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21 Oct 2008 : Column 314W—continued
NHS: Crimes of Violence
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding is allocated within the NHS for protecting staff from intimidation and violence; what guidance has been issued to trusts on how these funds should be spent; and what safeguards have been put in place to ensure the funding is spent for the purposes for which it is intended. [228809]
Mr. Bradshaw: National health service allocations for individual primary care trusts are not broken down into funding for separate areas such as staff safety, neither is funding received by providers via the national tariff. It is not possible for the Department to make an accurate assessment of the need to spend on individual priorities at the local level and ring fencing of funding would undermine local assessments and decision-making.
Employers have a duty to address the risks to staff and to ensure their safety. The national health service
security management service assist local decisions by providing employers with guidance and support to ensure an effective approach to preventing violence and, where such incidents do occur, to taking action against offenders.
The Department has not centrally monitored the amount spent within the national health service on protecting staff from intimidation and violence.
NHS: Drugs
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance his Department has issued to hospital trusts on the purchasing of medicines in the last five years. [228270]
Dawn Primarolo: The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA) works to ensure that the national health service in England makes the most effective use of its resources by getting the best possible value for money when purchasing goods and services. The prime target is to release money that could be better spent on patient care by achieving purchasing savings and improving supply performance across the NHS. It provides strategic direction and oversees the development of category strategies and seeks to ensure that NHS procurement is delivered through consistent processes. Where sourcing issues require a national lead they will provide that focus on behalf of the Department. A wide range of guidance is published for the use of those involved in NHS procurement and is available on NHS PASA’s website at:
NHS PASA works with trust pharmacists to deliver the procurement of medicines for secondary care via a nationally agreed sourcing strategy. The focus of this work will be to ensure security of supply, delivery of savings and enabling the NHS to realise improvements in the supply chain. Detailed guidance on the procurement of individual medicines is provided where necessary on a case by case basis.
NHS: Finance
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of expenditure in the NHS was spent on (a) administration and (b) monitoring targets in 2007-08. [228096]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department does not collect the specific information requested.
The Department does collect information that will form part of administration and monitoring costs. This includes the cost of administration and clerical staff groups, which (excluding NHS foundation trusts) represented approximately 4 per cent. of the total expenditure of the NHS in the 2007-08 financial year, compared to approximately 5.3 per cent. in the 1997-98 financial year. However, it should be noted that many staff included within this expenditure will have operational rather than purely administrative roles.
In addition, the Department also collects Management Cost information, which (excluding NHS foundation trusts) represented approximately 3 per cent. of the total expenditure of the NHS in the 2007-08 financial year. It should be noted management costs much more than just the cost of administration and monitoring targets.
NHS: Manpower
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of those employed by the NHS were employed in (a) medical posts, (b) administrative posts and (c) posts with both medical and administrative responsibilities in the latest period for which figures are available. [228079]
Ann Keen: The following table shows both the head count and percentage of national health service staff employed as professionally qualified clinical staff, which includes doctors, qualified nursing, qualified scientific, therapeutic and technical staff, and ambulance staff. Numbers and percentages for staff with a medical and administrative background are unavailable.
| NHS hospital and community health services and general practice (GP) work force (excluding GP retainers)—England at 30 September 2007 | ||
| Headcount | Percentage | |
| (1) Excludes GP retainers. (2) Figures exclude HCHS medical hospital practitioners and medical clinical assistants, most of whom are GPs working part time in hospitals who have been excluded to avoid double counting. (3) Nursing and midwifery figures exclude students on training courses leading to a first qualification as a nurse or midwife. Includes GP practice nurses. (4) Examples of staff in central functions are staff in HR, informatics, payroll, and library staff. Examples of staff in Hotel, property and estates are clerical laundry staff, domestic services and home wardens. Examples of staff in ST and T support are clerical staff in audiology, haematology, dietetics and microbiology. Ambulance service support staff are ambulance controllers, training staff and ambulance officers. (5) Other non-medical staff includes ambulance support staff, maintenance and works staff and a small number of other and unknown staff. (6) Other practice staff—there is no breakdown of type of work for headcount data. However type of work is available for full time equivalent practice staff and the majority (over 80 per cent. in 2007) were admin and clerical staff. Data quality: Work force statistics are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in England. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data. Processing methods and procedures are continually being updated to improve data quality. Where this happens any impact on figures already published will be assessed but unless this is significant at national level they will not be changed. Where there is impact only at detailed or local level this will be footnoted in relevant analyses. Sources: 1. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care General and Personal medical services statistics 2. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care Medical and Dental Workforce Census 3. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care Non-Medical Workforce Census | ||
NHS: Reorganisation
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which firms have been contracted to work on the (a) internal communication and (b) external communication with the public aspects of the NHS Next Stage Review; and what the value is of these contracts. [228043]
Ann Keen: The Department has purchased the services of a range of companies in connection with public-facing communications on the national health service next stage review. The project team itself has procured services from 20 companies. These organisations have assisted the project team in a range of areas including the following:
Design and facilitation of review events; and
Communications including production of materials, including the interim and final report, and website management.
The total amount paid to these companies is approximately £3.3 million.
Nurses: General Practitioners
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many (a) nurses and (b) allied health professionals work in GP practices in each London borough; [227789]
(2) how many GP practices there are in each London borough. [227790]
Ann Keen: Information on the number of nurses and general practitioner practices can be found in the following table.
However, information on allied healthcare professionals is not held centrally.
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