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Mrs. Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time for digital hearing aids was in (a) the County of Bedfordshire and (b) England in 200405. [11018]
Mr. Byrne: This information is not held centrally.
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) under what circumstances a local authority can refuse to disregard housing costs and council tax when calculating charges for domiciliary care; [5643]
(2) whether local authorities in England are required to disregard housing costs and council tax when calculating charges for domiciliary care. [5645]
Mr. Byrne: The Department issued guidance Fairer Charging for Home Care and other non-residential Social Services" to all local councils in November 2001, revised in September 2003. It stated that where councils charge for domiciliary care services they should take into account the income of the service user. Paragraph 80vii of the guidance explains that income should be assessed net of housing costs and council tax.
The guidance was issued under section seven of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970. In the case Regina v. Islington London borough council ex parte Rixon (1998), the Court took the view that councils must follow such guidance unless they had a good reason not to.
John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has to increase funding for drug and alcohol rehabilitation in (a) Leeds West, (b) Leeds and (c) West Yorkshire. [1726]
Mr. Byrne: For drug treatment services, allocations from the pooled drug treatment budget for this year and the next two years are shown in the tables.
Amount (£) | Percentage increase over previous year | |
---|---|---|
200506 | 4,974,000 | n/a |
200607 | 7,041,000 | 41.55 |
200708 | 7,948,000 | 12.88 |
Additional funding is spent on drug treatment from mainstream funding, but the Department does not collect this information centrally.
All funding for alcohol treatment is via the mainstream and the Department does not collect this information centrally.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average cost of each response to an emergency call by (a) an emergency care practitioner and (b) a fully-equipped ambulance has been in the most recent period for which figures are available. [10024]
Mr. Byrne: This information is not collected centrally.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many fully-equipped ambulances have been operated by NHS Ambulance Trusts in England in each year since 1997; and if she will estimate the size of the fleet in 2010. [10025]
Mr. Byrne: This information is not collected centrally.
As a result of the Department's strategic review of ambulance services, we expect the number of ambulance vehicles to increase over the next few years. The size of the fleet and fleet mix will vary across the country depending on operational and geographical requirements.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many finished consultant episodes there were where obesity was the primary diagnosis in (a) each NHS region, (b) each strategic health authority and (c) England in each year since 200203. [10178]
Caroline Flint: The information requested is shown in the tables.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many GP vacancies there have been in each of the last five years; and how many applicants there were for each vacancy. [7197]
Mr. Byrne: The requested information is shown in the table. The increase in vacancies over this period arises from the increase in new general practitioner principal posts as the GP workforce has been expanded. The estimated three-month vacancy rate showing hard-to-fill GP principal posts decreased between 2003 and 2004.
England total reported vacancies | Average number applicants of per vacancy | |
---|---|---|
2000 | 1,143 | 8.5 |
2001 | 2,345 | 6.9 |
2002 | 2,487 | 4.4 |
2003 | 3,245 | 3.3 |
2004 | 3,076 | 3.7 |
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practitioners there were in each strategic health authority area per (a) 100,000 weighted population and (b) 100,000 unweighted population in the most recent period for which figures are available. [10028]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested is shown in the table.
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many full-time equivalent GPs are practising in each of the major towns of the North Shropshire constituency. [10934]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested is not held centrally. Shropshire and Staffordshire Strategic Health Authority reports that the number of whole-time equivalent (wte) general practitioners practising in major towns in North Shropshire is as shown in the table.
Town | Wte GPs |
---|---|
Clive | 3.50 |
Baschurch | 3.00 |
Shawbury | 2.00 |
Ellesmere | 4.50 |
Hodnet | 2.50 |
Market Drayton | 8.00 |
Wem/Prees | 5.25 |
Whitchurch | 6.75 |
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