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8 Sept 2003 : Column 191W—continued

Free Nursing Care

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many whole-time equivalent nurses are responsible for assessing patients for free nursing care; [127488]

(2) how many people are awaiting an assessment for free nursing care; and what proportion that represents of people who require an assessment for free nursing care; [127509]

(3) how many people have been waiting (a) less than one month, (b) over one month and less than two months, (c) over two months and less than three months, (d) over three months and less than four months and (e) over four months for an assessment for free nursing care. [127510]

Dr. Ladyman: Information on a survey of primary care trusts (PCTs) carried out in December 2002, which requested information on PCTs' progress on determining the nursing needs of nursing home residents supported by local authorities, was placed on the Department's website at www.doh.gov.uk/jointunit/nhsfundednursingcare/dec2002resultspub.xls on 6 May 2003. In mid-December 2002 approximately 20 per cent. of the assessments of residents supported by local authorities, which were required by April 2003, had been completed. No further updated or detailed information is held centrally.

Arrangements for carrying out assessments are organised locally and no information on the number of nurses involved is held at central level.

Free Prescriptions

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health who is eligible for free prescriptions. [127699]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The following categories of people are eligible for free national health service prescriptions:

Men and women aged 60 and over;


Children under 16;


Young people in full-time education aged 16, 17 and 18;


Pregnant women and women who have had a child in the previous 12 months who hold a valid exemption certificate;


People who hold a valid exemption certificate for a war or Ministry of Defence disablement pension but only in respect of medication for the disablement;


People suffering from the following conditions who hold a valid exemption certificate:


permanent fistula (including caecostomy, colostomy, laryngostomy, or ileostomy) which requires continuous surgical dressing or requires an appliance


diabetes insipidus or other forms of hypopituitarism


diabetes mellitus (except where treatment is by diet alone)


hypoparathyroidism


myasthenia gravis


myxoedema


epilepsy requiring continuous anti-convulsive therapy;


continuing physical disability which prevents the patient from leaving his residence without the help of another person.

8 Sept 2003 : Column 192W

People (and their partner) receiving income support


People (and their partner) receiving jobseekers' allowance income-based


People who are entitled to, or named on, a valid NHS tax credit exemption certificate


People named on a valid HC2 charges certificate for full help (under NHS low income scheme).

Fuzeon

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the drug Fuzeon. [127433]

Miss Melanie Johnson: On 27 May 2003, the European Commission issued a Marketing Authorisation valid throughout the European Union for the medicinal product Fuzeon, which contains enfuvirtide. The approved indication is:

"in combination with other antiretroviral medicinal products for the treatment of HIV-1 infected patients who have received treatment with and failed on regimens containing at least one medicinal product from each of the following antiretroviral classes: protease inhibitors, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, or who have intolerance to previous antiretroviral regimens. In deciding on a new regimen for patients who have failed an antiretroviral regimen, careful consideration should be given to the treatment history of the individual and the patterns of mutations associated with different medicinal products. Where available, resistance testing may be appropriate."

General Practitioners

Mr. Dorrell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practitioner posts in Leicestershire are vacant. [127269]

Dr. Ladyman: The information is not held centrally in the format requested.

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practitioners have entered general practice in each of the last six years; and how many have retired. [127384]

Mr. Hutton: It is not possible to provide comparable figures for general practitioners joining the work force and those retiring from the work force. This is because the time sequences and groups covered differ. The available information is set out in the tables.

Numbers of Unrestricted Principals and Equivalent (UPE) general practitioners joining the workforce 1996–97 to 2001–02

Year(49)	Number of UPEs(50) joining General Practice
1996–97	1,302
1997–98	1,333
1998–99	1,229
1999–2000	1,203
2000–01	1,452
2001–02	1,633

Notes:

⁽⁴⁹⁾ 12-month periods October to September

⁽⁵⁰⁾ UPEs include General Medical Services (GMS) Unrestricted Principals, Personal Medical Services (PMS) Contracted GPs and PMS Salaried GPs.

Source:

Department of Health General and Personal Medical Services Statistics

8 Sept 2003 : Column 193W

Numbers of general practitioners⁽⁵¹⁾retiring in the financial years ending 1996–97 to 2002–03

Year(52)	Number of GPs retiring(53)
1996–97	537
1997–98	509
1998–99	457
1999–2000	339
2000–01	584
2001–02	604
2002–03	532

Notes:

⁽⁵¹⁾ These figures include UPEs and all other GPs

⁽⁵²⁾ 12 month periods April to March

⁽⁵³⁾ These figures include retirements on the grounds of age and voluntary early retirements before the NHS Pension Scheme's normal retirement age of 60

Source:

NHS Pensions Agency

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the average length of time GPs in England spent with their patients in individual consultations in the last 12 months. [127454]

Mr. Hutton: The data are not collected either routinely or by health authority.

Under the new general medical services contract, which will be introduced from 1 April 2004, length of consultation is one of the indicators within the quality and outcomes framework. Practices will be able to increase earnings if they provide appointments and consultations which equal or exceed the times specified in the framework.

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of the population in (a) Greater London and (b) England are registered with a GP. [127503]

Mr. Hutton: The vast majority of the population is registered with a general practitioner. At 30 September 2002 (the latest published data), 8,122,456 people were recorded as registered with a GP or with a provider of personal medical services (PMS) in the areas covered by the five London strategic health authorities. In England, 51,552,391 people were recorded as registered with a GP or a provider of PMS.

However, these figures are greater than their respective population figures. Therefore, it is not possible to express accurately the percentages of the population that are covered. This is due to "list inflation". This arises where a patient moves his or her registration and for a transitional period may be registered on two lists. Similarly, an individual who dies or moves outside London and/or England may remain on a list for a time.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what contingency plans he has made in the event of doctors rejecting GP contracts. [109922]

Mr. Hutton: General practitioners voted overwhelmingly to support the new general medical services contract on 20 June.

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on GP recruitment. [127491]

8 Sept 2003 : Column 194W

Mr. Hutton: The NHS Plan set a target of recruiting an additional 2,000 general practitioners (GPs) between 1999 and 2004. A range of measures have been put in place to increase GP recruitment:

The number of GP registrars has increased from 1,340 in 1997 to 2,070 in March 2003 providing a substantial increase in the number of qualified GPs.


The GP Returner Scheme launched in November 2002 provides a clear, supported route back into general practice. Under the scheme returning GPs receive paid, individually tailored refresher training (full- or part-time) a dedicated return co-ordinator with whom they meet regularly, and a contribution towards their professional expenses.


The Golden Hello Scheme offers up to £5,000 to new GPs or those returning to practice from the Retainer Scheme, with up to a further £7,000 if they take up post in an area designated as under-doctored. On 29 November 2002 the scheme was extended to qualified doctors who are not currently working in national health service general practice who return to take up an NHS post.


In November 2002 the Flexible Careers Scheme, which only applied to hospital doctors, was extended to offer GPs new options to work more flexibly, to work part-time and to give them a route back to practice when they want to return to the NHS.


The NHS Delayed Retirement Scheme (formerly Golden Goodbye Scheme) which pays £2,000 per year to GPs between the ages of 60 and 64 inclusive who continue to work in a substantive primary care post.


Increased funding for locum cover for family doctors for maternity, paternity and adoptive leave.


A £22 million training package to increase the number of GP trainers and training practices.


A £55 million package to improve primary care premises in deprived parts of the country including new premises to train and employ more GPs.

Alongside these initiatives there is the new general medical services contract, which will provide GPs with the opportunities and funding to improve their working lives by allowing them to opt out of providing out-of-hours arrangements and additional services. This will make it easier for them to work flexibly and move in and out of salaried and independent contractor status and enable a new portfolio approach to career development which will make it easier for GPs to adapt their career to suit their aspirations.

We are now starting to see significant increases in the number of GPs. In the six months to 31 March 2003, GP numbers grew by 500. 1,240 of the NHS Plan target has now been delivered and we expect to see further increases as these measures take effect.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practitioner vacancies there were in each primary care trust in 2002 and how many there are now. [127525]

Mr. Hutton: In the 2002 General Practitioner Recruitment Retention and Vacancy Survey, health authorities reported that 2,615 GP vacancies were recorded at some stage during the period March 2001 to February 2002.

Figures for individual primary care trusts are not available because the data for the 2002 survey were returned in aggregate form by the former health authorities that existed at the time.

8 Sept 2003 : Column 195W

The 2003 GP Recruitment, Retention and Vacancy Survey will be published later this year.

Peter Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average GP waiting times were in the Wrekin in each year since 1997. [127580]

Dr. Ladyman: The information is not available in the form requested.

At March 2003, results from a primary care access survey indicated that 94 per cent. of patients in Telford and Wrekin Primary Care Trust were able to be seen by a general practitioner within two days.

Prior to that, on the basis of similar data collected at health authority level, within Shropshire Health Authority, at March 2002, 80 per cent. of patients were able to be seen within two days.

At September 2001, 80 per cent. of patients were able to be seen within two days. This is the earliest date for which these data are available.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the criteria are for GPs to be eligible for a cash payment of up to £125,000 for IT. [127692]

Mr. Hutton: The previous arrangements for the computer reimbursement scheme were detailed in paragraph 58 of the Statement of Fees and Allowances. The scheme allowed for the direct reimbursement of a proportion of the costs incurred by a practitioner, restricted principal, partnership or group practice in purchasing, leasing or upgrading a computer system, and for maintaining the associated hardware and software. Practices were only eligible to claim reimbursement of expenditure on systems which are accredited to national standards defined in Requirements for Accreditation 99 (v1.1 and v1.2).

The new general medical services contract will facilitate the modernisation of information and technology in general practice and support the local health community. Under the contract, new money will be spent providing new systems and upgrading existing systems. In addition, primary care organisations will be responsible for funding the purchase, maintenance, future upgrades and running costs of integrated information technology systems, which includes those used in general practice.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the practices that have received payments for IT; and how much they received. [127693]

Mr. Hutton: There are over 8,700 practices in England. The Department of Health does not collect information on the amounts reimbursed to the individual general practitioner practices for information technology.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the operating systems which are approved by the Department of Health for GPs to receive payments for IT systems. [127694]

Mr. Hutton: Under current arrangements the Department of Health does not accredit operating systems for use by general practitioner practices. However, the national programme for information

8 Sept 2003 : Column 196W

technology will be defining clear interoperability standards as new integrated care record services are rolled out across the national health service.

The clinical GP systems listed have been accredited against current Requirements for Accreditation (RFA) requirements.

RFA99v1.2:

Blue Bay/SAIC—GPS version 5.4


EMIS—PCS


Protechnic Exeter—Version 19


Healthy Software—Version 5


In Health Solutions—Ganymede version 5.1


Microtest—Practice Manager 2 version 1.7.1


The Phoenix Partnership—System One version 1

RFA99v1.1:

Chime—GP Care Version 4


EMIS—LV5.2 and GV2 version 2


In Practice Systems—Vision Version 3


Seetec—GP Enterprise Version 1.5


Torex Health—Premiere Version 2.2, Premiere Synergy Version 1.0, System 6000 version 3.3 and System 5 version 5.8


Torex Pennine—Visual Phoenix version 2.1

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) male and (b) female GPs have switched to working part-time since 1st July 2002. [127529]

Mr. Hutton: The number of female and male general practitioners who have switched to working part-time since 31 March 2002 is shown in the table.

All practitioners1 working full-time as at 31 March 2002 and part-time as at 30 September 2002 by sexNumbers (headcount)

	Practitioners	Female	Male
England Total	320	174	146

⁽⁵⁴⁾ All practitioners include GMS unrestricted principals, PMS contracted GPs, PMS salaried GPs, restricted principals, assistants, GP Registrars, Salaried Doctors (paragraph 52 SFA), PMS other and GP Retainers.

Information can only be provided as at 31 March 2002 and 30 September 2002 because these are the dates when the workforce mini census and workforce annual census were carried out respectively.

Tim Loughton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many new (a) male and (b) female GPs opted to work part-time between 1 January and 30 June in (i) 2002 and (ii) 2003. [127530]

Mr. Hutton: Information can only be provided between 30 September 2001 and 31 March 2002 and 30 September 2002 and 31 March 2003, because there are the dates when the workforce annual census and workforce mini census were carried out.

The number and proportion of new male and female general practitioners (GPs) who opted to work part time between 30 September 2001 and 31 March 2002 are shown in table 1.

The number and proportion of new male and female GPs who opted to work part time between 30 September 2002 and 31 March 2003 are shown in table 2.

8 Sept 2003 : Column 197W

Table 1: Unrestricted principals and equivalents (UPEs)⁽⁵⁵⁾ joiners by commitment and sex,between 30 September 2001 and 31 March 2002

	Total	Full-time	Of which	Male	Female	Part-time	Percentages all joiners workingpart-time	Of which	Male	Percentages male joiners workingpart-time	Female	Percentages female joiners workingpart-time
Joiners	800	436		274	164	364	45.5		99	26.5	265	62.1
Of which
New Joiners	519	305		189	116	214	41.2		50	21	164	58.5
Re-joiners	281	131		85	46	150	53.4		49	36.6	101	68.7

Note:

UPEs include GMS Unrestricted principals, PMS Contracted GPs and PMS salaried GPs.

Source:

Department of Health General and Personal Medical Services Statistics

Table 2: Unrestricted principals and equivalents (UPEs)⁽⁵⁵⁾ joiners by commitment and sex, between 30 September 2002 and 31 March 2003 (numbers-headcount)

	Total	Full-time	Of which	Male	Female	Part-time	Percentages all joiners workingpart-time	Of which	Male	Percentages male joiners workingpart-time	Female	Percentages Female joiners workingpart-time
Joiners	977	568		339	229	409	42.0		120	26.0	289	55.7
Of which
New joiners	596	372		218	154	224	37.6		47	17.7	177	53.5
Re-joiners	381	196		121	75	185	48.5		73	37.6	112	59.8

Note:

UPEs include GMS Unrestricted principals, PMS contracted GPs and PMS salaried GPs.

Source:

Department of Health General and Personal Medical Services Statistics.

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