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1 Mar 2007 : Column 1532Wcontinued
Mr. Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will publish her Departments emergency response plan in the event of a H5N1-related outbreak of influenza among humans. [119952]
Ms Rosie Winterton: It is important to be clear about the differences between avian influenza, seasonal influenza, and pandemic influenza. Avian influenza is a disease of birds which occasionally affects people. Seasonal influenza refers to the illness which occurs each winter due to human influenza viruses which are circulating in the population. Pandemic influenza occurs infrequently, when a new influenza virus emerges which is markedly different from those recently circulating in the human population, causes disease in people and spreads easily between people because they have little or no immunity to it. This could happen through an avian influenza virus, such as the H5N1 virus, mutating into a different strain with greater affinity for people.
The updated United Kingdom Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan was published on 19 October 2005 and is available on our website at:
www.dh.gov.uk/pandemicflu.
The plan is currently being revised and the intention is that the revised version will have a broader scope than just the health response and cover wider areas of national planning. The revised plan will be published shortly.
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS trusts hold contracts with Clear Communications Consultants Ltd. [106379]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Information on national health service trust contracts is not held centrally.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what obligations are placed on primary care trusts to recommission units of dental activity from their departmental allocation resulting from dentists not taking up NHS contracts. [121424]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Primary care trusts (PCTs) are expected to make all reasonable efforts to ensure that resources allocated for primary dental care services are spent on commissioning and/or providing dental services. This can be through general dental services contracts, personal dental services agreements or through PCT dental services. Strategic health authorities have also been asked to maintain, as a minimum, levels of investment in dental services across their area, if necessary by re-deploying resources between PCTs. It is for PCTs locally to decide what levels of dental services to seek to commission for a given level of expenditure and to decide how far services should be monitored through weighted courses of treatment (for example, units of dental activity) or through other measures.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what freedom primary care trusts have to change contract values for dentists who are not meeting the unit of dental activity target they have been set. [121425]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The contracts agreed between primary care trusts (PCT) and providers of national health service dental services specify both an annual contract value and the overall level of services, measured in terms of weighted courses of treatment (or units of dental activity), that are to be carried out over the course of a year. These annual requirements are at least 5 per cent. below the equivalent service levels carried out under the former general dental services arrangements. Where it appears from a mid-year review or subsequently that a provider is unlikely to carry out the agreed annual service level, the PCT may propose a variation to the contract value to reflect the level of services likely to be provided. In the event of disagreement, any proposed variation may be referred to the NHS Litigation Authority.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS (a) dentists and (b) patients were registered in Hemel Hempstead constituency in each year since 1997. [119994]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Table one shows data on national health service dentists and patients registered as at year ending March 1997 to 2006 as requested, under the old contract.
Under the new dental contract, as from April 2006 registration data is no longer collected centrally, instead there is a new measure on patients seen within the last 24 months. The latest data for NHS dentists and patients seen (table two and three) is only available at primary care trust (PCT) area level. The data requested are not available for Hemel Hempstead constituency. Dacorum PCT covers South West Hertfordshire constituency as well as Hemel Hempstead constituency.
Table 1: general dental services (GDS) and personal dental services (PDS): total NHS dentists and patient registrations by parliamentary constituency, as at 31 March 1997 to 2006 | ||
Dentists | Registrations | |
Notes: 1. The postcode of the dental practice was used to allocate dentists to specific geographic areas. Constituency areas have been defined using the Office for National Statistics all fields postcode directory. 2. Dentists consist of principals, assistant and trainees. Information on NHS dentistry in the community dental service, in hospitals and in prisons are excluded. 3. The data in this report are based on NHS dentists on PCT lists. These details were passed on to the BSA who paid dentists based on activity undertaken. A dentist can provide as little or as much NHS treatment as he or she chooses or has agreed with the PCT. In some cases an NHS dentist may appear on a PCT list but not perform any NHS work in that period. Most NHS dentists do some private work. The data does not take into account the proportion of NHS work undertaken by dentists. 4. The boundaries used are as at 31 March 2006. Sources: The Information Centre for Health and Social Care NHS Business Services Authority (BSA) Office for National Statistics |
Table 2: Total number of dentists on open NHS contracts at PCT level as at 30 June 2006 and as at 30 September 2006 (including orthodontic workforce) | ||
June | September | |
Notes: 1. A performer is defined as a dentist who has been set up on the DPD payments online (POL)system by the PCT to work under an open contract during the relevant time period. 2. Data provided are a count of the individuals listed as performers on open contracts within a PCT, including orthodontists. 3. Data consist of performers in general dental services (GDS), personal dental services (PDS), and trust-led dental services. Sources: The Information Centre for health and social care NHS Business Services Authority (BSA) Office for National Statistics |
Table 3: Total number of patients seen in the two years ending 30 June 2006 and 30 September 2006 (including orthodontic activity) | ||
June | September | |
Sources: The Information Centre for Health and Social Care NHS Business Services Authority (BSA) Office for National Statistics |
Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists there are in (a) Sittingbourne and (b) Sheppey. [119816]
Ms Rosie Winterton:
Numbers of dentists under the new dental contractual arrangements, introduced on 1 April 2006, are not available at this level of area.
Sittingbourne and Sheppey parliamentary constituency is covered by Swale primary care trust (PCT), which also covers Faversham and Mid-Kent constituency. The latest numbers for the PCT are provided in the following table.
Dentists on open national health service contracts within Swale primary care trust as at 30 September 2006 | |
Number | |
Note: A dentist can provide as little or as much NHS treatment as he or she chooses or has agreed within their contract. In some cases an NHS dentist may be listed to carry out NHS work but may not do so for a given period. Sources: The Information Centre for health and social care NHS Business Services Authority (BSA) |
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what total amount has been spent in Craven Harrogate and rural district primary care trust on NHS dentistry since the introduction of the new NHS dental contracts; [124287]
(2) what the projected expenditure on NHS dentistry is for Craven Harrogate and rural district primary care trust in 2007-08; [124288]
(3) what the budget was for NHS dentistry in Craven Harrogate and rural district primary care trust in 2006-07; and what the budget is for 2007-08; [124289]
(4) what provision the Craven Harrogate and rural district primary care trust has made for money unspent in 2006-07 to be assigned to NHS dentistry. [124290]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Craven, Harrogate and rural district primary care trust (PCT) was awarded a net primary dental service allocation of £6,903,000 for 2006-07. This was associated with an indicative gross budget of £10,198,320, taking account of possible patient charge income of £3,294,886. The actual level of charge income will depend on a range of variables including the service levels (i.e. the annual units of dental activity) agreed for each local contract with dentists and the relative proportions of chargeable and non-chargeable treatments carried out during the year.
On 1 October 2006 the Craven, Harrogate and rural district PCT was absorbed, with its resources, within the newly established North Yorkshire and York PCT. The in-year management of the devolved primary dental care allocations, including the distribution of resources within its overall area, is now the responsibility of the new PCT, overseen by Yorkshire and the Humber strategic health authority. Full year expenditure data will not be available until after the year end. Budgets for 2007-08 will be set on the basis of the new PCT areas.
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of people with diabetes have (a) been offered and (b) received retinopathy screening; what targets her Department has for diabetic retinopathy screening; and whether these targets have been met. [124295]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Improvement, expansion and reform: the next three years, the priorities and planning framework for 2003-06, includes targets that: by 2006, a minimum of 80 per cent. of people with diabetes to be offered screening for the early detection (and treatment if needed): of diabetic retinopathy as part of a systematic programme that meets national standards, rising to 100 per cent., of those at risk of retinopathy by end 2007. Data show that, in March 2006, 78.4 per cent. of people with diabetes had been offered screening and 65.4 per cent. had received screening for diabetic retinopathy in the previous year. Latest data for December 2006 shows that 81.1 per cent. of people with diabetes had been offered screening and 65.5 per cent. had received screening for diabetic retinopathy in the previous year.
Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in England and Wales were in treatment in (a) 2003, (b) 2004, (c) 2005 and (d) 2006 under pooled treatment budget allocations for drug treatment funding; and how many of those people were treated in drug assistance rehabilitation beds. [124488]
Caroline Flint: The table shows the number of clients presented to treatment in England from 2003 to 2006, and how many people were in residential rehabilitation using data collected by the national drug treatment monitoring system (NDTMS).
The NDTMS collects data for England only; Welsh data is collected separately through the National Assembly for Wales. Placements within treatment services will be funded by local mainstream budgets and community care budgets, as well as using pooled drug treatment budget allocations. The data requested is available only for financial years 2003-04 to 2005-06.
Number in treatment | Number in residential rehab | |
Note: The figures for numbers in residential rehabilitation are likely to be under-represented, as in previous years many residential rehabilitation agencies have not completed NDTMS returns Data was not collected from residential rehabilitation services prior to 2003-04. |
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how she is responding to the concerns expressed by professional bodies about proposals in the Foster Review to regulate statutorily the non-medical healthcare professions. [112026]
Andy Burnham: We have received a large number of responses to the consultation on the regulation of the health professions. After considering these responses, we published a White Paper on Wednesday 21 February 2007, called Trust Assurance and SafetyThe Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century.
We will now move this agenda forward in close partnership with stakeholders and the devolved Administrations to ensure that these proposals are implemented in a way which makes them workable in the local context, and that the potential benefits of these crucial reforms are maximised.
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations she has received from clinicians in (a) Lancashire and (b) Cumbria on the possibility of a contract for capture, assess, treat and support clinical services being awarded to Netcare. [119896]
Ms Rosie Winterton: A search of the Department's correspondence shows six letters from clinicians about the clinical assessment, treatment and support (CATS) services in the north-west.
Over the past 18 months the North West Strategic Health Authority (previously the Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority) and acute trusts have engaged closely with clinicians, through relevant primary care trust (PCT) structures, on the CATS scheme.
This has included a clinical reference group involved in the development of the initial CATS specification, clinical pathway workshops to inform the pathway development of the specialties in CATS (which were attended both by local clinicians and Netcare), and wider roadshow events run throughout the procurement process by the Cumbria and Lancashire independent sector commissioning team where both clinicians and managers were kept up to date on the procurement process.
Local clinicians are also encouraged to express their view on the CATS scheme as part of the formal consultation exercise currently being undertaken by PCTs in Cumbria and Lancashire.
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