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17 Nov 2003 : Column 567W—continued
NHS Dentistry
Mr. Etherington: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many individuals resident in the City of Sunderland were registered with an NHS dental practitioner in each year since 2000; and how many NHS dental practitioners were practising in the Sunderland PCT area in each year. [136518]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Table 1 shows the number of registrations in the general dental service (CDS) for dentists located in the Sunderland area between 2000 and 2003, at 31 August each year.
| Registrations(78) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Adults | Children | Total | |
| 2000 | 105.0 | 43.7 | 148.7 |
| 2001 | 106.9 | 42.6 | 149.4 |
| 2002 | 110.0 | 42.3 | 152.3 |
| 2003(79) | 110.9 | 41.6 | 152.6 |
(78) Some of these registrations will include patients resident in other areas. Patients resident in the Sunderland area who attend dentists outside the area are excluded from the figures.
(79) Number of registrations for Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust, following the move from Health Authority to PCT in October 2002.
Source:
Dental Practice Board
Table 2 shows the number of CDS dentists working in the Sunderland area between 2000 and 2003, at 30 June each year.
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| Principals | Assistants | Vocational dental practitioners | Total dentists | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000(81) | 74 | 1 | 7 | 82 |
| 2001(81) | 77 | 1 | 7 | 85 |
| 2002(81) | 85 | 2 | 7 | 94 |
| 2003(80),(81) | 84 | 3 | 9 | 96 |
(80) Number of CDS dentists for Sunderland Teaching PCT, following the move from Health Authority to PCT in October 2002.
(81) These figures cover dentists whose main work is in the area and will include some dentists whose main work is elsewhere.
Source:
Dental Practice Board
Accident and Emergency Services
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time was for patients in accident and emergency departments in each of the hospitals in (a) the Havering, Barking and Redbridge national health service trust and (b) Romford in the last year for which figures are available. [137319]
Mr. Hutton: Information on the total time patients spend in accident and emergency departments from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge is collected each quarter from national health service trusts and is routinely published on the Department's website at http://www.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity.
Copies of the information for England and for each national health service trust and strategic health authority for the last year have been placed in the Library.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time in accident and emergency departments has been in each of the past 12 months, broken down by strategic health authority. [135417]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Information is not collected on the average waiting time in accident and emergency departments. Information on the total time patients spend in accident and emergency departments from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge is collected each quarter from national health service trusts and is routinely published on the Department of Health website at http://www.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity/. Copies of the information for England and for each national health service trust and strategic health authority have been placed in the Library.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients admitted to accident and emergency in Worthing hospital in (a) 2001, (b) 2002 and (c) 2003 waited for more than (i) 12 and (ii) four hours before being treated or transferred to a ward. [134776]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Information on accident and emergency is not collected centrally at individual hospital level, or on the time patients wait for treatment. However, the table shows the number of patients who waited more than four hours for a bed in a ward following a decision to admit at Worthing and Southlands Hospitals National Health Service Trust. Information for patients waiting more than 12 hours is not available.
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| Year/Quarter | Number of patients admitted through A&E | Patients not placed in bed in a ward within four hours of a decision to admit |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | ||
| 1 | 2,431 | 122 |
| 2 | 2,432 | 584 |
| 3 | 2,549 | 204 |
| 4 | 2,828 | 198 |
| 2002–03 | ||
| 1 | 2,809 | 140 |
| 2 | 2,854 | 228 |
| 3 | 3,196 | 256 |
| 4 | 3,052 | 275 |
| 2003–04 | ||
| 1 | 2,737 | 137 |
Source:
Department of Health dataset QMAE/QMNG.
Alcohol
Mr. Stevenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will require health warnings to be displayed on alcoholic drinks; and if he will make a statement. [137771]
Miss Melanie Johnson: This issue will be examined as part of the work on the development of the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England, which is currently being undertaken by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit. The strategy is due to implemented from 2004, in line with the commitment given in the NHS Plan.
Alcohol-related Violence
Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of treating the victims of alcohol-related violence in town and city centres. [136360]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The most recent estimates of costs to the national health service arising from alcohol-related illness and disease was undertaken by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit and published in their Interim Analytical Report on 19 September 2003. This document reported the annual cost of alcohol-related attendances at accident and emergency (A and E) units and alcohol-related ambulance journeys in England at around £0.5 billion per year. This estimate covers all alcohol-related attendances at A and E and ambulance journeys, and does not break the costs down by reason for attendance. However a proportion of these costs will be attributable to alcohol-related violence in town centres.
Alternative Medicine
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the NHS trusts which provide (a) alternative and (b) complementary medicine. [138105]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Details of which national health service organisations provide access to complementary or alternative medicines are not recorded centrally.
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However, a survey of general practices in England, conducted in 2001 for the Department by the Medical Care Research Unit, University of Sheffield, found that almost half the practices offered patients some access to complementary or alternative medicines. The therapies most frequently provided were acupuncture and homeopathy.
- Source:
- Family Practice, Vol. 20, No. 5, Oxford University Press 2003.
Ambulance Control Centre (Merseyside)
Mr. Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the change in the number of emergency calls received by Merseyside Ambulance Control Centre was in each year since 1993; what the change in staffing levels at Merseyside Ambulance Control Centre was in each such year; and if he will make a statement. [137845]
Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 12 November 2003]: The information is not available in the requested format. The Merseyside Ambulance Control Centre has updated its call routing system in October this year. As a result, only data from 1993 and 2003 is available. The figures for 1993 are available because the control centre documented data in 1993 in order to carry out a ten year comparison in 2003. In 1993–94, the control centre received 368,800 emergency calls. In 2002–03, the figure was 468,700.
The staffing levels at the Merseyside Ambulance Control Centre are shown in the table.
| Percentage of staff | |
|---|---|
| 1998–99 | 57.78 |
| 1999–2000 | 57.78 |
| 2000–01 | 57.78 |
| 2001–02 | 66.79 |
| 2002–03 | 66.79 |
| Currently | 68.79 |
Ambulances
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average response time of ambulances to 999 calls in the London borough of Havering was in the last year for which figures are available. [137321]
Mr. Hutton: Information on response times is collected on a national health service trust basis. A copy is available in the Library and at http://www.doh.gov.uk/public/sb0313.pdf.
Mr. Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average time an ambulance took to reach hospital was for the last 12 months that figures are available in (a) England, (b) the north west region, (c) Merseyside and (d) St. Helens. [138004]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Details of ambulance performance are contained in the Department of Health Statistical Bulletin, "Ambulance Services, England 2002–03". A copy of the bulletin is available in the Library and on the Department's website at www.doh.gov.uk/public/sb0313.htm.
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Mr. Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many ambulance call-outs were made in the last 12 months for which figures are available in (a) the St. Helens trust area, (b) Merseyside and (c) England. [138005]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Information about the number of emergency calls received by national health service ambulance trusts, including Mersey Regional Ambulance Service, is contained in the Department of Health Statistical Bulletin, "Ambulance Services, England 2002–03". A copy of the bulletin is available in the Library and on the Department's website at www.doh.gov.uk/public/sb0313.htm.
Mr. Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of ambulance call outs in the most recent 12 months for which figures are available have taken more than (a) 15, (b) 30 and (c) 50 minutes to respond to category A emergency calls in (i) the St. Helens and Knowsley Trust area, (ii) Merseyside and (iii) England. [138008]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Details of ambulance performance are contained in the Department of Health Statistical Bulletin, "Ambulance Services, England 2002–03". A copy of the bulletin is available in the Library and on the Department's website at www.doh.gov.uk/public/sb0313.htm.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action is being taken by his Department to respond to the concerns of the Commission for Health Improvement in relation to (a) ambulance response times being manipulated, (b) wide variations in the categorisation of calls, (c) poor management practice in ambulance trusts and (d) the need for appropriate outcome measures for the ambulance service. [138059]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department of Health and the ambulance service recognise that response times can sometimes be recorded inconsistently. We are determined to resolve this and have already begun to hold constructive discussions with the service and other key stakeholders about how to tighten up and standardise procedures.
We will not tolerate any deliberate mis-reporting of data and have made it very clear that serious consequences will follow any individual or trusts that seek to manipulate their performance data.
Response time will always be an important measure of the service to patients and there is no immediate prospect of moving away from the eight minute standard. The standard has clinical origins—it is based on the optimum time limit for intervention in heart attack cases. But there are other signifiers of progress and other measures of success, and we intend to explore the possibilities of supplementing response times with other standards, including those directly related to clinical outcomes.
We are working closely with the Modernisation Agency and key stakeholders concerning management practices raised within this report.
17 Nov 2003 : Column 572W
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