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19 Nov 2008 : Column 537W—continued
Patient Choice Schemes
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which primary care trusts use NHS Direct as their Choose and Book appointments line. [236955]
Mr. Bradshaw: All primary care trusts have the facility to use the Choose and Book appointments line run by NHS Direct on behalf of the national health service.
While the vast majority of primary care trusts use this service for all of their calls, five primary care trusts have taken the operational decision to only use it for out of hours services between the period 07.00 to 09.00 and 17.00 to 22.00 hours Monday to Friday and 07.00 to 22.00 on a Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays.
Where primary care trusts take the decision to organise their own service outside of the nationally provided arrangement, the service is funded locally by the primary care trust.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average cost per call to the NHS Direct National Choose and Book appointments line was in each of the last three years; and how much income the service generated in each year. [237164]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department does not collect information on the cost incurred by individual patients calling the national 0845 608 8888 number. The actual cost incurred by patients will vary depending on whether a patient calls from a landline or mobile and what cost tariff they are on with the phone service provider. The National Choose and Book Appointment Line do not generate any income from patient calls made to the service.
Patients can also book their appointment, free of charge, either via the internet or in their general practitioner (GP) surgery at the time of their referral by the GP.
The cost to NHS Direct of providing the National Choose and Book Appointment Line service is paid for from national health service financial resources.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health in what proportion of appointments booked via the NHS Direct National Choose and Book appointments line a hard copy confirmation of the booking was posted to the patient within two days in each of the last 36 months. [237165]
Mr. Bradshaw: The NHS Direct choose and book appointments line are not responsible for posting a hard copy confirmation of a patient's booking. Details of a patient's appointment are conveyed over the telephone when patients choose to book their appointment in this way, with clinical details about a patient's appointment sent by the provider of their choice who in most cases will send the patient a hard copy confirmation of their booking.
Prescriptions
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of prescription items were dispensed to patients as repeat prescriptions in (a) Vale of York constituency and (b) England in the last three years. [233208]
Phil Hope: The Department does not hold the information regarding the percentage of prescriptions which are issued as repeat prescriptions.
Quality Adjusted Life Year
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the progress on the research commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) from the National Institute for Health Research to consider public opinion on NICE's use of the Quality Adjusted Life Year as a basis for its recommendations. [234674]
Dawn Primarolo: We have made no such assessment. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is an independent organisation and is responsible for considering the impact of research on its methods and processes.
NICE commissioned the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to conduct two pieces of research into the use of the Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY). The ‘What is the value to society of a QALY?’ report was published in July 2008 and ‘The relative societal value of health gains to different beneficiaries’ report was published in August 2008.
Sight Impaired
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many registered blind people there are, broken down by (a) region and (b) constituency; and if he will make a statement. [235925]
Phil Hope: Data on the number of registered blind and partially sighted people are not collected centrally by constituency but are available for councils with adult social services responsibilities and Government office regions.
Information collected 31 March 2008, shows that 153,000 people were on the register of blind people, a slight increase of around 500 (0.3 per cent.) from March 2006 although there were 10,200 new registrations to the register of blind people, a fall of 5 per cent. compared to 2006.
The following table shows the number of blind and partially sighted people registered with councils with adult social services responsibilities in England.
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