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Speech and Language Therapists

Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will set out his proposals for future terms and conditions for speech and language therapists in the NHS; and if he will make a statement. [176517]

Mr. Hutton: The terms and conditions of service for all staff covered by "Agenda for Change", including speech and language therapists are set out in the proposed agreement published in March 2003, which is also available on the Department's website.
 
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The new system will deliver fair and equitable conditions of service across all groups covered by "Agenda for Change" by harmonising core conditions of service, such as hours and annual leave. In addition, speech and language therapists will have access to payments for working unsocial hours and overtime.

Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the numbers of speech and language therapists requiring pay protection from April 2005; and if he will make a statement. [176518]

Mr. Hutton: We are currently testing the impact of the whole package of pay reform including the numbers of staff requiring protection, in 12 early implementer sites. The United Kingdom health departments and national health service unions and employer representatives are now reviewing the emerging evidence from the sites and the conclusions from this review are likely to be known in July. The agreed success criterion is that, overall no more than a small percentage of staff should require formal protection. The proposed agreement also includes provision to ensure that for any staff requiring protection, there will be a review during this period of protection, to explore whether the staff concerned could be reassigned to a higher weighted job or offered development and training to fit them for a higher weighted job.

Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the proposals for working hours for speech and language therapists; and how these will be reflected in earnings. [176519]

Mr. Hutton: The proposed agreement aims to harmonise the disparate hours of the different staff groups by providing a standardised working week of 37.5 hours for all full-time national health service staff covered by "Agenda for Change" with phased protection arrangements for staff who currently work shorter hours for a period of up to eight years. Nationally speech and language therapists work unconditioned hours and may be working either above or below the proposed hours under the new arrangements.

These arrangements support the underlying principles of "Agenda for Change" of ensuring a fair, transparent pay system, based on the important principle of equal pay for work of equal value with simplified consistent conditions of service fairly applied across all staff groups.

St. George's Hospital

Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds are available for each specialist service at St. George's Hospital. [175876]

Mr. Hutton: The information requested is not collected centrally. Information on the number of beds broken down by ward classification is published and is available at http://www.performance.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity.

Staff Redundancies

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff have been made redundant as a consequence of his Department's Change Programme. [175698]

 
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Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 25 May 2004]: There have been 101 redundancies so far as the result of the change programme, and all these were voluntary.

Strategic Health Authorities

Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether representatives of strategic health authorities are permitted to cast votes on special committees set up to make recommendations on health service matters to the same strategic health authorities which provided the representatives to the special committees; and if he will make a statement. [175699]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 24 May 2004]: Yes. Paragraph 14(1) of the Health Authorities Membership and Procedure Regulations 1996 provides that

"Subject to such directions as may be given by the Secretary of State, an Authority may, and if directed by him, shall appoint committees of the Authority, or together with one or more other Authorities appoint joint committees consisting, in either case, wholly or partly of the chairman and members of the Authority or Authorities or wholly of persons who are not members of the Authority or Authorities in question."

Decisions on voting prior to making any recommendations are a matter for the members of the committee.

Student Nurses

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the adequacy of clinical placements for student nurses. [175316]

Mr. Hutton: The work force directorates of strategic health authorities (SHAs) commission nurse training places from higher education institutions (HEIs). They are jointly responsible for the adequacy of student placements they provide.

The recent increase in the number of nurses in training has led to some pressure on clinical placements. Work is therefore under way to improve the range and quality of practice placements. SHAs and HEIs are actively engaged with local employers in expanding the opportunities available for students.

Sucraid

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make a statement on National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidelines on the prescription of sucraid in the treatment of congenital sucrase isomaltese deficiency; [174969]

(2) he will list the hospitals where sucraid has been prescribed in the last five years. [174970]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has not issued guidelines on the prescription of sucraid. Data on prescriptions for sucraid in hospitals are not collected centrally.

Unique Identity Numbers

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when NHS patients will be assigned unique identity numbers for IT purposes. [176879]

 
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Mr. Hutton: All existing national health service patients have already been assigned a unique identifier. NHS patients are assigned unique identity numbers either at birth (for children born in the United Kingdom) or when they register for NHS services. The number is used to enable different NHS organisations involved with the delivery of care to share information reliably. It is used in NHS information technology systems for this purpose.

United Healthcare Group

Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment has been made of the savings to the NHS in the primary care trusts that have piloted the Evercare model of service provision; [175808]

(2) what evaluation has been made of the (a) costs and (b) benefits to the national health service of the Evercare pilot programmes provided by the United Healthcare Group. [175813]

Mr. Hutton: The pilot schemes are being independently evaluated by the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre.

Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will place in the Library (a) contracts or agreements that the national health service has entered into with the United Healthcare Group and (b) monitoring and evaluation reports in respect of these contracts or agreements; [175809]

(2) if he will list the agreements or contracts that have been entered into with the United Healthcare Group for providing consultancy, health care or other services to the national health service. [175810]

Mr. Hutton: Ten primary care trusts (PCTs) have entered contracts with United Health Group for support in implementing the group's care model locally. The Department does not hold copies of those contracts. Nor does the Department hold lists of contracts placed by national health service bodies with particular companies. I have however placed in the Library UnitedHealth Group's interim report on implementation of its care model in the pilot PCTs.

Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what contacts at official level there have been between his Department and United Healthcare Group since October 2003. [175811]

Mr. Hutton: Departmental officials have met representatives of UnitedHealth Group within the steering group established to oversee the piloting by primary care trusts of the group's care model. UnitedHealth Group has also participated in events organised by the Department's Modernisation Agency to help support better management of chronic conditions.

Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many civil servants in his Department have left their posts in order to take up employment with the United Healthcare Group in the past two years. [175812]

Mr. Hutton: No civil servants have left posts in the Department to take up employment with UnitedHealth Group in the past two years.
 
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Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much money the National Health Service has paid to the United Healthcare Group in respect of (a) the Evercare pilot programmes and (b) other services provided by the United Healthcare Group. [175814]

Mr. Hutton: £3.7 million was allocated by the Department in 2003–04 to primary care trusts (PCTs) towards the costs of their individual agreements with UnitedHealth Group. The actual costs of each contract are a matter for each PCT.

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