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29 Oct 2007 : Column 996W—continued
Chiropody: Standards
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to include chiropody in the NHS maximum waiting time target of 18 weeks; and if he will make a statement. [160861]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Therapies and treatments delivered by health professions, including chiropody services, are included in the 18-week maximum waiting time target if they form part of a consultant-led pathway.
In order to support all services provided by allied health professionals, the Department is implementing a therapies improvement programme. The programme will focus on improving access to allied health professional services, the available information and data management. The programme will support improvement in therapy services through providing local events and information for allied health professionals and local health communities.
Chlamydia: Screening
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress his Department is making towards the aim that primary care trusts should screen 15 per cent. of the 15 to 24-year-old population for chlamydia; when his Department set this aim; whether this aim refers to the proportion of the 15 to 24-year-old population screened over a number of years or annually; and if he will make a statement. [160438]
Dawn Primarolo: Local Delivery Plans are negotiated as part of the Operating Framework for the national health service for 2007-08. All primary care trusts are expected to screen 15 per cent. of the target population between April 2007 and March 2008 and strategic health authorities submitted plans on how they intend to reach the target in this year. For the first quarter of 2007-08 there were 45,845 screens reported to the Health Protection Agency, this equates to 0.6 per cent. of the target population. The second quarter data will be published in November. For chlamydia screening, the 15 per cent. target refers to the population between the ages of 15-24 in England provided by the Office for National Statistics.
Clostridium
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the prevalence of (a) Clostridium difficile and (b) MRSA was in each of the last three years using the definition of prevalence included in the Third Prevalence Survey of Healthcare Associated Infections in Acute Hospitals in England 2006, published by his Department on 12 September. [159730]
Ann Keen: It is not possible to compare the results of the Third Prevalence Survey of Healthcare Associated Infections in acute hospitals in England 2006 with the incidence data collected by the Health Protection Agency on Clostridium difficile and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as these are fundamentally different ways of collecting information on infection rates.
Continence and Stoma Review
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what role Deloitte MCS has played in the continence and stoma review; whether payment by results was included in the contract between his Department and Deloitte; and if he will make a statement. [161371]
Mr. Bradshaw: Deloitte are acting as advisers to the Department on this review. The contract between the Department and its adviser is commercial and in confidence.
Dementia
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the (a) prevalence and (b) cost of treating dementia in England in the latest period for which figures are available. [161574]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department has not made a recent estimate of the prevalence and cost of dementia. Expenditure on social care for people with dementia is not held centrally but an estimate of national health service expenditure on mental health (including dementia) is available from the programme budgeting returns. This shows that in the 2005-06 financial year, gross expenditure on mental health was estimated at £8.5 billion, with £0.9 billion of this total made up of spend on dementia.
Estimates for the prevalence and costs of dementia in England are contained in the Dementia UK report generated by the London School of Economics and the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London and published by the Alzheimer’s Society. This estimates that there are 560,000 people with dementia in England. The same report estimates that dementia costs the economy £14.3 billion per year; this includes costs to health and social care services, direct spending on services by families, and the costs of support provided by directly by family carers.
Dental Services
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department has made of the number of people using NHS dentists as a percentage of the population in (a) East Midlands, (b) East of England, (c) London, (d) North East, (e) North West, (f) South Central, (g) South East Coast, (h) South West, (i) West Midlands and (j) Yorkshire and the Humber strategic health authority area. [159531]
Ann Keen: The numbers of patients seen in the 24-month period ending 31 March 2007 expressed as a percentage of the population are available in Tables Cl and C2 of Annex 3 of the “NHS Dental Statistics for England 2006-07” report.
Information is available at strategic health authority and primary care trust area in England.
This report is available in the Library and is also available at:
Dental Services: Greater London
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of the population in each London borough are registered with a (a) dentist and (b) GP practice. [157391]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information about the percentage population registered with dentists and general practitioners is not held centrally by the Department.
With regard to dentists, since April 2006, patients no longer have to be registered with a dental practice to receive national health service care and treatment.
The closest equivalent measure to ‘registration’ is the number of patients receiving NHS dental services (‘patients seen’) in a given area over a 24-month period, expressed as a percentage of the estimated population for that area. However, this is not directly comparable to the registration data for earlier years.
The numbers of patients seen in the 24-month periods ending 31 March 2006 and 31 March 2007 and the number expressed as a percentage of the population are available in tables C1 and C2 of annex 3 of the NHS Dental Statistics for England 2006-07 report. Information is available at strategic health authority and primary care trust (PCT) area in England.
This report is available in the Library and is also available on-line at:
Information cannot be made available at London borough level without disproportionate cost.
With regard to GPs, GP registered populations for PCTs are available from NHS information systems. Total resident population estimates are available from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) census. However, these two data are not directly comparable for the purposes of working out a proportion of the population registered with a GP.
Data for the percentage of the population registered with a GP practice is not directly comparable due to:
people may be on a patient register after having left the country and not deregistered with their GP; similarly people may have moved to another area and not re-registered;
some patients may have more than one NHS number e.g. they may have been issued a temporary number for a short period;
a significant proportion of people registered to a GP in one PCT may be resident in another PCT, particularly in urban areas; and
immigrants may have registered with GP practices before they appear in ONS mid-year estimates.
These factors have a differential impact from place to place.
Dental Services: Wokingham and Reading
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what spare capacity, expressed in patient numbers, is available for (a) under 18, (b) over 18 fee-paying and (c) over 18 charge-exempt people to register with each dental practice in Wokingham; and if he will make a statement; [159526]
(2) what spare capacity, expressed in patient numbers, is available for (a) under 18, (b) over 18 fee-paying and (c) over 18 charge-exempt people to register with each dental practice in Reading; and if he will make a statement. [159527]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not held centrally.
Departmental Strategies
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 4 September 20067, Official Report, column 2085W, on departmental strategies, when he will publish an urgent care strategy; whether the work being undertaken by the Healthcare Commission as part of its review of urgent and emergency care will inform the urgent care strategy; and to what extent Lord Darzi will consider the provision of urgent care as part of his review of the NHS. [156746]
Mr. Bradshaw: The consultation “Direction of Travel for Urgent Care: a discussion document”, asked staff and service users how urgent care services can be improved in the future to deliver a better patient experience. We will be publishing very soon a summary of the findings of this consultation along with actions we will be taking forward to support the development of urgent care services. Responses to the consultation have informed the NHS Next Stage Review, including the interim report published on 4 October 2007.
The NHS will need to take account of the findings of the Healthcare Commission’s review of urgent and emergency care, when it reports.
Departments: Disabled
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which buildings occupied by his Department (a) are and (b) are not fully accessible to disabled people; and if he will make a statement. [161173]
Dawn Primarolo: The Department occupies six principal buildings, five in London and one in Leeds. All of these buildings are considered by the Department to be fully accessible to disabled persons.
Departments: Internet
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many websites his Department operates; how many it operated at 1 January 2005; and what the estimated annual cost has been of running his Department's websites in the last five years. [157893]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department is unable to provide the data requested for 1 January 2005 and to gather this information would incur disproportionate costs. However, data as at 31 March 2007 is as follows:
The Department currently has ownership of two main websites. They are:
The Department of Health website: www.dh.gov.uk
NHS Choices: www.nhs.uk
In addition to the two main websites above, the Department funds and/or manages a further 111 websites.
The Department is actively engaged in reducing this number of sites, in accordance with the guidelines and timetables set for website rationalisation under Transformational Government. The Department has already shutdown 28 websites and has plans in place to terminate 52 sites out of the 111 figure above. By the end of this project in 2011, all 111 sites will either be
closed or migrated to DH.gov.uk, NHS Choices, NHS Direct, Directgov or Business Link.
To identify the number of agency and non-departmental public body websites associated with the Department of Health, which are not all directly operated by the Department, as at 1 January 2005, would incur disproportionate costs.
The annual costs for including maintenance and project costs for running the Departments websites are:
The Department's website: www.dh.gov.uk
| Annual costs | |
| £ | |
| (1) This includes the cost of contingency arrangements due to the late delivery of the new service, most of which will be recovered in compensation from the supplier. | |
The Department's website: www.nhs.uk
| Annual costs | |
| £ million | |
Costs for previous years are held on legacy systems and to gather this information would incur disproportionate cost.
Other Department of Health websites.
For the additional 111 sites the Department is able to provide an estimated cost for 35 of these sites.
The total estimated cost for these websites in 2006-07 was £699,134. This cost is approximate and cannot be broken down further. It is important to note that some sites include campaign expenditure and start-up funding, and therefore costs will be spread over a period of years. To assemble the statistics for previous years would incur disproportionate cost.
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hits the (a) most popular and (b) least popular website run by his Department has received since 1 January 2007. [157894]
Mr. Bradshaw: The most popular DH website run by the Department since 1 January 2007 is shown in the following table:
| Month (2007) | Most popular website | Number of page impressions |
|
Departmental website (www.dh.gov.uk) | ||
|
Departmental website (www.dh.gov.uk) | ||
|
Departmental website (www.dh.gov.uk) | ||
|
Departmental website (www.dh.gov.uk) | ||
|
Departmental website (www.dh.gov.uk) | ||
|
Departmental website (www.dh.gov.uk) | ||
|
National Health Service Choices (www.nhs.uk) | ||
|
NHS Choices (www.nhs.uk) |
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