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Non-NICE Appraised Treatments

Andy King: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what arrangements are in place for the period to 2008 to allow patients to be treated with non-National Institute for Clinical Excellence appraised treatments if it is their choice and their clinicians concur, in (a) hospital and (b) primary care. [187116]

Mr. Hutton: The national health service is expected to take full account of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance. Clinicians have to make an independent clinical judgment, taking due account of NICE's advice and the strength of evidence which lies behind it. They may depart from the advice if, in their view, the circumstances of the individual patient justify doing so. But they will be held accountable, through clinical governance arrangements, for their clinical decisions.

When considering the funding of any treatment currently being appraised by NICE, or where no appraisal has been commissioned, funding authorities are expected to use their existing local arrangements and consider the evidence available to them on the clinical effectiveness of the treatment.
 
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The Department has made it clear to health authorities and primary care trust that funding for treatments should not be withheld simply because guidance from NICE is unavailable or not yet published and we are happy to reiterate that via the strategic health authorities.

Orthotic Footwear

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many contracts the NHS has for orthotic footwear. [190895]

Mr. Hutton: The national health service has no contracts for orthotic footwear, but rather two national framework agreements. This allows the NHS the flexibility to purchase the best orthotic footwear without guarantees to any one supplier.

The two agreements for orthotic footwear are:

In addition, trusts may have their own local agreements for stock and modular footwear. However, the majority of the English NHS trusts have adopted the schedule numbers for custom-made orthotic footwear.

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the NHS design specification for orthotic footwear was last updated. [190896]

Mr. Hutton: The basic national health service design specification has been in place for a number of years and initially gave suppliers guidelines on the manufacture of patient appliances, including orthotic footwear. These guidelines were accompanied by generic schedule numbers/codes for each part of the manufacturing process and provided a standard structure for manufacture and costing.

The principle behind these schedule numbers still remains for the national framework agreement for orthoses but, over the years, the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency has worked in partnership with industry, clinicians and trusts to update these codes to ensure they reflect current practise.

Due to advances in technology the range of stock and modular footwear has improved dramatically so that only patients with really complex needs require custom made footwear.

Paramedic Ambulances (Chorley)

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many paramedic ambulances are available in the Chorley constituency. [190801]

Miss Melanie Johnson: This information is not collected centrally.

Petrol Filling Stations

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment has been made of whether there is a risk to children of illness due to living close to petrol filling stations. [192320]


 
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Miss Melanie Johnson: The Department has not undertaken a specific assessment of the risks to children of illness due to living close to petrol stations.

The Department's committee on the carcinogenicity of chemicals in food, consumer products and the environment will start a review of childhood cancer and its possible associations with environmental chemicals (including benzene) at its November meeting.

Primary Care Centres

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 21 September 2004, Official Report, column 1995W, on primary care centres, what the timetable is for each centre in development, including the expected opening date. [191772]

Mr. Hutton: Only the national total of completed primary care centres is collated centrally. Primary care trusts are responsible for individual schemes and their completion.

Royal Preston Hospital

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many trauma cases which would previously have been treated at Chorley and South Ribble District hospital went directly to Royal Preston hospital in each of the last three years; and how many went to Preston via Chorley; [191590]

(2) if he will list the public meetings held by Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust and primary care trusts regarding the proposed transfer of emergency medical surgery to Royal Preston hospital. [192285]

Miss Melanie Johnson: This is a matter for the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals National Health Service Trust, and the Chorley and South Ribble Primary Care Trust and the Preston PCT.

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what ambulance cover is available when ambulances are taking trauma patients from Chorley constituency to Preston; [191591]
 
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(2) how much extra ambulance time has been taken transporting patients from Chorley to Preston for trauma cases who would have previously been treated at Chorley and South Ribble hospital; [194647]

(3) what estimate he has made of how many extra ambulance hours per month will be used transferring patients previously treated at Chorley from Chorley and South Ribble to Preston under proposals to treat emergency medical operations at Preston; [194648]

(4) what extra ambulance cover will operate in the Chorley and South Ribble catchment area under plans to treat emergency medical surgery at Preston. [194649]

Miss Melanie Johnson: This is a matter for the Lancashire Ambulance Service National Health Service Trust and the primary care trusts serving the Preston and Chorley and South Ribble areas.

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what agreements have been reached between the Ambulance Service and the NHS Trust concerned on plans to treat all emergency medical surgery at Preston; and what funding arrangements are in place; [191655]

(2) what meetings have taken place between ambulance services and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust on the proposed shift in emergency medical surgery to the Royal Preston hospital. [192284]

Miss Melanie Johnson: This is a matter for the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals National Health Service Trust, the Lancashire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, and the local primary care trusts serving the Preston and Chorley and South Ribble areas.

Staff Numbers (York)

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many full-time equivalent NHS (a) nurses and (b) staff in each of the other professions allied to medicine were working in hospitals in the greater York area in (i) 1994 and (ii) each year since then. [189760]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Data for 1994 were collected at local level and therefore cannot be accurately compared with later years.

The information from 1995 is shown in the table.
National health service hospital and community health services: qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff and qualified allied health professionals in the North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire strategic health authority (SHA) area and each specified organisation as at 30 September each specified year

hole-time equivalent
199519961997199819992000200120022003
Qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff
North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire SHA7,0577,0836,9616,9036,6056,8166,8847,6887,951
Of which:
Total specified organisations1,5131,3101,3611,2351,2681,3751,3941,4071,477
Selby and York primary care trust (PCT)n/an/an/an/an/an/a262492529
York health services NHS trust1,5131,3101,3611,2351,2681,3751,132915948
Qualified allied health professionals
North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire SHA8799429779999969871,0131,2131,326
Of which:
Total specified organisations191207213227230241244276306
Selby and York PCTn/an/an/an/an/an/a91107120
York health services NHS trust191207213227230241153169186



n/a—not applicable.
Notes: Figures are rounded to the nearest whole number. 1995–2001 figures are based on 2002 organisational structure.
Source: Department of Health non-medical workforce census.



 
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