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25 Mar 2004 : Column 1062W—continued

National Programme for IT

Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment has been made of the possibility of the loss of patient data while new IT schemes under the National Programme for IT are being implemented. [159141]

Mr. Hutton: The national programme for information technology (NpfIT) is implementing a series of IT solutions to improve patient choice and the quality of patient treatment and care. Fundamental to this is the national health service care records service, that will enable patient care information to be accessed at the point of need anywhere in England.

In most cases, electronic patient records will be transferred from existing local IT systems and patient administration systems into the nationally available NHS care records service. This is not a new process and occurs at local level every time there is a system refresh or upgrade. Standard IT protocols allow for data to be regressed if problems are encotmtered during transfer to ensure that data is not lost and contracts with suppliers require data back ups to be taken regularly.

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether there is a facility in the National Programme for IT accredited systems for general practitioners to write free text notes on the patient in the electronic patient record. [160662]

Mr. Hutton: The facility to record free text is a mandatory requirement for accredited systems for general practice. It is also part of the functionality of the national health service national care records service and this facility will therefore be provided for in the future.

NHS (Charges for Overseas Visitors) Regulations

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the provisions of the NHS (Charges for Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989 will come into force. [163612]

Mr. Hutton: The National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989 came into force on 1 April 1989.

NHS Funding (Crosby)

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much public funding has been spent on (a) heart disease and (b) cancer care in Crosby in each of the last five years. [160388]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The information requested is not collected centrally. Allocations of funding for particular treatments are matters for the local primary care trust.

NHS Recruitment

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Health in which overseas countries the NHS has advertised for staff to work in the UK in the last five years. [163103]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 22 March 2004]: The Department does not collect this information centrally. The national health service are responsible for their own advertising. The Department has however advertised on behalf of the NHS in the following countries:

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Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the budget is for recruitment advertising in foreign newspapers for NHS staff; and how many NHS trusts are paying for recruitment advertisements in such newspapers. [163104]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 22 March 2004]: National health services trusts are responsible for their own recruitment both nationally and internationally and no data on the number of costs of their advertisements in the foreign media are held centrally.

NHS Trusts

Mr. Dorrell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which NHS Trusts reported financial deficits for financial year 2002–03. [162059]

Mr. Hutton: The national health service trusts that reported deficits in 2002–03 annual accounts are listed in the table.













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Non-consultant Career Grade Doctors(Dermatology)

Mr. Bruce George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what action his Department is taking to encourage the NHS to make wider use of non-consultant career grade doctors in dermatology; [161673]

Mr. Hutton: The Government are keen to maximise opportunities for doctors in the non-consultant career grades to utilise their skills to the full to the benefit of all. The Department's recent consultation document, "Choice and Opportunity", recommended a system of accreditation through which non-consultant career

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grade doctors with formally recognised skills can work independently at the appropriate level. The introduction of a competency-based framework should facilitate the movement of doctors between specialties to support a more flexible medical work force.

Since 1997, the number of staff grade and associate specialist doctors in dermatology nationally has increased by 130 per cent.

Nursing Vacancies (Greater London)

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) hospital and (b) community nursing vacancies there are within each (i) primary care trust and (ii) strategic health authority in Greater London. [158436]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 3 March 2004]: The information requested has been placed in the Library.

Paddington Basin Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent on consultancy fees in relation to the Paddington Basin private finance initiative project for St. Mary's Paddington, the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals. [159303]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 5 March 2004]: A total of £5.638 million has been spent to 31 December 2003 on advisers' fees for planning the Paddington Health Campus.

All consultants are appointed via the formal national health service tendering process.

Pathologists

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many vacancies there are for pathologists in each primary care trust area; and what plans he has for filling the vacant positions. [161968]

Mr. Hutton: The information requested has been provided by employing organisations, and has been placed in the Library.

The significant expansion in numbers of doctors in training within the pathology group (39 per cent. between September 1997 and September 2003) reflects a recognition that the pathology work force needs further expansion.

In 2003–04, histopathology was allocated 75 centrally funded Specialist Registrar training places, which was over 18 per cent. of the total number of centrally funded posts available. In 2004–05, there will be a further allocation of 37 centrally funded training places to histopathology and 20 further posts to the pathology group as a whole.

The Department continually monitors requirements for the whole work force, including pathology. Action is being taken to extend working lives by offering flexible retirement schemes and flexible employment opportunities.

Work is being taken forward to develop the roles of all staff within the pathology group in order to make the best use of professional skills and knowledge.

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