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National Institute for Clinical Excellence

Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria are used in deciding which treatments are referred to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. [139145]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The work programme for the National Institute for Clinical Excellence is determined by Ministers having regard to national health service priorities and published selection criteria. These criteria are set out on the Department's website at www.doh.gov.uk/nice/consultation2002/overviewdec02. pdf.

National Miminum Standards

Mr. Edward Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the formal status is of the national minimum standards of the National Care Standards Commission. [139558]

Dr. Ladyman: Whereas regulations are mandatory and form a statement of the law, compliance with national minimum standards is not itself enforceable. However, in assessing whether a care establishment conforms with the relevant regulations the National Care Standards Commission must take the national minimum standards into account.

National Service Framework

Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when he intends to publish the National Service Framework for long-term conditions; [139488]

(2) if he will provide additional ring-fenced funding for the implementation of the National Service Framework for Long-Term Conditions. [139499]

Dr. Ladyman: We currently plan to publish the national service framework for long term conditions at the end of next year. Implementation will take place over 10 years from 2005 and will be in line with our overall strategy to support delivery of the NHS Plan, which is to set a clear national framework of standards backed up by independent inspection and, increasingly, to give more responsibility to front-line health and social services providers so that local organisations have more flexibility and freedom to plan, resource and deliver services. As a result we are increasing general funding allocations to local national health service and social care organisations.

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Needlestick Injury

Laura Moffatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for the introduction of safer devices to reduce the risk of needlestick injury in the NHS. [135220]

Mr. Hutton: The Department is currently carrying out work on the production of guidance on health, safety and welfare issues for national health service staff. The Medical Devices Agency has also issued guidelines for the safer use of needles and sharps.

We are working closely with colleagues from the Unions, Royal Colleges, Safer Needles Network and manufacturers and expect to launch new web based guidance in the spring of 2004.

Both the Health and Safety Executive and the Department are advising NHS Trusts to carry out risk assessments in areas of high risk and to introduce into these areas "safer" devices, which they can then evaluate in use.

The Department is also working closely with colleagues in the Health and Safety Executive, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the NHS Purchasing and Supplies Agency, to identify further action that can be taken on this issue.

NHS Charges

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much accrued to the NHS from charges on non-UK citizens for treatment in the NHS in each of the last five years. [137491]

Mr. Hutton: Entitlement to free national health service treatment is based on residence in the United Kingdom. The National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989 place a duty on NHS trusts to establish whether a patient is ordinarily resident or otherwise eligible for free NHS hospital treatment and if not to levy a charge for any treatment provided.

The amounts collected from NHS charged patients are not separately identified in trust accounts and are not collected centrally.

NHS Dentistry

Mr. Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what statistics his Department has collected on the availability of NHS dentistry in each year since 1997; if he will make a statement on the level of availability of NHS dentistry; and what measures he is taking to increase the availability of NHS dentistry. [134710]

Ms Rosie Winterton: For the general dental service (GDS), statistics are available each month as a by-product of the dentists' payment system. Relevant statistics include: the number of dentists; patient registrations; and the number of courses of treatment. The personal dental service (PDS) commenced in October 1998 and summary activity statistics are available. For the community dental service (CDS), data is available annually on the number of dentists and on activity. Information is also available annually on

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the emergency dental service (EDS). Since November 2001, information is also available on dental telephone calls made to NHS Direct.

There were 18,200 GDS dentists in June this year, compared to 16,300 in June 1997; a rise of 1,900.

From September 1996, the registration period for adults was shortened from 24 months to 15 months. As a result adult registrations fell between 1997 and August 1998. Registrations lapse if a patient does not attend during the registration period. In the five years between September 1998 and September 2003, adult registrations fell by 100,000, or 0.7 per cent.

Children's registrations have fallen by 1.5 per cent., but the children's population is also falling.

The number of adult courses of treatment in the GDS increased by about one million between 1997–98 and 2002–03. In addition, 500,000 patients were seen in 2002–03 in the PDS, which started in October 1998.

With regard to EDS, a total of 17,000 sessions were worked in 1997–98 and 133,000 patients were seen. The corresponding figures for 2002–03 were 38,000 sessions and 241,000 patients.

The number of episodes of care in the CDS fell from 1.1 million in 1997–98 to 0.6 million in 2002–03. During this time some CDS services have moved into PDS arrangements.

The number of calls to NHS Direct increased from 11,000 in November 2001 to 18,000 in July 2003.

We recognise that in some areas people are not able to register with a national health service dentist. Patients who cannot or choose not to register with a dentist can access dental services by telephoning NHS Direct for information on NHS dental services. Arrangements are also in place for patients to be seen under the GDS on an occasional basis.

The Government remain committed to NHS dentistry and are taking forward major reform to modernise it. Subject to Parliament, under the Health & Social Care (Community Health & Standards) Bill primary care trusts (PCTs) will assume responsibility for commissioning primary dental services from April 2005. With this new responsibility will go the £1.2 billion funding for dentistry which is held centrally.

The Health & Social Care (Community Health & Standards) Bill will also enable PCTs to provide assistance and support to dental practices with which they contract. To enable PCTs to provide such assistance in advance of 2005, the General Dental Services Incentive Schemes Directions 2003 have been published, together with guidance to PCTs.

We have also set up a NHS support team to work with those areas which are hardest pressed and have announced new funding of £44 million to support dental access, choice and quality.

NHS Direct

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of NHS Direct staff has a clinical role. [134857]

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Ms Rosie Winterton: Information on each of the NHS Direct staffing groups is not collected centrally. The proportion of NHS Direct frontline staff who deal with the handling of clinical calls is 1,756. The figure of 1,756 comprises of 1,063 nurses, 543 call handlers and approximately 150 health information advisers.

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases have been dealt with by NHS Direct; how many calls have been abandoned; how many call centres have closed; how many call centres are operational, and where they are; what the running costs in 2003–04 are of each call centre; and if he will make a statement. [136869]

Ms Rosie Winterton: NHS Direct has handled over twenty million calls since the launch of the service in March 1998. Since December 1999, NHS Direct has collected national data centrally and a total of eight per cent. of the total calls to NHS Direct have been abandoned. NHS Direct has been operating from twenty-two NHS Direct sites since October 2000 and all of these sites are still fully operational.

Running costs for the 22 sites in 2003–04 are shown in the table.

£

NHS Direct Site	Running costs 2003–04
Anglia	3,615,100
Avon, Gloucester and Wiltshire	4,111,100
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	3,754,904
Birmingham, Black Country and Solihull	4,412,627
East Midlands	6,327,300
Essex	3,997,750
Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Wirral	6,018,350
Hampshire and Isle of Wight	5,102,673
Kent, Surrey and Sussex	5,005,000
Midland Shires	3,976,650
North Central London	3,105,205
North East	4,848,900
North East London	2,067,000
North West Coast	5,218,529
South East London	3,480,144
South West London	2,691,449
South Yorkshire and South Humber	3,276,000
Tees, East and North Yorkshire	3,759,000
Thames Valley and Northamptonshire	4,177,866
West Country	4,955,000
West London	3,742,535
West Yorkshire	5,196,450
Total	92,839,532

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average monthly running costs of NHS Direct have been over the last six months; and if he will make a statement. [136872]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The average monthly running costs of NHS Direct over the last six months are approximately £12,686,000 a month.

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