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22 Mar 2006 : Column 448W—continued
Community Matrons
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many community matrons are employed in each primary care trust in the North West London strategic health authority area; and to how many patients they are providing treatment. [59648]
Jane Kennedy: This information is not collected centrally.
Dentistry
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS patients were registered with NHS general dental practitioners in the York and Selby primary care trust area in each year since 1997. [53681]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is shown in the table.
Notes:
1. PDS schemes have varying registration periods. To ensure comparability with corresponding GDS data, PDS registrations are estimated using proxy registrations, namely the number of patients seen by PDS practices in the past 15 months. There will be a break in the registrations series at the point at which PDS schemes were introduced as the proxy registrations build up. Falls in registration rates will be particularly pronounced in the financial year 2004–05, when the majority of PDS schemes were introduced.
2. Data for 2003 and earlier do not include those PDS schemes that do not have any registrations, for example, dental access centres, and are therefore not directly comparable with 2004 and 2005 data.
Source:
Dental Practice Board
Departmental Funding
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2006, Official Report, column 1297, to the hon. Member for Angus (Mr. Weir) on Departmental funding, if she will break down funding provided to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in each of the last three years by main budget heading. [56957]
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2006, Official Report, column 1296W, on departmental funding, if she will break down the figures given for funding provided to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain into (a) grant in aid and (b) payments for (i) rights and (ii) services in each of the last three years. [60075]
22 Mar 2006 : Column 449W
Jane Kennedy [holding answer 21 March 2006]: The main items of Department payment to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) in each of the last three years, to March 2006, is as follows:
| £000 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003–04(21) | 2004–05 | 2005–06 | |
| Pharmaceutical Press (now BNF Publications) | 3,138 | 3,041 | 5,433 |
| Medicines Partnership | 510 | 186 | 116 |
(21) In the period April—December 2003, an additional £213,000 plus VAT was paid by the Department and the National Assembly for Wales to the RPSGB for the English and Welsh Drug Testing Scheme.
Diabetes
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will take steps to ensure that all diabetes patients have access to a range of blood-glucose monitoring equipment. [59068]
Ms Rosie Winterton: A range of blood-glucose testing strips is available on prescription from general practitioners and nurse prescribers. The full list is set out in Part IX of the Drug Tariff.
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much her Department spent on (a) educational literature and (b) telephone support services for diabetes patients in 2004–05. [59070]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not provide educational literature or telephone support services for people with diabetes centrally. From January 2006, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance on patient education will require all primary care trusts to implement NICE recommendations by providing all people with diabetes with high quality, structured education.
Drug Treatment Programmes
Mr. Duncan Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the total cost of the purchase of substitute drugs used in 2004–05 in drug treatment; and if she will make a statement. [60068]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 20 March 2006]: The total cost of methadone and buprenorphine prescriptions identified for substance dependence, was £25,411.038 1 in 2004, the latest year for which figures are available.
This information was obtained from the Prescribing Analysis and Cost Tool (PACT) system, which covers prescriptions prescribed by general practitioner (GP) practices in England and dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom. For data at primary care trust (PCT) level, prescriptions written by a GP practice located in a particular PCT but dispensed outside that PCT will be included in the PCT in which the GP practice is based.
- Prescriptions written in England but dispensed outside England are included. Prescriptions written in hospitals/clinics that are dispensed in the community, prescriptions dispensed in hospitals and private prescriptions are not included in PACT data. It is important to note this as some British National Formulary (BNF) sections have a high proportion of prescriptions written in hospitals that are dispensed in the community.
For example, BNF chapter 4, Central Nervous System" has a fair proportion of items written in mental health clinics that are dispensed in the community—these prescriptions are not included in PACT data.
Genito-urinary Medicine Clinics
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has to increase the number of genito-urinary medicine clinics in London. [52278]
Jane Kennedy: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on the 27 February 2006, Official Report, column 449W. It is for strategic health authorities (SHAs) and primary care trusts to determine how services are provided within their area.
Sexual health is one of the top six priorities for the national health service in 2006–07. The White Paper Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier" published in November 2004 set out that by 2008 everyone should be offered an appointment within 48-hours of contacting a genitourinary clinic. SHAs have submitted plans to meet this target. This increased priority for sexual health and the implementation of Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services" should significantly strengthen the incentive for local investment and service modernisation.
Copies of the white papers are available in the Library.
General Practitioner Appointments
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have (a) requested and (b) received an appointment to see a general practitioner within 48 hours in (i) Ruislip-Northwood constituency and (ii) each London borough in each year since 1997. [59649]
Jane Kennedy: This information is not collected centrally.
Since 2001, the Department has collected regular information from primary care trusts on whether patients are being offered the opportunity to be seen by a general practitioner or a primary care professional within the target timeframes specified in the NHS Plan. It does not however collect information on the total number of appointments which are available or their take-up by patients.
Home Oxygen
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has made of the number of patients who have had difficulty obtaining home oxygen since the new arrangements were introduced; and what steps she is taking to assist them. [59963]
Jane Kennedy:
This is a locally managed national health service service and the information requested is not held centrally. In the light of difficulties emerging in the first few days of the new arrangements, we took prompt action to ensure that patients continued to
22 Mar 2006 : Column 451W
receive the oxygen they need via general practitioner prescriptions dispensed at their local pharmacy, under arrangements supporting a phased transfer to new suppliers. With the NHS, we are monitoring the service closely and we are updating the six-month transfer programme to support a smoother transition to the new arrangements.
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