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John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many planned primary care trusts will cover areas outside geographic areas covered by corresponding hospital trusts. [17809]
Mr. Byrne
[holding answer 14 October 2005]: Following the publication of Commissioning a Patient led NHS" on 28 July, strategic health authorities will be submitting proposals to the Department for the configuration of their primary care trusts (PCTs) based on criteria set out in the document. The Department will consider the proposals and respond by the end of November. Any agreed changes will require formal straightforward consultation for three months from December. I am therefore unable to say what the configuration of PCTs will be until the outcome of that is known.
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Clive Efford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what requirements will be placed on private sector providers of services to the NHS to invest in the training of medical staff. [17428]
Mr. Byrne: Independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs) providing a service to the national health service will be expected to offer training for all staff. This will be included in their contract.
Clive Efford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the likely impact on NHS recruitment and retention of the demand for medical staff in the new private health centres. [17429]
Mr. Byrne: Recruitment and retention are kept under review as part of longer term medical work force planning which aims to deliver sufficient appropriately trained people to provide the healthcare that is needed, whatever the setting. We have introduced rules to ensure that skilled professionals remain in the national health service.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the waiting times for psychological therapy were in the last period for which figures are available, broken down by mental health trust. [16971]
Mr. Byrne:
Information is not available in the requested format. The Department only collects waiting times for consultant led services and since the majority of referrals for psychological therapies would be to other mental health professionals such as clinical psychologists, this information does not capture the volume of activity accurately. At the end of June, there were 362 people waiting for an outpatient appointment with a psychotherapy consultant. Of these, 25 had waited 13 to 17 weeks, 77 eight to 13 weeks, 127 four to eight weeks, and 133 less then four weeks. A further six people were waiting for an inpatient appointment with
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a psychotherapy consultant. Of these, three had waited less than a month and the other three had waited less than two months. In line with the Government's manifesto commitment, the Department will continue to improve services for people with mental health problems at primary and secondary levels and this will include extending the availability of psychological therapies of proven effectiveness.
Mr. Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health who incurs the financial cost of making a site ready for a mobile scanner operated by Alliance Medical Ltd. [17912]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 14 October 2005]: The national health service is responsible for ensuring that sites are suitable for the mobile scanning units to allow scanning to commence. To support this, the Department allocated central funding to strategic health authority clusters to upgrade the sites identified by SHAs.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of sexually transmitted diseases were diagnosed in (a) England, (b) London and (c) Kingston and Surbiton (i) in each year since 2002 and (ii) in each of the last 12 months; and which sexually transmitted disease was the most frequently diagnosed in each case. [16682]
Caroline Flint: The number of new diagnoses of syphilis, gonorrhoea, genital chlamydial infection, herpes, genital warts and other diagnoses seen in genito-urinary medicine (GUM) clinics (KC60 return) in England, London, and the Kingston Primary Care Trust (PCT) are shown in the tables. For all these geographical areas, the most frequently diagnosed sexually transmitted infection over the time period shown was genital chlamydial infection.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will direct the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to conduct an appraisal on the use of continuous positive airway pressure for the treatment of sleep apnoea. [18457]
Mr. Byrne: We have no plans to ask the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to conduct an appraisal on the use of continuous positive airway pressure for the treatment of sleep apnoea.
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1)what the average number of specialist rehabilitation beds per 1,000 people in (a) each of the English regions and (b) England was in the latest year for which figures are available; [16672]
(2) what estimate she has made of the optimum number of specialist rehabilitation beds per 1,000 people in England; and if she will make a statement. [16673]
Mr. Byrne
[holding answer 17 October 2005]: Information is not centrally collected on the number of specialist rehabilitation beds and no such estimate has been made of the optimum number of specialist rehabilitation beds per 1,000 people in England. The number of beds in national health service facilities varies, depending on the range and type of services they provide and the way in which the admission and discharge of patients is managed. These are matters for the NHS locally to determine, but work is in hand to scope the current provision of rehabilitation services across health and social care.
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