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17 Jan 2006 : Column 1305W—continued
Prescribing Practice (Budget Overruns)
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations she has received regarding occurrences of the prescribing practice where patients are denied access to certain treatments at times of the year or month when budgets are likely to over-run; and what assessment she has made of how widespread this practice is. [39397]
Jane Kennedy: I have received a number of representations on the potential impact of local national health service deficits on patients.
Psychology
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of (a) chartered psychologists and (b) chartered educational psychologists currently have a doctorate in psychology. [39506]
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Mr. Byrne: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how the revised advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on preventative treatment for respiratory syncytial virus will be disseminated to trusts; and whether additional funds will be available to trusts to allow the implementation of such guidance. [30159]
Caroline Flint: The recommendations from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation are made available on the website. It is a matter for clinical governance on how these recommendations are implemented.
Scanning Services
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she expects to make a decision concerning a new data collection procedure for waiting times for scans and tests. [34614]
Mr. Byrne: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley) on 8 December 2005, Official Report, column 1579W.
School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total cost of the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme in 2005–06 is expected to be; what the cost was in 2004–05; and what has been the unit cost per item of fruit supplied and distributed. [42409]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 16 January 2006]: The total cost of the school fruit and vegetable scheme in 2005–06 is expected to be £37,354,000.
The cost of the scheme in 2004–05 was £28,840,000. The lower costs in 2004–05 are due to the roll out of the scheme to schools in all the English regions which was not complete until November 2004.
The unit cost per piece of fruit and vegetable supplied is 10p.
Smoking
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how bingo halls will be treated under the proposed ban on smoking in public places. [28653]
Caroline Flint: The smoke free provisions of the Health Bill do not single out bingo halls for any special treatment. Bingo halls will be covered by the Bill in the same way as other premises.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment her Department has made of the reduction in smoking prevalence rates that would be achieved by implementing option four in the regulatory impact assessment for the Health Improvement and Protection Bill. [29751]
Caroline Flint:
A regulatory impact assessment (RIA) has been published alongside the Health Bill. The RIA contains estimates of costs and benefits of legislation to
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end smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces, including potential impact on smoking prevalence rates. A copy is available in the Library.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether smoking on stage in theatres as part of the presentation will be permitted under the Government's proposed ban on smoking in public places. [41970]
Caroline Flint: As part of the public consultation on the smoke-free parts of the Health Bill, we received representations from the theatre industry to exempt theatrical performances. We are considering the points made and will take them into account in drafting regulations.
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will publish her response to the Health Select Committee's report advocating a wider ban on smoking than that contained in the Health Bill prior to that Bill's report stage; and if she will make a statement. [39597]
Caroline Flint: The Government will publish their response to the Health Select Committee's report in due course.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps she is taking to improve access to smoking cessation services for hard-to-reach groups; [39432]
(2) if she will take steps to increase referral from the NHS and partner agencies to smoking cessation services; [39433]
(3) if she will expand the current capacity of NHS smoking cessation services. [39434]
Caroline Flint: The Department funded an evaluation of the national health service stop smoking services in England. The evaluation included an analysis of how well the services were doing in enabling access to the services of smokers from hard-to-reach groups. Results from the evaluation show that the NHS stop smoking services in England are successfully reaching smokers living in the most disadvantaged areas. The evaluation was published in a special supplement of the journal, Addiction" in April 2005. A copy is available in the Library.
The Department has also asked the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to look at two areas of smoking cessation: the first is for brief interventions and referral, the second is for optimal provision of services for smokers. The scopes for these two pieces of work are available on NICE'S website. In both cases the scopes place particular emphasis on looking at groups where smoking rates are high including manual working groups, pregnant women, low income/lone parents and homeless people.
The Department ran a major marketing campaign during 2005 to raise awareness of local NHS stop smoking services. This campaign included television, press, radio and ambient advertising. As with all tobacco education campaigns, the campaign had a strong focus on the routine and manual audience. In February 2006, a new major campaign, promoting local NHS stop smoking services will be launched. This will again focus on the routine and manual group audience.
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To build on the continued good progress of the NHS stop smoking services in reaching and exceeding previous targets for helping smokers to quit, the Department set from April 2003 a more demanding national target of helping 800,000 smokers to quit by March 2006. To help meet this increased target, the services have expanded substantially, supported by extra investment of £138 million over the three years. The table shows the substantial and continued increase in capacity in NHS stop smoking services.
Source:
Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health(1) what assessment she has made of the reasons for Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust's budget deficit; [38375]
(2) when the turnround team sent into Southport and Ormskirk Hospital is expected to report its findings; and whether the findings will be made public. [38671]
Mr. Byrne: Turnaround teams, comprising financial and management specialists, are to be sent into a small number of national health service organisations to help them provide more cost-effective services for patients.
An initial piece of work, the baseline assessment, is under way to identify the NHS organisations that will most benefit from the support of the turnaround teams. Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust is one of the organisations involved in the baseline assessment and was chosen because of the financial challenges it faces.
The baseline assessment is planned to be concluded before Christmas. No decision has been made as to whether the findings will be made public.
The turnaround teams will support the chief executives of each of the organisations identified as needing their support. The type and length of engagement will be tailored to the needs of specific organisations but the programme is expected to be of an 18-month duration.
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the future capital investment programme is for Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust. [38378]
Mr. Byrne:
The information requested can be obtained from the Southport and Ormskirk hospital national health service trust and the Cheshire and Merseyside strategic health authority.
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