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13 Jul 2005 : Column 1130W—continued

Digital Hearing Aids (Bedfordshire)

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 2004–05. [11018]

Mr. Byrne: This information is not held centrally.

Domiciliary Care

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.

Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation (Leeds)

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.
Allocation for Leeds, which includes Leeds West

	Amount (£)	Percentage increase over previous year
2005–06	4,974,000	n/a
2006–07	7,041,000	41.55
2007–08	7,948,000	12.88

n/a = Not available.





 
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Allocation for West Yorkshire, which includes; Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield

	Amount (£)	Percentage increase over previous year
2005–06	13,479,000	n/a
2006–07	19,338,000	41.55
2007–08	21,828,000	12.88

n/a = Not available.

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.

Emergency Response Services

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.

Finished Consultant Episodes

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 2002–03. [10178]

Caroline Flint: The information requested is shown in the tables.
Count of finished consultant episodes where primary diagnosis is obesity for data year 2002–03 and 2003–04

Region	2002–03	2003–04
England	1,442	1,898
Unknown	22	—
Northern and Yorkshire	348	493
Trent	164	157
West Midlands	102	169
North-west	241	301
Eastern	56	96
London	258	348
South East	156	201
South West	95	133

 
13 Jul 2005 : Column 1132W
 

Count of finished consultant episodes where primary diagnosis is obesity for data year 2002–03 and 2003–04, by strategic health authority

Strategic health authority	2002–03	2003–04
Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire	42	63
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	20	21
Essex	16	12
North West London	59	80
North Central London	51	97
North East London	32	34
South East London	58	80
South West London	58	57
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear	68	81
County Durham and Tees Valley	20	26
North and East Yorkshire and N Lincolnshire	66	142
West Yorkshire	199	243
Cumbria and Lancashire	17	29
Greater Manchester	91	165
Cheshire and Merseyside	133	110
Thames Valley	27	16
Hampshire and Isle of Wight	106	147
Kent and Medway	*	19
Surrey and Sussex	14	*
Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire	55	70
South West Peninsula	33	35
Dorset and Somerset	*	28
South Yorkshire	107	111
Trent	35	32
Leicestershire, Northumberland and Rutland	21	21
Shropshire and Staffordshire	17	54
Birmingham and the Black Country	72	111
West Midlands (Coventry, Warwickshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire)	13	*

Note:
Due to reasons of confidentiality, figures between one and 10 have been suppressed and replaced with '*' .
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

General Practitioners

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.
All reported GP vacancy numbers in England, 2000 to 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

Notes:
1. Numbers relate to GP principal vacancies occurring at any time in the 12 month survey period of 1 April to 31 March each year.
2. Numbers were collected directly from primary care trusts (PCTs) from 2003; previous years' vacancy numbers were collected from health authorities. Over this period, a varying, small number of PCTs and health authorities did not respond to the survey.
Source:
Department of Health GP recruitment, retention and vacancy surveys, 2000 to 2004.





 
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13 Jul 2005 : Column 1134W
 

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.
General medical practitioners (excluding retainers and registrars)1 by strategic health authority per 100,000 unweighted population2, and per 100,000 weighted population3, as at 31 December 2004—England

Number (headcount)
		All practitioners (excluding retainers and registrars)1	All practitioners (excluding retainers and registrars)1 per 100,000 unweighted population2	All practitioners (excluding retainers and registrars)1 per 100,000 unweighted population3
	England	31,798	63.78	63.81
	North East
Q10	County Durham and Tees Valley	751	65.48	58.42
Q09	Northumberland, Tyne and Wear	927	66.58	59.64
	North West
Q15	Cheshire and Merseyside	1,540	65.41	59.62
Q13	Cumbria and Lancashire	1,177	61.33	56.96
Q14	Greater Manchester	1,526	60.29	54.36
	Yorkshire and the Humber
Q11	North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire	1,037	63.20	63.16
Q23	South Yorkshire	827	64.99	59.76
Q12	West Yorkshire	1,397	66.65	64.02
	East Midlands
Q25	Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland	894	56.53	62.26
Q24	Trent	1,628	60.96	59.17
	West Midlands
Q27	Birmingham and The Black Country	1,401	61.63	56.98
Q26	Shropshire and Staffordshire	879	58.76	58.56
Q28	West Midlands South	974	62.82	64.32
	East of England
Q02	Bedford and Hertfordshire	1,001	61.99	67.43
Q03	Essex	932	57.19	60.28
Q01	Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire	1,475	66.48	68.49
	London
Q05	North Central London	811	66.46	70.86
Q06	North East London	921	60.16	60.80
Q04	North West London	1,176	64.80	70.08
Q07	South East London	1,007	66.61	69.71
Q08	South West London	846	64.56	73.12
	South East
Q17	Hampshire and Isle of Wight	1,135	63.16	67.29
Q18	Kent and Medway	912	57.00	58.23
Q19	Surrey and Sussex	1,644	63.95	66.84
Q16	Thames Valley	1,329	62.91	71.38
	South West
Q20	Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire	1,619	73.89	78.09
Q22	Somerset and Dorset	886	73.41	72.59
Q21	South West Peninsula	1,146	71.57	68.34

⁽³⁶⁾ General medical practitioners (excluding retainers and registrars) includes contracted GPs, GMS others and PMS others.
⁽³⁷⁾ ONS population data as at 2003
⁽³⁸⁾ Department of Health populations adjusted for age and need using components of the weighted capitation formula
Sources:
1. NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre General and Personal Medical Services Statistics
2. 2001 ONS Population Census
3. Department of Health





 
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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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