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3 Mar 2006 : Column 1040W—continued
Domiciliary Oxygen
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many complaints Ministers in her Department have received about the domiciliary oxygen service since contracts were awarded to regional oxygen supply companies on 1 February; [51682]
(2) how many complaints her Department received about the domiciliary oxygen supply service in the five years to December 2005. [51683]
Jane Kennedy: From 1 February to 15 February, the Department received three letters of complaint about domiciliary oxygen supply. For the earlier period, December 2000 through to December 2005, information on the first two years is not held centrally and for the remaining three years could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
Early Retirement
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many of her Department's employees have taken early retirement in each year since 1997. [34041]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested is shown in the following table:
(26) This includes 96 staff who left following the closure of Glenthorne Youth Treatment Centre, Birmingham.
(27) This includes 108 staff who left following the shifting the balance of power reorganisation resulting in the closure of the Department's former regional offices.
(28) This includes 69 staff who left on approved early retirement. This was offered to staff aged 50 and over as a pre-redundancy measure during the Department's change programme and to 54 displaced staff who were affected by the closure of the Department's regional offices.
(29) This includes 169 staff who left on voluntary early retirement/severance This was offered to displaced staff as a pre-redundancy measure during the Department's change Programme.
Elder Abuse
Sandra Gidley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps her Department is taking to protect older people who receive care in their own homes from elder abuse; [46473]
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(2) what steps her Department is taking to minimise the risk of elder abuse in health and social care services. [46474]
Mr. Byrne: To minimise abuse and neglect of older people, the Department has been active in promoting better and more consistent standards of care through the publication and implementation of the national service framework for older people and introduction of the national minimum standards for a range of services, provided to older people in their own homes or in care settings. Employers in regulated social care services have a statutory duty to ensure safety of older people by training staff to prevent service users being harmed or be placed at risk of harm.
For non-regulated services, the statutory guidance "No Secrets" provides a national framework for local councils and partner agencies to use in developing local multi-agency codes of practice to prevent and tackle abuse. The guidance encourages councils to publicise their adult protection procedures so that all older people are aware of how to seek help if needed.
On 7 February, I announced that the General Social Care Council is undertaking a consultation on registering the social care work force. This will allow us to set standards for people seeking social care jobs and to take sanctions against people if they fall below those standards of registration. A well trained and fully registered work force will enable older people, parents and children to have confidence in the people who care for them.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps her Department is taking to facilitate access to independent advocacy for older people vulnerable to abuse. [46552]
Mr. Byrne: Employers in regulated social care have a statutory duty to involve and keep record of service users' relatives and representatives and to take into consideration the national minimum standards, for facilitating access to advocacy services for older people in their care.
The Department has made it clear to local councils and the national health service through the publication of the single assessment process and the national service framework for older people that they should bring in independent advocacy where appropriate.
There has been substantial funding made available by the Department to support the development and expansion of self and citizen advocacy services in learning disability, £1.3 million in the last three years.
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There is £0.9 million available to advocacy groups until March 2006. Funding for advocacy service providers has also been provided through Section 64 grants for projects. The approximate total amount given to advocacy projects for adults was £420,000 in 2003–04, £268,000 in 2004–05 and £397,000 in 2005.
General Practitioners
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what incentives there will be to extend the opening hours of general practitioner surgeries; [51333]
(2) whether the general practitioner contract will have to be renegotiated to accommodate the proposals in the Health and Social Care White Paper to extend opening hours of general practitioner surgeries. [51334]
Mr. Byrne: The existing primary medical care contracting framework already allows primary care trusts (PCTs) to offer incentives both to new or existing providers to provide opening hours which suit patients' preferences. Following publication of the White Paper "Our Health, Our Care, Our Say" the Department is reviewing these arrangements with the aim of ensuring that more patients can enjoy quick and convenient access to primary medical care. NHS Employers will then be mandated to discuss changes to the general medical services contract for 2007–08 onwards with the British Medical Association's general practitioners committee.
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of patient satisfaction levels with GP out-of-hours services. [52031]
Mr. Byrne: Information on patient satisfaction levels with general practitioner out-of-hours services are not collected centrally. Primary care trusts (PCTs) are responsible for ensuring they provide or secure high quality out-of-hours services for their population. Service providers work to a set of national quality requirements, which include regular audits of patient satisfaction that must be reported to the PCT.
Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many full-time equivalent NHS general practitioners have been employed in the Uxbridge constituency in each year since 1997; and if she will make a statement. [46606]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not hold this information in the format requested. However, the table shows figures for all practitioners employed for the organisations that have served the Uxbridge constituency from 1997 to June 2005.
n/a=data not applicable
(30) All practitioners (excluding retainers) includes contracted general practitioners, general medical service others, personal medical service others and GP registrars.
Notes:
1. Full-time equivalent (FTE) data has been estimated using the results from the 1992–93 General Medical Practice Workload Survey
For 1994–2003 full-time=1.00 FTE; three quarter time=0.69 FTE; job share=0.65 FTE; and half time=0.60 FTE
For 2004—All GPs—full-time 1.0 FTE; part time=0.6 FTE, and therefore may not be fully comparable with previous years.
2. Primary care trusts(PCT)/primary care groups (PCG) did not come into existence until 1 April 2000, prior to this data was only available at health authority (HA) level which does not necessarily compare with present day organisational structure
3. Data as at 1 October 1997–99, 30 September 2000–04 and 30 June 2005
Source:
NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre General and Personal Medical Services Statistics
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