| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
4 Apr 2005 : Column 1242W—continued
Health Services (Leicester, South)
Mr. Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were receiving NHS dental treatment in Leicester South in each year since 1997. [223731]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 24 March 2005]: The information requested is not available in the format requested. However, Leicester South is served by Leicester City West Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Eastern Leicester PCT. The number of people in the PCT areas, that were registered with an national health service dentist for the years 1997 to 2004 are as shown in table 1.
4 Apr 2005 : Column 1243W
The drop in registrations between 1997 and 2004 is mostly attributable to the reduction in the re-registration period for patients from two years to 15 months.
The figures also exclude patients treated in dental access centres, who are not registered. In 2004, there were some 375,000 episodes of treatment in the 48 dental access centres then in operation in England. However, table 2 shows the breakdown of patients seen and treatments completed at the Leicestershire dental access centre, which opened in December 2001—up to and including data as of 31 January 2005.
4 Apr 2005 : Column 1244W
McKinsey and Company
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what payments his Department made to McKinsey and Company during the past 12 months. [223632]
Mr. Hutton: Since April 2004, the Department has paid £105,750 to McKinsey and Company to assist with implementing new financial arrangements for national health service foundation trusts.
Heart Surgery (Wimbledon)
Roger Casale: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on NHS waiting times for heart surgery in Wimbledon. [224249]
Dr. Ladyman: Revascularisation data is not available for the Wimbledon area and is only collected by trust. The table shows revascularisation waits at St. George's Healthcare NHS Trust.
Source:
Monthly monitoring.
Hospital Food
Mr. Bacon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his Department's policy is on sourcing pork, bacon and ham bearing the British Pig Executive's Quality Standard Mark in hospitals; and if he will make a statement. [223241]
Mr. Hutton: The procurement of pork and bacon within the English national health service has to comply with the European Union Procurement Legislation, as the value of meat and poultry consumed by the English NHS is in excess of the threshold values contained within the legislation. The framework agreements covering these products, developed by the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (NHS PASA), influence approximately 70 per cent. of the requirements of the NHS in England and aim to deliver best value for money in terms of price, quality and service from contracted suppliers.
The specifications employed by NHS PASA were created with the Meat and Livestock Commission and Louchry College in Ireland. For the pork and bacon products, the specifications call for all suppliers to comply with the NHS code of practice for the manufacture, distribution and supply of food, ingredients and food related products; additionally, along with a wider range of criteria, the specifications call for pigs to be slaughtered and processed on European Commission, or equivalent, approved premises and the labelling must include the country of origin. Provided that it satisfies the NHS code of practice, NHS PASA would purchase pork, bacon and ham carrying the British Pig Executive's quality standards mark if it represented value for money.
Over the past 12 months, in excess of 86 per cent. of the pork joints, chops, mince, loin steaks etc. procured against NHS PASA's framework agreements were sourced from pigs originating from the United Kingdom. In terms of bacon, approximately 50 per cent. of the bacon sourced from NHS PASA's contracted butchers was of UK origin. The remaining countries of origin were mainly Holland and Denmark.
Mental Health
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 9 March 2005, Official Report, columns 1909–10W, on mental health, what assessment he has made of the reasons for parts of the country being slow to use atypical antipsychotics; and what action he is taking to increase their take-up. [223851]
Ms Rosie Winterton: No evaluation has been made of the reasons as to why parts of the country may be slow to use atypical antipsychotics. However, the Department will continue to monitor prescribing trends of all antipsychotic drugs.
NHS Bank
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on progress in delivering the NHS Bank. [224037]
Mr. Hutton: The NHS Bank has been in existence and supporting national health service financial management since 2002.
NHS Charges
Mr. Lansley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of
4 Apr 2005 : Column 1245W
(a) providing free sight tests for all, (b) meeting the cost of all prescription charges and (c) meeting the cost of all charges for dental care; and what estimate has been made of the additional cost to the NHS of meeting thecharges only for those currently ineligible in each case. [221808]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The cost of extending eligibility for free national health service sight tests to all those who currently pay privately for sight tests is estimated at about £90 million a year in England, based on the 2004–05 fee rate of £17.82 per test payable to optometrists, and assuming no change in the take up rate for sight tests.
Income from prescription charges is expected to amount to £452 million in England in 2005–06. If all prescriptions were provided free of charge that income would be lost. There would also be an unquantifiable, additional cost to the drugs bill.
The cost of providing free NHS dental care to all those patients who currently pay dental charges is estimated at about £500 million a year in England, based on the levels of NHS dental care provided in 2003–04.
Dentistry (Chesterfield)
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentists were practising in Chesterfield constituency on the latest date for which figures are available; and how many of them were accepting new NHS (a) adult patients and (b) child patients. [222626]
Ms Rosie Winterton: There are 54 dentists practicing in the Chesterfield primary care trust (PCT) area as at 31 December 2004 1 .
The Trent strategic health authority (SHA) reports that, as at 30 March 2005, there are currently three dental practices accepting new national health service adult or child patients in the Chesterfield PCT area. In addition, a further five practices are accepting NHS adult patients on a qualified basis and three practices accepting children as NHS patients on a qualified basis.
The Government remain determined to improve access to NHS dentistry and has introduced a number of initiatives, which will help bring about improvements
4 Apr 2005 : Column 1246W
nationally and more locally. PCT funding for dentistry will increase by 19.3 per cent. from 2003–04 to 2005–06. Consequently, over £250 million of additional resources will be provided by 2005–06.
£127,000 has been provided to Chesterfield PCT as part of the dental access monies supplied to Trent SHA. This funding was due to deliver 2,120 new registrations.
However, it has in fact delivered 2,776 additional patient registrations as at the end of February 2005. It is estimated that this figure will increase by approximately 600 within the next six months.
Chesterfield PCT is keen to increase dental services in North Derbyshire. The Department has encouraged PCTs to be proactive in establishing early entry into the personal dental service (PDS). Orthodontic PDS will allow development of orthodontic services in the community and thereby reduce the waiting list for secondary care services. The PCT has pursued this goal and has developed good relationships with practice owners. It already has six early PDS practices and one more due to go live in May.
North Derbyshire PCTs have the following access agreements: four sessions per week with a practice in Clay Cross (in North Eastern Derbyshire PCT) and out of hours service for registered and non-registered patients for three hours during the evening on weekdays and three hours per day weekends and bank holidays at Scarsdale (within Chesterfield PCT).
NHS website.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |