West Cheshire Primary Care Trust
Christine Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding has been allocated to the West Cheshire primary care trust for the provision of sexual health services in each of the next three financial years. [82672]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Funding is allocated to primary care trusts (PCTs) on the basis of the relative needs of their populations. It is for PCTs to determine how to use the funding allocated to them to commission services, including sexual health services, to meet the healthcare needs of their local populations. Allocations made to the Cheshire West PCT from 200-06 to 2007-08 are shown in the following table.
| Allocations ( £ million) | |
Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 6 July 2006
Leader of the House
FIFA World Cup
Mr. Hands: To ask the Leader of the House which matches (a) he and (b) the Deputy Leader of the House attended at the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany in their ministerial capacity; at what cost to public funds; and with what contribution from third party organisations. [83597]
Nigel Griffiths: None.
Health
Abortion
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many women are known to have died within one month of operations for termination of pregnancy notified under the Abortion Regulations in each year since 1997; and what cause of death was recorded on the death certificate in each case. [81176]
Caroline Flint: The confidential inquiry into maternal and child health reports information on deaths following termination of pregnancy up to one year after the event. In the period 1997 to 2002 there were only seven such deaths known to the inquiry. Further information is contained within the two triennial reports on confidential inquiries intomaternal deaths in the United Kingdom for theperiods 1997-99 and 2000-02, which are available at www.cemach.org.uk.
Arun Community Hospital
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she expects to be in a position to decide onthe future of the Arun community hospital in Littlehampton. [82483]
Caroline Flint: Responsibility for decisions on the future of Arun community hospital rests with the local national health service.
Black/Asian Employees
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) black and Asian and (b) other people are employed in her Department’s press office. [74362]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The number of staff employed in the Department’s press office is 48. The number who have disclosed their ethnicity status cannot be given under grounds of confidentiality.
Breast Milk Substitutes
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the adequacy of regulations to protect against the promotion of products inferior to breast milk. [81530]
Caroline Flint: The Department is working with the Food Standards Agency to continue to press for changes to the recast European Union directive on infant formula and follow-on formula advertising.
The Department also intends to review, later this year, the United Kingdom regulations on infant formula and follow-on formula advertising, a commitment set out in the “Choosing Health—Making healthy choices easier” White Paper.
Childhood Immunisation Services
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many GP practices have opted out of providing childhood immunisation services following the introduction of the new GP contract in 2003; and where each is located. [79773]
Caroline Flint: In 2004, 6.3 per cent. of general medical services (CMS) partnerships had opted out of providing childhood immunisation services. In 2005, the proportion of GMS partnerships opting out was reported to be 36.7 per cent.
Comparison between 2004 and 2005 childhood immunisation services opt-out data should be undertaken with caution. Data as at 30 September 2004 was the first year in which opt-out data was collected on a partnership basis following the change in the general practitioner (GP) contract in April 2004. The figures published as at 30 September 2005 (a revision of earlier collected data) shows a great increase in the number of partnerships opting-out of childhood immunisation services, with no corresponding explanation of the increase.
The 2004 and 2005 data is published in full by The Information Centre for health and social care and can be found at www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/10/73/41/04107341.xls. A copy has been placed in the Library.
However, as part of its statutory duties, each primary care trust, under section 16CC of the National Health Services Act 1977(a), must provide a childhood immunisation scheme. If a GP opts out, then one per cent. is removed from the GPs global sum payment. This allows the primary care trust to re-provide the service with another contractor or to self-provide.
Connecting for Health
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what her latest estimate is of the total implementation costs of Connecting for Health, including the cost of local implementation. [76973]
Caroline
Flint: The value of contracts let for thecore
components of the national programme for
information technology, which is being delivered by the department's NHS
Connecting for Health Agency, amounts to £6.2 billion over 10
years and this has not increased. Information about local national
health service expenditure on implementing the programme, separate from
the totality of NHS spending on information technology, is not
collected
centrally.
However, the
National Audit Office (NAO) have calculated that the full gross cost of
the programme including national contracts and legitimately approved
additions, other central expenditure, and local implementation costs is
approximately £12.4 billion at 2004-05 prices. But this figure
does not take into account anticipated savings in the price paid by the
NHS for information technology goods and services due to the central
buying power of NHS Connecting for Health, or in NHS staff time saved
through using the programme's systems and services. The NAO report
acknowledges an independent evaluation that
confirms that £4.5 billion has been saved by central rather than
local procurement and also acknowledges a further £860 million
of savings achieved through centrally negotiated enterprise wide
arrangements.
Consultants
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many consultants per capita there were in (a) Gloucestershire and (b) England in each year since 1997. [77827]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 15 June 2006]: The number of consultants per 100,000 weighted population and per 100,000 unweighted population in England and Gloucestershire in each year since 1997 is shown in the table.
| Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS): Medical and dental consultants within England and Gloucestershire( 1) and numbers per 100,000 population( 2,3,4)( ) As at 30 September each year | |||||||||
| Numbers (headcount) and numbers (headcount) per population | |||||||||
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
| (1
)In obtaining the consultant numbers, Gloucestershire is defined
as the Gloucestershire HA area for 1997 to 2001 and the following
organisations for 2002 to 2005: South Gloucestershire PCT, Cheltenham
and Tewkesbury PCT, West Gloucestershire PCT, Cotswold and Vale PCT,
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Gloucestershire
Partnership NHS Trust. (2 )The population data used
in these calculations is weighted for HCHS age and
need. (3 )The England weighted population is
normalised or scaled back to, and therefore equals, the England
unweighted population. The exceptions; the years 2003-04 to 2005-06
where we updated PCT unweighted populations using the 2004 ADS
constrained to 2003 based ONS population. It is not possible to update
the weighted populations and they are still based on the 2002 ADS
constrained to 2001 ONS estimates. (4 )In obtaining
the population data, Gloucestershire is defined as the Gloucestershire
HA area for 1997-98 to 2002-03 and Cheltenham and Tewkesbury, Cotswold
Vale and West Gloucestershire PCT areas from 2003-04
Source: The Information Centre for health and social
care Medical and Dental Workforce
Census. | |||||||||
Departmental Documents
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which (a) individuals and (b) organisations received an embargoed copy of each (i) consultation document and (ii) White Paper produced by her Department in 2006; and if she will make a statement. [77567]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The information sought by the hon. Member with respect to all White Paper consultation documents could only be supplied at disproportionate cost.
Embargoed copies of the “Our health, our care, our say” White Paper were provided on the day of publication to Parliament under the usual conventions, to journalists and to seven members of the citizen’s panel who advised on the development of the White Paper.
Digital Hearing Aids
Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding has been made available for the introduction of digital hearing aids; and if she will make a statement on the progress of their introduction. [82193]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The modernising hearing aids service programme (MHAS) was managed by the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID), on behalf of the Department from 2000 to 2005. Through this programme, the Government have invested£125 million to ensure that by 2005 all national health service hearing aid services could routinely fit modern digital hearing aids.
There have been other significant improvements:
working with the RNID we have ensured that high quality digital hearing aids are now available throughout the NHS with an estimated 750,000 people fitted with digital hearing aids by the NHS;
the current public private partnership is also proving very successful; by February 2006 approximately 68,600 patients had been fitted with a hearing aid; and
RNID and NHS Purchasing and Supplies Agency working together have negotiated a reduction in the cost to the NHS of digital hearing aids.
Direct Payments
Mr. Walter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will set a timetable for the extension of direct payments made in lieu of social services provision to people who are currently ineligible. [82251]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Government are exploring ways to extend direct payments to those currently excluded, by using an agent for those without capacity to consent, or unable to manage even with assistance. There will need to be legislative changes to enable this to happen and we will make these as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Drug Rehabilitation
Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average expenditure per patient was for drug rehabilitation in (a) England, (b) the West Midlands and (c) Stoke-on-Trent in the last period for which figures are available; and what plans there are to provide additional funding. [80257]
Caroline Flint: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment has been made of the cost-effectiveness of drug rehabilitation funding. [80258]
Caroline Flint: There has been no recent assessment of the cost-effectiveness of drug rehabilitation funding.
GP Referrals
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research she has commissioned on the clinical effectiveness of adopting a maximum 18-week waiting time target for all GP referrals. [78012]
Andy
Burnham: Research specifically into the clinical
effectiveness of introducing a maximum 18-week waiting time was not
commissioned. However, there was extensive clinical input to the plans
for delivering the 18-weeks commitment, which was published in
“Tackling hospital waiting: the 18-week patient pathway”
on 10 May 2006. The vision is to provide patients with fast and
convenient access to hospital care, enhancing clinical outcomes
wherever
appropriate. As now, those with conditions requiring urgent attention
will be treated much faster than the average and most waiting times
from referral to treatment will be much shorter than 18
weeks.
Herceptin
Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether Herceptin will be available on the NHS in Gloucestershire in 2006. [80774]
Caroline Flint: There is no restriction on the national health service to prescribe drugs, within their licensed indications, while the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is developing guidance.
On 9 June, NICE published its draft guidance on Herceptin. These recommendations are subject to an appeal period which closed on 28 June 2006. The final guidance is expected to be issued at the beginning of July 2006, assuming there are no appeals.
Once finalised, the recommendations will mean that all eligible patients with early stage HER2-positive breast cancer should receive Herceptin on the NHS within three months of NICE issuing final guidance. Although the recommendations are subject to appeal, there are no national restrictions on the NHS using Herceptin.
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