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19 Apr 2004 : Column 214W—continued
Opticians
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 24 March 2004, Official Report, column 926W, on opticians, how many optical premises were registered as accepting national health service optical vouchers in (a) each region and (b) each primary care trust for each year since 1997. [165298]
Ms Rosie Winterton: All optical premises registered on a primary care trust (PCT) list to provide general ophthalmic services can accept national health service optical vouchers. There is no requirement for optical practices to register to accept optical vouchers alone. The Department is not aware of any difficulty in the availability of practices willing to accept NHS optical vouchers.
Information on the number of ophthalmic premises holding a contract with health authorities and latterly PCTs to provide general ophthalmic services has been placed in the Library.
Out-of-Hours Services
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department has taken to inform the public of the changes to out-of-hours services when the new general practitioner contract comes into effect on 1 April. [162260]
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Mr. Hutton: From 1 April 2004, general practitioner practices will be able to opt-out of responsibility for out-of-hours services, with the approval of their local primary care trust (PCT). From 1 January 2005, they will have a right to opt-out in all but exceptional circumstances.
Where practices opt-out, it will be for PCTs to put in place alternative service for patients. It will therefore be for PCTs and practices to inform patients of changes as and when they occur. The Department is providing materials to help PCTs do that and has also briefed a number of national organisations representing patients.
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to reply to questions tabled by the honourable Member for Sutton and Cheam, reference (a) 152306, (b) 151700, (c) 144757 and (d) 144782. [158719]
Dr. Ladyman: Replies were sent to the hon. Member on:
Friday 5 March 2004, Official Report, columns 1169–70W
Thursday 18 March 2004, Official Report, columns 444–45W
Wednesday 24 March 2004, Official Report, column 910W.
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of written questions for answer by his Department on a named day received a holding answer in the period between State Opening in (a) November 1998, (b) November 1999, (c) December 2000, (d) November 2002 and (e) November 2003 and the last day of February in the following year; and of those questions, what proportion received a substantive answer (i) within five parliamentary sitting days, (ii) within six to 10 parliamentary sitting days, (iii) within 11 to 20 parliamentary sitting days and (iv) after more than 20 parliamentary sitting days. [159997]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 10 March 2004]: Significant changes have been made to the parliamentary section and procedures for answering right hon. and hon. Members' questions within the Department since March 2002. A new database was introduced in October 2002 to help improve the process.
The available information is shown in the table.
Prior to October 2002, information from the previous database does not readily provide the further analysis sought, which could be obtained only by a manual count which would incur a disproportionate cost.
| Session | Number of Named Day PQs received | Percentage of Named Day PQs given a holding answer | Number given a substantive answer within 5 calendar days | Number given a substantive answer 6 to 10 calendar days | Number given a substantive answer within 11 to 20 calendar days | Number given a substantive answer after 20 calendar days | Number not yet answered | Average number of calendar days taken to answer a Named Day PQ after a Holding Reply was issued |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003–04(82) | 378 | 69.5 | 130 | 59 | 48 | 19 | 7 | 13.6 |
| 2002–03 | 1,469 | 68.6 | 480 | 245 | 140 | 144 | — | 15 |
| 2001–02(a) | 283 | 70.3 | 101 | 54 | 21 | 13 | — | 12.3 |
| 2001–02(b) | 4,205 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2000–01 | 929 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1999–2000 | 1,763 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1998–99 | 1,175 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
(82) To end February.
Note:
The information for the 2001–02 session has been divided into two parts, as during this session a new Parliamentary Questions database was introduced to the Department. The information for 2001–02 (a) has been provided by this new database; the information for 2001–02 (b) has been taken from the old database.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will reply to the Question tabled by the hon. Member for Wells on 12 February, ref: 155796. [162500]
Mr. Hutton [holding answer 22 March 2004]: A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 26 March.
Patient Experience Definition
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the cost of the research to develop the Patient Experience Definition. [162425]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The total cost of the project to explore the overall experience of patients using national health service services, was £39,722.60. One element of the project was the production of a Patient Experience Definition.
The Patient Experience Definition articulates the entirety of the desired experience from a patient perspective when using NHS services. Traditionally service delivery has focused on the physical aspects of patient care and has given much less emphasis to patients' emotional needs. The research has clearly identified that for patients a good emotional experience is critical to their overall satisfaction with the NHS. The definition enables both the Department and the NHS to have a more complete understanding of the patient experience when developing and delivering patient-centred services in the future.
Patients Choice Scheme
Bob Spink:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many patients he estimates will receive treatment under the Patients Choice Scheme in its first year; and if he will make a statement; [164695]
19 Apr 2004 : Column 217W
(2) if he will make it his policy to allow patients to opt into the Patients Choice Scheme; and if he will make a statement. [164696]
Mr. Hutton: The Department is committed to giving patients greater choice over the hospital they attend.
All strategic health authorities have completed robust plans for the implementation of choice for patients waiting more than six months for elective surgery which will be rolled out between April and August 2004. The plans anticipate that during the period April 2004 and December 2004 some 85,000 patients who have waited over six months will accept the choice of moving to another hospital for faster treatment. By December 2004 there will be no patients waiting longer than six months for inpatient treatment.
All patients waiting more than six months for elective surgery will be eligible to be considered for the scheme unless there is an overriding clinical reason why it would not be in the patient's best interest.
Under the current choice pilot schemes, almost 20,000 patients have already chosen to move to another hospital for faster treatment.
From December 2005 choice of hospital will be offered at the point of general practitioner referral, benefiting 10 million patients each year.
Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients received percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy in each year since 2001; and for what types of impairment. [163703]
Dr. Ladyman: Information for 2001–02 and 2002–03 on the numbers of episodes, listed by primary diagnosis, in which percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy was the main procedure has been placed in the Library.
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