---

16 Mar 2004 : Column 242W—continued

Youth Services (Funding)

Mr. Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to centralise funding for services for young people. [161101]

Margaret Hodge: The response to the Green Paper 'Every Child Matters' consultation sets out our aims for funding services for young people. We intend to rationalise funding streams and grant programmes at local level in order to avoid duplication. As Children's Trusts become operational this will involve the pooling of appropriate budgets.

HEALTH

Ashford (Middlesex) Hospital

Mr. Wilshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) intensive care beds, (b) high dependence beds, (c) medical beds and (d) acute surgery beds there were at Ashford (Middlesex) Hospital on 31 December of each year from 1997. [160368]

Mr. Hutton: Information on beds is collected on a trust basis from national health service organisations. Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust (RTK) opened in April 1998.

Information on critical care beds is collected at two census points during the year. The number of intensive care and high dependency beds on the census day for Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust is shown in table 1.

Table 1: Number of critical care beds on census day, Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust

Census date	Intensive care	High dependency	Total
31 March 1999	10	0	10
30 September 1999	10	0	10
15 January 2000	10	0	10
14 July 2000	7	3	10
15 January 2001	8	9	17
16 July 2001	7	9	16
15 January 2002	7	9	16
16 July 2002	8	9	17
15 January 2003	7	9	16
16 July 2003	8	9	17
15 January 2004	7	9	16

Source:

Department of Health form KH03a.

Information on beds is collected annually. The average daily number of available beds for Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust is shown in table 2.

16 Mar 2004 : Column 243W

Table 2: Average daily number of available beds, by sector, Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust, 1997–98 to 2002–03

	All specialties (excluding day only)	Generaland Acute	Acute	Geriatric	Mental illness	Learning disability	Maternity	Day only
1997–98	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1998–99	612	549	549	0	0	0	63	43
1999–2000	612	549	549	0	0	0	63	46
2000–01	633	571	571	0	0	0	63	46
2001–02	667	604	604	0	0	0	63	46
2002–03	620	560	560	0	0	0	60	58

Source:

Department of Health form KH03.

Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will set out the (a) statutory and (b) regulatory requirements to consult placed upon the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection; and how the Commission will discharge its duty to consult in respect of the inclusion or exclusion of performance indicators from the star rating system. [158638]

Ms Rosie Winterton: With respect to its annual reviews of English national health service bodies and cross-border strategic health authorities there is no statutory duty on the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (CHAI) to consult in relation to the criteria it devises under section 50 of the Act. However, we anticipate that CHAI will consult NHS bodies in relation to those criteria, continuing the current practice of the Commission for Health Improvement.

Correspondence

Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State will respond to the letter of 4 February from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire. [161658]

Dr. Ladyman: A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 15 March 2004.

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will reply to the letter to him from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton dated 12 February with regard to Dr. Lieberman. [161803]

Dr. John Reid: A reply was sent to my right hon. Friend on 4 March 2004.

Delayed Discharges

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients had their hospital discharge delayed while awaiting community care packages in each year since 1997. [160513]

Dr. Ladyman: Data on delayed discharges are not collected on the basis of awaiting community care services. All available information on delayed transfers of care since 1997 is available in the Library, including the latest figures for 2003–04, Quarter 3 (December 2003).

Dentistry

Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to simplify dental fee scales. [161308]

16 Mar 2004 : Column 244W

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Government are committed to rebuilding and restoring national health service dentistry to improve oral health. New legislation in the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 will underpin a modernised, high-quality primary dental service, properly integrated with the rest of the NHS. The aim is to deliver better access to services, better working lives for dentists and their teams, better oral health and an improved patient experience.

Under the proposals in the Act, primary care trusts (PCTs) will assume responsibility for providing primary care dental services. With these responsibilities will go the financial resources held centrally, which currently amount to £1.2 billion.

As part of the new arrangements, the current remuneration system, which is based on item-of-service fees, will be abolished and replaced by a much simpler contract. Under transitional arrangements we are developing a simple but robust 'base contract' which all dentists and PCTs will be able to put in place from 2005. These transitional arrangements will provide protection of dentists gross earnings for three years to enable them to come off the treadmill of item of service fees, to see their patients at intervals appropriate to their oral health needs and to modernise and adjust their workload. These proposals are set out in "Framework proposals for primary dental services in England from 2005", which was published on 24 February and on which we are currently seeking views from dental representative bodies.

Mr. Watts: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action the Government is taking to increase the number of NHS dentists. [158182]

Ms Rosie Winterton: We have undertaken a review of the dental primary care workforce in consultation with representatives of the dental profession—professional bodies, dental academics, as well as the British Dental Association (BDA). The matters under consideration included the age structure of the dental profession, the increasing number of women dentists, our commitment to develop team-working in dentistry, and the impact of our reforms to the contractual and remuneration arrangements which are intended to make National Health Service dentistry more attractive to dental practices. We intend to publish the report shortly.

We have also worked closely with the BDA to draw up proposals for a new contract from April 2005, which will remove the treadmill of item of service. This links with the new duties primary care trusts (PCTs) will have from April 2005 to secure the provision of primary

16 Mar 2004 : Column 245W

dental care services. With these new responsibilities will go the financial resources currently held centrally, which by 2005–06 are expected to total nearly £1.5 billion.

These proposals, in the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 in relation to primary dental services, represent the most radical reform of NHS dentistry since 1948. They will give a better deal for patients, for dentists and for the NHS and should lead to an increase in the number of NHS dentists.

In the meantime we have provided new investment totalling £90 million to NHS dentistry over the last year. This is aimed at increasing the number of NHS dentists and increasing access to NHS dentistry for patients. £59 million will support access, and strategic health authorities have been advised of their shares and are working with their PCTs to address access issues. £30 million is to support information technology and the balance of £1 million will support organisational development locally.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answers of 14 January 2004, Official Report, column 800W and 28 January 2004, Official Report, column 399W, on dentists, what the reasons are for the difference in the total number of NHS dentists and the number of dentists accepting children within some strategic health authorities. [158497]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information on dentist numbers given in the reply of 28 January 2004, Official Report, column 399W, covered the numbers of principal and assistant dentists. These are dentists in the general dental service (GDS) at September 2003. These figures exclude groups of national health service dentists: vocational dental practitioners in the GDS; salaried dentists in the GDS, dentists in the personal dental service and dentists in the community dental service.

The source of the information in that reply is the Dental Practice Board. Information on which dentists are taking NHS patients is held on the NHS.UK website at www.nhs.uk. The information on that website is provided by primary care trusts. The information will cover all NHS dental providers; not just principals and assistants in the GDS. The information given in the reply of 14 January 2004, Official Report, column 800W, was for the situation on Thursday 4 December. The figures counted dentists in surgeries which were taking new NHS patients.

---