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1 Feb 2005 : Column 884W—continued
GPs
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effects of the new general practitioners' contract on general practitioners' earnings. [211222]
Mr. Hutton: General practitioner earnings are currently estimated to increase by 8.8 per cent. in the financial year 2003–04, 10.8 per cent. in 2004–05 and 12 per cent. in 2005–06. The figures for 2003–04 and 2004–05 are based on information for Great Britain. The 2005–06 figures are based on information for the whole of the United Kingdom.
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003
Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish the responses to the consultation on draft regulations to allow the NHS to re-coup costs under the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003. [210297]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The consultation exercise has only recently ended and we are still analysing the responses. It would therefore be premature to make any announcements on next steps or to make the responses publicly available at this stage. When we have completed our analysis, we will in due course publish a summary of responses in accordance with the provisions of the Government's code of practice on consultations. At that time, we will make the responses themselves available in the Library.
Health Care (Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Mr. Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to change the funding allocation for health care in Sittingbourne and Sheppey. [211771]
Mr. Hutton:
Revenue allocations to cover the period 2003–04 to 2005–06 were announced in December 2002. There will be no changes to the primary care trust allocations for 2003–04 to 2005–06. The next round of allocations for 2006–07 and 2007–08 will be announced shortly.
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Hospital Infrastructure
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on (a) building and (b) renovation programmes for hospitals in (i)Romford, (ii) the London borough of Havering, (iii)Greater London, (iv) Essex and (v) England. [210571]
Dr. Ladyman: Details of all hospital building schemes with a capital value of £10 million and over within each strategic health authority have been placed in the Library.
Mental Health Social Workers
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) headcount and (b) whole time equivalent mental health social workers have been (i)approved to practise and (ii) in employment in the NHS in each of the last eight years. [210215]
Dr. Ladyman: While this is not data collected for the Department, according to a survey that was undertaken by the Royal College of Psychiatrist's research unit, there are 4200 approved social workers (ASWs) whole-time equivalent (4500 total) currently trained.
From 1994 to 1998, the local government employers' organisation survey collected ASW data. This is the only data available.
Source:
Social and health care workforce group social services workforce analysis, 1998.
Mixed Wards
Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many mixed wards there are in (a) Wirral, (b) Merseyside, (c) North West England and (d) England. [211552]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information is not available in the format requested.
The provision of single-sex accommodation is measured as compliance with three objectives set by the Department. These objectives require national health service trusts to provide single-sex sleeping areas, separate bathroom and toilet facilities for men and women and, where appropriate, safe facilities for the mentally ill. The separation of male and female sleeping areas can be achieved in a variety of ways, including combinations of single rooms and single-sex bays.
Compliance with these objectives is measured at trust level and therefore ward level information is not available.
All NHS trusts providing services to the people of Wirral are fully compliant with the standards which we have set.
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Nationally, as at December 2003:
99 per cent. of NHS trusts provide single-sex sleeping accommodation for planned admissions and have robust operational policies in place to protect patients' privacy and dignity.
99 per cent. of NHS trusts meet the additional criteria set to ensure the safety of patients who are mentally ill.
97 per cent, of NHS trusts provide properly segregated bathroom and toilet facilities for men and women.
The small number of NHS trusts which do not yet meet our standards are building new hospitals, the construction of which is well advanced. One such NHS trust is located within the North West of England, in the area overseen by the Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Health Authority. I am informed that the non-compliant area is one temporary ward, which is being used to accommodate patients while the redevelopment works are completed within the main hospital. This temporary accommodation will be taken out of use by May 2005.
MRI Scanning
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of whether an increase in the availability of MRI scans will require an increase in (a) the number of staff in neurology departments and (b) the amount of resources available to neurology departments. [208869]
Mr. Hutton: To support the increase in the availability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning we are increasing staff and ensuring that patients can get faster and better access to neurology services.
Since September 1997, the number of consultants in neurology has increased by 56 per cent., and we are working towards increasing their numbers further by expanding the number of specialist registrar (SpR) opportunities in the specialty. In addition, the number of nurses employed in the national health service has increased by 77,500 since 1997 and there are now around 1,250 general practitioners with special interests providing acute services in clinical specialities, including neurology. The new national MRI mobile scanning units are also adding over 15 per cent., more diagnostic capacity to the NHS and the independent sector will provide additional staff to ease pressure on existing NHS diagnostic teams.
It is the responsibility of primary care trusts (PCTs), in partnership with local providers, to assess the needs of their local community, to commission services and to identify the resources and number of professional staff that they need to deliver those services. The increase in the acquisition of MRI scans is an excellent opportunity to consider different methods of delivery and different skill mix solutions.
NHS Budgets
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when his Department plans to publish allocations for (a) primary care trusts and (b) central budgets for (i)2006–07 and (ii) 2007–08. [210334]
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Mr. Hutton: The publication date for the 2006–08 revenue and central budget allocations has not yet been finalised. We expect to publish the 2006–08 primary care trust allocations within the next few weeks.
National Health Service
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to announce the functions of the NHS Business Services Authority. [204267]
Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will announce the functions of the new NHS Business Services Authority; and if he will make a statement. [206718]
Ms Rosie Winterton:
An Implementation Framework for Reconfiguring the Department of Health's Arm's Length Bodies", published on 30 November 2004, made it clear that the new body will be the main processing facility responsible for payment, reimbursement, remuneration and reconciliation for national health service patients, employees and other affiliated parties. It will represent a merger of four constituent bodies: the Dental Practice Board, the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service, the NHS Pensions Agency and the Prescription Pricing Authority. It is intended that the new body should be established formally by 1 October 2005 and a transition team is working to this timetable.
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Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the (a) total budget and (b) administration budget was for each (i) NHS region in each year from 1997 to 2002 and (ii) strategic health authority in each year since they were established. [203058]
Mr. Hutton: The information requested has not yet been validated. This process is currently ongoing and the information will be available once the validation process has been completed.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list (a) documents and (b) communications distributed which received an NHS Gateway reference in 2004. [210423]
Mr. Hutton: 1,124 documents or communications received a DH External Gateway number in 2004. A full list of all documents has been placed in the Library.
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) doctors and (b) nurses were employed by (i) the Nottingham City Primary Care Trust, (ii) the Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust, (iii) the Queen's Medical Centre NHS Trust and (iv) other bodies (A) on 1 April 2000 and (B) on the latest date for which figures are available. [211368]
Dr. Ladyman: The information requested is shown in the table.
n/a = not applicable.
Notes:
All NHS doctors (1) and qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff, including practice nurses employed by unrestricted principals and equivalents (UPEs) (2), in the Trent SHA area and each specified organisation as at 30 September each year.
1.All doctors includes all practitioners (excluding retainers) and hospital and community health services (HCHS) medical and dental staff. HCHS medical and dental staff excludes medical hospital practitioners and medical clinical assistants, most of whom are also general practitioners working part time in hospitals. All practitioners (excluding retainers) include general medical service (GMS) unrestricted principals, personal medical service (PMS) contracted GPs, PMS salaried GPs, restricted principals, assistants, GP registrars, salaried doctors (para. 52 SFA), PMS other, flexible career scheme GPs and GP returners.
2.UPEs include GMS unrestricted principals, PMS contracted GPs and PMS salaried GPs.
Sources:
Department of Health non-medical workforce census.
Department of Health QMS and PMS statistics.
Department of Health medical and dental workforce census.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1)how many people are employed by the national health service university; [211259]
(2) what the ethnic breakdown is of staff at the national health service university. [211260]
Mr. Hutton: There are 164 permanent staff currently employed by the national health service university (NHSU) and 186 non permanent staff, giving a total of 350 employees. We do not have details of the ethnic breakdown of all 350 employees at the NHSU. The table shows the breakdown of employees at NHSU who have provided this information.
| Number | |
|---|---|
| African | 2 |
| Any other group | 1 |
| Any other mixed background | 1 |
| Caribbean | 5 |
| Indian | 1 |
| White British | 118 |
| White Irish | 2 |
| White Other | 19 |
| Pakistani | 1 |
| Total | 150 |
Source:
NHSU, January 2005.
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Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) total budget and (b) administration budget has been set for the NHS Institute for Learning, Skills and Innovation in each of the next five years. [206646]
Mr. Hutton: Work is under way to establish the new national health service Institute for Learning, Skills and Innovation in 2005 and its budget will be set as part of this work and the continuing work on the review of arm's length health bodies.
Mr. Lyons: To ask the Secretary of State for Health to which parts of the UK the NHS staff pension scheme extends. [209954]
Mr. Hutton: There are separate pension schemes covering national health service staff in England and Wales; NHS staff in Scotland; and NHS staff in Northern Ireland.
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