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Health Trainers

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average salary of a health trainer is expected to be; and how many hours on average a health trainer is expected to work per week. [65949]

Caroline Flint: It has been estimated that a health trainer would earn in the region of £14,000 working full-time. However, it is up to individual primary care trusts to make decisions about where they allocate resources and how many health trainers they will need to meet the needs of their local population.

Health Treatment Centres

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list each (a) NHS treatment centre, (b) independent sector treatment centre and (c) joint-venture treatment centre led by (i) the NHS and (ii) a private provider; which private provider is involved in each centre; and what the cost to the NHS was of establishing each centre. [61713]

Mr. Byrne: Details for each scheme and the centrally held capital costs of establishing each national health service treatment centre have been placed in the Library. There is one joint venture, the BUPA Redwood Treatment Centre at Redhill. Information on the cost of establishing independent sector treatment centres is not held centrally, as the costs of establishing such centres are borne by the providers themselves.

Public Information

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether she plans to make the obligation on primary care trusts to provide up-to-date, authoritative information to the public as described in paragraph 3.25, page 61, of her White Paper, Our Health, Our Care, Our Say", Cm 6737, a statutory requirement; whether she plans to provide additional resources to primary care trusts to enable them to meet this commitment; and if she will make a statement. [49521]

 
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Mr. Byrne: Our aim is that patients should be able to exercise choice in deciding the general practice with which to register. We expect primary care trusts (PCTs) to support patients in this by providing transparent and comparable information on all practices within their areas and intend to place a duty on them to do so. PCTs will be expected to fund any consequential costs from within their allocations.

Heart and Lung Transplant

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the average cost is of a heart and lung transplant within the NHS; [65843]

(2) what the average NHS waiting time for a heart and lung transplant was in England in each of the last five years for which records are available. [66042]

Mr. Byrne: The average costs of cardiothoracic transplants are approximately £75,000 for heart transplant, £80,000 for lung and £85,000 for combined heart and lung. This includes the care from admission for transplant to discharge from hospital. It does not include the costs of further follow-up care and drug treatment.

The most recent data available (1999 to 2003) estimates the median waiting time for cardiothoracic transplants as follows: 137 days for heart transplants and 394 days for lung. There were too few patients on the combined heart and lung transplant waiting list during this period for a robust estimate to be made. The median is the accepted way of reporting waiting times for transplantation.

Home Oxygen Service

Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what representations she has received from pharmacists regarding the possibility of her Department reimbursing pharmacists for costs incurred of delivering oxygen to the homes of patients with prescriptions dated after 31 January; and what plans she has to reimburse pharmacists for these costs; [66629]

(2) in how many primary care trusts pharmacists are being paid to deliver oxygen to the homes of patients with prescriptions dated after 31 January. [66631]

Jane Kennedy [holding answer 27 April 2006]: The Department has received a number of representations on this specific issue. However, payments to pharmacy contractors for the delivery of cylinder oxygen to patients prescribed home oxygen therapy are a matter for discussion between local primary care trusts and pharmacy contractors. Where pharmacy contracts continue to provide this service against a prescription, they will receive payment under current national health service arrangements.

Information on the number of pharmacy contractors providing a cylinder service is not held centrally.

Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she plans the changeover from pharmacists providing the home oxygen service to arrangements introduced by her Department in February to be complete. [66630]

 
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Jane Kennedy [holding answer 27 April 2006]: The national health service is updating plans for completing the transfer to new arrangements for the home oxygen service later this year. These plans include continuing delivery of a cylinder service by pharmacists until patients transfer to new suppliers. Patients come forward for further oxygen supplies at different times, depending on their individual needs but we expect new suppliers to have contacted most patients to confirm a start date for delivery of their oxygen supplies by the summer. However, a small number of patients, with infrequent use of oxygen therapy, may not come forward until later in the year at which point they will transfer to the new supplier. The changeover will be complete once all patients receiving oxygen therapy have transferred to new suppliers.

Hospital Patients (Telephone Calls)

Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she will announce the (a) membership and (b) terms of reference of the review group into the price of telephone calls to hospital patients. [64257]

Mr. Byrne: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 6 April 2006.

Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she is taking to ensure that patients and their families are informed of the charges for the use of hospital telephones. [64259]

Mr. Byrne: The bedside television and telephone systems are run by three major private providers and offer additional services for the patient. Patients and relatives who wish to use the services are made aware of the charges at the time they sign up to use the system and by literature posted around the hospital. Incoming callers to the bedside telephone are advised at the onset of the telephone call of the call charge to be levied by two of the providers operating the service.

Hospital payphones and televisions in day rooms are available for patients who do not wish to use the service.

Hosptial Tariffs

Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what comparative market forces factor is allowed within the tariff for each hospital in England. [64330]

Mr. Byrne: The market forces factor adjustment for individual national health service trusts and foundation trusts has been published alongside the national tariff for 2006–07 and can be downloaded from the Department's website. A copy has been placed in the Library.

Independent Sector Treatment

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2006, Official Report, column 1670W, to the right hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Frank Dobson), on independent sector treatment, for what reasons the percentage cost per procedure above the NHS equivalent cost for 2004–05 provided in the answer differs from the figure provided in table 1.3.2 of her Department's written evidence to the Health Committee of 1 December 2005,
 
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HC 736-iii; and whether either of these figures includes the capital costs of the independent sector treatment centre programme. [60415]

Mr. Byrne: The reply on 20 January 2006, Official Report, column 1670W, was the average percentage cost above the national health service equivalent cost of all independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs) in the first wave of the procurements. Across the full period of the wave one ISTC contracts, the average cost above the equivalent NHS cost is 11.2 per cent.

The figures provided in the Department's written evidence in table 1.3.2 covered only those schemes that were operational, that is treating patients, during 2004–05: the facility at Daventry, the mobile cataract units, BUPA Redwood (this is a joint venture between the independent sector and the NHS) and the general supplementary contract for the provision of additional capacity using the incumbent independent sector. For those schemes only, the percentage cost was 6.2 per cent. below the equivalent NHS costs in 2004–05.

All comparisons made between provider price and NHS equivalent cost take account of the capital costs of the programme.

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