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24 Mar 2004 : Column 927W—continued
Non-consultant Career Grade Doctors
Mr. Bruce George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the difference in pay between experienced non-consultant career grade doctors and general practitioners with special interests; and if he will make a statement. [161674]
Mr. Hutton: The Department has not conducted any specific assessment of this kind.
The pay of most non-consultant career grade doctors is based on the recommendations of the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration. Pay for general medical practitioners with special interests depends on the contract between the general practitioner and the employing or commissioning body.
Nursing and Midwifery Council
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions his Department has held with the
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Nursing and Midwifery Council on the eligibility of applicants from EU accession countries to register in the UK from 1 May; and if he will make a statement. [162089]
Mr. Hutton: The Department has kept in frequent contact with the Nursing and Midwifery Council both directly and through a meeting this week with the Alliance of UK Health Regulators on Europe to ensure that all the health care regulatory bodies are aware of their responsibilities in registering applicants from the new member states after 1 May 2004.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether proficiency in the use of the English language is a requirement for nurses from the European Union seeking to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in order to work in the NHS. [162091]
Mr. Hutton: Nurses who are European Economic Area nationals do not have to undertake English language competency tests in order to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. The law does not currently permit this. It is the responsibility of national health service employers to ensure that all nurses they employ have the necessary English language competence to carry out their duties safely. They may require a nurse to undertake a language assessment as part of the recruitment process, regardless of which country they come from.
Nursing
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on measures he intends to take to ensure that the registered nursing care contribution bands reflect increases in nursing costs. [162618]
Dr. Ladyman [holding answer 22 March 2004]: The increases to the monetary values for national health service funded nursing care for 2004–05 are already in line with the 3.225 per cent, increase in NHS nurses' and midwives' pay, from April this year.
Opticians (NHS Vouchers)
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what monitoring has been undertaken by his Department of the availability of opticians who will accept NHS vouchers for prescriptions for spectacles; [160677]
- (2) what representations he has received on the reimbursement of opticians by NHS organisations of the value of NHS vouchers for spectacles; and if he will make a statement. [160678]
Ms Rosie Winterton: All optical premises registered on a primary care trust's list will accept national health service optical vouchers provided under the general ophthalmic service. At December 2002, there were 6,139 premises on PCT lists in England.
The Department has received occasional representation from individuals about the cost of optical vouchers not meeting the cost of spectacles. We recently announced that optical vouchers for people with high prescriptions would increase by 10 per cent, from 1 April. This will help with the additional cost of these high prescription lenses. As announced on 12 February we will continue to keep these voucher values under review.
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Out-of-hours Provision
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health from which budget the (a) £30 million scheme for out-of-hours provision announced on 4 March and (b) the wider £100 million growth package will be paid. [160341]
Mr. Hutton: The £30 million of capital funds to incentivise out-of-hours provision is part of the wider £100 million growth package. These funds were allocated within 2004–05's record £3.6 billion capital resource, of which £3.3 billion was voted by Parliament, with the remainder funded through the sale of surplus property.
Paddington Basin Hospital Project
Mr. Wilkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to receive the report of the National Audit Office into the Paddington Basin Hospital project. [161464]
Mr. Hutton: No separate National Audit Office (NAO) report is being undertaken on the Paddington Basin hospital project. The NAO is involved in undertaking a joint review of this scheme together with Her Majesty's Treasury and the Department. Its report will be completed soon and will inform the next stage in taking forward this project.
Parkinson's Disease
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his estimate is of the cost of the pharmaceutical management of Parkinson's disease in England. [162566]
Dr. Ladyman [holding answer 22 March 2004]: Information is available on the cost of prescription drugs used to treat Parkinson's and related disorders that are dispensed in the community in England. We do not hold data centrally on the overall pharmaceutical cost of Parkinson's Disease (data on drugs dispensed in hospitals/clinics or private prescriptions).
The British National Formulary, section 4.9, identifies a group of drugs that are used for Parkinson's and related disorders. In 2002, 2.8 million items of drugs used in Parkinson's and related disorders were dispensed in the community in England. They had a net ingredient cost of £69.6 million. However, these drugs are not necessarily given only to people with Parkinson's and people with Parkinson's will receive drugs other than this group of drugs.
The data have been obtained from the Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) system from the Prescription Pricing Authority which covers all prescription items dispensed in the community in England.
Patient Education
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the capacity of NHS organisations to implement the National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommendations on patient education. [158030]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The National Institute for Clinical Excellence published a technology appraisal on patient education models in diabetes in May 2003. It recommended that structured patient education is made
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available to all people with diabetes at the time of initial diagnosis and then as required on an ongoing basis, based on a formal, regular assessment of need. The National Health Service locally is usually required to make funds available to support NICE appraisal guidance within three months of publication. In the case of this guidance, the Secretary of State issued a direction to waive this requirement, as NICE advised that successful implementation of structured educational programmes would depend on the availability of an appropriately trained workforce. Primary care trusts, in working towards the Planning and Priorities Framework target of having practice based registers and systematic treatment for people with diabetes by 2006, should consider the introduction of structured education as an important element of a systematic treatment regime.
Personal Care Charges
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 20 January 2004, Official Report, column 1111W, on personal care charges, if he will estimate the change in the cost of free personal care following the announced change in his Department's policy on the assessment of patients for fully funded continuing care costs. [159739]
Dr. Ladyman: The cost of free personal care remains within the range of estimates previously made by the Department. The Department's policy on continuing care has not changed. Assessment procedures have been strengthened to ensure people receive services on the basis of their assessed need.
Pharmaceutical Packaging
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many complaints the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has received in the past 12 months about changes by pharmaceutical distributors to manufacturers' packaging and related materials; [162005]
- (2) whether the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has received representations about the health risks posed by changes to the packaging of pharmaceutical products during distribution; [162008]
(3) if he will introduce tighter guidelines on the right to change or modify the packaging of pharmaceutical products during the distribution process. [162009]
Ms Rosie Winterton: A pharmaceutical distributor in the United Kingdom is required to hold a wholesale dealer's licence (WL) issued by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). A WL does not authorise distributors to make changes to the manufacturers' packaging and related materials of licensed medicinal products; these activities require a separate assembly licence, also issued by the MHRA. A number of wholesale dealers hold assembly licences for the purpose of re-packaging licensed parallel imported medicines and this reply relates to this group of products.
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The repackaging of licensed medicinal products, such as parallel imports, is controlled by the specification registered in the parallel import licence and may only be carried out by assembly sites licensed and inspected by the MHRA.
Parallel importers are not permitted to change the primary packaging of the product—that is the immediate packaging in contact with the product (for instance the blister packaging). The importer is however required to overlabel the immediate packaging in accordance with the European Union labelling regulations. This operation can be carried out by the importer if the company holds an assembly licence, issued by MHRA after inspecting the site.
Any repackaging and relabelling proposed by a parallel importer is considered by MHRA before a licence is issued. The labelling of all products must meet the Medicines Labelling Regulations as laid down in Title V of Directive 2001/83/EC and each product pack must contain a patient information leaflet in English. Guidelines on the labelling and packaging of medicinal products are also relevant to parallel imports.
In the past 12 months MHRA has received 107 letters or reports relating to medicinal products that have been repackaged and placed on the market in the United Kingdom as licensed parallel imports. These include 18 reports received by the MHRA Defective Medicines Report Centre concerning quality defects in the labelling or leaflets of re-packaged parallel imports, (which represents 6 per cent. of quality defects reported on all products).
A further 66 of the letters received, either directly or via ministerial offices, concern aspects of the labelling, packaging or leaflet of the imported products, of which 14 were from patients, patient carers and health professionals. The remaining 52 were from the UK Marketing Authorisation holders and 47 related to updating of patient information leaflets.
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