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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
25 Mar 2008 : Column 24W
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

April 2005 to March 2006

1,087.7

1,412.1

0

324.4

April 2006 to March 2007

1,326.8

1,797.8

0

471.0

April to June 2007

378.1

494.7

0

116.6

July to September 2007

327.0

504.1

0

177.1

October to December 2007

261.9

0

358.8

96.9


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

South Tyneside PCT

158,322

173,831

189,955

222,991

243,791

257,106

North East SHA

2,516,147

2,756,923

3,009,557

3,588,123

3,920,663

4,134,810

England

45,027,181

49,328,244

53,924,975

64,309,595

70,354,697

74,197,470


25 Mar 2008 : Column 25W

The revenue allocations made to Gateshead and South Tyneside health authority and the total England
25 Mar 2008 : Column 26W
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

Gateshead and South Tyneside HA

170,856

178,359

187,624

255,537

278,161

300,845

332,463

England

20,886,002

21,816,441

22,895,307

31,192,915

34,234,888

37,157,382

41,468,469

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

June 2007

(1)

July 2007

778,124

August 2007

811,947

September 2007

728,415

October 2007

885,071

November 2007

898,502

December 2007

653,236

January 2008

1,037,423

February 2008

1,090,331

(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.


25 Mar 2008 : Column 27W

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.

Headcount Full-time equivalent
2004 2005 2006 2004 2005 2006

Number of secondary schools in England

3,409

3,385

3,367

3,409

3,385

3,367

School Nursing Service Nurses

2,409

2,887

2,968

1,619

1,913

2,053

Of which:

Nurses with a post registration school nursing qualification

856

943

1,129

607

665

815

Ratio (School Nursing Service Nurses)

0.71

0.85

0.88

0.47

0.57

0.61

Ratio (Nurses with post registration school nursing qualification

0.25

0.28

0.34

0.18

0.20

0.24

Sources:
Number of schools from the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
The Information Centre for health and social care, Non-Medical Workforce Census, General and Personal Medical Services Statistics.

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