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10 Jan 2005 : Column 95W—continued
Working Time Regulations
Mr. Brady: To ask the Prime Minister pursuant to his answers on Working Time Regulations of 13 December 2004, Official Report, column 823W, and 20 December 2004, Official Report, columns 1353–4W, for what reasons it was not possible to provide details of the number and percentage of officials working in his private office who have worked more than a 48 hour week at any time in the last 12 months. [207614]
The Prime Minister:
As I set out in my original answer of 13 December, Official Report, column 823W, all officials in my Office who might work more than 48 hours a week as defined by the Working Time Regulations have signed a waiver.
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HEALTH
Clinical Guidelines
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether clinical guidelines issued by his Department are designed to set minimum standards. [200107]
Mr. Hutton: The Department does not issue clinical guidelines. Clinical guidelines are developed and issued by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE'S clinical guidelines bring clarity to complex areas of diagnosis and care by providing recommendations for good practice that are based on the best available evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness.
Standards for Better Health, the first ever set of national standards for health provided under the National Health Service, requires by developmental standard D2 that:
NICE guidance in this context includes its clinical guidelines.
Correspondence
David Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to reply to the letter of 1 November from the hon. Member for Walsall, North concerning a constituent, reference 5006112. [201472]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 2 December 2004]: A reply was sent on 6 December 2004.
Defibrillators
Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many uses of NHS defibrillators located in non-NHS premises were reported in the six months to September. [206635]
Miss Melanie Johnson: There have been a total number of 31 deployments from April—September 2004 inclusive. This includes precautionary deployments and can be broken down as follows:
Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what system is in place for recording uses of NHS defibrillators located in non-NHS premises. [206636]
Miss Melanie Johnson:
When an event occurs it is recorded internally by the automatic external defibrillator (AED). This information is then downloaded by the manufacturer and is forwarded to the national defibrillator team, where the event is reviewed. To accompany this, an AED event form is completed. This form captures all information relating to the event and it is completed by staff at the site where the AED is housed and then forwarded to the Department. On receipt, this information is entered into a database.
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From a national perspective, there is also a database, which is coordinated by the Resuscitation Council (UK). This database collates information from all AEDs out in the community.
Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS defibrillators were in place in non-NHS premises on 30 September. [206637]
Miss Melanie Johnson: There were 681 automatic external defibrillators in place within 110 sites in England by 30 September 2004.
Dental Laboratories
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment his Department has made of the likely change in the number of jobs in dental laboratories in England as a result of industry restructuring in response to the Options for Change policy; [204645]
(2) what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the new dentists' contract on (a) patients and (b) the dental laboratories industry; [204646]
(3) what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the new dentists' contract on dental laboratories in personal dentist service pilot sites; [204647]
(4) what assessment his Department made of the impact of the Options for Change policy on the amount of laboratory work commissioned by personal dentist service dentists. [204648]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Development of the Government's reforms to national health service dentistry was informed by experience of the personal dental services (PDS) scheme and Options for Change pilots. A key feature of these pilot schemes, which will also be carried forward to new contractual arrangements, is the replacement of the item-for-service method of remunerating dentists with local contracts. Primary care trusts will negotiate contracts with dental practices to meet patients' overall oral health care needs. An evaluation of a sample of PDS schemes suggest that dentists may prescribe fewer intricate dental appliances under local commissioning, although this may only be a temporary effect whilst they adjust to new contractual and remuneration arrangements. Dentists should prescribe appliances for which there is a clinical need.
Dentistry
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when discussions with the Governments of (a) Poland, (b) Germany, (c) Denmark and (d) Spain on the recruitment of dentists began. [202279]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Discussions began with Poland, Denmark and Spain in 2004. Activity in Germany has only just begun and approaches to the Government will be made shortly.
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the findings are from the personal dental services pilot sites on bad debt; and whose responsibility bad debt will be after the NHS dental base contract comes into effect. [206686]
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Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 21 December 2004]: Currently the responsibility for bad debts due to non-payment of patient charges rests with the provider dentist in the general dental services and personal dental services (PDS) except where, under the PDS, the practice is owned by the primary care trust. Bad debt has not been raised as an issue by providers in the PDS. When the new contractual arrangements are implemented a new system of patient charges will be required. We have received a report from the NHS dentistry patient charges working group, chaired by Harry Cayton, which we are considering.
Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists there were per head of the population in England in each year since 1997. [206728]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of national health service dentists (headcount) per 10,000 population in England is shown in the table for September in each of the years 1979 to 2004. NHS dentists comprise those dentists working in the General Dental Service (GDS), Hospital Dental Service (HDS), Community Dental Service (CDS) and Personal Dental Service (PDS). Dentists working in more than one dental service are included in each service apart from dentists working in both PDS and GDS who are counted in the GDS only.
| Dentists per 10,000 | |
|---|---|
| 1997 | 4.17 |
| 1998 | 4.27 |
| 1999 | 4.37 |
| 2000 | 4.43 |
| 2001 | 4.53 |
| 2002 | 4.58 |
| 2003 | 4.66 |
| 2004 | 4.67 |
Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information he has about the number of patients paying for private dental treatment in each year since 1997. [206730]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Information on private dental treatment is not routinely available to the Department. Information on private dental expenditure and national health service/private patient mix is given in Tables 3.5 and 3.6 of the Office of Fair Trading publication "The private dentistry market in the UK", a copy of which is available in the Library.
Departmental Advertisements
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many television advertisements his Department has commissioned on (a) terrestrial and (b) satellite television channels in the last 12 months; and what the cost was in each case; [201305]
(2) what criteria are used by his Department to determine (a) on which satellite television channels advertisements on behalf of his Department or its agencies are screened and (b) the frequency of screenings of advertisements;. [201310]
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(3) what discussions he has held with the devolved administrations in relation to the content, frequency and timing of television advertising placed by his Department on UK-wide satellite broadcasting channels. [201315]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The table shows the number, with costs, of advertisements commissioned by the Department's communications directorate for screening on terrestrial and satellite television during 2003–04.
The criteria used for all campaigns are individually assessed to take into account the campaign objectives, the target audience and any specific regional factors.
The media buyers secure the most cost effective advertising slots to match the brief at the most competitive prices within the budget allocated.
Frequency of screening will depend on a consideration of how many times an audience needs to see the message before it will achieve the desired effect and the size of the audience for any particular television spot.
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