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31 Jan 2007 : Column 404W—continued

Community Hospitals

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much money from the fund for community hospitals announced by her Department in 2005 has been allocated so far, broken down by constituencies; [117268]

(2) how many bids from primary care trusts to the fund for community hospitals announced by her Department in 2005 have been received, broken down by constituency. [117271]

Andy Burnham: To date 10 proposals from 10 primary care trusts (PCTs) have been received. Of these two have been withdrawn, one did not meet the criteria, three have outstanding queries which are being resolved and an announcement about the remaining
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four was made on 21 December. The funding allocated to these four schemes totals £44.5 million.

Scheme name PCT Constituencies

Washington Primary Care Centre, Sunderland

Sunderland Teaching PCT

Sunderland, North

Sunderland, South

Houghton and Washington, East

Gosport War Memorial Hospital

Hampshire PCT

Gosport

Yate Community Health Centre

South Gloucestershire PCT

Northavon

Kingswood

West Somerset Healthy Living Park

Somerset PCT

Bridgwater

Taunton


Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) in which constituencies the 50 new community hospitals provided by her Department in 2005 have been (a) built and (b) sited; [117269]

(2) how many of the 50 new community hospitals to be provided by her Department in 2005 have been built. [117270]

Andy Burnham: There is no target for the number of community hospitals we intend to fund. The intention is to utilise the £750 million capital investment fund announced last July to fund the development and refurbishment of as many community hospitals and facilities as possible. To date £44.5 million of this fund has been allocated to four schemes, details of which are provided as follows. Further schemes will be announced in the spring.

Scheme name Operational date Primary care trust (PCT) Constituencies

Washington Primary Care Centre, Sunderland

Spring 2008

Sunderland Teaching PCT

Sunderland, North

Sunderland, South

Houghton and Washington, East

Gosport War Memorial Hospital

Phased from April 2007

Hampshire PCT

Gosport

Yate Community Health Centre

Autumn 2008

South Gloucestershire PCT

Northavon

Kingswood

West Somerset Healthy Living Park

Autumn 2009

Somerset PCT

Bridgwater

Taunton



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Correspondence

Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the Minister of State will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire of 12 December 2006 on prescription charges for those on incapacity benefit. [111564]

Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 26 January 2007]: The letter was replied to on 29 January 2007.

Health-managed Networks

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether her Department has had discussions with NHS trusts in Cumbria on moving towards a health-managed network; and if she will make a statement. [112482]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 30 January 2007]: The Board of Cumbria primary care trust agreed on 17 January 2007 to set up a health managed network to develop and redesign services in Cumbria. This will bring together commissioners, service providers and patients to plan, deliver and commission redesigned hospital and community services across Cumbria. The health managed network is supported by NHS North West. The Department was not involved in discussions about the creation of this network.

Medical Training Application Service

Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the expected costs are of the Medical Training Application Service in (a) 2006-07 and (b) each subsequent financial year; how many applicants are expected to use the service in each year; and how much of the costs in each year are expected to be accounted for by (i) personnel, (ii) software development and maintenance, (iii) hardware maintenance, (iv) communication networks, (v) security and (vi) archiving. [117376]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 24 January 2007]: The central funding costs for the medical training application service (MTAS) in 2006-07 is £1.75 million, which is funded proportionately by all four United Kingdom Health Departments. For each subsequent financial year the central funding requirements are estimated at £1.5 million for 2007-08 and for the subsequent years of the five year contract (to 2011), the estimated costs are £860,000 per year.

This year, approximately 6,000 foundation training posts and 19,000 specialty training posts will be recruited into using MTAS. However, it is not possible to determine the numbers of applicants for these posts until recruitment is completed each year.

The service has been procured on a fixed-price basis as outlined and it is not possible to break down the costs as requested.

National Finance Centre

Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans there are for the National Finance Centre of NHS Professionals to go into partnership with a
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private company; what assessment she has made of the possibility of UK-based job losses as a result of these changes; and if she will make a statement. [112521]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 30 January 2007]: NHS Professionals is currently in negotiation with NHS Shared Business Services with a view to transferring its National Finance Centre function into the organisation with effect from 1 April 2007.

NHS Shared Business Service is a 50:50 joint venture between the Department and Xansa. It was launched in April 2005 to provide shared services to the national health service.

NHS Shared Business Service is the preferred NHS supplier for this kind of activity. The organisation already provides finance, accounting and payroll services to a number of other NHS organisations and is therefore more able to take advantage of economy of scale and to invest in technology to improve processes where appropriate. In addition, it is stated Government policy for all the Department's governmental bodies to investigate shared services opportunities.

NHS Professionals is conducting a full staff consultation process with the permanent workforce that will be affected by this change and this process also includes input from national and regional staff- side representatives. All permanent members of staff at the National Finance Centre will be offered roles at NHS Shared Business Services and their transfer will be conducted under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006.

NHS Finance

Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the impact on medical education provision of financial deficits in the national health service; and if she will make a statement. [111784]


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Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 29 January 2007]: Provision of undergraduate medical education is a matter for the Higher Education Funding Council for England. Funding for supporting the costs of clinical education is allocated to strategic health authorities (SHAs). Each SHA is responsible for working with its local medical school(s) and national health service organisations to ensure that high quality clinical placements are available for all medical students.

NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the established purchasing price, as arranged through the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency, is of (a) the most common desk top computer, (b) an office chair, (c) a can of beans, (d) a carton of photocopy paper and (e) a standard printer cartridge. [117094]

Andy Burnham: In October 2006, a number of procurement activities formerly managed by the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency transferred to the NHS supply chain. The categories into which most of the items mentioned fall were part of that transfer. In addition, computer equipment is procured on behalf of Government by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

Regarding the prices that are paid, these will vary according to whether or not a trust chooses to use NHS supply chain, or OGC frameworks, or to purchase goods and services directly from suppliers. There is no mandate to the national health service to use either service. Therefore it is not possible to calculate an established purchasing price given the number of purchasing points across the service.

However, I can provide the standard prices as set out by both NHS supply chain and the OGC for the items mentioned. Note that prices would reduce as quantities increased.

Standard prices through NHS supply chain or the OGC
Item Specification Standard cost (£) Comment

Desktop computer TBC

Dell Optiplex 745 DT/SF/MT Chassis: minimum specification determined by Connecting for Health and trusts

388.00

Delivered price

Office chair

Sara-PS4000 Swivel, 5 year guarantee (supplied by GGI Office Furniture

43.00

Price negotiated by NHS supply chain; delivered directly by supplier to trusts

A can of beans

Heinz Beans 2.6 kg tin

1.30

Delivered price(1)

Photocopy paper

Box of 5 reams 80 g

8.40

Delivered price(1)

Print cartridge

HP No.45/51645A

13.40

Delivered price(1)

(1) Delivered prices allow for the cost of the item, delivery within 48-hours and—if required—packaged to ward level. This means that trusts do not have to have vast supplies depots.

NHS Treatment: Foreign Nationals

Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many foreign nationals were treated at hospitals in England in each year since 2001, broken down by strategic health authority. [111377]

Andy Burnham [holding answer 26 January 2007]: It is not possible to provide the information requested. Successive Governments have not required the national health service to provide statistics on the number of foreign nationals seen, treated or charged under the provisions of the “NHS (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989”, as amended.

Primary Care Trust Staff

Mr. Walter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many permanent staff were employed by each primary care trust in England on (a) 30 September 2006 and (b) 31 December 2006. [111288]


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Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 26 January 2007]: Results from the September 2006 census will be published in spring 2007. The next national health service workforce census collection will be in September 2007.

Psychologists

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment the Government have made of the merits of registering the title Psychologist under a statutory scheme; and what consultations she has conducted. [111419]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 29 January 2007]: The Government set out its proposals for the statutory regulation of applied psychologists in its March 2005 public consultation document, “Applied Psychology—enhancing public protection: proposals for the statutory regulation of applied psychologists”. The consultation ran from March to June 2005, and covered the subject of titles to be protected.

More recently, the Department held a four-month period of consultation on our proposals to reform the regulation of medical and non-medical healthcare professionals, following the recommendations made by
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the Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson and the advisory group headed by Andrew Foster earlier this year. This consultation ended on 10 November 2006.

We are now considering the way forward in the light of responses and the Government's policy objectives. We expect to publish our proposals shortly.

Waiting Times

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in London waited for more than six months from GP referral for elective operations in the last period for which figures are available, broken down by London borough. [110612]

Andy Burnham: The information requested is not yet available.

Voluntary collection and reporting of referral to treatment (RTT) data have been under way since autumn 2006. Mandatory national RTT waiting time collection for admitted patients begins this month and for non-admitted patients in April. Publication will begin as soon as the data are of sufficient quality. Data for admitted patients are likely to be available in the spring.


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