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Private Sector Providers

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the rate of return applicable to the contracts offered to private sector providers of diagnosis and treatment centres will be; how the cost of private provision to NHS patients will be calculated; and how staff employed by the private sector units will be offered re-employment in the NHS. [119483]

Mr. Hutton: Independent sector diagnosis and treatment centres (DTCs) contracts will be service-based contracts and not subject to rate of return regulation: bids have been invited for given volumes of clinical activity needed by National Health Service commissioners to met 2005 waiting times targets. In the medium-term, as et out in Delivering the NHS Plan, the intention is that independent sector DTCs will practice under a dingle system of regulation, inspection and tariff, across public and private sectors.

Staffing policies for independent sector DTCs will be the responsibility of the independent sector DTC provider, although they will be required, as part of the tendering process, to demonstrate that their staffing policies will not be disruptive to the local health economy. Where these units use NHS staff, the requirement will be that this is in a structured projects explicitly agreed between the provider and the local health economy: it is expected that NHS staff working in this way will remains NHS employees.

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Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many private hospitals and clinics provided services to the NHS in (a) 2001–02 and (b) 2002–03; what the cost was of such provision; and what rate of return was (i) calculated and (ii) awarded in such private health care. [119488]

Mr. Hutton: The Department does not hold information on the total number of private hospitals and clinics providing services to the national health service, nor on their profit margins. Prices are a matter for negotiation between providers and the NHS organisations commissioning their services.

Dental Services

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time for an NHS dental appointment was in (a) Suffolk, (b) Norfolk, (c) Cambridgeshire, (d) Essex, (e) Bury St. Edmunds and (f) England in the last year for which figures are available. [120414]

Dr. Ladyman: Dentists working in the general dental service (GDS) are independent contractors and, as such, information is not held centrally on waiting times for GDS dental appointments.

Doctors (Home Visits)

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many home visits there were out of hours by doctors in (a) 1973, (b) 1980, (c) 1990, (d) 2000 and (e) 2002. [121072]

Mr. Hutton: Full data are not held centrally on the number of home visits made during the out-of-hours period, by doctors.

Electronic Prescribing

Mr. David Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to develop electronic prescribing. [119962]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 17 June 2003]: To take forward the commitments to electronic transmission of prescriptions (ETP) made in "Information for Health, Pharmacy in the Future—Implementing the NHS Plan and Delivering 21st Century IT Support for the NHS", the Department of Health commissioned three pilots in June 2002. The Pilots have been exploring options for linking computerised general practitioner practices to local community pharmacies and the Prescription Pricing Authority using the NHSnet.

Responsibility for the development and implementation of ETP has recently passed to the National Programme for National Health Service information technology. The national programme is reviewing the evaluation reports from the pilots, with a view to putting together a range of options for delivering a robust national model to deliver ETP. The national programme will shortly be making an announcement on how this work will be taken forward.

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Emergency Care

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received regarding (a) targets for emergency care in hospitals and (b) the attainment of such targets. [120909]

Ms Rosie Winterton: I have received two letters from professional bodies; one letter from an hon. Member; and four letters from members of the public on the subjects of targets for emergency care in hospitals, and the attainment of such targets, over the past eight weeks.

School Vision Screening

Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he is taking in response to the recommendations of the National Screening Committee regarding eye screening for children in schools. [119702]

Dr. Ladyman: The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (NSC) is currently considering the role of routine vision screening in schools. We will be considering the proposals of the NSC as part of the ongoing work of the national service framework for children, young people and maternity services.

Foundation Hospitals

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his Answer of 9 June, ref.116290, if he will make a statement on the difference in the cost to a foundation hospital accessing an amount of capital via loans they will be expected to repay as compared to the charge another health organisation accessing capital through the Department of Health and strategic health authorities would have to meet for borrowing the same amount. [118856]

Mr. Hutton: The principal way national health service foundation trusts will access capital will be through borrowing from private or public lenders. The difference in cost to the NHS foundation trust of this borrowing, compared to the charges they would pay as a NHS trust accessing capital through a strategic health authority, will depend upon the interest rate at which they borrow. I anticipate that the financing facility, which the Department of Health will make available, will lend at rates not dissimilar to the prevailing rate for the National Loans Fund.

Free NHS Treatment

Mr. Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people not ordinarily resident in the UK received free NHS treatment in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [118343]

Mr. Hutton: The fact that someone is deemed not ordinarily resident does not mean that they should automatically be charged for their treatment. It is for individual national health service trusts to establish whether a patient is ordinarily resident, and if not, whether they are nevertheless exempt from paying charges under the provisions of the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989. Trusts are not required to submit returns to the Department of Health specifically on the numbers of patients who are treated free of charge under those Regulations.

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Commission for Social Care Inspection

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to require the Commission for Social Care Inspection to provide an advocacy and support service to self-funding residents in their contract negotiations with private care homes; and if he will make a statement. [120306]

Dr. Ladyman: I have no plans to require the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) to provide an advocacy and support service to self-funding residents in their contract negotiations with private care homes. The functions planned for the CSCI include verifying that appropriate protection is provided for all care home residents, including self-funders. Such protection should include care homes facilitating access to available advocacy services where residents lack capacity; written contracts between self funded residents and their home and care homes having clear and simple complaints procedures.

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy that the Commission for Social Care Inspection should have a duty to consult and involve service users in its work at both the local and national levels. [120392]

Dr. Ladyman: Clause 86 of the Health and Social Care Bill and section 31 of the Care Standards Act make provision to allow the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) to interview service users who are accommodated within the premises being inspected. The CSCI may use this opportunity to consult service users on the services they are receiving.

In addition, we anticipate that CSCI will adopt a service user centred approach and will, as the Social Services Inspectorate and the National Care Standards Council have done, include the consultation of service users within its methodologies for review and investigation.

Health Information (Internet)

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proposals he has to provide health information over the internet; and what measures are in place to ensure information is accurate and of high quality. [119567]

Mr. Hutton: As part of its modernisation programme for the national health service, the Government have created the NHS Direct Online website (www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk) to provide high quality health advice and information on the internet. It is a complementary service to the NHS Direct 24-hour nurse-led helpline.

NHS Direct Online works closely with clinical professions to ensure that the information it publishes is of the highest quality. NHS Direct Online was recognised as an outstanding example of online health information services at the recent international eHealth Ministerial Conference in Brussels.

NHS Direct Online works in partnership with the national electronic library for health at: www.nelh.nhs.uk which licenses high quality

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information resources, such as Clinical Evidence and the Cochrane Library, for use by the public as well as NHS staff.

The Government share the view that citizens' needs must be at the centre of attention in the development of high quality health related information services. As part of our response to the Bristol Enquiry, the Government have created a National Knowledge Service—see www.nks.nhs.uk which is developing a co-ordinated approach to information services across the NHS.

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