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8 Sept 2003 : Column 231W—continued
Overseas Health Services
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS patients have been sent abroad for treatment; and at what cost in the last five years. [127380]
Mr. Hutton: A total of 477 patients have been referred for treatment abroad as part of the overseas treatment programme in the last five years.
A centrally funded pilot project took place between January and April 2002 at a cost of £1.1 million. This was extended for orthopaedic treatment overseas, with patients drawn from five different health authority areas at a cost of a further £2.1 million.
The option of receiving treatment abroad has also been offered as part of two patient choice pilot schemes.
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The London Patients Choice Project (LPCP) has spent a total of £148,766 on funding overseas treatment. This includes all programme costs, for treatment, travel, comprehensive rehabilitation, and out-patient clinics run in the United Kingdom by European clinicians.
The final costs for the cardiac programme are not available as yet. To date, 19 patients have been treated abroad.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how long the patients who have been sent abroad by the NHS for treatment had been waiting in their own locality. [127381]
Mr. Hutton: The details of the length of time that individual patients have been waiting before receiving treatment abroad is not held centrally. However, the option of going overseas is usually offered to patients who are clinically fit for travel and who have been waiting relatively long periods.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to change the practice of sending patients abroad for treatment. [127382]
Mr. Hutton: The Government have made a commitment to developing greater diversity and plurality in healthcare provision in the future. This means that the national health service will be able to explore a range of options to help it deliver shorter waiting times and increase patient choice. These options include more effective use of the independent sector in the United Kingdom, innovative use of capacity in the NHS, and using NHS and independent sector diagnosis and treatment centres. The policy is that wherever possible the NHS should seek to attract overseas providers to the UK. However, where it makes sense in terms of value for money and convenience for patients, overseas treatment does offer a further means to add to the capacity of the NHS, to reduce waiting times and extend the choice available to patients.
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health where the financial liability lies for follow-up operations which take place in English NHS hospitals following a patient's NHS treatment abroad. [127497]
Mr. Hutton: Financial liability for any subsequent treatment needed by national health service patients following treatment abroad rests with the NHS.
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many operations have been carried out abroad but paid for by the NHS since January 2001, broken down by operation; and what the total cost to the NHS of each patient's treatment was while abroad including travel expenses. [127516]
Mr. Hutton: A total of 477 patients have been referred for treatment abroad as part of the overseas treatment programme since January 2001. Of these, 19 patients have been treated for cardiac procedures, 37 have been treated for ophthalmological procedures and 421 have been treated for orthopaedic procedures.
A procurement process identifying spare capacity abroad is currently active, so the costs of specific procedures abroad are commercially sensitive. However, prices are comparable to spot purchasing in the United Kingdom private sector.
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NHS Beds
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many national health service beds were available in England in (a) 2000, (b) 2001 and (c) 2002. [127352]
Mr. Hutton: The average daily number of available beds in wards open overnight in national health service trusts in England is shown in the table.
| 1999–2000 | 2000–01 | 2001–02 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average daily number of general and acute | 135,080 | 135,794 | 136,583 |
| Average daily number of beds in all specialties | 186,290 | 186,091 | 184,871 |
Source:
Department of Health form KH03
This information is published annually on the Department of Health website at http://www.doh. gov.uk/hospitalactivity.
NHS Counter Fraud Team
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list recoveries worth more than £500,000 secured by the NHS Counter Fraud team since 1997. [127732]
Mr. Hutton: Figures dating from 1997 are not available. The National Health Service Counter Fraud Service, now the Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (CFSMS), was formed in 1998, with the overall remit to tackle fraud and corruption within the NHS.
The CFSMS has, to date, demonstrated a £70 million a year reduction in losses to fraud through preventative action and recovered over £14 million of fraudulently obtained money through our investigative work.
Individual cases, where in excess of £500,000 has been secured by CFSMS, are shown in the table. There are many other cases, where recoveries have been secured and the individual amounts concerned are less than £500,000.
| Subject | Amount of recovery (£) |
|---|---|
| Pharmaceutical Products Supplier | 650,000 |
| Pharmaceutical Products Supplier | 1,128,000 |
| Pharmaceutical Products Supplier | 1,337,680 |
| Pharmaceutical Products Supplier | 1,750,000 |
| Dispensing Doctor (GP) | 799,087 |
| Dentist | 1,150,000 |
| Total | 6,814,767 |
NHS Dentistry
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what data support the 5 rating given to Burley, Pendle and Rossendale primary care trust for access to NHS dentistry. [127188]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The indicator in the 2002–03 National Health Service performance ratings relating to access to NHS dentistry asked primary care trusts (PCTs) whether or not they had 'plans in place to enable
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people to obtain NHS dentistry within local standards, following requests for help through NHS Direct and local inquiry points' at the end of March 2003.
Therefore, if a PCT met this criteria then, as per the performance ratings scoring system, they were assigned a score of five. Conversely, if a PCT did not meet this criteria at the said date, they would be assigned a score of one. Burley, Pendle and Rossendale PCT reported that it had met the above criteria and thus was assigned a score of five for this particular performance indicator within the 2002–03 NHS performance ratings. This score was then used in conjunction with performance on a wide range of other measures to determine that NHS organisation's performance (star) rating.
Mr. Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria determine whether a primary care trust qualifies as providing access to an NHS dentist. [127388]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Primary care trusts (PCTs) should be able to respond to requests for dentistry whether it is emergency, urgent or routine as defined by the clinical algorithms developed with the dental profession by NHS Direct. For each of these categories of need, the PCT needs to have a distance standard related to local geography, which has been agreed with local stakeholders and published. For emergency care, distance standards would be similar to those for other National Health Service emergency services. A PCT providing full access to NHS dentistry will be achieving compliance with both clinical and distance standards. Not all PCTs fulfil both these sets of criteria.
The 2002–03 performance indicator for dentistry asked if
- "plans are in place to enable people to obtain NHS dentistry within local standards, following requests for help through NHS Direct and local enquiry points".
- This was to recognise the endeavours of PCTs to address dentistry issues even where they remain unresolved.
A new NHS dentistry support team has been set up to work with local officials in PCTs with particular issues regarding access to NHS dentistry to help them tackle these problems. The support team will be up and running in September this year, and will have support funding to address particularly acute of long-standing difficulties.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists are available in the Adur, Arun and Worthing PCT area. [127560]
Ms Rosie Winterton: National health service dentists cover dentists in the general dental service (GDS), hospital dental service (HDS), community dental service (CDS) and personal dental service (PDS). Information at primary care trust (PCT) level is not available for the CDS and HDS because these services are provided by NHS trusts, which do not have clearly defined geographical boundaries.
The latest information for March 2003 is shown in the following table and gives the number of GDS and PDS dentists who carry out the majority of the work in Adur, Arun and Worthing PCT.
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These figures are on a headcount rather than whole-time equivalent basis and take no account of part-time working. Dentists working in both PDS and GDS are counted in the GDS only.
| Adur, Arun and Worthing PCT(67) | |
|---|---|
| GDS dentists | 98 |
| PDS dentists(68),(69) | 12 |
(67) Dentists who carry out the majority of their work in the PCT.
(68) Dentists working in the PDS who are not also working in the GDS.
(69) West Sussex Community PDS scheme covers Adur, Arun and Worthing PCT.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists there are in the Chorley constituency; and what steps he is taking to increase the number of NHS dentists in the Chorley constituency. [127292]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The information on the number of dentists in the Chorley constituency is shown in the table.
| Health authority/primarycare trust(70) | GDS dentists | Salaried dentists | PDS dentists(71) |
|---|---|---|---|
| At 30 September 2002 | |||
| South Lancashire HA | 100 | 1 | 3 |
| At 31 March 2003 | |||
| Chorley and South Ribble PCT | 56 | 1 | 3 |
(70) Only dentists with the majority of patients in the South Lancashire HA and the Chorley and Ribble PCT are included.
(71) Dentists working in the South Lancashire PDS pilot who are not also working in the GDS.
Notes:
1. Dentists are free to work in more than one health authority or primary care trust, therefore, dentists who do some work in this area HA/PCT but more in another HA/PCT have not been included.
2. NHS dentists cover dentists working in the General Dental Service (GDS), Hospital Dental Service (HDS), Community Dental Service (CDS), Personal Dental Service (PDS) and Salaried Service of the GDS.
3. The number of GDS dentists includes Principals, Assistants, Vocational Dental Practitioners.
4. These figures are on a headcount basis rather than a whole time equivalent (wte) basis and therefore take no account of part-time working. In the GDS, the amount of time spent working in the NHS varies greatly with a large proportion of dentists doing some private work. Dentists working solely in private dentistry are not covered in these figures.
I understand that Cumbria and Lancashire strategic health authority is working with the local Chorley and South Ribble Primary Care Trust (PCT) on access to national health service dentistry. Chorley and South Ribble PCT has plans in place to enable people within Chorley to obtain NHS dentistry service.
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