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15 May 2003 : Column 419W—continued

Doctors

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 14 April 2003, Official Report, column 606W, on doctor numbers (Lancashire), when the number of doctors per 100 beds in each of the

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Lancashire NHS trusts will have been validated; and if he will write to the hon. Member for Ribble Valley with the information about how many have been validated. [112103]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested is shown in the table.

Medical and dental staff, available beds and staff per 100 beds within trusts in Lancashire: 2001–02Number (headcount)

		Staff	Beds(17)	Staff per 100 beds
	All Lancashire Trusts	1,931	5,438	35.5
RBV	Christie Hospital NHS Trust	111	268	41.5
REU	Burnley Healthcare NHS Trust	252	810	31.1
RJX	Calderstones Hospital NHS Trust	15	232	6.5
RMB	Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Health Care	269	825	32.6
RMC	Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust	282	994	28.4
RME	Communicare NHS Trust	74	93	79.4
RMG	Guild Community Healthcare NHS Trust	56	214	26.2
RMR	Blackpool Victoria	326	726	44.9
RVT	North Sefton and West Lancashire Community NHS Trust	16	49	32.7
RJU and RMF	Chorley and South Ribble NHS Trust(18) and Preston Acute Hospitals NHS Trust(18)	530	1,228	43.2

⁽¹⁷⁾ Average daily number of available beds

⁽¹⁸⁾ These two trusts merged on 1 August 2002. For 2001–02 they provided a combined return on bed numbers and therefore it is not possible to show the number of staff per 100 beds on an independent trust basis.

Sources:

Department of Health medical and dental workforce census, as at 30 September 2001

Department of Health form KH03, 2001–02

Electronic Magnifiers

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to make electronic magnifiers available on the NHS.[R] [112851]

Mr. Lammy: Electronic magnifiers are considered to be aids to daily living and as such, their provision is the responsibility of social services departments. They can provide these if they are felt to be warranted. However hand-held, stand and spectacle-mounted magnifiers are considered to be more widely available, more accessible, easier to use and more cost effective.

The hospital eye service is responsible for providing optical devices and loans, low vision aids, such as high powered reading lenses, hand-held and stand magnifiers and telescopes to visually impaired people .

In some parts of the country low vision aids are provided by community based opticians, the service being funded by primary care trusts.

Foundation Trusts

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health to which NHS trusts he will give approval to apply for first-wave NHS foundation trust status. [113670]

Mr. Milburn: I refer the hon. Member to the written statement that I gave yesterday, 14 May 2003, Official Report, columns 9–10WS.

Home Adaptations

Mrs. Dean: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the number of individuals who are unable to return home from hospital because of the need for adaptations to their homes in (a) England, (b) Staffordshire and (c) East Staffordshire. [113157]

Jacqui Smith: This information is not held centrally.

Mental Health

Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many of his staff retired on medical grounds due to mental health problems in the last year. [111963]

Mr. Lammy: Records are not maintained by the Department of Health which enable ill health retirements to be separately identified as mental health related. For the Department of Health, the number of staff retired with a medical retirement certificate issued by the Civil Service pension scheme medical adviser for the period 1 April 2002–30 April 2003 was four.

As to the matter of costs, expenditure for medical retirement is not met by the employing departments, but centrally funded from the Civil Superannuation Vote.

Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many of his staff have taken sick leave due to mental health problems in the last year. [111984]

Mr. Lammy: The Department does not currently gather information in the form requested.

Mental Health Bill

Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will publish a summary of the responses his Department has received on the consultation for the draft Mental Health Bill; and if he will make a statement on the progress made in redrafting the draft Mental Health Bill. [113962]

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Jacqui Smith: We received almost 2,000 responses to the consultation. Work on the Mental Health Bill continues carefully and a Bill will be introduced as soon as parliamentary time allows. The results of the consultation will be made public before the introduction of the Bill.

Mental Health Services

Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total expenditure per head for mental health services was in each English county in the last five years; and how many (a) consultants and (b) nurses were engaged in mental health in each health authority area in the last five years. [108637]

Jacqui Smith: Information on the expenditure per head on mental illness by health authorities and primary care trusts between 1997–98 and 2001–02 has been placed in the Library. The data relates to the commissioning of secondary mental illness only, information on primary expenditure is note collected centrally. Information on the number of consultants and nurses working within mental health by strategic health authority between 1997 to 2001 has also been placed in the Library.

National Care Standards Commission

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the unit cost of each category of inspection undertaken by the National Care Standard Commission (a) was in 2002–03 and (b) will be in 2003–04. [112349]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested is not currently available. The National Care Standards Commission is undertaking an analysis of activity and financial data in order to estimate unit costs for 2002–03. The results of this work are expected to be available at the end of July.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how the views of consumers are obtained by the National Care Standards Commission; and how those views influence its work. [112354]

Jacqui Smith: The National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) attaches a high priority to ensuring that service users are fully engaged in all that it does. The NCSC, as part of the implementation of its service user strategy, uses a mix of focus groups and inspection feedback tools to help evaluate the difference it is making to service users.

National Patients Survey

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will publish the results of the first national patients' survey; and how much the survey cost. [112156]

Mr. Lammy: Inpatient and general practitioner services were surveyed as part of the 2002 patient survey programme. The results have been disseminated to participating trusts on a strategic health authority-wide basis, to allow for cross-comparison and local benchmarking. This approach enabled strategic health authorities to maintain an overview of how results were formulated into trust-based follow-up plans.

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The average cost per participating trust in 2002 was £7,000 for National Health Service trusts and £3,000 for primary care trusts.

NHS Dentists

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many training places are available in 2003–04 for (a) dentists, (b) dental therapists, (c) dental hygienists and (d) dental nurses; and what the figures were in 1997–98. [112280]

Mr. Lammy: Information on intake to dental schools and training commissions for professionals complementary to dentistry for 1997–98 and provisional figures for 2002–03 is shown in the table. We are committed to increasing the number of training commissions for dental therapists by 150 by 2004–05.

	1997–98	2002–03(19)
Dental students	668	696
Dental therapists	38	40
Dental hygienists	86	94
Dental nurses	177	228

⁽¹⁹⁾ Provisional

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) dentists, (b) therapists, (c) hygienists and (d) nurses work in dental practices in which NHS dentistry is available. [112281]

Mr. Lammy: The number of dentists on primary care trusts' lists or employed by the national health service at 30 September 2001 is shown in the table. Dentists working in more than one dental service are included in each service, apart from dentists working in both the personal dental service (PDS) and the general dental service (GDS), who are counted in the CDS only.

NHS Dental Services: Number of dentists at 30 September 2001 in England

	Number
General dental services	18,354
Salaried service of GDS	86
Personal dental services	467
Community dental service	1,348
Hospital dental services	2,184

It is estimated that 380 therapists were registered with the General Dental Council (GDC) in England in 2001, of whom 350 have been employed as therapists. It is not possible to determine the proportion of therapists currently performing NHS treatment.

It is estimated that 3,400 dental hygienists were registered with the GDC in England in 2001 and that 89 per cent. of these were actually working as hygienists. It is not currently possible to determine what proportion of these hygienists undertake NHS work.

There are around 27,000 dental nurses at present in the United Kingdom. However, registration is not compulsory and it is not possible to confirm this figure or to determine what proportion are working in the NHS.

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Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the adequacy of training programmes to meet future levels of demand for NHS dentistry. [112282]

Mr. Lammy: We are undertaking the first dental work force review since 1987 in consultation with the dental profession. We hope to publish a report later this year, together with work force planning assumptions for national health service work force development confederations and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. We are also committed to ensuring the review is regularly updated in future, to take account of policy development and change.

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