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26 Apr 2006 : Column 1207W—continued
Children's Hospices
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations she has received on the funding of children's hospices; and if she will make a statement. [62752]
Mr. Byrne: We have received a number of representations about the funding of children's hospices. On 15 March 2006, Official Report, column 1454, the Prime Minister answered a question from the hon. Member for Castle Point (Bob Spink). I have answered a number of questions on the funding of children's hospices and it was debated on 13 December 2005, Official Report, column l385WH. The hon. Member for Castle Point also presented a petition from the residents of Essex and others on 25 January 2006, Official Report, column 1476. There have been a number of early day motions and letters to Ministers. I met with my hon. Friend, the Member for Middlesbrough, South and East Cleveland (Dr. Ashok Kumar) on 14 February 2006.
On the 9 February 2006, a number of commissioners of palliative care for children and young people, representatives of the children's hospice movement and other interested parties were invited to discuss a range of issues affecting the provision of palliative care and I
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attended another seminar on 22 March. I also understand the Sun Campaign petition was presented to the Prime Minister on 16 March.
Our manifesto commitment to double funding for end of life care will give more families the choice to have their child or young person with a life-threatening or life-limiting condition to be treated at home. An announcement about this funding will be made in due course.
Community Hospitals
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations she has received regarding the closure of local community hospitals in (a) South West London, (b) Surrey, (c) Middlesex, (d) Greater London and (e) England. [58917]
Mr. Byrne: Providing an exhaustive list of representations in the format requested would be of a disproportionate cost.
However, a brief search has identified representations from the public and hon. Members relating to a number of community hospitals across the country including:
Connecting for Health Computer System
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much her Department has (a) spent on and (b) committed to the NHS Connecting for Health computer system. [65943]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 25 April 2006]: The value of contracts let for the original core components of the programme amounts to £6.2 billion over 10 years. Payments made for work completed under those contracts totalled £502.58 million as at 21 April 2006.
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what her Department expects to be the completion date of the NHS Connecting for Health computer system. [65963]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 25 April 2006]: The Department's NHS Connecting for Health Agency is aiming to achieve substantial integration of health and social care information systems in England under the national programme for information technology by 2010. Information technology systems will need to be upgraded in the light of new technology and new national health service requirements beyond that date.
Continuing Care Assessments
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will take steps to prevent a Director of Finance sitting on a primary care trust review and funding panel which collates the eligibility assessments for continuing care from health and social care professionals. [65145]
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Mr. Byrne: Review panels have independent chairmen who lead members appointed by the relevant national health service and local government bodies.
We will soon publish for consultation a national framework for NHS continuing care which will give further clarity and consistency on the responsibilities of NHS and social services for long term care. The national framework will include guidance on the processes and considerations to take into account when making decisions on the responsibility of the NHS and social services for long-term care.
We will carefully consider all responses to the consultation when preparing the final version of the framework.
Dentistry
Ms Diana R. Johnson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what percentage of the (a) adult and (b) child population of (i) East Hull and West Hull
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primary care trust area, (ii) Yorkshire and the Humber and (iii) England was registered with an NHS general dental practitioner in each year since 1997; [64095]
(2) how many NHS patients were registered with NHS general dental practitioners in the Eastern Hull and West Hull primary care trust area in each year since 1997. [64092]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested is set out in the tables.
Table 1 shows the number of adults and children in England, North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire strategic health authority (SHA) (and Eastern Hull and West Hull primary care trusts (PCTS)), West Yorkshire SHA and South Yorkshire SHA who were registered with an national health service dentist as at 31 December in each specified year.
This is expressed as an estimated proportion of the populations for each of these areas. Table 2 shows the number of NHS patients who were registered with NHS general dental practitioners in the Eastern Hull and West Hull PCT area in each year since 1997.
(40) Population estimates are not available at PCT level prior to 2001
Notes:
1. Patients may be registered with a dentist outside the area in which they live. This explains why the number of children registered with dentists in some areas exceeds the size of the children's population for those areas.
2. The drop in registrations between December 1997 and December 1998 is mostly attributable to the reduction in re-registration period from two years to fifteen months.
3. Registration rates, that is the percentage of the population registered with a dentist, have been estimated by including registrations in the area of the dentist, that is according to the postcode of the dental surgery and not the patient's address. So the registration rates for some areas may be affected by some patients receiving dental treatment in a different area from the one in which they live. This can lead to figures being unusually high, even over 100 per cent., for child registrations, whilst other areas may have estimated rates which are lower than the actual (but unknown) proportion of residents who are registered with a dentist in or outside their own area.
4. Personal dental services (PDS) schemes have varying registration periods. To ensure comparability with corresponding general dental services (CDS) data, PDS registrations for established PDS practices are estimated using proxy registrations, namely the number of patients seen by PDS practices in the past 15 months.
5. Data for 2003 and earlier do not include those PDS schemes that do not have any registrations (for example dental access centres), and is therefore not directly comparable with 2004 and 2005 data.
6. Official 2005 population data are not yet available. 2005 data have therefore been estimated using office for National Statistics 2004 mid-year population estimates based on the 2001 Census as these are the latest available.
7. Prison contracts have not been included in this analysis
Source:
NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre and Business Services Authority
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Notes:
1. The drop in registrations between December 1997 and December 1998 is mostly attributable to the reduction in re-registration period from two years to fifteen months.
2. PDS schemes have varying registration periods. To ensure comparability with corresponding GDS data, PDS registrations for established PDS practices are estimated using proxy registrations, namely the number of patients seen by PDS practices in the past 15 months.
3. Data for 2003 and earlier do not include those PDS schemes that do not have any registrations, (for example dental access centres), and is therefore not directly comparable with 2004 and 2005 data.
4. Prison contracts have not been included in this analysis.
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