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24 Apr 2006 : Column 954W—continued
Choose and Book System
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the letter from her Department's Director of Access of 26 January 2006, on Choose and Book, which NHS trusts are unable to implement an integrated patient administration systems solution; for what reasons these Trusts are unable to do so; and if she will make a statement. [48846]
Mr. Byrne:
For valid technical or commercial reasons, a small number of national health service trusts are currently not expected to be able to achieve a fully compliant integrated solution during 2006. Details are shown in the table.
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In due course, a fully compliant integrated solution will be implemented in these trusts. In the meantime, the choose and book indirectly bookable services' solution will be utilised.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reasons her Department's aims of achieving 90 per cent. of general practitioner referrals through Choose and Book by the end of December 2006 have been postponed to March 2007. [48847]
Mr. Byrne: The end point of March 2007 for getting to 90 per cent. of referrals made through choose and book aligns the objective with the incentives contained within the 2006–07 general practitioner contract, the negotiations for which were recently concluded between NHS Employers and the British Medical Association.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she plans to take to encourage greater uptake by general practitioners of the choose and book IT system. [53515]
Mr. Byrne: The Department is taking a number of steps to encourage greater uptake by general practitioners (GPs) of the choose and book service. A key step is the newly agreed general medical services contract, which will reward general practices, through a directed enhanced service payment, for utilisation of the choose and book service.
Over 210,000 GP referrals have been made through choose and book to date with over 3,800 GP practices having made at least one referral as at 21 March 2006.
Consultancy Fees
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the total cost to her Department of consultancy fees in relation to (a) restructuring and (b) private finance initiatives has been since 1997. [32200]
Mr. Byrne [pursuant to the reply, 27 March 2006, c.783–84W]: I regret that my previous reply was incorrect. It should read as follows:
The Department does not collect information that would allow for an analysis of the consultants engaged in restructuring and could not obtain this information without incurring disproportionate costs.
The total spend on consultancy work directly related to private finance initiative in each year is shown in the table.
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| Financial year | Cost |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 108,824 |
| 2000–01 | 60,379 |
| 2001–02 | 168,277 |
| 2002–03 | 207,171 |
| 2003–04 | 892,859 |
| 2004–05 | 89,698 |
| 2005 to date | 47,856 |
Dentistry
Mr. Walter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentists in North Dorset constituency have declined the NHS dentist contract; and if she will make a statement. [63222]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 20 April 2006]: Information on the number of dentists who have declined to provide national health service dental services from 1 April 2006 is not yet available centrally.
Provisional management estimates on the number of accepted and rejected contracts are available centrally. These show that, as at the start of April in North Dorset Primary Care Trust (PCT), 14 contracts had been accepted and three contracts had been rejected.
The contract numbers do not read across to numbers of individual dentists who may have agreed or rejected contracts. Contracts can be at practice or individual dentist level. Typically, many of the accepted contracts are with practices covering a number of dentists, whereas rejected contracts are more likely to be for individual practitioners.
In North Dorset PCT, the rejected contracts represent an estimated 7.1 per cent. of the total NHS services represented by all the contracts offered by this PCT, based on weighted courses of treatment or units of dental activity.
PCTs are using the funding associated with rejected contracts to commission additional services from other dentists. The information available centrally does not include any services commissioned since the information given above was collected at the start of April.
Jeff Ennis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentists are practising in (a) Barnsley and (b) Doncaster; and how many of these have not signed the new NHS dental contract. [64684]
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Mr. Byrne: Figures are not yet available at a primary care trust level. 198 national health service dental contracts have been signed in the South Yorkshire strategic health authority (SHA) area, and six contracts have been rejected. The signed contracts account for 99 per cent. of NHS dental service in the SHA.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent on external consultants and advisers by (a) her Department, (b) each (i) non-departmental public body and (ii) executive agency for which her Department is responsible and (c) each independent statutory body, organisation and body financially sponsored by her Department in each year since May 1997. [39068]
Mr. Byrne: The total cost of external consultancy services procured by the Department, where in-house resources were not available, is shown in the table.
| Cost | |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 8,718 |
| 2000–01 | 6,852 |
| 2001–02 | 7,056 |
| 2002–03 | 7,266 |
| 2003–04 | 10,031 |
| 2004–05 | 12,800 |
| 2005–06 to date | (41)4,658 |
(41)The 2005–06 spend is lower because the Department has rectified some miscoding against the expenditure category codes to provide a more accurate figure of external consultancy spend to 31 January 2006.
Note:
Information is not available prior to 1999–2000.
The Department holds no central record of spend on external consultancy services by non-departmental public bodies, executive agencies, independent statutory bodies or organisations financially sponsored by the Department. The annual accounts for these organisations may include expenditure on consultants; copies of accounts can be obtained from individual organisations.
Departmental Policies
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will set out with statistical evidence relating as closely as possible to the West Lancashire constituency, the effects in West Lancashire of changes to her Department's policies since 1997. [64124]
Mr. Byrne: The Government have put in place a programme of national health service investment and reform since 1997 to improve service delivery in all parts of the United Kingdom. There is significant evidence that these policies have yielded considerable benefits for the West Lancashire constituency.
At the end of February 2006, the number of people waiting more than six to eight months for in-patient treatment within West Lancashire Primary Care Trust (PCT) had fallen to zero from 530 in June 2002;
At the end of December 2005, the number of patients waiting over 13 weeks for out-patient treatment within West Lancashire PCT had fallen to zero from 597 in June 2002;
Figures for December 2005 show that all patients within West Lancashire PCT are able to be offered an appointment with a primary care professional within two working days, an improvement from 64.7 per cent. in June 2002;
West Lancashire PCTs financial allocation increased to £136.4 million for 2006–07, a real terms increase of 6.3 per cent.;
In June 2003, at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust 92.9 per cent. of patients spent less than four hours in accident and emergency (A&E) from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge. Figures for December 2005 show an improvement to 99.4 per cent.;
Between September 2000 and June 2005, the number of consultants at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust has increased from 81 to 87. The number of nurses increased from 895 to 910;
In the West Lancashire local authority (LA) area, death rates from cancer per 100,000 population have fallen to 177.5 in 2003 from 193.4 in 1997;
In the West Lancashire LA area death rates from coronary heart disease per 100,000 population have fallen to 124.7 in 2003 from 168.5 in 1997;
A NHS treatment centre at a cost of £3.8 million opened in 2004 in Ormskirk. The centre provides 3,400 surgical procedures;
new paediatric services including dedicated A&E department, 28 bed children's ward and children's out-patient department.
A replacement magnetic resonance imaging scanner for Southport and Formby District General Hospital.
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