| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
19 Nov 2007 : Column 611W—continued
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many full-time equivalent staff have been employed to answer calls at NHS Direct in each financial year since the service was established. [162858]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the following table. Further information may be available directly from the Chairman of NHS Direct NHS Trust.
| Date | ( 1) Staff in Post |
| (1)Total staff includes Health Advisors and Nurse Advisors. | |
NHS Treatment Centres: Cornwall
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects his Department’s review of the information it releases in relation to primary care trusts’ contracts with independent sector treatment providers in Cornwall to be completed, as referred to in the answer of 29 October 2007, Official Report, column 1026W, on health services: private sector. [162994]
Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 12 November 2007]: The Department published contract information on wave 1 independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs) on 15 November 2007, Official Report, column 79WS.
There is one contract with an independent sector provider in Cornwall. Information on the content is provided in the following table.
| ISTC phase 1 contractual information (as at end of September 2007-08) | |
| Contractual information | |
|
Contract utilisation to date (30 September 2007) (percentage) | |
|
Total contracted procedures broken down by health resource group (HRG) chapter | |
| Notes: 1. The total contract value represents the estimated nominal value at the time of signing, calculated in accordance with an estimate of the inflation index as specified in each contract. 2. The contracted activity is indicative only and can vary significantly from actual activity through substitution of higher or lower value procedures across the contract term. 3. Utilisation represents the percentage value of the contract which has been utilised from contract commencement to the end of September 2007-08. 4. Utilisation percentage may change following contract reconciliation which occurs at the end of each contract quarter and year. 5. All information provided has been based on the most up to date information at the time of submission. 6. The specialties are referenced to HRG chapter. “General Surgery” includes HRG chapters E, G, J, K, P, Q and S. HRG information is available at www.ic.nhs.uk/casemix 7. This information is expected to be updated on a quarterly basis. 8. The Department works with sponsors and providers to ensure optimum utilisation of the contracts. This includes changing the case mix to respond to local need and working with providers and primary care trusts to recover previous under-utilised activity where possible. In addition to the work we are doing across all ISTCs to improve utilisation we are also taking the following action: Bodmin NHS Treatment Centre The strategic health authority (SHA) and the Department of Health (DH) are working closely to ensure Royal Cornwall Trust transfer waiting list patients to the ISTC to achieve an 18 week wait. DH is agreeing a contract change to allow the ISTC to treat patients needing diagnostic endoscopies to achieve a two week wait in cancer referrals. The provider (Capio) is targeting GPs with a marketing campaign to improve direct referrals. 9. If the hon. Member has any questions relating to this release of information please contact Lara Vodanovich at the Department of Health on 0207 633 7626. | |
NHS: Billing
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of invoices were paid on time in each year since 1997 by (a) NHS trusts, (b) primary care trusts, (c) ambulance trusts, (d) strategic health authorities, (e) other NHS organisations and (f) the NHS. [164615]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is provided in the following table:
| Invoices Paid within the Better Payment Practice Code Target | ||||||||||
| Percentage | ||||||||||
| 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
NHS: Dental Services
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of the population in each primary care trust area has access to NHS dentistry; and how many dentists in each area accept NHS patients. [165091]
Ann Keen: Numbers of patients seen by a national health service dentist in the previous 24 months as a percentage of the population are available in Table C2 of Annex 3 of the NHS “Dental Statistics for England: 2006-07” report. Information is available for the 24 month periods ending 31 March 2006 and 31 March 2007.
Numbers of dentists on open NHS contracts are available in Table El of Annex 3 of the report. Information is shown as at 30 June, 30 September, 31 December 2006 and 31 March 2007. In both tables
information is available for primary care trust and strategic health authority level.
The report is available in the Library and is available at:
Published numbers are headcounts and do not differentiate between full and part-time dentists, nor do they account for the fact that some dentists may do more NHS work than others.
Although we do not hold information on the number of dentists accepting new patients, a review of dentistry in London, published on 1 November by the Greater London Authority found that, out of 1,223 NHS dentists identified in the study, only 150 were not taking on any new patients.
NHS: Finance
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much was provided by strategic health authorities in 2006-07 as funding support to trusts in financial difficulties, broken down by trust; and on what basis such funding support was given; [163361]
(2) what cash income injections (a) his Department and (b) strategic health authorities provided to trusts in financial difficulties in each of the last three years; [163362]
(3) what plans his Department has to provide cash income injections for trusts in financial difficulties. [163390]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information has been placed in the Library.
2004-05 planned support from NHS Bank and internally generated from within the health economy
2005-06 planned support from NHS Bank and internally generated from within health economy
2006-07 Resource Account and Budgeting reversals
2006-07 loans given to national health service trusts
2006-07 additional cash limits given to primary care trusts.
From 2006-07, we have introduced greater transparency into the NHS financial system, not least by ending the practice of moving money around the NHS. We have abolished brokerage and planned support, both of which may, in the past, have masked deficits in individual organisations. Whilst in the short term this will have exposed some financial problems in the health care system, our action also means that organisations now have to address these. Strategic health authorities have no right to offer planned support any longer so there are no plans to offer those trusts in financial difficulties any further income injections.
At the end of 2006-07 NHS trusts were given back RAB income deductions made in 2006-07 as a result of overspending in 2005-06.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much of the underlying demand cost pressure on the NHS in (a) cash terms and (b) percentage terms results from achieving and sustaining the 18 week referral to treatment waiting time target. [163372]
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |