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15 May 2003 : Column 423W—continued

Nurses

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many nurses there were per head of population in (a) Lancashire and (b) the North West of England in each year since 1997. [112104]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested has been placed in the Library.

Over-Medication

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department has taken since 4 December 2001 concerning over-medication of older people; and what progress has been made on the points listed in the reply to the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam by the Minister. [107371]

Jacqui Smith: The hon. Member's concern was about inappropriate prescribing of antipsychotics. We have been monitoring the use of antipsychotics among older people. The rates per 1,000 population have remained fairly steady since 1999, with an increase in the proportion of atypical antipsychotics—which is likely to be because they are better tolerated than traditional antipsychotics.

Progress in relation to the main points covered by the reply is as follows:

as part of the eighth wave of its work, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence will be producing a guideline on dementia, which will cover the use of antipsychotics for people with dementia


the new national minimum standards for care homes have been introduced, with standards relating to the administration of medicines


the Medicines Partnership Taskforce and the National Prescribing Centre have developed a guide on medication review for practitioners and managers to optimise the use of medicines in older people and reduce the unwanted effects of medication and wastage from unused medicines


many primary care trusts have devised innovative schemes where professionals review older people who are on four or more medicines regularly ensuring that they are still required and appropriately taken

Petitions

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many parliamentary petitions were referred to his Department in the last 12 months; and on how many were no government observations issued. [112862]

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Mr. Lammy [holding answer 13 May 2003]: Fifteen parliamentary petitions were referred to the Department of Health in the last 12 months. No government observations were provided for 10 of these.

Prescriptions

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to reduce waste in prescription arrangements, with particular reference to carrying out investigations as to how patients may avoid re-ordering medicines they do not need. [112453]

Mr. Lammy: We are introducing a number of measures to reduce wastage of medicines.

We have set up medicines management schemes to promote better use of medicines. 106 schemes are now in operation around the country and we are aiming for all primary care trusts to have schemes by 2004. One such scheme in Coventry recently reported it might save £150,000 per year through a range of measures designed to improve the effectiveness of local prescribing. Many general practitioner (GP) practices have hands-on support to help set up repeat prescribing systems, which will help reduce the re-ordering of medicines that patients do not need.

We are funding a joint task force based at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain to lead implementation of a national strategy to spread better understanding and partnerships between patients and health professionals on taking their medicines. This will promote the benefits of helping patients to take a more active role in managing their own care.

We are introducing repeat dispensing, beginning with 30 "pathfinder" sites, and with the aim of having schemes in place nationwide by 2004. These will enable patients to have their medicines dispensed for up to a year by their pharmacy without having to go back to their GP. It will allow the pharmacist to check that the medicines are needed. Evidence from pilot studies has shown that repeat dispensing helps reduce waste.

Prison Health Services

Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list for each prison the average amount of time available each week to give dental treatment to prisoners by qualified NHS dentists. [111925]

Jacqui Smith: This information is not available centrally.

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list for each year since 1997 the percentage of (a) women and (b) girls aged 15 to 17 years in prison with (i) drug problems and (ii) alcohol problems. [112515]

Jacqui Smith: Information is not available in the form requested. A survey of psychiatric morbidity among prisoners in England and Wales, undertaken in 1997 by the Office for National Statistics, showed that 44 per cent. of the women in the sample reported dependence on drugs and 38 per cent. reported hazardous levels of alcohol consumption in the year before coming into prison. Within these figures, the rates for young women aged between 16 and 20 were 57 per cent. and 50 per cent. respectively.

15 May 2003 : Column 425W

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the mental health services available to girls aged 15 to 17 in prison. [112518]

Jacqui Smith: All Prison Service establishments and their national health service partners are working to implement the improvements to mental health services set out in "Changing the Outlook, a Strategy for Developing and Modernising Mental Health Services in Prisons" published in December 2001. Prisoners who need in-patient treatment for mental disorder may be transferred to psychiatric hospitals. The care and treatment of mentally disordered prisoners who do not need to be admitted to hospital is generally undertaken by prison healthcare staff under the supervision of NHS specialists and, increasingly, by NHS-funded, multi-disciplinary, mental health in-reach teams. Such teams are already in operation or being developed at six of the establishments that hold young women aged 15 to 17 and one is to be introduced at the seventh during this financial year.

Registered Nursing Care

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many self-funders there are in each of the bands of registered nursing care. [112163]

Jacqui Smith: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 7 April 2003, Official Report, columns 107–08W.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Education (Capital Spending)

Mr. Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much public funding has been allocated for capital expenditure projects to the maintained and controlled education sectors in Northern Ireland in the last five years. [112350]

Jane Kennedy: The amount of public funding allocated for major capital projects ¹ and for capital projects under my Department's Specialist Accommodation Programme, to improve facilities in Science, Technology and Design and ICT, over the last five years is as follows:

£ million

	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04
Controlled Schools Sector	29	35	73	72	139
Maintained Schools Sector(21)	25	27	67	55	29

⁽²⁰⁾ Funding announced in March preceding the financial year.

⁽²¹⁾ Includes Catholic Maintained Schools and Irish Medium schools but excludes Voluntary Grammar Schools and Grant Maintained Integrated schools

Health and Personal Social Services

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) clinical staff and (b) non-clinical staff are employed on health and personal social services in Northern Ireland. [113448]

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Mr. Browne: Figures showing the number of clinical and non-clinical staff working in health and personal social services in Northern Ireland are shown separately in the following tables.

Table 1: Clinical staff in HPSS organisations as at 31 March 20031

Terms and conditions group	Headcount	WTE(23)
Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting	19,273	16,425.18
Social Services	4,391	4,037.64
Professional and Technical	5,598	4,949.91
Medical and Dental	3,072	2,781.22
Ambulance	111	774.38
Total	33,111	28,968.33

⁽²²⁾ Bank staff and home helps have been removed from these figures

⁽²³⁾ Whole time equivalent

Table 2: Non-clinical staff in HPSS organisations as at 31March 2003⁽²⁴⁾

Terms and conditions group	Headcount	WTE(25)
Admin and clerical	11,582	10,199.10
Works and maintenance	554	554.00
Ancillary and general	7,242	5,299.01
Total	19,378	16,052.11

⁽²⁴⁾ Bank staff and home helps have been removed from these figures

⁽²⁵⁾ Whole time equivalent

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