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NHS Treatment Abroad

Mr. Jon Owen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether there will be a common UK position on the definition of unreasonable periods of delay for treatment within the NHS, as phrased in the European Court of Justice ruling on treatment of patients abroad; and if he will make a statement; [109877]

(2) what definition he uses for an unreasonable period of delay for treatment within the NHS, as referred to in the European Court of Justice ruling on treatment of patients abroad; and if he will make a statement. [109975]

Mr. Hutton: 'Undue delay' is a term used in Netherlands' national law, which was considered by the European Court of Justice in case C157/99 Geraets-Smits/Peerbooms. The Court did not define what it meant by 'undue delay', by implication leaving that a matter for determination by the member state in question.

If an application for treatment elsewhere in the European Economic Area or Switzerland is made on grounds of delay by patients resident in England, Scotland or Wales under the referral scheme in Regulation (EEC) 1408/71, the Department takes account of the national targets for waiting times as published in England, Scotland and Wales and of the individual patient's clinical need. Applications in Northern Ireland are authorised by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety and take account of similar considerations.

A further European Court of Justice judgment was published on 13 May 2003 in case C385/99 Muller-Faure/Van Riet. The Department is considering its position in the light of that judgment, in consultation with the Devolved Administrations.

NHS Trusts

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many trusts there are within the NHS. [111907]

Mr. Hutton: There are 301 primary care trusts, 272 National Health Service trusts including 32 ambulance trusts and 29 mental health trusts and seven care trusts.

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the projected deficit is of North Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust for 2002–03. [110653]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 1 May 2003]: At the last board meeting on 1 May 2003, the North Cheshire Hospitals National Health Service Trust reported the projected deficit for 2002–03 as being £5.8 million. In order to ensure that the trust did not fail in its statutory duty to achieve financial balance, the Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Health Authority (CMSHA) has made provision to cover the deficit with repayable brokerage.

The CMSHA has asked for revised recovery plans from the North Cheshire NHS organisations, as the plans, agreed in June 2002 and revised in October 2002,

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were not felt to be working. The CMSHA has also asked the Audit Commission to review these financial recovery plans in order to identify the key factors contributing to the deficit, as well as to assess the effectiveness of the corporate governance arrangements of the organisations concerned. The Audit Commission is due to conclude its work in the near future.

Prescriptions

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received about the National Health Service (Amendments Relating to Prescribing by Nurses and Pharmacists etc.) (England) Regulations. [114130]

Mr. Lammy: None.

Primary Care

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions his Department has had with Essex Primary Care Organisations on the provision of enhanced services and Information Management and Technology through the primary care organisations under the new NHS primary care contract for the provision of General Medical Services; and if he will make a statement. [113095]

Mr. Lammy: The NHS Confederation has been negotiating on behalf of the Department of Health with the General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association on the new general medical services contract. As an integral part of the communication exercise, the Confederation has held a number of events around the country for primary care organisations, work force development confederations and strategic health authorities to explain the specifics around the funding of the new contract. The Department of Health itself has had no direct negotiation with any primary care organisation in relation to the contract.

Mr. Blizzard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which primary care trusts have been the subject of independent review since they were established. [112433]

Mr. Hutton: Primary care trusts are independent national health service bodies accountable to the Secretary of State for Health and as such, they are subject to independent review from a range of organisations; for example, overview and scrutiny committees, the Audit Commission and the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI).

CHI is carrying out a rolling programme of clinical governance reviews, which report on the adequacy of clinical governance arrangements of NHS organisations in England and Wales.

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what use his Department has made of the 2001 census in the restructuring of York Formula for Primary Care Trust funding; and if he will make a statement. [113434]

Mr. Hutton: Up to 2002–03, the weighted capitation formula used to inform the allocation of national health service revenue resources was based on work by researchers from York University. The formula has recently been reviewed by the Advisory Committee on

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Resource Allocation. The work on the new formula was carried out by a team of researchers led by University of Glasgow and ISD Scotland.

The new formula has been used for the latest round of NHS allocations to primary care trusts. These allocations for the period 2003–04 to 2005–06 were based on population estimates from the 2001 Census.

Radiologists

Mr. Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many vacant NHS posts for consultant radiologists there were in March in (a) England, (b) each NHS region and (c) each NHS trust. [112194]

Mr. Hutton: Information on vacancies for consultant radiologists at March 2002 has been placed in the Library. Before April 2002, the 95 health authorities were grouped into eight regional offices. The regional offices have since been abolished, therefore data for 2002 are presented according to the new 28 strategic health authority boundaries.

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Mr. Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many additional (a) specialist registrar training places in radiology have been created and (b) consultant radiologists have been employed in (i) England and (ii) each NHS region in each of the last six years. [112195]

Mr. Hutton: There has been an increase of around 14 per cent. in the number of consultants in the radiology group and 39 per cent. in doctors within the registrar group between September 1997 and September 2001. Specialist registrar data were not collected in the March 2002 mini-census.

In 2003–04, central funding will be distributed to support the implementation of 78 additional specialist registrar posts in clinical radiology and one additional specialist registrar post in nuclear medicine. This represents a significant proportion of the centrally funded posts available.

Available information is shown in the table.

Hospital, Public Health Medicine and Community Health Services (HCHS): Medical consultants and registrars within the radiology group⁽³²⁾ by region—EnglandNumbers (headcount)⁽³³⁾

	1997		1998		1999
	Consultant	Registrar Group	Consultant	Registrar Group	Consultant	Registrar Group
England total	1,473	534	1,514	552	1,540	612
of which:
Northern and Yorkshire	196	63	209	67	211	67
Trent	138	56	139	51	145	62
West Midlands	146	42	141	50	150	56
North West	220	81	223	83	229	96
Eastern	131	19	134	24	142	30
London	271	184	288	184	287	200
South East	230	57	232	55	233	56
South Western	141	32	148	38	143	45

		2000			2001		March 2002
	Consultant	Registrar Group	Consultant	Registrar Group	Consultant
England total	1,616	655	1,683	743	1,723
of which:
Northern and Yorkshire	217	75	225	89	225
Trent	148	63	148	66	145
West Midlands	150	58	166	71	171
North West	238	114	242	120	245
Eastern	143	26	146	33	147
London	308	215	331	241	342
South East	245	63	252	71	266
South Western	167	41	173	52	182

⁽³²⁾ The radiology group comprises doctors who with specialties in clinical radiology or nuclear medicine.

⁽³³⁾ Data as at 30 September each year, except for 2002, where data as at 31 March.

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