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18 Nov 2004 : Column 1982W—continued

NHS Direct

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of NHS Direct; and if he will make a statement. [196988]

Ms Rosie Winterton: NHS Direct was set up to help callers access the right service at the right time and to give people reassuring clinical advice so that they can look after themselves, if that is the appropriate thing to do. NHS Direct has grown from a small pilot project to a substantial national service handling over 500,000 telephone calls and 500,000 internet visitor sessions every month. As such, it is the world's largest and most successful service of its type, empowering patients to exercise better informed choices about their own healthcare.

The National Audit Office's report on NHS Direct, published in January 2002, highlighted that NHS Direct is a very safe service and that adverse clinical outcomes associated with the service are likely to be rare. This confirmed the findings of earlier independent research by Sheffield University.

We are committed to the further development of NHS Direct, including the expansion of its call-taking capacity and the development of various channels through which patients can access the services it provides.

NHS Estate (Maintenance)

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the maintenance backlog to reach estate code condition B was in (a) England and (b) each strategic health authority in each year since 1997. [192785]

Mr. Hutton: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 9 February 2004, Official Report, columns 1205–06W.

NHS Facilities

Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 28 October 2004, Official Report, column 1340W, on NHS facilities, what the cost of each of the additional facilities listed was. [199170]

Dr. Ladyman: The information requested is shown in the table.

Facility	Cost
Trent Access and Choice Pilot (TRAC)	£10.8 million in 2003–04 and £1.8 million in 2004–05. This covers all 19 primary care trusts (PCTs) in the Trent Strategic Health Authority (SHA) area. Nottingham PCTs received £1,890,234 in 2003–04 and £541,000 in 2004–05
Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham University Hospital National Health Service Trust
Ear nose and throat/ophthalmology unit (£ million)	18.5
Accident and emergency department (expansion and modernisation) (£ million)	6.3
Maternity unit (modernisation and refurbishment) (£ million)	1.45
Set up of patient advice and liaison service (PALS) (£)	100,000
PALS staffing (£)	74,500
Simulation and clinical skills centre (£ million)	2.48
Magnetic resonance imaging scanner (£ million)	1
Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust
Extension of cardiac surgery unit (£)	250,000
High dependency unit (£)	980,00
Re-provision of endoscopy unit (£ million)	3.1
New orthopaedic pre-operative assessment suite (£)	500,000
Re-provision of breast unit (£ million)	5.2
New clinical haematology wards (£ million)	1.8
Walk-in centre
Nottingham walk-in centre	£1.2 million annual budget (includes all staffing and service provision costs and patient care)
Dental centre
Dental access centre	This cost comes under the walk-in centre figure above
Personal dental services	£142,000. This cost includes a total of six pilot sites in Rushcliffe
Dental field site in Chilwell	£3,000 of Modernisation Agency funding for information technology
Independent sector treatment centre (ISTC)
ISTC	£90 million over a five year contract period
Pharmacy
Pharmacy openings	Local information at this level is not available centrally

 
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NHS Finance

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department makes up the shortfall where there is a deficit in (a) ambulance service and (b) primary care trusts' budgets. [199257]

Mr. Hutton: The national health service must live within the funding made available and all organisations are expected to plan for and deliver financial balance to achieve this. Any deficits by NHS organisations need to be matched by underspends by other NHS bodies each year to ensure the NHS as a whole remains within the funding available. In the next year, NHS organisations that overspent should make a surplus in order to ensure that other bodies can utilise the underspends from the previous year.

NHS Procurement

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps have been taken to improve efficiency in NHS procurement in North Staffordshire. [198597]

Mr. Hutton: North Staffordshire is actively involved in the national supply chain excellence programme as part of a pathfinding collaborative procurement hub project. The hub will coordinate all purchasing activity in Shropshire and Staffordshire to improve performance, efficiency and generate substantial savings and benefits for all national health service trusts in the area.

NHS Professionals

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many placements have been secured through NHS professionals to date. [197922]

 
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Mr. Hutton: NHS Professionals was established as a Special Health Authority from 1 April 2004. Since that time it has been responsible for filling a total of 935,110 placements for doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and administrative and clerical staff.

NHS Staff

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many reported violent incidents against NHS staff there were in (a) England, (b) each strategic health authority and (c) each primary care trust in each year since 1997. [198246]

Mr. Hutton: The information requested was not collated centrally until 2000–01 and since then the statistics from different areas are incomplete. The available statistics on reported violent incidents, including both physical and non-physical assaults, against NHS staff for 2000–01, 2001–02 and 2002–03 in England; strategic health authorities (SHA); and primary care trusts (PCT) are summarised in the table.
Estimated number of reported violent or abusive incidents for 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03 in (a) England, (b) SHA, (c) PCT

	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03
England	84,214	112,000	116,000
SHA	45	20	11
PCT	1,156	5,802	20,767

In November 2003 the NHS Security Management Service launched a new national reporting system for physical assaults. Statistics on physical assaults against staff in the NHS will be available from 2004–05, with statistics on non-physical assault available from 2005–06.
 
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Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many nursing posts in the NHS are funded by pharmaceutical companies, broken down by trust; [198626]

(2) what his policy is on hospitals employing nurses and doctors funded for wholly or in part by pharmaceutical companies. [198627]

Ms Rosie Winterton: It has not been possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Nottingham Services

Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 28 October, Official Report, column 1334W, on services in Nottingham, how many (a) doctors and (b) nurses were employed by trusts which fall wholly within the City of Nottingham local government boundary (i) in 1997 and (ii) on the latest date for which figures are available. [197895]

Dr. Ladyman: The information is shown in the table.

Nottingham City Primary Care Trust (PCT), Nottingham City Trust Hospital and the Queens Medical Centre National Health Service Trust have been identified by Trent Strategic Health Authority as those trusts which fall within the City of Nottingham local government boundary. PCTs did not come into existence until 1 April 2000. Therefore there is no direct comparison to 1997. Nottingham Health Authority is the closest match, but this includes staff working in a significantly larger geographical area.
Numbers of doctors and nurses employed in Nottingham(latest available information)

1997	Doctors(41)	Nurses(42)
Nottingham Health Authority	1,471	4,695
Total	1,471	4,695

2003	Doctors(41)	Nurses(42)
Nottingham City PCT	190	853
Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust	421	1,170
Queen's Medical Centre NHS Trust	724	2,040
Total	1,335	4,063

Notes:
⁽⁴¹⁾ These figures include hospital and community health services doctors and general medical practitioners.
⁽⁴²⁾ These figures include qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff and GP nurses.
Sources:
Department of Health general and personal medial services statistics.
Department of Health medical and dental workforce census.
Department of Health non-medical workforce census.

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