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1 Apr 2004 : Column 1668W—continued
Health Visitors
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the vacancy rates were for health visitors in Greater London, broken down by health trust, for each year since 1997. [164059]
Mr. Hutton: Information on three-month vacancy rates is only available from 1999 and has been placed in the Library.
Isolation Facilities
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 12 March 2004, Official Report, column 1819W, on Healthcare Associated Infections (Deaths), what monitoring his Department will undertake of the provision of isolation facilities in NHS hospitals and the timetable for their implementation. [162434]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Progress on provision of isolation facilities is one of the actions that the strategic health authorities will monitor and the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection will also assess progress as part of the new performance indicator, "Winning Ways—processes and procedures".
Mental Health Services
Mrs. Helen Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of (a) psychiatrists, (b) nurses and (c) other staff groups working in mental health services are from an ethnic minority group in each strategic health authority area of England. [163561]
Mr. Hutton: The information is shown in the table.
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| Qualified nursing staff | Qualified STT | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other psychiatry | Community learning disabilities | Other learning disabilities | Clinical psychology staff | Psychotherapy staff | |||
| England | 22.0 | 9.6 | 14.5 | 7.4 | 8.1 | ||
| Q01 Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SNA | 9.7 | 6.9 | 6.1 | 3.3 | 0.0 | ||
| Q02 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire SHA | 54.0 | 36.2 | 13.9 | 8.9 | 7.1 | ||
| Q03 Essex SHA | 30.0 | 11.1 | 27.0 | 10.0 | 7.7 | ||
| Q04 North West London SHA | 59.9 | 46.3 | 75.0 | 14.1 | 13.1 | ||
| Q05 North Central London SHA | 59.2 | 23.5 | 50.8 | 16.4 | 9.6 | ||
| Q06 North East London SHA | 68.2 | 51.1 | 74.2 | 17.0 | 14.3 | ||
| Q07 South East London SHA | 57.1 | 29.3 | 52.4 | 16.0 | 19.2 | ||
| Q08 South West London SHA | 59.6 | 20.8 | 50.5 | 9.2 | 4.4 | ||
| Q09 Northumberland, Tyne and Wear SHA | 1.4 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.0 | ||
| Q10 County Durham and Tees Valley SHA | 0.9 | 0.0 | 1.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | ||
| Q11 North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire SHA | 1.3 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 3.7 | 0.0 | ||
| Q12 West Yorkshire SHA | 10.9 | 2.0 | 5.7 | 4.4 | 6.9 | ||
| Q13 Cumbria and Lancashire SHA | 3.8 | 1.3 | 2.5 | 7.0 | 0.0 | ||
| Q14 Greater Manchester SHA | 11.5 | 2.8 | 2.3 | 3.4 | 0.0 | ||
| Q15 Cheshire and Merseyside SHA | 5.7 | 4.4 | 5.5 | 4.3 | 0.0 | ||
| Q16 Thames Valley SHA | 27.1 | 13.6 | 15.2 | 3.9 | 0.0 | ||
| Q17 Hampshire and Isle of Wight SHA | 9.1 | 3.7 | 8.1 | 1.9 | 9.1 | ||
| Q18 Kent and Medway SHA | 25.3 | 11.3 | 21.3 | 3.9 | 3.3 | ||
| Q19 Surrey and Sussex SHA | 34.3 | 22.6 | 49.5 | 5.7 | 5.1 | ||
| Q20 Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire SHA | 9.3 | 2.6 | 6.9 | 2.0 | 0.0 | ||
| Q21 South West Peninsula SHA | 1.4 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 0.0 | ||
| Q22 Dorset and Somerset SHA | 8.1 | 0.0 | 9.5 | 4.7 | 0.0 | ||
| Q23 South Yorkshire SHA | 5.3 | 12.9 | 2.0 | 3.2 | 5.9 | ||
| Q24 Trent SHA | 7.5 | 4.0 | 7.0 | 5.2 | 11.5 | ||
| Q25 Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland SHA | 19.7 | 0.0 | 8.7 | 8.9 | 8.3 | ||
| Q26 Shropshire and Staffordshire SHA | 3.8 | 1.7 | 6.2 | 2.8 | 0.0 | ||
| Q27 Birmingham and The Black Country SHA | 25.2 | 20.3 | 27.8 | 14.3 | 11.1 | ||
| Q28 West Midlands South SHA | 14.3 | 6.4 | 12.4 | 5.4 | 0.0 | ||
(56) Percentages are calculated on staff whose ethnic group is known and are based on staff expressed as a headcount.
Source:
Department of Health Non-Medical Workforce Census.
MRSA Bacterium
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many strains of the MRSA bacterium have been isolated. [163761]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The total number of strains is not known, but the Health Protection Agency receives around 7,000 methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains a year for typing on a voluntary basis to assist in the investigation of serious disease and outbreak investigation and control. Most hospital outbreaks in the United Kingdom are due to "epidemic"
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strains of MRSA, which can spread from person to person. A total of 17 epidemic strains have been identified in the UK to date and two strains, EMRSA 15 and EMRSA 16, predominate.
National Care Standards Commission
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total cost of setting up the National Care Standards Commission was. [163668]
1 Apr 2004 : Column 1671W
Dr. Ladyman: Fixed assets were acquired for the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) by the Department during 2001–02 and those were transferred into the accounts of the NCSC from 1 April 2002 at a transfer value of £44.943 million. The programme revenue spend on setting the NCSC up was £4.665 million. In addition, the cost of civil servants working on setting the Commission up was £1.423 million. When the NCSC was abolished on 1 April 2004, its assets were transferred to the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection, which took over the regulation of social and independent healthcare, respectively, on that day.
Dentistry
Mr. Nigel Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he intends to take to deal with shortages of NHS dentists in Gloucestershire; and if he will make a statement on NHS dentistry in Gloucestershire. [159043]
Ms Rosie Winterton: We have provided new investment totalling £90 million to national health service dentistry over the last year. £59 million will support access, and strategic health authorities (SHAs) have been advised of their shares and are working with their primary care trusts (PCTs), including those in Gloucestershire, to address access issues. £30 million is to support information technology and the balance of £1 million will support organisational development locally.
In Gloucestershire, the existing dental access centres offer emergency and routine dental treatment—this is prioritised according to patients' needs and the demands placed on the service.
All the PCTs in Gloucestershire have been invited by Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire SHA to submit proposals to improve access to dental care, funded through the SHA's £2 million share of the access funding. They are also exploring the possibility of establishing an outreach-teaching pilot for dental and dental therapy students with Bristol University.
West Gloucestershire PCT is one of the 16 PCTs in England with which the shadow NHS dentistry support team is working. The support team has made several visits to Gloucestershire towards the end of 2003, and an action plan to establish new dental practices in Cinderford, in the Forest of Dean, and Gloucester City will be agreed by the end of April 2004. Additionally, work is under way to explore the potential for overseas recruitment in Gloucestershire.
Cheltenham and Tewkesbury and Cotswold and Vale PCTs are taking similar action, and are inviting all dental practices to participate and submit proposals for use of the extra resources available in 2004–05.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to (a) support and (b) promote NHS dentistry in Chorley. [157088]
Miss Melanie Johnson: Over the past two years, Chorley and South Ribble Primary Care Trust (PCT) has invested an additional £90,000 in capital development and equipment for dental practices in
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return for a specific undertaking from the relevant practices to increase national health service registrations. Additionally, the PCT has increased the number of people working in personal dental services in the area and invested additional capital funding to enable the existing community dental service premises to provide an additional dental surgery. The PCT is currently developing a dental action plan which will further promote NHS dentistry in Chorley and South Ribble.
Nationally, we have provided new investment totalling £90 million to NHS dentistry over the last year. £59 million will support access, and strategic health authorities have been advised of their shares and are working with their PCTs, including Chorley and South Ribble, to address access issues. £30 million is to support information technology and the balance of £1 million will support organisational development locally.
Mr. Pike: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what proposals his Department has to increase the number of dentists in training; and if he will make a statement; [165209]
- (2) what representations he has received regarding shortages of NHS dentists; and if he will make a statement. [165210]
Ms Rosie Winterton: We have been undertaking the first dental workforce review since 1987, in which stakeholders, including representatives of strategic health authorities, dental schools, and the British Dental Association participated and gave their views. We will be publishing the report shortly. We are also currently reviewing the number of undergraduate places in dentistry in the context of the current Government Spending Review.
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