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5 Jun 2006 : Column 378W—continued
NHS Finance
Miss Kirkbride: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the NHS has not recovered from sums owed following privately-provided health services on NHS premises in each of the last five years. [67871]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The amount of debt written off by national health service bodies relating to private and overseas patients is shown in the table.
| (£ thousand) | |
| Note: 2004-05—figures for NHS foundation trusts are not included. Source: Audited health authority summarisation forms 2000-01 to 2001-02. Audited strategic health authority summarisation forms 2002-03 to 2004-05. Audited primary care trust summarisation schedules 2000-01 to 2004-05. Audited NHS trust summarisation schedules 2000-01 to 2004-05. | |
The figure for 2004-05 represents 1.3 per cent. of the income from private patients and trusts are expected to take action to recover all unpaid bills.
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average rent paid by NHS institutions is for buildings provided under the private finance initiative as a percentage of the total cost of such buildings; and if she will make a statement. [72736]
Andy Burnham:
There is no rent paid by the national health service for buildings provided under the private finance initiative. Instead, the NHS pays an operating payment each year, for the use of the serviced asset,
during the life of the contract. Payments due are related to the availability of the hospital and the attainment by the private sector of agreed quality standards.
NHS Management
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS trust (a) chief executives, (b) chairmen and (c) senior managers are qualified (i) doctors, (ii) nurses and (iii) other healthcare professionals; and what plans she has to increase these figures. [70158]
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 Appointments Commission to write to the right hon. Gentleman direct with the information he seeks.
NHS Pension Scheme
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many members there are of the NHS pension scheme; and how many of those are pensioners. [71572]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Details of the membership of the NHS pension scheme at 31 December 2005 are shown in the following table.
| Number | |
| (1) Active members means members who are currently contributing to the NHS pension scheme. (2) Deferred members means members who no longer contribute to the NHS pension scheme but have retained benefits in the scheme. (3) Pensioners means members, or dependants, who are currently in receipt of NHS pension benefits. Source: NHS Business Services Authority Pensions Division quarterly performance management report period 1 October to 31 December 2005 (scheme profile dated 19 January 2006). | |
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the causes are of delays experienced by the NHS Pension Scheme Penserver development. [70120]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The NHS Pension Scheme Penserver development is currently running to time on a timetable agreed in July 2005. The timetable was revised following a review which aimed to align the Penserver development with the anticipated needs of the NHS Pension Scheme review.
NHS Priorities
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the sets of priorities in operation in the NHS in England; how many of these sets of priorities include mental health; and what assessment she has made of the inter-relationship between the various sets of priorities. [71733]
Ms Rosie Winterton: National health service priorities for 2005 to 2008 are set out in “National Standards, Local Action: Health and Social Care Standards and Planning Framework 2005-06-2007-08”, and are available from the Department’s website at www.dh.gov.uk. These detail healthcare standards, existing commitments and new national targets. The standards themselves will be taken into account by primary care trusts and other national health service organisations providing NHS care directly, in all settings, and aim to safeguard and raise quality and safety across the board.
The operating framework, published by the Department in January, sets out the NHS’s specific business and financial arrangements for 2006-07. It, identifies six priorities for local delivery plans which will require particular attention in 2006-07, to ensure delivery of national targets by 2008 and beyond:
“health inequalities, focusing on life expectancy at birth by focusing initially on smoking cessation;
achieving a maximum waiting time of two months (62 days) from urgent referral to treatment and one month (31 days) from diagnosis to treatment for all cancers;
achieving an 18-week maximum wait from general practitioner referral to hospital treatment by 2008;
achieving year-on-year reductions in methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) levels as set out in the agreed local delivery plans for 2006-07;
ensuring that all hospital appointments can be booked for patients’ convenience through choose and book and that every patient is offered a choice of four or more providers; and
improving access to genitor-urinary medicine (GUM) clinics so that by 2008 all people referred to GUM clinics can have an appointment within 48 hours”.
The six priorities do not include mental health. We have also made it very clear to primary care trusts and their partner organisations that they are expected to deliver the existing mental health commitments by their target dates, and to maintain that level of performance beyond the target date. This will be monitored by the Healthcare Commission’s annual health check. Thanks to the strong emphasis we put on improving mental health services since publishing the NHS Plan in 2000, very significant progress has been made to date.
NHS Salaries
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many employees in the NHS earn over £100,000 per annum, broken down by profession; and what the breakdown was in 2001. [69385]
Ms Rosie Winterton: We do not hold salary information for all individual members of staff in the national health service. The only source of information that we can draw on is the biennial NHS Earnings Survey.
The NHS Earnings Survey looks at a sample of all directly employed NHS staff, both medical and non-medical. This comprises all hospital and community health service staff, but does not include general practitioners and practice staff. The latest data available are for August 2004.
Details on the percentage of staff numbers within the earnings survey who earn in excess of £100,000 per annum by basic staff group within the 2002 and 2004 earnings survey are shown in the table.
| Percentage of staff earning in excess of £100,000 per annum by basic staff group in the 2004 and 2002 NHS Staff Earnings Survey—England | ||||||
| Headcount (numbers) | ||||||
| All staff | Medical and dental | General senior managers | Nursing and midwifery qualified | Scientific and professional qualified | ||
| Notes: 1. The Earnings Survey is based on a sample of approximately 50 per cent. NHS trusts in August. Figures are from SPS payroll data from all trusts in the survey for the month of August. 2. Earnings figures are based on monthly payments in August multiplied by 12 to give annual equivalent amounts. 3. The sample used in the survey is not necessarily geographically or structurally representative of all trusts in the English NHS. 4. Figures are derived from the sum of an individual's NHS earnings as found within the earnings survey. 5. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place. Source: The Information Centre for health and social care earnings survey. | ||||||
Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average salary was of a nurse in the NHS in (a) 1997 and (b) in the latest year for which information is available. [66876]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is shown in the table. The earliest year for which comparable data are available is 1999. This represented an increase during the period of 22 per cent.
| Estimated average salary of qualified nurses and midwives: England | |
| Qualified nurses and midwives group | Salary £ |
| Source: The Information Centre for health and social care NHS Staff Earnings Survey | |
NHS Spinal Cord Injury Centres
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations she has received regarding the capacity and funding of NHS spinal cord injury centres. [75205]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Ministers and officials regularly receive representations about funding and service provision relating to a range of conditions, including spinal cord injury. These include a number of questions answered on 14 December 2005, Official Report, columns 2172-73W.
NHS Trusts
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the former chief executives of NHS trusts who have subsequently undertaken work for the NHS as freelance consultants; and in each case where they were employed. [71403]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department does not hold information on former chief executives of national health service trusts who have subsequently undertaken work for the NHS as freelance consultants.
Northamptonshire Heartlands Primary Care Trust
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the Answer of 8 May 2006, to Question reference 10626, on funding, what basis was used for the number of people in Northamptonshire Heartlands Primary Care Trust for the years (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05, (c) 2005-06, (d) 2006-07 and (e) 2007-08 when calculating the allocation per head of population. [73894]
Andy Burnham: General Practitioner practice lists at April 2004 scaled to Office for National Statistics 2003 based local authority population projections from 2003 to 2007 were used to calculate the allocations per head of population for the years 2003-04 to 2007-08 provided in the reply on 8 May 2006.
The publication “Resource Allocation: Weighted Capitation Formula” is available on the Department's website at: www.dh.gov.uk/PolicyAndGuidance/OrganisationPolicy/FinanceAndPlanning/Allocations/fs/en, which explains how primary care trust populations are calculated for resource allocation.
NovoRapid
Mr. Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has made of the post-marketing data available for the insulin analogue NovoRapid, with particular reference to its suitability for continued use in young children. [72629]
Andy Burnham: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has made no assessment of the post-marketing data on insulin analogue NovoRapid. The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory products Authority has the responsibility for the assessment of all post-marketing data.
Nursing
Justine Greening:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much her Department spent on (a) advertising and (b) other marketing activities in
relation to careers in NHS nursing in each year since 2001-02; what the forecast expenditure is for 2006-07; and if she will make a statement. [75151]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: It is not possible to identify separately our publicity and advertising figures for national health service nursing because the Department has not run a separate nursing recruitment campaign since 1999. Since 2000, the NHS Careers campaign has promoted several career options at once, including medical careers and allied health professionals, as well as nursing.
The table shows the Department's expenditure on publicity and advertising in relation to NHS Careers in each year since 2001-02.
| £ million | ||
| Financial years | Publicity | Advertising expenditure |
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