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5 Jun 2006 : Column 28W—continued
Prescription Charges
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will estimate the annual increase in revenue if prescription charges had been increased in line with the rise in the retail price index since the present level of charges was established. [71973]
Andy Burnham: The information available in respect of England is shown in the table.
| Estimated change in revenue from prescription charges and pre-payment certificate fees if these had been increase in line with inflation. | |
| Change in revenue (£ million) | |
Primary Care Trusts
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many public responses there were to proposals for primary care trust reorganisation in (a) Trent, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) England; [69751]
(2) how many members of the general public attended each primary care trust reorganisation meeting in (a) Trent and (b) South Yorkshire. [69806]
Andy Burnham: The information regarding responses to local consultations on primary care trust reconfiguration and attendance at public meetings is as follows.
| PCTs | |||
| Trent | South Yorkshire | England | |
Mrs. Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether any financial surplus of the Bedford Primary Care Trust will be used to subsidise the financial deficit of the Bedfordshire Heartlands Primary Care Trust following the implementation of the new configuration of primary care trusts in Bedfordshire; and if she will make a statement. [72956]
Andy Burnham: It will be for strategic health authorities and the newly formed primary care trusts to manage, and continue to use, the funding available to them in the best possible way to deliver government targets and make service improvements.
The reconfiguration exercise should not be used locally to move resources from high performing areas to under-performing areas and vice versa. Local managers should be ensuring that the quality of financial management in all organisations is raised to the level of the best.
Private Finance Initiative Projects
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list reviews the Department is undertaking of private finance initiative projects; and whether she expects the review to affect the timescale for the project in each case. [64592]
Andy Burnham: Departmental officials will be reviewing all private finance initiative schemes yet to reach financial close and with an expected capital value of more than £75 million. The current list of such schemes is as follows:
University Hospital North Staffordshire National Health Service Trust
Essex Rivers Healthcare NHS Trust
Peterborough and Stamford Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust
North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust
Salford Royal Hospitals NHS Trust
Tameside and Glossop NHS Trust
Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
South Devon Healthcare NHS Trust
Tees and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust
The Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust
North West London Hospitals NHS Trust
North Bristol NHS Trust
Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Mersey Care NHS Trust
Royal Wolverhampton Hospital NHS Trust
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust
United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust
Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust
Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Southend Hospital NHS Trust
Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Trusts
Epsom and St. Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust
Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital NHS Trust
Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust
Taunton and Somerset NHS Trust
Northampton General NHS Trust
Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Trust
The purpose of the review process is to deliver schemes that are financially viable and sustainable over the long term. It may be that in pursuit of achieving these objectives certain schemes experience limited delays.
Promotion Boards
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what promotion boards have been held in her Department in each of the last five years. [72857]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: None. The Department assesses the suitability of employees for promotion on a job specific basis.
Small Change Big Difference
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps her Department and its agencies have taken following the launch of the Government's Small Change Big Difference campaign. [72012]
Caroline Flint: We have followed up with “small change, big difference” event guests to explore tailored options for the initiative's roll-out. A series of further seminars is being planned. They will include the development of the logo and brand, investigating possible joint campaign work, the integration of the initiative into the wider public health framework and the work of all our key stakeholders.
A partnership programme will begin aligning key commercial and public sector partners with existing and new programme delivery, the aim being to create a number of dedicated, dynamic partnership programmes between government, commercial partners and non-governmental organisations in direct support of “Choosing Health” objectives. These partnerships will define routes to communicate with people through, for example, their place of work, as well as their local shops and during their leisure activities about making healthier choices in their lives.
Strategic Health Authorities
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many strategic health authority (a) chief executives, (b) chairmen and (c) senior managers have (i) medical, (ii) dental, (iii) nursing and (iv) other qualifications and previous experience of working in the (A) private sector and (B) NHS. [71465]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Information in respect of chief executives and senior managers is not collected centrally. The NHS Appointments Commission is responsible for appointing the chairmen of NHS organisations, a number of whom are retired clinicians. I have asked the NHS Appointments Commission to write to the right hon. Gentleman direct with the information he seeks.
Telephone Advice Lines
Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many telephone advice lines her Department and its non-departmental public bodies support; how many telephone advisers each employs; and how much funding is provided to each by (a) her Department and its non-departmental public bodies, (b) other Government Departments, (c) the private sector and (d) the voluntary sector. [66586]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department's call centre provides information of a general nature to members of the public about the work of the Department. It responds to about 120,000 telephone calls a year and most of the emails sent through the Department's website. The annual cost is £505,715.
There would be a disproportionate cost in identifying advice lines and funding by the Department in external bodies, since this is not ringfenced in funding given to those organisations.
Tuberculosis
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the 20 local authority areas with the highest incidence of tuberculosis; and if she will make a statement. [67434]
Caroline Flint: The 20 local authorities with the highest rates of notified cases of tuberculosis in England in the last year for which data is available are shown in the following table:
| Local authority | 2004 |
| Note: Data as at 3 May 2006. Source: Statutory notifications of infectious diseases, Health Protection Agency. Rates shown are per 100,000 population. | |
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