---

12 Jul 2004 : Column 932W—continued

Means-Tested Benefits

Mr. Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the means-tested benefits available through his Department and the agencies for which it is responsible (a) in May 1997 and (b) now. [182592]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The income related benefits available through this Department in 1997, all still available in 2004, are help with health costs (including prescriptions, dental treatment, sight tests, glasses or contact lenses, wigs or fabric supports from a hospital and travel to hospital for national health service treatment) and the welfare food scheme, providing free milk and vitamins.

Agency Nurses

Mr. Hurst: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of nurses working in the national health service were supplied on contract by private agencies in each year from 1990 to 2003. [173638]

Mr. Hutton: Separate information is not collected centrally on expenditure on agency staff. Information is collected on expenditure on non-national health service staff for primary care trusts, NHS trusts and strategic health authorities. These figures include all agency staff and any other staff not directly employed by these bodies. The figures for non-NHS nurses, midwives and health visitors are shown in the table.

	Expenditure on non-NHS nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff as a percentage of expenditure on NHS nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff
1990–91	2.24
1991–92	1.76
1992–93	1.64
1993–94	1.70
1994–95	2.10
1995–96	2.61
1996–97	2.95
1997–98	3.26
1998–99	3.90
1999–2000	4.70
2000–01	5.22
2001–02	5.91
2002–03	5.76

Sources:
1. Annual financial returns of district and regional health authorities and the special health authorities for the London postgraduate teaching hospitals, 1990–91 to 1995–96.
2. Annual financial returns of health authorities, 1996–97 to 2001–02.
3. Annual financial returns of strategic health authorities, 2002–03.
4. Annual financial returns of NHS trusts, 1991–92 to 2002–03.
5. Annual financial returns of primary care trusts, 2000–01 to 2002–03.




 
12 Jul 2004 : Column 933W
 

Ministerial Travel

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list for each year since 1997 the number of miles flown by each Minister on official departmental business. [181871]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Ministerial Visits

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which Ministers from his Department have visited health services and medical care facilities in Taiwan in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [177493]

Ms Rosie Winterton: My noble Friend, the Lord Filkin, travelled to Taiwan in October 2001 in a ministerial capacity for the Department and visited a hospital as part of his programme.

Myasthenia Gravis

Syd Rapson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on how the Government support those diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. [182767]

Dr. Ladyman: Myasthenia gravis is a neurological condition characterised by fluctuating levels of muscle weakness. There is no cure, but treatment includes medication, surgery and palliation.

The national service framework for long term conditions will focus on improving services for people with neurological conditions. While the framework will not cover myasthenia gravis specifically, it will recommend improvements in standards, care and support that will benefit everyone with a neurological condition.

We are committed to publishing the framework as soon as possible.
 
12 Jul 2004 : Column 934W
 

NHS Dentistry

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many emergency admissions for dental treatment there were in the NHS for each region in each year since 1997. [181193]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information available for emergency admissions into hospital for dental treatment is shown in the table for each strategic health authority area from 1997–98 to 2002–03.
National health service: number of emergency hospital admissions for dental treatment in England by strategic health authority

	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000
England	4,047	4,321	4,369
Strategic health authority
Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire	114	156	129
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	46	74	86
Essex	214	107	122
North west London	58	281	122
North central London	58	44	81
North east London	65	67	128
South east London	152	129	121
South west London	50	54	84
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear	29	98	149
County Durham and Tees Valley	—	—	49
North and east Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire	46	44	121
West Yorkshire	48	105	190
Cumbria and Lancashire	134	147	199
Greater Manchester	54	54	84
Cheshire and Merseyside	248	283	380
Thames Valley	68	122	119
Hampshire and Isle Of Wight	128	109	151
Kent and Medway	73	49	138
Surrey and Sussex	96	147	154
Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire	93	85	105
South West Peninsula	191	232	245
Dorset and Somerset	89	84	89
South Yorkshire	42	34	99
Trent	94	158	159
Leicestershire, Northants and Rutland	32	52	184
Shropshire and Staffordshire	90	58	79
Birmingham and the Black Country	118	140	157
Coventry, Warwickshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire	56	67	54
Unclassified region	1,561	1,341	591

	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03
England	4,429	4,188	4,715
Strategic Health Authority
Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire	179	227	309
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	169	71	79
Essex	115	98	103
North west London	53	44	83
North central London	78	79	74
North east London	145	124	206
South east London	153	185	225
South west London	105	76	93
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear	164	176	158
County Durham and Tees Valley	51	60	125
North and east Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire	144	140	200
West Yorkshire	207	164	162
Cumbria and Lancashire	194	270	292
Greater Manchester	76	202	266
Cheshire and Merseyside	328	325	400
Thames Valley	98	89	114
Hampshire and Isle Of Wight	147	154	140
Kent and Medway	168	147	119
Surrey and Sussex	153	133	215
Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire	137	100	139
South West Peninsula	246	243	266
Dorset and Somerset	86	76	98
South Yorkshire	76	97	153
Trent	179	197	230
Leicestershire, Northants and Rutland	154	146	128
Shropshire and Staffordshire	78	58	88
Birmingham and the Black Country	167	188	181
Coventry, Warwickshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire	63	76	69
Unclassified region	516	243	—

Notes:
1. A finished admission episode is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.
2. Figures are grossed for both coverage and missing/invalid clinical data, except for 2001–02 and 2002–03, which are not yet adjusted for shortfall.
3. The operations count of episode represent a count of finished admission episodes where the procedure was mentioned in any of the 12 (four prior to 2002–03) operation fields in a Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) record. A record is only included once in each count, even if an operation is mentioned in more than one operation field of the record.
4. Strategic health authority (SHA) data was added to historic data-years in the HES database using 2002–03 boundaries, as a one-off exercise in 2004. The quality of the data on SHA of treatment is poor in 1997–98 and 1998–99, with over a third of all finished episodes having missing values in these years. Users of time series analysis including these years need to be aware of these issues in their interpretation of the data.
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics Department of Health




 
12 Jul 2004 : Column 935W
 

---