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25 Mar 2008 : Column 23W—continued
NHS
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish a breakdown of the (a) costs to date and (b) estimated final costs of the NHS next stage review. [190926]
Ann Keen: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave to the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field) on 4 March 2008, Official Report, column 2379W.
NHS: Drugs
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) by what mechanism he claws back excess payments to pharmacy contractors in respect of category M dispensing of medicines; and how much was clawed back in (a) 2005-06, (b) 2006-07 and (c) each quarter of 2007-08; [192654]
(2) when he expects to answer Question 192654, tabled on 4 March for answer on 6 March. [196392]
Dawn Primarolo:
Since the introduction of the community pharmacy contractual framework in April 2005, the Department has undertaken a number of surveys of a stratified sample of invoices and statements
of a sample of independent contractors. As a result of these surveys, the reimbursement prices of medicines paid to contractors are adjusted against the price levels that prevailed in March 2005—immediately prior to the implementation of the new framework.
In addition, adjustments are also made to reimbursement prices to take account of the reduction in market prices that usually occurs in the months after the introduction of a generic medicine following patent expiry of an in-patent medicine.
In the period 1 April 2005 to 30 September 2007 the target reduction in category M medicines expenditure was £1.05 billion by reference to March 2005 prices. The reduction calculated on that basis was £1.089 billion with the difference being balanced against an adjustment to practice fees payable by primary care trusts.
To include medicines joining category M since April 2005, the planned, further reduction of £100 million per quarter from 1 October 2007 was implemented by reference to July 2007 prices. A reduction of £96.9 million was achieved on this basis for the period 1 October 2007 to 31 December 2007—the last quarter for which data are available.
A survey for the period April 2007 to 2008 is currently in hand.
These reductions are summarised in the following table:
| £ million | ||||
| Period | Actual cost | Cost at March 2005 prices | Cost at July 2007 prices | Reduction |
NHS: Finance
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much NHS funding has been allocated to (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England in each year since 1997. [195230]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department makes revenue allocations to primary care trusts (PCTs) and not to constituencies. PCT revenue allocations were first made in 2003-04, prior to this, funding was allocated to health authorities.
The revenue allocations made to South Tyneside PCT, to the PCTs in the North East Strategic Health Authority (SHA) area and the England figures for the period 2003-04 to 2008-09 are provided in the following table.
| Allocation | ||||||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | |
| £000 | ||||||
The revenue allocations made to Gateshead and South Tyneside health authority and the total England
figures for the years 1996-97 to 2002-03 are provided in the following table.
| Allocation | |||||||
| 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999- 20 00 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | |
| £000 | |||||||
| Notes: Comparisons between allocation rounds cannot be made for the following reasons: Revenue allocations were made to health authorities for the period 1996-97 to 2002-03; Changes are made to the weighted capitation formula for each allocations round, therefore, comparisons would not be on a like-for-like basis; 2003-06 revenue allocations were made direct to PCTs, for the first time, and were on a three yearly basis; and 2006-08 is the first year that primary medical services were incorporated into revenue allocations. | |||||||
NHS: ICT
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effect on the timetable of the NHS IT programme of the buy out of iSoft by IBA Healthcare. [195347]
Mr. Bradshaw: The purchase of iSoft by IBA has not adversely impacted on the delivery time scales for the Lorenzo solution to the national health service. Computer Sciences Corporation, the local service provider are responsible for the management of their sub-contractors, and the delivering of the NHS Care Record Service solution in accordance with their contractual obligations. There have been no timetable changes attributable to the transfer of ownership from iSoft to IBA.
NHS: Internet
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the purpose of the NHS Choices website is; how many pages of content are currently available on the NHS Choices website; and how many unique visitors to the NHS Choices website there were in each month between June 2007 and February 2008. [195806]
Mr. Bradshaw: NHS Choices is the national health service's online service for the public—the digital wing of the NHS. It is a response to the 21st century challenges of achieving better health and delivering high quality personalised services for all, amid ever-increasing demands on a resource-constrained NHS.
As the online service for all communication with citizens on health, it has been designed specifically with the consumer in mind. The information on NHS Choices is all NHS accredited and written in plain English. It is accompanied by videos, user comments and a growing range of interactive tools which allow users to test and monitor their health and well-being. The information held on NHS Choices is designed so that general practitioners and others can print it off for people who don't have internet access.
There are in the region of 100,000 pages of content available on NHS Choices.
The total unique visitors to the NHS Choices website by month are as follows:
| Number | |
| (1) Not complete—service went live mid-June 2007. | |
NHS: Manpower
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what expenditure on non-NHS staff was (a) in total and (b) broken down by each NHS organisation in each year since 1997-98; and what proportion of the NHS pay bill this represented in each case. [192429]
Ann Keen: The information requested has been placed in the Library. Data by organisation are shown for 2000-01 onwards.
NHS: Medical Treatments
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department plans to issue guidance to the NHS on the provision of information to patients on treatments not available on the NHS. [190519]
Ann Keen: The Department is considering the implementation of an information accreditation scheme. The scheme would be open to all producers of health and social care information including information on conditions and treatments, some of which might not be available on the national health service. Membership of the scheme would be based on compliance with a nationally developed standard for information production. This would help information producers improve the quality of information available to people and an associated quality mark would help information users to identify reliable sources of information.
Nurses: Schools
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the ratio of fully-qualified school nurses to the number of schools was in England in each year since 1997-98 for which figures are available. [188310]
Ann Keen: The Public Health White Paper, “Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier”, published in November 2004, includes the commitment to provide new funding so that by 2010 every primary care trust, working with children’s trusts and local authorities, will be resourced to have at least one full-time, year-round, qualified school nurse working with each cluster or group of primary schools and the related secondary school, taking account of health needs and school populations.
The annual national health service work force census collected accurate information on the number of school nurses employed by the NHS in England for the first time in 2004. The ratios are shown in the following table.
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