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3 Mar 2006 : Column 1043W—continued
General Medical Council
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the General Medical Council's complaints mechanism; and if she will make a statement. [54094]
Jane Kennedy: The Chief Medical Officer is currently undertaking a review of matters relating to medical regulation which will address this issue. A statement will be made shortly.
Health Services (Wakefield)
Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much her Department has allocated for drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia in (a) Wakefield constituency and (b) England in each year from 1997 to 2005. [53410]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 27 February 2006]: This information requested is not held centrally.
Home Oxygen Service
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the New Home Oxygen Service introduced on 1 February. [53339]
Jane Kennedy: There has been some disruption to the planned six-month programme, which began on 1 February 2006, to support the transfer of patients receiving home oxygen supplies to new suppliers. We have already taken action to get that planned programme back on track and we are continuing to work with the national health service and suppliers to monitor progress. When fully introduced, the new arrangements will provide a modern service to patients with improved access to a wider range of oxygen equipment that can do much to improve their quality of life.
Human Papillomavirus Vaccine
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many times she has met the manufacturers of the human papillomavirus vaccine, to discuss its introduction, following the submission of the first Marketing Authorisation Application to the European Medicines Agency. [54052]
Jane Kennedy:
The manufacturers of the human papillomavirus vaccine has consulted with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for national scientific advice in 2004 and 2005. European scientific advice, in which the MHRA acted as coordinator, was also provided in 2005. The MHRA has not met with the manufacturers following submission of the marketing authorisation application to the European Medicines Agency.
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Independent Sector Provision
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of (a) elective procedures and (b) other procedures financed by the public purse she expects to be provided by the independent sector by (i) 2008 and (ii) 2010. [39360]
Mr. Byrne: It is expected that around 10 per cent. of elective procedures and diagnostic scans in the national health service will be carried out by independent sector providers, including second wave independent sector treatment centres by 2008.
Independent Treatment Centres
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS staff in each region are on secondment to independent sector treatment centres. [21496]
Mr. Byrne: As of January 2006, 7.1 whole-time equivalent (WTE) doctors and 0.8 WTE nurses are on secondment to independent sector treatment centre projects in the areas shown in the table.
| Split of WTEs seconded | ||
|---|---|---|
| Doctors | Nurses | |
| North Bradford | 5.2 | — |
| Kidderminster | 1.6 | — |
| Portsmouth | 0.3 | 8.0 |
| Total | 7.1 | 8.0 |
Influenza Vaccine
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what percentage of the additional 200,000 doses of winter influenza vaccine ordered by her Department went to Southend. [50865]
Caroline Flint: Contingency influenza vaccine is delivered on request. No primary care trust or surgery in the Southend area has requested any of this stock.
The Department wrote to immunisation coordinators on 27 January reminding them that this vaccine was available to order and how to order it.
In-patient Televisions (Subtitles)
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if she will make it her policy that no new in-patient television systems should be installed without the facility to offer subtitles; [53400]
(2) when she expects all hospitals to be able to provide subtitles on pay-to-view televisions; [53401]
(3) which hospitals provide pay-to-view patient televisions on which subtitles are (a) available and (b) unavailable. [53402]
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Jane Kennedy: There are now over 77,000 bedside televisions installed at over 155 national health service hospitals. The majority of these have the capability of providing subtitles, where they are available from the broadcaster, and provide subtitles on some channels.
It is the responsibility of the local NHS trust to decide whether subtitles are provided on its bedside televisions.
Medicines
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the targets are being met for granting marketing authorisations set out in the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency business plan for 2005–06 for over-the-counter medicines; and how many application files are open. [53762]
Jane Kennedy: In the published business plan for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for 2005–06, assessment time targets are given for various types of licensing work, including variations to licences and new licences based on abridged dossiers. Specific targets are not given for over-the-counter medicines because these would be included with the abridged dossier applications.
On the 21 February 2006, there were 2,490 new product licence applications at various stages of assessment of which 356 related to products potentially for over-the-counter supply.
I am aware that the MHRA's performance regarding licence and variation approval times during the last nine months has been affected by a combination of adverse factors including increases in workload, difficulties in recruiting professional assessment staff, especially medically-qualified staff, and transitional implementation problems during the introduction of a new information management system. Though statistics for the full year 2005–06 are not yet available, it is likely that some of the target assessment times given in the plan will not be met.
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the (a) average and (b) longest time for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to process (i) new, (ii) abridged and (iii) variation applications for marketing authorisations was in the last period for which figures are available. [53763]
Jane Kennedy: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published statistics for the processing of product licence applications and variations during the full year 2004–05. The published figures relate to the total time taken from receipt of an application to its determination (grant or refusal) and also for the net time in working days taken by the MHRA. Net times for approval do not include the time taken for the applicant to respond to the MHRA's questions or for correction of the application.
For abridged new licence applications in 2004–05, the gross and net times were 288 days and 122 days respectively. August 2004 had the longest times during 2004–05 for this type of work at 660 days and 180 days respectively.
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For licence variations in 2004–05, the net average time taken was approximately 50 days. The longest time taken exceeded 450 days in a small number of cases, including the time taken for the applicant to supply additional or amending information.
For the relatively small number of completely new medicines, for example those containing new drugs and with the potential for meeting unmet medical needs in major diseases, the MHRA during this period has maintained its record of assessing these in under 40 days.
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the (a) longest and (b) average period the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency took to process (i) an abridged application and (ii) a variation was in (A) 2004 and (B) 2005. [53334]
Jane Kennedy: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published statistics for the processing of product licence applications and variations for the full years 2003–04 and 2004–05. The published figures relate to the total time taken from receipt of an application to its determination (grant or refusal) and also for the net time in working days taken by the MHRA. Net times for approval do not include the time taken for the applicant to respond to the MHRA's questions or for correction of the application.
For abridged new licence applications in 2003–04 the gross and net average times were 228 days and 113 days, and in 2004–05 were 288 days and 122 days respectively. July 2003 had the longest gross and net times for that year at 370 days and 140 days respectively. Likewise, August 2004 had the longest times during 2004–05 at 660 days and 180 days respectively.
For licence variations in 2003–04 and 2004–05 the net average time taken was approximately 50 days in both years. The longest time taken, exceeded 450 days in a small number of cases, including the time taken for the applicant to supply additional or amending information.
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) applications for marketing authorisation for over-the-counter products, (b) abridged applications and (c) variations were received by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in each year since 2001. [53335]
Jane Kennedy: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) collects and publishes statistics on numbers of applications and processing times according to its April to March reporting years. The most recent full year for which figures are available is 2004–05.
Marketing authorisation (product licence) applications for over-the-counter (OTC) medicines are almost invariably considered as a type of abridged application and so the figures provided in the table for abridged applications include the numbers of OTC medicine applications. The total numbers of all types of licence variations exceeds 20,000 each year. The figures provided in the table relate only to those variations to the licences OTC medicines.
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