| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
8 Sept 2003 : Column 218W—continued
Methylphenidate
Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of children prescribed methylphenidate for severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have been regularly monitored to assess improvement in the last year. [127096]
8 Sept 2003 : Column 219W
Dr. Ladyman: This information is not collected centrally. In 2000 the National Institute for Clinical Excellence looked at the use of methylphenidate in treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Among other recommendations it concluded that:
- Methylphenidate should be used as part of a comprehensive treatment programme for children with a diagnosis of severe ADHD;
Children on drug therapy should receive regular monitoring;
Methylphenidate should be discontinued if improvement of symptoms is not observed after appropriate dose adjustment over one month; and
Treatment should be initiated by specialists but general practitioners may be involved in continued prescribing and monitoring under shared care arrangements.
Microbiology Services
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the (a) Health Protection Agency and (b) NHS laboratories which are providing microbiology services for food, water and environmental testing. [127684]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The following Health Protection Agency (HPA) laboratories provide food, water and environmental testing services to local authorities in England:
- London Food and Water and Environmental Microbiology Laboratory;
Wessex Environmental Microbiology Services, Southampton;
West Midlands Health Protection Agency Regional Microbiology Laboratory, Birmingham;
North East Health Protection Agency Regional Microbiology Laboratory, Newcastle;
Yorkshire and the Humber Health Protection Agency Regional Microbiology Laboratory, Leeds;
South West Health Protection Agency Regional Microbiology Laboratory, Bristol.
- Kent Environmental Microbiology Services, Ashford;
The Sussex and Surrey Environmental Microbiology Service, Brighton;
Food, Water and Environmental Laboratory, Chelmsford;
Reading Environmental Microbiology Services.
- Carlisle Hospitals NHS Trust;
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Trust;
Gloucestershire Royal NHS Trust;
Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust;
James Cook University Hospital NHS Trust;
Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust;
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Trust;
Northern Lincolnshire and Good Hospitals NHS Trust;
8 Sept 2003 : Column 220W
Preston Acute Hospitals NHS Trust;
Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust;
1 Queens Medical Centre, University Hospital NHS Trust, Nottingham;
Royal Cornwall Hospital NHS Trust;
Royal Devon and Exeter Healthcare NHS Trust;
Royal Shrewsbury Hospital NHS Trust;
Royal Hull Hospitals NHS Trust;
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust;
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust;
University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust;
University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust.
1 This laboratory provides water and environmental services. Food testing services in this area are provided by the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Trust.
This list relates to services to local authorities. In addition, many other NHS trusts undertake limited testing on their own environmental and water samples for hospital infection control purposes.
Mid-Essex Hospital NHS Trust
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) hospital nurse and (b) consultant vacancies there are in the Mid-Essex Hospital NHS Trust. [127471]
Dr. Ladyman: The information is shown in the table.
| of which: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Qualified nursing, midwifery andhealth visiting staff | England | RQ8 Mid-Essex Hospital Service NHS Trust |
| March 2003 | ||
| Three month vacancy rate (percentage) | 2.9 | 0.8 |
| Three month vacancy number | 7,967 | 7 |
| September 2002 | ||
| Staff in post (whole-time equivalent) | 279,287 | 872 |
| Staff in post (headcount) | 346,537 | 1,237 |
Notes:
1. Three month vacancy information is as at 31 March 2003.
2. Three month vacancies are vacancies which Trusts are actively trying to fill, which had lasted for three months or more (whole-time equivalents).
3. Three month Vacancy Rates are three month vacancies expressed as a percentage of three month vacancies plus staff in post.
4. Three month Vacancy Rates are calculated using staff in post from the Vacancy Survey, March 2003.
5. Nursing staff in post data are from the Non-Medical Workforce Census, September 2002.
6. Consultant staff in post data are from the Medical and Dental March 2003 Mini-census.
7. Vacancy and staff in post numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number.
Sources:
Department of Health Vacancies Survey, March 2003.
Department of Health Non-Medical Workforce Census, September 2002.
Department of Health Medical and Dental March 2003 Mini-census.
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) general practitioner and (b) practice nurse vacancies there are in the Mid-Essex Hospital Trust area. [127437]
8 Sept 2003 : Column 221W
Dr. Ladyman: The Department of Health first carried out a survey into GP recruitment, retention and vacancies in 2000. The information was collected from health authorities. The latest published data are for 2001–02.
The information available for Essex covers all vacancies outstanding at any time in the 12-month period between 1 March 2001 and 28 February 2002. Essex health authority and South Essex health authority each had 46 general practitioner vacancies which were outstanding at some time in this 12-month period.
Information on practice nurse vacancies is not collected centrally.
Midwives
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many whole-time equivalent midwives worked in the NHS in 2001–02; and how many registered midwives worked in the NHS in 2001–02. [127520]
Mr. Hutton: The non-medical work force census as at 30 September 2001, the mid-point of 2001–02, shows that 18,048 whole-time equivalent midwives and 23,075 midwives (headcount) were working in the national health service.
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the ratio of midwives in post to the total number of births was in (a) England and (b) each NHS maternity unit in each year since 1996–97. [128154]
Mr. Hutton: Information on the ratio of midwives to number of deliveries in England and by health authority area for each year between 1996–97 and 2001–02 has been placed in the Library. Reliable information by maternity unit or organisation is not available.
Ministerial Responsibilities
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which Minister is responsible for (a) complementary medicines, (b) nutrition, (c) the Health Protection Agency, (d) arthritis and (e) obesity. [127739]
8 Sept 2003 : Column 222W
Ms Rosie Winterton: My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health is responsible for complementary medicines, nutrition, the Health Protection Agency and obesity.
My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State is responsible for arthritis.
Ministerial Visits
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many times Ministers in his Department have travelled abroad at public expense since March 2002; what countries they have visited; and what the total cost of each visit was. [127476]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Since March 2002, Ministers have travelled abroad to the United States of America, Belgium on three occasions, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Norway and Switzerland.
The total costs of these visits are shown in the table:
| Destination | Costs £ |
|---|---|
| United States of America | 5,892 |
| Belgium 1. 2.3. | 4161,170306 |
| Italy | 944 |
| Luxembourg | 545 |
| Mexico | 10,520 |
| Norway | 1,075 |
| Switzerland | 668 |
MMR Vaccine
Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the take up has been of the MMR vaccine in (a) Somerset and (b) Dorset in each of the last five years. [127771]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Information about immunisation rates for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) for children in the Somerset Health Authority and Dorset health authority by their second birthday and by their fifth birthday for the last five years is shown in the table.
| Somerset Health Authority | Dorset Health Authority | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| by their 5th birthday(60) | by their 5th birthday(60) | |||||
| by their 2nd birthday | first dose | first and second dose | by their 2nd birthday | first dose | second dose | |
| 1997–98 | 94 | - | - | 93 | - | - |
| 1998–99 | 91 | - | - | 90 | - | - |
| 1999–2000 | 90 | 96 | 87 | 86 | 95 | 83 |
| 2000–01 | 90 | 96 | 86 | 78 | 95 | 78 |
| 2001–02 | 88 | 95 | 85 | 82 | 93 | 73 |
Note:
(60) Information about uptake at age five was collected for the first time in 1999–2000.
Source:Department of Health, Statistics Division SD3G, COVER data.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |