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3 Mar 2008 : Column 2095W—continued
Compulsorily Detained Mental Patients
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients held under the provisions of the Mental Health Act 1983 have absconded, including those who subsequently returned to care, since 1997, broken down by mental health trust. [189676]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: This information is not collected centrally.
Dental Services: Barnet
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentists offering NHS services there are in Barnet; how many there were in 1997; and if he will make a statement. [177929]
Mr. Bradshaw: The latest available data are for 2007 by primary care trusts (PCTs). As at 31 March 2007 there were 232 dentists on open national health service contracts in Barnet PCT.
As at 31 March 1997 there were 186 dentists on open NHS contracts in Barnet PCT.
Numbers of dentists by PCT and strategic health authority (SHA) area as at 31 March, 1997 to 2006 are available in annex E of the “NHS Dental Activity and Workforce Report England: 31 March 2006”. This information is based on the old contractual arrangements. This report published 23 August 2006 is available in the Library and is also available at:
The numbers of NHS dentists by PCT and SHA area as at 30 June 2006, 30 September 2006, 31 December 2006 and 31 March 2007 are available in table E1 of annex 3 of the “NHS Dental Statistics for England: 2006-07 report”. This information is based on the new dental contractual arrangements, introduced on 1 April 2006. This report published 23 August 2007 is available in the Library and is also available at:
The inclusion of dentists on trust led contracts in the data collection following the 2006 reforms means that data collected since April 2006 cannot be directly compared with data collected under the previous system.
In both reports published by the Information Centre for health and social care, the work force numbers quoted are headcounts and do not differentiate between full-time and part-time dentists, nor do they account for the fact that some dentists may do more NHS work than others.
The methodology and frequency for reporting workforce information are currently being reviewed. The purpose of the review is to ensure that, following experience of the first year of the new dental contract, figures provide an appropriate measure of the work force, given the way that the workforce reporting system is being used by PCTs. An update on the review was provided in the “NHS Dental Statistics for England, Quarter 2: 30 September 2007” report, published on 28 February 2008.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people are awaiting registration with an NHS dentist in Barnet; and if he will make a statement. [177989]
Mr. Bradshaw: This information is not collected centrally.
Under the old contractual arrangements, which were in place until 2006, patients had to register with an individual dentist. Under the new contractual arrangements, introduced on 1 April 2006, patients do not have to be registered with a dentist to receive national health service care. 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. However, this is not directly comparable to the registration data for earlier years.
The numbers of patients seen by an NHS dentist in the 24-month period ending 31 March 2006, 31 March 2007 and 30 June 2007 are available in table C1 of annex 3 of the “NHS Dental Statistics, Q1 2007-08” report. These are the latest data available by primary care trust and strategic health authority area. This report, published on 28 November 2007 by the Information Centre for health and social care is available in the Library and is also available at:
Departmental Official Hospitality
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent by his Department and its agencies on (a) alcohol and (b) entertaining in the last 12 month period for which information is available. [188064]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department’s guidance to staff on hospitality states that hospitality
“should be modest, and in keeping with the occasion, and justifiable as being necessary for the effective conduct of Departmental business (“wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of” your work)”.
The guidance also states that the provision of alcoholic drinks should be exceptional.
The Department does not routinely collect data at this level of detail, as they are not required for our statutory reporting. A considerable manual exercise would need to be undertaken to separate expenditure on alcohol and entertaining from that relating to internal meetings and staff subsistence claims in order to provide this information. Such an exercise would incur disproportionate costs.
Elderly: Nutrition
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) pursuant to the answer of 13 December 2007, Official Report, column 864W, on the elderly: nutrition, whether the membership of his Department’s Nutrition Action Plan Delivery Board has been decided; [185597]
(2) if he will include a National Patient Safety Agency representative on the Nutrition Action Plan Delivery Board. [190245]
Mr. Ivan Lewis:
Yes. The membership of the Nutrition Action Plan Delivery Board, which met for the first time on 12 February, is shown in the following table. The Board consists of a Core Group, chaired by Gordon Lishman, Director General of Age Concern.
There will also be five sub-groups, each chaired by a member of the Core Group (one for each of the key priority actions listed in the Nutrition Action Plan).
| Core group members | ||
|
Chair-British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition | ||
Minutes of the meeting on February 12 will be placed on the Department’s website in due course.
The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) is in contact with the Department on a regular basis to account for policy developments on nutrition and other patient safety issues. Anything we learn from the NPSA will be used to brief the Nutrition Action Plan Delivery Board.
General Practitioners
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department made of the cost of the new contract for general practitioners that came into effect in April 2004 before its introduction; and how much it cost in each subsequent year. [188311]
Mr. Bradshaw: Negotiators at the outset of the original nGMS contract agreed to a guaranteed 36 per cent. increase in minimum levels of investment over the three year period ending 2005-06 through the Gross Investment Guarantee to support the introduction of a new general practitioner contract that delivered higher quality care and an increased range of services for patients.
In costing the entirety of new contract costs including spend against actual resources allocated to primary care trusts (PCTs) over the same period, spend was actually 52 per cent. Measurement of spend against the Gross Investment Guarantee (the minimum level of investment agreed by negotiators) should not be confused with spend against actual resources allocated to PCTs.
Actual spend in each year and the guaranteed minimum investment are shown in the following table.
| Spend on primary medical care services compared with the Gross Investment Guarantee | |||||
| £ million | |||||
| 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
| n/a = not applicable Note: Actual spend in 2002-03 was £4,893 million but to allow comparability with the £191 million expected spend on enhanced services under the new contract, £191 million was added to produce the 2002-03 baseline figure. | |||||
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire of 30 October 2007, Official Report, column 1222W, on general practitioners, what progress the NHS Next Stage Review has made in examining the different domains of the Quality and Outcomes Framework; what interim findings have emerged from the Review; whether he expects changes to be made to the process for reviewing the Quality and Outcomes Framework for the (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11 financial years; and if he will make a statement; [189439]
(2) if he will make it his policy that reviews of the Quality and Outcomes Framework take place for each new financial year; [189466]
(3) when he expects the review of the Quality and Outcomes Framework for the 2009-10 financial year to begin; and if he will make a statement. [189468]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is kept under constant review. Changes to the QOF are made as part of wider general medical services contract negotiations between NHS Employers and the General Practitioners Committee, which provides an opportunity to make changes in each new financial year.
Lord Darzi’s interim findings from the Next Stage Review were published on 4 October 2007. The interim report announced the development of a strategy for primary and community care services. A copy of the interim report is available in the Library. As part of the development of this strategy the Review will consider how to reshape incentives to provide a stronger focus on health outcomes and continuous quality improvement; whether there should be an independent process for setting and reviewing outcomes measures in the framework; and whether there should be greater flexibility for primary care trusts in setting outcomes that reflect local needs and priorities.
The NHS Next Stage Review is ongoing and the outcome will be published later this year.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) GP surgeries and (b) health centres have closed in each of the last 10 years. [180385]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department does not collect centrally the numbers of closures of general practitioner (GP) surgeries or health centres. These data are held locally by primary care trusts.
However, we do collect data on numbers of GP practices, and practitioners, at a given date for each year. These are set out in the following table:
| Number of GP practices in England, as at 1997-2006 | ||
| Total GP practices | Total number of GPs( 1) | |
| (1) Excluding GP registrars and GP retainers Note: Data as at 1 October 1997-99, 30 September 2000-06 Source: The Information Centre for Health and Social Care—General and Personal Medical Services Statistics | ||
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