| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
18 July 2007 : Column 449W—continued
Cardiovascular System: Diseases
Lorely Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the number of people diagnosed with peripheral arterial disease in England; [148088]
(2) what estimate he has made of the number of people diagnosed with peripheral arterial disease in the last (a) 12 months, (b) five years and (c) year for which figures are available. [148091]
Ann Keen: The Department does not collect this information.
Lorely Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether his Department has any plans to assess the effectiveness of using the ankle brachial pressure index as a means of assessing vascular disease risk; [148089]
(2) what guidance his Department has issued to primary care trusts on the management of peripheral arterial disease. [148090]
Ann Keen: Conducting assessments and providing guidance for new and existing therapies within the national health service is handled by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE can be asked to develop guidance from topics suggested by various sources, including the Department’s, health care and public health professionals, patients, carers and the general public.
Chiropody
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many non-registrants with the Health Professions Council used the protected title of (a) chiropodist and (b) podiatrist in the latest period for which figures are available. [150017]
Mr. Bradshaw: From the figures that we received from the Health Professions Council (HPC), 288 non-registrants of the HPC were issued with a warning letter on protected titles in 2006-07. 136 concerned registrants who may have been using the title or implying that they were chiropodists/podiatrists.
Community Hospitals: Capital Investments
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria his Department uses to assess the needs of primary care trusts in taking decisions to allocate capital funding for community hospitals. [148938]
Mr. Bradshaw:
Each primary care trust makes its own assessment of need and the appropriate pattern of services for its own locality. “Our health, our care, our communities: investing in the future of community hospitals and services” sets out ten design principles for primary care trusts (PCTs) to use as a starting point when considering local service redesign and the role of community hospitals. Strategic health authorities (SHAs)
will determine how proposals from PCTs in their area can deliver the strategic needs and priorities across the SHA area.
Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how frequently representatives of (a) the devolved Administrations and (b) his Department meet the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence. [150113]
Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 17 July 2007]: Officials from both the Department and the devolved Administrations meet the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence on a regular basis and formally each quarter.
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the statutory mechanisms are for monitoring the performance of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence. [150122]
Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 17 July 2007]: The Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence is required by law to submit its annual accounts to the Secretary of State, devolved administrations, Comptroller and Auditor General, in respect of each year. Its annual report is also laid before Parliament.
There are also non-statutory quarterly meetings where the Department, along with the devolved Administrations meet the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence to discuss performance and finance.
Dental Services
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many orthodontic practices used up their annual allocation of units of orthodontic activity before the end of the last contract year, broken down by primary care trust. [148480]
Ann Keen: The Department does not monitor the performance of individual providers of national health service orthodontic services. It is for primary care trusts, as the commissioning bodies, to monitor services and, where appropriate, take up any concerns with the provider.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentist practitioners ran out of units of dental activity before the end of the contract year in the most recent period for which figures are available, broken down by primary care trust. [148484]
Ann Keen: Information is not held in the form requested. Primary care trusts (PCTs) agree local contracts with providers of dental services (who may be individual practitioners or dental practices), setting out the level of services to be provided over the course of each year. The Department does not assess the performance of individual providers. It is for PCTs, as the commissioning bodies, to monitor services and, where appropriate, take up any concerns with the provider.
Dental Services: Children
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the effects of delay in receiving orthodontic treatment upon the dental health of children. [149691]
Ann Keen: The optimum timing of orthodontic treatment depends upon the age and development of individual patients. The Department is supporting primary care trusts in developing commissioning strategies for orthodontic treatment that are more closely related to local health needs and support timely access to care.
Dental Services: Kent
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people are registered with a dentist in Kent; how many NHS dental practices there are in Kent; and how many are accepting new NHS patients. [149307]
Ann Keen: Registration data no longer form part of the data available under the new national health service dental contractual arrangements. The new measure is patients seen in the previous 24 months and is not comparable to the registration data for earlier years.
Numbers of patients seen, by adult and child, in the previous 24 months ending 31 March, 30 June, 30 September, 31 December 2006 and 31 March 2007 in West Kent Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Eastern and Coastal Kent Teaching PCT are available in section F1 of annex 3 of the “NHS Dental Statistics for England Q4: 31 March 2007” report. This report is available in the Library.
Information is as at England, strategic health authority and PCT level and the report, published by the Information Centre for health and social care, is also available at:
As at 9 July 2007, there were 103 NHS dental surgeries within West Kent PCT and 97 NHS dental surgeries within Eastern and Coastal Kent Teaching PCT.
The areas have been defined using practice postcodes within the PCT area. The figure provides a snapshot of the number of addresses with a contract at the specified date.
No information concerning the amount of time dedicated to NHS work by individual dentists within practices is available.
The number of dental surgeries that are accepting new NHS patients is not collected centrally.
Sources:
The Information Centre for health and social care
NHS Business Services Authority (BSA).
Doctors: Career Structure
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department plans to take legal action against the IT suppliers of the Medical Training Application Service system. [149453]
Ann Keen [holding answer 16 July 2007]: The IT supplier of the MTAS system is Methods Consulting Ltd. The contract with Methods Consulting Ltd. is under review.
Doctors: Foreign Workers
Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when Ministers (a) approved and (b) announced that doctors from overseas wishing to apply for specialty training must apply successfully for a highly skilled migrant programme visa following the end of permit-free medical training; and what assessment the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board has made of the effects of the policy. [148312]
Ann Keen: There is no requirement that overseas doctors wishing to apply for specialty training in 2007 must successfully apply for leave to remain pursuant to the highly skilled migrant programme.
In order to be considered for posts alongside United Kingdom and European economic area (EEA) applicants overseas doctors must, in addition to meeting all other eligibility criteria, have the right to work in the UK without restriction on 5 February 2007. Applicants not meeting this requirement will be considered only once suitable UK and EEA applicants have been awarded posts.
Doctors: Training
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the number of junior doctors who have had their offers for a specialist training post withdrawn by deaneries in the last three months; [148638]
(2) what procedures are in place to prevent junior doctors being informed in error that they have been offered a specialist training post; what estimate he has made of the number of junior doctors so informed; and if he will make a statement. [148640]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not held centrally.
Deaneries are responsible for making offers to successful applicants. Deaneries are concerned to ensure that any offers made are accurate, and in the small number of incidents where there has been an error have apologised for any inconvenience and distress to individuals.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations his Department has received from junior doctors whose deaneries have withdrawn offers of a specialist training post in the last three months. [148639]
Ann Keen: Due to the way that correspondence is recorded, this information cannot be supplied without incurring disproportionate cost.
Donors
Mrs. Dean: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans his Department has made to increase laboratory testing capacity for the identification of suitable donor organs. [148880]
Ann Keen: Decisions on capacity planning are for local decision.
Education: Finance
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what mechanisms are in place to ensure that the service increment for teaching funding was spent on purposes for which it was allocated. [148555]
Ann Keen: The role of the Department should be to focus on outputs and accountability rather than on ensuring a fixed amount of money is spent for a particular purpose regardless of local priorities.
The service increment for teaching (SIFT) funding was issued as an element of the multi professional education and training budget, which was allocated to strategic health authorities (SHAs) as part of the bundle of central budgets for 2007-08.
In 2007-08 a service level agreement (SLA) and accountability framework has been issued to ensure that SHAs are held to account for the training they support.
With regards to SIFT funding, the SLA requires SHAs to provide sufficient medical and dental placements for local medical and dental students and to ensure both the quality of training and adequate support for the students. SHAs have been asked to submit investment plans showing how they will deliver the requirements of the SLA.
Family Practitioner Services: Working Hours
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what provision was made in his Department’s 2002 Spending Review settlement to finance out-of-hours care. [148907]
Mr. Bradshaw: The funds for providing out-of-hours primary medical care services were included within various funding streams relating to primary medical services, but the total out-of-hours element was not separately identified.
Prior to 2004-05, general practitioners (GPs) were contractually responsible for their registered patients 24 hours a day. GPs covered by the general medical services contract received their funding based on a number of fees and allowances. Only a proportion of these were related to the time of day at which the care was provided. GPs covered by the personal medical services scheme had locally agreed contracts with their primary care trust.
General Practitioners
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on what date his Department received the approval of HM Treasury for the new contract for the delivery of General Medical Services in the form in which it was agreed in June 2003. [148906]
Mr. Bradshaw: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 7 June 2007, Official Report, column 651W.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 25 June 2007, Official Report, column 246W, on general practitioners, on what dates discussions have taken place at ministerial level since June 2003 as part of the process of reviewing the General Medical Services contract. [148944]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department and HM Treasury Ministers and officials regularly meet to discuss a wide range of issues. As was the case with previous Administrations it is not the practice of Government to provide details of all such meetings.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 25 June 2007, Official Report, column 246W, on general practitioners, on what dates regular discussions have been held with NHS Confederation, now NHS Employers. [148945]
Mr. Bradshaw: Discussions with the NHS Confederation, now NHS Employers, frequently take place involving officials at all levels and have included the appropriate Ministers in post at the time.
General Practitioners: Gravesham
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many GP practices in Gravesham offer out of hours services; and if he will make a statement. [149306]
Mr. Bradshaw: This information is not held centrally. Local primary care trusts are responsible for ensuring that there is a high quality, sustainable out of hours service for all their local population.
All out of hours services must be delivered to the national quality requirements, ensuring patients have access to consistently high quality responsive care and advice regardless of where they live.
Health Hazards: Lighting
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 12 June 2007, Official Report, column 992W, on health hazards: lighting, what guidance his Department has issued on the treatment of individuals with medical conditions adversely affected by the use of energy saving lightbulbs. [148496]
Ann Keen: No specific guidance has been issued on the treatment of those with medical conditions which may put them at risk of being adversely affected by energy saving lightbulbs.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |