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26 Feb 2007 : Column 1093W—continued
Clinical Academic Posts
Laura Moffatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will ring-fence the proceeds from the multi-professional and education levy for the funding of clinical academic posts. [112632]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Cooksey Report recommended that the funding for existing clinical academic posts including those in fulfilment of the United Kingdom clinical research collaborative Walport schemes, should be transferred from the multi professional education and training (MPET) budget and ring-fenced within the research and development budget. However, the report was published too late to be implemented in the 2007-08 allocations. Details of the posts to be included and the associated funding, have not yet been agreed with strategic health authorities (SHAs).
For 2007-08 funding will therefore remain within the MPET element of the SHA central budget bundle, but through the service level agreement covering this funding, SHAs will be expected to continue to fund these posts, to which staff are currently being recruited.
Community Hospitals
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many applications for new community hospitals she has received from the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority. [100668]
Andy Burnham:
We have received one application from the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority for funding from the community hospitals and services programme. This application is for the Hastings and
Rother Primary Care Trust for the development of a primary health care centre within the development of the Hastings Station Plaza.
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what her Department’s definition is of a community hospital; and if she will make a statement. [111763]
Andy Burnham: In “Our Health, Our care, Our Community” we defined community hospitals and services as being:
The broad range of services that are sited in defined local communities with small populations rising to about 100,000;
Any clinical or social care functions that can be provided safely and appropriately away from large specialist centres (this is a set of functions that grows and changes as clinical and professional practice develops); and
Those services and functions that benefit from, and indeed depend upon, close links to other local services, for example intermediate care services aimed at enabling an older person to regain independence in their own home.
In allocating the funding, we are keen to support schemes that both focus on hospitals as well as community services such as home chemotherapy and mobile MRT scans.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 7 November 2006, Official Report, columns 1269-70W, on community hospitals, what the outcome of her Department's assessment of the bids was; whether her Department has received further bids for capital funding of community hospitals; which primary care trusts have submitted each bid; what the value of each bid is; which community hospitals each bid relates to; and if she will make a statement. [112418]
Andy Burnham: On 21 December we announced that we would fund four of the 10 schemes that were submitted for consideration as part of wave one of the community hospitals and services programme. Decisions about three schemes in wave one are still outstanding, two schemes were withdrawn by strategic health authorities and one did not meet the criteria.
Twenty-five schemes have been submitted in wave two and the total funding requested is £254.1 million (see the following table for details). Not all the schemes submitted affect community hospitals as the intention of the programme is to support any capital scheme that delivers care in settings that are more convenient for patients, this includes, for example, one stop primary care centres and healthy living parks. A number of the schemes create new facilities that do not affect existing community hospitals.
Depression
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what trials her Department has undertaken of the efficacy of social support interventions for socially isolated and vulnerable groups of people with depression. [112022]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department has not commissioned any research specifically in response to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s recommendation regarding trials of efficacy of social support interventions for socially isolated and vulnerable groups of people with depression that was included in their clinical guidelines issued in 2004. However, the Department funds research to support policy and to provide the evidence needed to underpin quality improvement and service development in the national health service and as part of its Policy Research Programme (PRP) has undertaken a study on “Mental health, social inclusion and arts: developing the evidence base”. This has been commissioned by the Department for Culture Media and Sport and the Department in response to the Social Exclusion Unit’s report on mental health and social exclusion. The study relates to participatory arts and mental health work in England with people with mental health needs aged 16 to 65. The study is ongoing.
As part of the policy to introduce new roles into the mental health work force to help meet the needs of service users, the NHS plan included a commitment to train support, time and recovery (STR) workers who provide a range of social support to people with mental illness. At the end of January, over 3,100 STR workers were either in post or in training in the NHS. As part of PRP, the Department has commissioned a piece of research entitled “New roles in the Mental Health Workforce: Implementation and Experience” which is intended to provide systematic and conceptually connected snapshots of the ways in which new roles, including STR workers, operate and the impact of work force changes on the experience of users and carers with differing levels of need and expectation. This evaluation, led by Dr. Pauline Pearson, University of Newcastle, started in September 2006 and is ongoing.
Doctors
Ms Barlow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many salaried doctors are working in the NHS; and how many were working in the NHS in 1997. [118107]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of salaried general medical practitioners (GMPs) employed by the national health service in 1997 and 2005 is shown in the following table.
General Practitioners
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has made of the number of general practitioners who (a) opted to work out of hours and (b) opted not to work out of hours in each of the last three years. [119335]
Andy Burnham: Information on the number of general practitioners (GPs) who have opted out is not collected centrally.
For expenditure purposes in 2004-05, the estimated number of GP practices which opted out of providing out-of-hours provision assumes a stepped approach across the year: 30 per cent. by June/July 2004, 60 per cent. by September 2004 and 90 per cent. by January 2005.
In 2005-06 and 2006-07, the estimated number of GP practices which opted out of providing out-of-hours provision was 90 per cent.
Gravesham Community Hospital
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has made of the likely total cost to the public purse of the Gravesham Community Hospital private finance initiative. [121227]
Andy Burnham: The Gravesham Community Hospital private finance initiative is a joint project between Kent county council, the former Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley Primary Care Trust and Grosvenor House Group. The local NHS estimates the total value of the project to be around £25 million.
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