employed and are free to choose and vary the number of patients they wish to register. Primary care trusts do not control patient registrations and there is no fixed limit for the number of patient registrations allowed per dentist. Furthermore, patients do not need to be registered to be seen by an NHS dentist.
It is therefore not possible to quantify the number of Xvacancies" on dentists lists.
The number of GDPs continues to increase. There were 18,114 GDS practitioners on 30 June 2002, of which 16,181 were principal dentists. This compares to 18,004 and 16,167 respectively, 12 months earlier.
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the ratio is of NHS general dental practitioners to population in each primary care trust area. [81674]
Mr. Lammy: Primary care trusts (PCTs) assumed responsibility for dentistry on 1 October 2002.
The ratios of national health service general dental practitioners to population in each PCT area are not yet available centrally.
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists per head of population there were in (a) England and (b) each NHS region in each of the last six years. [81685]
Mr. Lammy: The number of national health service dentists per 100,000 population for England and for each NHS region for 1996 to 1997 is contained in table 1. The regional breakdown is different for 1998 to 2001 due to reorganisation and these figures are contained in table 2.
NHS dentists covers dentists working in the general dental service (GDS), hospital dental service (HDS), community dental service (CDS), personal dental service (PDS) and salaried service of the GDS. Dentists have been counted in each dental service in which they practise apart from dentists working in the PDS and GDS that are counted as GDS dentists only.
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These figures are on a headcount basis rather than a whole time equivalent (wte) basis and therefore take no account of part-time working.
| 1996 | 1997 | |
|---|---|---|
| England | 40.7 | 41.6 |
| Northern and Yorkshire | 39.6 | 39.1 |
| Trent | 36.9 | 35.1 |
| Anglia and Oxford | 37.1 | 38.6 |
| North Thames | 46.3 | 47.0 |
| South Thames | 46.4 | 48.2 |
| South and West | 43.0 | 42.5 |
| West Midlands | 33.8 | 36.4 |
| North and West | 39.2 | 42.1 |
(22) Dentists are counted in each dental service in which they practice apart from dentists working in the PDS and GDS that are counted as GDS dentists only.
(23) ONS mid year population estimates based on the 1991 Census.
| 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 42.6 | 43.4 | 43.9 | 45.8 |
| Northern and Yorkshire | 39.9 | 40.3 | 40.8 | 43.0 |
| Trent | 35.5 | 36.9 | 37.2 | 37.7 |
| West Midlands | 37.2 | 37.6 | 38.6 | 40.6 |
| North West | 42.9 | 44.0 | 43.7 | 45.5 |
| Eastern | 39.5 | 40.5 | 41.4 | 43.2 |
| London | 53.0 | 52.9 | 52.7 | 55.4 |
| South East | 42.9 | 44.2 | 44.9 | 47.0 |
| South and West | 46.3 | 47.2 | 48.3 | 49.9 |
(24) Dentists are counted in each dental service in which they practice apart from dentists working in the PDS and GDS that are counted as GDS dentists only.
(25) ONS mid year population estimates based on the 1991 Census
NHS Litigation Authority
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many claims the NHS Litigation Authority received in the 2001–02 financial year in respect of employer liability; how much it paid out in costs; and how many cases remain outstanding. [83285]
Mr. Hutton: The national health service litigation authority received 2,439 claims from NHS employees in the financial year 2001–2001. Of these 2,210 remain open.
A total of £1.89 million has been expended on these claims in total but this figure includes on-going payments in claims which remain open.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many claims in respect of employer liability remain unresolved by the NHS litigation authority; and of these, how many are up to (a) six months old, (b) one-year-old, (c) two-years-old, (d) three-years-old, (e) four-years-old and (f) over four-years-old. [83286]
Mr. Hutton: There are a total of 4,820 claims for compensation from national health service employees currently being handled by the NHS litigation authority. Of these:
- 1,163 are up to six months old.
- 1,113 are between six months and 12 months.
- 1,822 are between 12 and 24 months.
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- 687 are between 24 and 36 months.
- 35 are between 36 and 48 months.
The litigation authority took over the handling of claims in 1988.
NHS Staff
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the ratio is of medical and clinical staff practising in the national health service to total staff employed by his Department, health NDPBs and the NHS. [81024]
Mr. Hutton: The data are shown in the table. 64 per cent. of staff employed in the national health service, Department of Health and health non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) are medical and clinical staff practising in the NHS.
| All staff | Medical and clinical | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 1,175,348 | 750,636 |
| NHS | 1,167,166 | (26)750,018 |
| DH | 4,953 | 134 |
| NDPBs | 3,229 | 484 |
(26) Includes doctors, GPs, nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff, scientific, therapeutic and technical staff, health care assistants, nursing, midwifery and health visiting learners and ambulance staff.
North-West NHS Staff Redundancy
Mr. Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the total cost of severance and redundancy payments to employees of the Bury health care, North Manchester health care, and Oldham and Rochdale NHS trusts on the formation of the Pennine Acute hospitals trust. [82972]
Jacqui Smith: Pennine Acute hospitals national health service trust was established on 1 April 2002, following the dissolution of Bury health care, North Manchester health care, Oldham and Rochdale health care NHS trusts. The new trust inherited 22 directors, eight of whom have been, or will be, made redundant.
The total cost of their severance packages is £1,758,617. The directors have not received this sum of money collectively; the figures represent the cost to their employers and include the capitalized costs of early retirement pensions as well as redundancy payments.
The severance packages have all been approved by the appropriate remuneration committees and signed off by the trusts' external auditors.
Nursing and Residential Care
Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people sold their homes to pay for (a) nursing and (b) residential care in Shrewsbury and Atcham in the last year for which figures are available. [83183]
Jacqui Smith: The information requested is not held centrally.
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