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16 Jun 2003 : Column 64W—continued
Pharmaceutical Products
Mr. Caton: To ask the Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the impact on African development of the United States' decision not to relax
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the rules on pharmaceutical patents; and what discussions he has had with President Bush on this matter. [119193]
The Prime Minister: The issue of how WTO Members with insufficient manufacturing capacity in the pharmaceutical sector can make effective use of the compulsory licensing provisions of the WTO TRIPS Agreement is still under discussion. We hope to see an effective solution agreed by the next WTO ministerial in Cancun in September.
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Subsidised Farm Exports
Mr. Caton: To ask the Prime Minister what discussions he has had with the French President about his proposal to halt the export of subsidised European and American farm products to Africa. [119189]
The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave during my statement on the G8 Summit to the hon. Member for Richmond Park (Dr. Tonge) on 4 June 2003, Official Report, column 171.
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HEALTH
Agency Nurses
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hours were worked by agency nurses in the last week of September 2002, broken down by payscale. [116945]
Mr. Hutton: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Ambulances
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many ambulance service vehicle road accidents there were in (a) England, (b) each NHS region and (c) each strategic health authority in each year since 1997. [116944]
Mr. Jamieson: I have been asked to reply.
The tables below give the number of accidents involving at least one ambulance service vehicle in (a) England, (b) each Government Office Region, and (c) each strategic health authority, in each year from 1997 to 2001. Figures are not available on the basis of the old Department of Health Regional Offices.
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 271 | 323 | 282 | 340 | 303 |
| Government Office Regions | |||||
| North East | 3 | 13 | 13 | 18 | 16 |
| North West | 29 | 38 | 32 | 43 | 33 |
| Merseyside | 18 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 10 |
| Yorkshire/Humberside | 19 | 35 | 29 | 51 | 49 |
| East Midlands | 25 | 27 | 15 | 23 | 23 |
| West Midlands | 26 | 26 | 26 | 35 | 27 |
| Eastern | 23 | 31 | 37 | 28 | 27 |
| South East | 42 | 45 | 42 | 54 | 42 |
| London | 59 | 75 | 61 | 45 | 46 |
| Southwest | 27 | 22 | 16 | 29 | 30 |
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Consultant Neurologists
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the waiting times are for follow-up appointments for consultant neurologists, broken down by Strategic Health Authority [118767]
Mr. Hutton: The current out-patient waiting time standard is that all patients should be seen for their first out-patient appointment within 21 weeks of the general practitioner referral.
Waiting time data for follow-up appointments or consultant to consultant referrals is not collected centrally.
Departmental Website
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what actions he has taken or is taking to ensure that the websites of his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are accessible to partially sighted and blind people; and if he will make a statement. [117352]
Mr. Hutton: The websites managed by the Department of Health seek to follow wherever possible the guidelines from the Office of the e-Envoy which advise public sector websites how to be accessible to partially sighted and blind people. In addition, the Department's website (www.doh.gov.uk), www.nhs.uk and NHS Direct Online regularly commission usability and accessibility research to ensure they are meeting the needs of their audiences.
The Department always provides alternative routes to the information it provides online. Hard copy publications are available on request and there is a customer services call centre.
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The Department of Health is currently working in partnership with the Office of the e-Envoy to migrate the majority of its website (www.doh.gov.uk) onto a new platform which has been designed to meet W3C level 'A' compliance and the Royal National Institute for the Blind, 'See it right' standards.
Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (www.mhra.gov.uk)
The MHRA website is scheduled for early redevelopment to integrate fully the existing websites of the former agencies. MHRA will assess accessibility as an integral part of that development.
NHS Estates (www.nhsestates.gov.uk)
All downloadable Adobe Acrobat files provided on the website are in the process of being speech enabled using PDFAloud on an Adobe Acrobat plug-in. NHS Estates are also currently evaluating a product called BrowseAloud that will speech enable the text on the main agency website pages.
NHS Pensions Agency (www.nhspa.gov.uk)
Resource and funding constraints have meant that the NHS Pensions Agency website is not currently fully accessible. However, the Pensions Online service, which the NHSPA provides to NHS Employers over the NHS Net, has been refreshed to remove frames, tables and buttons to assist partially sighted and blind visitors. The NHSPA website will be redeveloped in line with these changes and all ongoing and future website redesigns will include improvements in accessibility.
NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (www.pasa.doh.gov.uk)
The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency adheres to the NHS identity guidelines in all forms of communication, including those standards set for communication via the website. Although PASA is still a relatively new organisation, the website has grown rapidly. Its accessibility is currently being audited and reviewed to see where it can be improved.
Information regarding Non-Departmental Public Bodies could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Elderly People (Tooting)
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on funding for care of the elderly living in the Tooting constituency. [117158]
Mr. Hutton: Primary care trusts and local authorities are responsible for allocating their resources to meet local needs and achieve national standards.
Services for older people are a national priority area for health and social care. London PCTs have recently produced three-year local delivery plans and social services delivery improvement statements, outlining proposals to meet targets and capacity assumptions as set out in the Planning and Performance Framework.
Wandsworth PCT and Wandsworth social services which cover the Tooting area, are working in close collaboration to further develop services for older people and implement the national service framework for older people. Each organisation has maintained previous levels of investment in older people's services in the current year and identified some additional moneys to meet anticipated cost pressure arising from increased demand for services and/or new developments.
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The growth in Wandsworth PCT allocations, for all services, is as follows:
| Year | Annual increase(£ million) | Annual increase (Percentage) |
|---|---|---|
| 2003–04 | 21.1 | 8.3 |
| 2004–05 | 27.3 | 9.89 |
| 2005–06 | 29.2 | 9.62 |
| 3 year total | 77.6 | 30.5 |
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