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General Dental Services Contract

Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how her Department plans to inform (a) dentists and (b) patients about the new general dental services contract; and how much has been allocated to publicise the contract. [24560]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 3 November 2005]: The acting chief dental officer has written to all dentists, explaining the key messages of the new contracts. He is also holding regular meetings with groups of dentists
 
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across the country. The Department and the British Dental Association have met twice recently to discuss the new contracts. We have arranged articles in the dental press, recently issued extensive guidance to the national health service that included key messages to dentists and are holding six roadshows across England during November and December to build on the recent guidance.

The Department will produce an information leaflet for patients and a poster to explain the proposed banded system of patient charges for dentists to display in their surgeries.
 
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General Medical Services Contract

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of the total number of points available for assessing practice remuneration under the General Medical Services contract is assigned to (a) severe mental illness, (b) coronary heart disease, (c) diabetes and (d) cancer. [28228]

Mr. Byrne: The total number of points available in the quality and outcomes framework, part of the general medical services contract for 2005–06 is 1,050. The points available for the named diseases shown in the table.

Disease	Points	Percentage (per cent. of the total)
Severe mental illness	(128)30	2.9
Coronary heart disease, including left ventricular disease	121	11.5
Diabetes	99	9.4
Cancer	12	1.14

⁽¹²⁸⁾ Plus an additional 11 points for lithium therapy.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the priority given to severe mental illness in the practice remuneration system of the general medical services contract. [28229]

Mr. Byrne: The quality and outcomes framework is part of the general medical services contract. For the current financial year severe mental illness has 30 points allocated, plus a further 11 for patients on lithium therapy.

The contract is currently being re-negotiated and the disease areas being covered in the updated framework will be announced at the conclusion of the negotiations.

General Practitioners

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the percentage change in payments to general practitioners following the introduction of the Quality and Outcomes Framework included in the new General Medical Services contract for General Practice has been in (a) England and (b) for Dacorum Primary Care Trust; and if she will make a statement. [27211]

 
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Mr. Byrne: In 2004–05, in the year they were introduced, quality and outcomes framework payments for England accounted for about 9.5 per cent. of the total payments made by primary care trusts under the new general medical services contract.

For Dacorum PCT, figures held centrally indicate that about 11.3 per cent. of the total payments made by PCTs under the new general medical services contract relate to the quality and outcomes framework.

Information relating for Wales is a matter for the Welsh Assembly.

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the oral answer from the Prime Minister of 9 November 2005, Official Report, column 302, to the right hon. Member for West Derbyshire (Mr. McLoughlin), what the evidential basis is for the statement about the pay of general practitioners compared with their European counterparts. [28365]

Mr. Byrne [holding answer 14 November 2005]: The table shows the latest available comparisons published in 2005 between general practitioners (GPs) earnings in the UK compared against their European equivalents.

Evidence is taken from the research firm Stethos' recent GP survey and used by the British Medical Association in their memorandum of evidence to the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration. The evidence indicates UK GP earnings are currently ranked the highest in Europe.
Net GP earnings across five European countries

	£
Countries	Net GP earnings
France	42, 037
United Kingdom	49, 947
Germany	49, 299
Spain	25, 926
Italy	22, 607

GP/Dentist Registration

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many residents in West Lancashire constituency were registered with (a) a general practitioner and (b) an NHS dentist in each year since 1997. [28094]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is shown in the tables.
Table 1: Registered patients⁽¹²⁹⁾ for Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority and West Lancashire Primary Care Trust, for 1997–2004—England

Number (headcount)
		1997	1998	1999	2000
Q13	Cumbria and Lancashire	1,953,272	1,959,654	1,896,094	1,956,484
of which:
5F3	West Lancashire PCT	—	—	—	—

		2001	2002	2003	2004
Q13	Cumbria and Lancashire	1,953,563	1,943,598	1,981,218	1,970,937
of which:
5F3	West Lancashire PCT	109,448	111,587	112,187	110,550

'—' denotes data not applicable.
⁽¹²⁹⁾ Patients registered with general practitioners in the given PCT may be resident outside of the specific PCT geographical area.
Note:
Data as at 1 October 1997–99 and 30 September 2000–04.
Source:
NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre General and Personal Medical Services Statistics.





 
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Table 2: Number of residents in West Lancashire constituency registered with an NHS dentist as at 30 September

	Number of patients
1997	50,266
1998	43,526
1999	44,477
2000	46,552
2001	44,921
2002	46,830
2003	45,867
2004	48,293
2005	53,208

Notes:
1. Patients are included within the constituency area according to the postcode of the dental practice and not the patient's own home address.
2. Most Personal Dental Service schemes that have registrations have a re-registration period in excess of 15 months, so the figures for PDS schemes are generally higher than they would have been for the same attendance pattern under General Dental Service.
3. This information was provided by the Dental Practice Board and relates to patients registered with dentists whose practice address postcodes are within the constituency boundary.
Source:
Dental Practice Board

Health Funding (Hemel Hempstead)

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding was allocated by her Department to the Hemel Hempstead constituency for (a) capital projects and (b) revenue funding in each of the last eight years. [25733]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Capital and revenue allocations are made to NHS organisations, strategic health authorities, primary care trusts (PCTs) and NHS trusts and are not allocated on a constituency basis. The tables show the NHS bodies within the Hemel Hempstead constituency that have received capital and revenue funding.

The operational capital allocated to all organisations within the Dacorum PCT area are shown in table 1. The funding is provided to maintain and enhance their existing capital stock.
Table 1: Capital and revenue funding received—Dacorum PCT

£000
Organisation	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06
Dacorum PCT	123	132	141
E & N Herts NHS Trust	4,262	4,560	4,880
West Hertfordshire Hospital NHS Trust	4,413	4,745	5,077
Beds & Herts Ambulance & Paramedic Services NHS Trust	1,179	1,346	1,523

Strategic capital is allocated to strategic health authorities to support larger scale investments. The allocations for the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire SHA is shown in table 2.
 
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Table 2: Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire SHA

	£000
2003–04	13,548
2004–05	15,310
2005–06	17,224

Note:
Comparisons between allocations rounds cannot be made, for the following reasons:
Revenue allocations were made to health authorities for the period 2000–01 to 2002–03;
Changes are made to the weighted capitation formula for each allocations round, therefore, comparisons would not be on a like-with-like basis;
2003–06 revenue allocations were made direct to PCTs, for the first time, and were on a three-yearly basis; and
2006–08 is the first year that Primary Medical Services (PMedS) were incorporated on to revenue allocations.

Prior to 2003–04, the Department allocated all NHS capital to the eight regional offices who had responsibility for distributing this funding to their health authorities. NHS capital allocations have not yet been made for 2006–07 onwards.

The most recent round of revenue allocations, covering 2006–07 and 2007–08 was announced in February 2005. Revenue allocations made to Dacorum PCT for this period is shown in table 3.
Table 3

	Dacorum PCT
2006–07 (£000)	165,791
2007–08 (£000)	180,733
Increase over 2 years (percentage)	18.5

The 2003–04 to 2005–06 revenue allocations to PCTs were announced in December 2002. Revenue allocations made to Dacorum PCT for this period is shown in table 4.
Table 4

	Dacorum PCT
2003–04 (£000)	115,040
2004–05 (£000)	126,173
2005–06 (£000)	138,186
Increase over 3 years ( percentage)	31.8

Prior to 2003–04, revenue allocations were made direct to health authorities (HAs) on an annual basis. Revenue allocations made to HAs in the Hertfordshire area from 2000–01 to 2001–02 is shown in tables 5 and 6.
Table 5

Health authority	2000–01 (£000)	Percentage increase
2000–01 East & North Hertfordshire HA allocation	318,662	9.0
2000–01 West Hertfordshire HA allocation	346,924	8.6

 
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Table 6

Health authority	2001–02 (£000)	Percentage increase
2001–02 East & North Hertfordshire HA allocation	348,992	8.8
2001–02 West Hertfordshire HA allocation	374,913	8.6

In 2002–03 there were several HA mergers. East and North Hertfordshire HA & West Hertfordshire HA became Hertfordshire HA. Revenue allocation made to Hertfordshire HA for 2002–03 is shown in table 7.
Table 7

	Hertfordshire HA
2002–03 (£000)	802,649
Percentage increase	9.6

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