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12 Jun 2003 : Column 1075W—continued
Domiciliary Oxygen
Ms Drown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will allow on prescription conserving devices for domiciliary oxygen; [118620]
- (2) when he will announce the results of the review of domiciliary oxygen services initiated in March 2000. [118621]
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what plans he has for the provision of ambulatory oxygen to patients with lung disease; [118818]
- (2) if he will make it his policy to allow (a) conserving devices for domiciliary oxygen and (b) ambulatory oxygen to be dispensed on prescription; [118819]
(3) what assessment he has made of the benefit to patients of using conserving devices with domiciliary oxygen. [118820]
Mr. Lammy: In 1999, the Department of Health asked the Royal College of Physicians to lead a multidisciplinary working party to devise new clinical guidelines for the use of domiciliary oxygen. Although the working party's terms of reference precluded making specific recommendations about alterations in service provision, a number of the guidelines had implications for the content of the existing domiciliary oxygen service and for the way in which the service is delivered. It was clear, therefore, that this vital resource—that has seen only one significant change, the introduction of oxygen concentrators, in the past 50 years—had become out of date, both in terms of the service offered to patients and its cost effectiveness. It was against this background that the then Under-Secretary of State, my noble Friend Lord Hunt of Kings Heath directed that a review of the domiciliary oxygen service should take place.
This review is now complete and we are ready to move forward to create a modernised and integrated service for the provision of domiciliary oxygen.
At present, domiciliary oxygen is ordered for patients by general practitioners. The service consists principally of the provision of oxygen either from large cylinders supplied by community pharmacies, or delivered by way of an oxygen concentrator, installed in the patient's home by a contractor.
The modern, integrated service that is proposed represents a considerable advance on this organisational and service model.
The new model will transfer responsibility for ordering oxygen for long-term oxygen therapy from general practitioners to specialist consultants in hospital. This will relieve general practitioners of the bureaucratic burden of writing prescriptions, effectively on doctors. (Patients who need long-term oxygen will invariably have their needs assessed by hospital staff). The hospital consultant will decide, in discussion with the patient, what the patient's needs for oxygen are. For
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example, many patients would benefit from having oxygen available in a form that allows then greater freedom of movement both in and outside the home than is possible with large cylinders or oxygen concentrators. General practitioners will continue to be able to prescribe oxygen for patients who need small amounts of oxygen.
Once the hospital consultant or general practitioner has discussed and determined the patient's need for oxygen, it will be the responsibility of contractors to work closely with the patient and decide what technology, that is what type and method of oxygen supply, will best suit the patient's therapeutic need, and to provide it. These specialist contractors will be well placed to keep pace with developments in the technical aspects of service delivery, so patients will benefit from advances in technology as they are developed.
Thus, the modernised integrated service represents a sensible division of responsibility in the provision of domiciliary oxygen services. It places clinical responsibility for assessing oxygen need with doctors, and places technical decisions on the best and most up to date method of delivery with service contractors. Over the next few months a specification for the provision of the integrated service will be drawn up. Contractors will be invited to tender against this specification and fully operational early in 2005. The current arrangements for the provision of domiciliary oxygen will continue as at present to cover this transitional period.
Donor Cards
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to encourage the provision of donor cards in GP surgeries. [116930]
Mr. Lammy: General practitioners are the second highest source of applications of registration on the National Health Service Organ Donor Register and all GPs have access to supplies of the forms via the Organ Donor Line. UK Transplant is currently exploring partnerships with drug companies who can provide free distribution to surgeries through their representatives. In March 2003, all 11,000 GP surgeries in the United Kingdom were supplied with leaflets highlighting issues relevant to the Asian community. Leaflets were supplied in English with examples of versions in Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujerati and Hindi available to order.
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were registered with donor cards in each of the last 10 years; and what steps the Government has taken to encourage a greater take-up. [116932]
Mr. Lammy: The national health service organ donor register was established in 1994. The table shows the number of people that have registered each year. People are encouraged to join the organ donor through a number of initiatives, including when they apply for a driving licence, register with a new general practitioner, apply for a new passport or, where available, complete the organ donor registration form sent out by their local authorities annually when they check the electoral register. Additionally, UK Transplant runs publicity campaigns and targets action to raise the profile of organ donation, including specific advertising and
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information campaigns to increase organ donation from the South Asian and black African and Caribbean populations.
| (Millions) | |
|---|---|
| 1994 | 0.14 |
| 1995 | 2.21 |
| 1996 | 1.39 |
| 1997 | 0.92 |
| 1998 | 0.87 |
| 1999 | 1.51 |
| 2000 | 1.24 |
| 2001 | 0.74 |
| 2002 | 1.08 |
| Total(5) | 10.10 |
(5) at end of 2002
Pharmacies
Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many pharmacies in England are included in the Essential Pharmacy Scheme. [118727]
Mr. Lammy: For the year ending 31 March 2002, 259 pharmacies in England providing national health service pharmaceutical services received payments under the Essential Small Pharmacy Scheme.
Free NHS Treatment
Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he is taking to prevent those not ordinarily resident in the UK receiving free NHS treatment. [118342]
Mr. Hutton: Entitlement to free national health service hospital treatment is based on residence in the United Kingdom: anyone deemed "ordinarily resident" in the UK should not be charged for their treatment, other than statutory charges, such as those for NHS prescriptions. The National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989 set out the circumstances in which those not ordinarily resident should be charged for their treatment. It is for individual NHS trusts to apply the Regulations and establish whether a patient is eligible for free treatment. We will shortly be issuing revised guidance on the operation of the Regulations.
General Practitioners
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many GPs there were (a) in England and (b) in each constituency in the last year for which figures are available. [118719]
Mr. Hutton: The information is not available on a constituency basis. Information on the number of all general practitioners in England, broken down by primary care trust as at 31 March 2002 has been placed in the Library.
Hearing Aid Appointments
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the waiting time is for a hearing aid appointment at (a) the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and (b) the Princess Royal Hospital. [117598]
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Jacqui Smith [holding answer 10 June 2003]: Although the Department does not collect information on waiting times for hearing aid services centrally, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf's modernising hearing aid services project management team informs us that the out-patient waiting time in Shropshire for new patients, from general practitioner referral to having a hearing aid fitted is between 12 and 15 months. The waiting time is the same for both of the hospitals mentioned. Shropshire is currently negotiating to extend the private sector pilot, making use of high street hearing aid dispensers to increase NHS capacity, and reduce waiting times.
International Nurse Advice Line
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many calls have been received by the International Nurse Advice Line in each month since the scheme was started. [111043]
Mr. Hutton: The national health service international nurses advice line received the following number of calls since the scheme began.
Many calls are made on behalf of more than one nurse.
| Number of calls received | |
|---|---|
| July 2002 | 0 |
| August 2002 | 1 |
| September 2002 | 33 |
| October 2002 | 28 |
| November 2002 | 11 |
| December 2002 | 39 |
| January 2003 | 50 |
| February 2003 | 30 |
| March 2003 | 16 |
| April 2003 | 22 |
| Total | 102 |
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