---

18 Oct 2004 : Column 496W—continued

NHS Trusts (Staff)

Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent by national health service trusts in England on external contract staffing and consultancy in each year since 1997. [191752]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 15 October 2004]: The table shows expenditure by National Health Service trusts on total external contract staffing and consultancy services. We are unable to separately identify just consultancy services.

	NHS trust expenditure (£)
1996–97	107,151,978
1997–98	110,721,581
1998–99	93,071,801
1999–2000	93,304,298
2000–01	105,853,073
2001–02	125,947,596
2002–03	149,437,568

2002–03 are the latest figures available.

Nurses (Buckinghamshire)

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many nursing vacancies there are in the Buckinghamshire Health Authority area; [191038]

(2) how many nurses are employed in each of the hospitals located in Buckinghamshire Health Authority. [191039]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of nursing vacancies and the number of nurses employed in the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority area, which includes the old Buckinghamshire Health Authority are shown in the table.
Department of Health vacancies survey, March 2004—NHS three month vacancies in England by specified Government office region, strategic health authority area and organisation, for qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff—three month vacancy rates, numbers and staff in post

		All qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff
		March 2004		September 2003
		Three month vacancy rate (percentage)	Three month vacancy (number)	Staff in post (whole-time equivalent)	Staff in post (headcount)
England		2.6	7,508	291,925	364,692
Of which:
South East Government office region		3.5	1,368	40,283	53,100
Of which:
Q16 Thames Valley SHA		2.9	295	10,621	13,975
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust	RWX	4.5	21	522	575
Bracknell Forest PCT	5G2	10.9	7	56	87
Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Trust	RWT	4.5	14	291	325
Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust	RXQ	0.4	5	1,231	1,766
Cherwell Vale PCT	5DV	2.3	2	82	120
Chiltern and South Bucks PCT	5G4	0.0	—	142	228
Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Trust	RD7	4.1	39	978	1,247
Milton Keynes General Hospital NHS Trust	RD8	0.0	—	642	824
Milton Keynes PCT	5CQ	6.0	19	308	380
Newbury and Community PCT	5DK	3.5	4	121	184
North East Oxfordshire PCT	5DT	0.5	0	48	77
Nuffield Orthopaedic NHS Trust	RBF	1.6	4	233	294
Oxford City PCT	5DW	2.3	4	162	277
Oxford Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust	RTH	1.8	43	2,797	3,713
Oxfordshire Ambulance NHS Trust	RNY	—	—	—	—
Oxfordshire Learning Disability NHS Trust	RHX	1.4	1	77	85
Oxfordshire Mental Healthcare NHS Trust	RNU	17.3	90	434	506
Reading PCT	5DL	7.6	14	190	288
Royal Berkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust	RH1	—	—	—	—
Royal Berkshire and Battle Hospitals NHS Trust	RHW	0.5	6	1,239	1,498
Slough PCT	5DM	1.8	3	154	195
South East Oxfordshire PCT	5DX	0.0	—	95	132
South West Oxfordshire PCT	5DY	2.1	4	199	275
Thames Valley SHA	Q16	(19)—	—	—	—
Two Shires Ambulance NHS Trust	RHY	0.0	—	51	67
Vale Of Aylesbury PCT	5DP	3.3	6	227	320
Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead PCT	5G3	3.3	4	134	200
Wokingham PCT	5DN	1.2	1	108	162
Wycombe PCT	5G5	2.0	2	99	150

⁽¹⁹⁾ Figures where sum of staff in post (as at 30 March 2004) and vacancies is less than 10.
Notes:
1. Three month vacancy information is as at 31 March 2003.
2. Three month vacancies are vacancies which trusts are actively trying to fill, which had lasted for three months or more (whole time equivalents.)
3. Three month vacancy rates are three month vacancies expressed as a percentage of three month vacancies plus staff in post.
4. Three month vacancy rates for non-medical staff are calculated using staff in post from the vacancy survey, March 2003.
5. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.
6. '—' = zero.
7. Staff in post data is from the non-medical workforce census, September 2002.
8. Vacancy and staff in post numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number.
9. Calculating the vacancy rates using the above data may not equal the actual vacancy rates.
10. Due to rounding, totals may not equal the sum of component parts
Sources:
Department of Health vacancies survey, March 2003.
Department of Health non-medical workforce census, September 2002.



 
18 Oct 2004 : Column 497W
 

PFI Health Contracts

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the annual revenue liabilities are of all private finance initiative health contracts. [189840]

Mr. Hutton: The information requested has been placed in the Library.

Pharmacies

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will amend the relevant legislation to place registered pharmacies in the absence of the pharmacist on the same basis as other retail outlets in relation to the sale of General Sales List items. [191644]

Ms Rosie Winterton: "A Vision for Pharmacy in the New NHS", published in July 2003, said that we would consult on possible changes to legislation regarding the arrangements for the dispensing and sale of medicines. That remains our intention.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many community pharmacies in the Buckingham constituency (a) closed and (b) opened in each year since 2001–02. [191074]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Information about the number of community pharmacies by constituency is not collected. The tables show the number of community pharmacies opening and closing in 2001–02 and
 
18 Oct 2004 : Column 498W
 
2002–03 in Buckinghamshire Health Authority (HA) and the four primary care trusts (PCTs) covering the old Buckinghamshire HA.

	2001–02
HA	Open	Closed
Buckinghamshire	2	2
Total	2	2

	2002–03
PCT	Open	Closed
Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire	1	0
Wycombe	0	0
Vale of Aylesbury	2	1
Milton Keynes	0	0
Total	3	1

Primary Care Trusts (Essex)

Mr. Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for the merger of two or more primary care trusts in Essex; and if he will make a statement. [191940]

Dr. Ladyman: The Essex Strategic Health Authority (SHA) has responsibility for strategic planning of primary care trusts (PCTs) in Essex. All PCTs in Essex are currently reviewing a number of functions with
 
18 Oct 2004 : Column 499W
 
the aim of maximising resources through joint arrangements. This work is ongoing and will form the basis of any future plans.

Waiting Lists/Times (Buckinghamshire)

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients in the Buckinghamshire health authority area referred urgently with suspected breast cancer waited for more than two weeks for an out-patient appointment in each reporting period since January 2002. [191075]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of patients in the Buckinghamshire area referred urgently with suspected breast cancer who waited for more than two weeks for an out-patient appointment since 2002 is shown in the table.
Waiting times for patients urgently referred by their general practitioner with suspected breast cancer

	Quarter	National Health Service Trust	Patients waiting over two weeks	Percentage waiting over two weeks
2001–02	4	Milton Keynes General	1	1.2
		South Buckinghamshire	0	0.0
		Stoke Mandeville Hospital	0	0.0
2002–03	1	Milton Keynes General	6	6.5
		South Buckinghamshire	5	4.9
		Stoke Mandeville Hospital	0	0.0
2002–03	2	Milton Keynes General	3	3.8
		South Buckinghamshire	0	0.0
		Stoke Mandeville Hospital	0	0.0
2002–03	3	Milton Keynes General	3	3.2
		South Buckinghamshire	0	0.0
		Stoke Mandeville Hospital	0	0.0
2002–03	4	Milton Keynes General	0	0.0
		South Buckinghamshire	2	1.6
		Stoke Mandeville Hospital	0	0.0
2003–04	1	Milton Keynes General	0	0.0
		Buckinghamshire Hospital	1	0.4
2003–04	2	Milton Keynes General	0	0.0
		Buckinghamshire Hospital	2	0.8
2003–04	3	Milton Keynes General	0	0.0
		Buckinghamshire Hospital	0	0.0
2003–04	4	Milton Keynes General	0	0.0
		Buckinghamshire Hospital	0	0.0
2004–05	1	Milton Keynes General	0	0.0
		Buckinghamshire Hospital	4	1.4

Sources:
Department of Health forms QMCW and CWTDB.

---