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1 July 2009 : Column 332W—continued
Cancer: Health Services
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the graph in figure 15 of page 119 of his Department's Cancer Reform Strategy, published on 3 December 2007, how much and what proportion of funding has been spent under each heading in each year since 1997-98. [283251]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not routinely available.
The estimated total national health service spend on cancer care represented in the graph on page 119 of the Cancer Reform Strategy was an analysis commissioned specifically for inclusion in the Strategy. It was based on a wide range of data from 2005-06, and the sources of this data are quoted in the Strategy. An estimated NHS spend on cancer care under the same categories of that graph is not available for any other years, and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the use of exceptional case requests in England for anti-nausea treatments used to support patients receiving chemotherapy. [283285]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: We have made no such assessment.
Cancer: Screening
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps are being taken to increase the uptake of screening for cancer in Staffordshire. [283229]
Ann Keen: This information is not collected centrally. It is for strategic health authorities and primary care trusts to determine how to most effectively meet the needs of their local populations.
Cardiovascular System: Screening
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when he expects the national awareness-raising campaign for vascular checks to commence; [282873]
(2) what further work his Department is undertaking on the choice of delivery options and roll-out plans for its vascular checks programme; [282970]
(3) pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for North Norfolk of 12 February 2009, Official Report, column 2165W, on cardiovascular system: screening, whether his Department is monitoring the settings from which vascular checks are being commissioned in each primary care trust area; and if he will make a statement. [283023]
Ann Keen: The Government are committed to raising awareness but will consider the exact timing in light of the progress of implementing NHS Health Checks so as not to raise expectations before they can be fully met.
The Department published “Putting prevention first—vascular checks: risk assessment and management—next steps guidance for primary care trusts” on vascular checks in November 2008. It states that:
‘It is important that PCTs devise and use a model (of delivery) that is best suited to their population and that when doing so they consider tackling health inequalities that exist within their area’.
A copy of this document has been placed in the Library.
To ensure that the NHS Health Check programme is accessible to all those eligible, and to help reduce health inequalities, it has been designed so that the basic risk assessment and management components are suitable to be undertaken in a variety of settings, for example pharmacies and community centres as well as general practitioner (GP) practices. This means that people who are not in touch regularly with formal health care, particularly GP services, will be encouraged to access the checks at convenient locations and times. In addition to the guidance which the Department has already issued to primary care trusts (PCTs), it has been working with PCTs, through the Learning Network hosted by NHS Improvement, to help ensure that the experience and learning of developing and implementing different delivery models for the checks is shared across the country. The evaluation will consider the contribution that different providers of NHS Health Checks make to the delivery of the programme.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he has taken to inform primary care trusts of the unit costs of delivering vascular checks in different settings. [282971]
Ann Keen: The NHS Health Check impact assessment, a copy of has been which placed in the Library, breaks down the costs of the check into two main areas: costs of the personnel who perform the assessments and costs of various testing procedures. This information could be used, with local data, to estimate the cost of providing the NHS Health Check in various settings and by different personnel.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department has undertaken market research on the settings in which different categories of patients may wish to receive vascular checks. [282972]
Ann Keen: A qualitative research project was commissioned by the Central Office of Information on behalf of the Department in October 2008 to consider the motivations and barriers to taking up an invitation to a check among higher risk groups. The primary purpose of this research was to help inform the development of the communications materials to support the NHS Health Check programme.
General practice has a central role to play in delivering the NHS Health Check programme. This is because the patient record held by the general practitioners (GPs) will be the repository of all information generated by the NHS Heath Check and also GP surgeries have always been regarded as one of the principal settings for delivery of these health checks. However, some people prefer to access these types of services in different settings for reasons of convenience and so the check has designed so that it is suitable to be undertaken in a variety of settings, for example pharmacies and community centres as well as GP practices.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what recent assessment he has made of his Department's guidelines for the treatment of myalgic encephalopathy compared to international best practice; [283105]
(2) what recent representations he has received on the revision of treatment guidelines for myalgic encephalopathy issued to trusts by his Department. [283106]
Ann Keen: The Department has not issued guidelines for the treatment of myalgic encephalopathy. Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis were published in 2007 by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. They would have responsibility for revising this guidance.
Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence to publish its revised Citizen Engagement strategy. [280791]
Ann Keen: The Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence published a Public Stakeholder Plan in November 2008, which is available on its website at:
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what travel costs patient and service user groups may reclaim from the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence when attending meetings of the Council. [280854]
Ann Keen: The Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) provides travel costs for Council members, all of whom are lay, to attend council meetings. CHRE does not provide travel costs to patient and service user groups attending its public council meetings as observers. When the council holds consultative meetings to which it invites members of the public and representatives of patient and service user groups, it reimburses the travel costs of those who attend if they are self financing or unemployed.
Dental Services: South Yorkshire
Jeff Ennis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent estimate he has made of the number of (a) adults and (b) children without access to NHS dental services in (i) Barnsley and (ii) Doncaster in each of the last five years. [282783]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not collected centrally. It is for primary care trusts (PCTs) to assess local need and demand for national health service dental services and commission the appropriate services.
All 10 strategic health authorities have set themselves the aim of providing access to NHS dentistry for all who seek it by March 2011 at the latest. We are supporting PCTs to meet this aim with extra resources—an 11 per cent. uplift in our dental funding allocations for 2008-09, and a further 8.5 per cent. uplift in total funds for 2009-10, which takes the total available for dental allocations to £2,257 million (net of patient charge income).
We have also set up an expanded national dental access programme, headed by Dr. Mike Warburton an experienced clinician and manager, to support managers and clinicians to rapidly expand services where needed.
“NHS dental service in England: An independent review led by Professor Jimmy Steele”, published on 22 June recommends a series of further actions to support access and quality. Piloting of the recommendations will begin from this autumn. This report has already been placed in the Library and is also available at:
Dentistry: Staffordshire
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the adequacy of NHS dentistry provision in (a) Tamworth and (b) Staffordshire. [282487]
Ann Keen:
The numbers of courses of treatments (CoTs) and units of dental activity (UDAs) performed by national health service dentists, in England, are available in table C6 of annex 3 of the ‘NHS Dental
Statistics for England: Quarter 3, 31 December 2008’ report. Information is available for 2006-07 and quarterly since 2007-08.
Information on the number of patients seen in the most recent 24-month period is available in table D3 of annex 3 of the ‘NHS Dental Statistics for England, Quarter 3, 31 December 2008’ report. Information is provided at quarterly intervals from 31 March 2006 to 31 December 2008.
This report, published on 21 May 2009, has already been placed in the Library and is also available on the Information Centre for health and social care website at:
Information for the first three quarters of 2008-09 remain provisional as they are revised in each subsequent report to account for treatments reported too late for inclusion in the previous quarterly report. In the end of year report, published in the August following the end of the financial year, all quarterly activity data are revised for a final time.
Further information on CoTs and UDAs is contained in the above report.
The numbers of dentists with NHS activity during the years ending 31 March 2007 and 2008 are available in table G1 of annex 3 of the ‘NHS Dental Statistics for England: 2007/08’ report. This report, published on 21 August 2008, has already been placed in the Library and is also available on the Information Centre for health and social care website at:
Following a recent consultation exercise, this measure is based on a revised methodology and therefore supersedes previously published workforce figures relating to the new dental contractual arrangements, introduced on 1 April 2006. It is not comparable to the information collected under the old contractual arrangements. This revised methodology counted the number of dental performers with NHS activity recorded via FP17 claim forms in each year ending 31 March.
Workforce figures relate to 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.
Information in both reports is provided by primary care trust (PCT) and strategic health authority (SHA) but is not available by constituency. They are based on the PCT boundaries which came into effect on 1 October 2006.
All 10 SHAs have set themselves the aim of providing access to NHS dentistry for all who seek it by March 2011 at the latest.
We are supporting PCTs to meet this aim with extra resources—an 11 per cent. uplift in our dental funding allocations for 2008-09, and a further 8.5 per cent. uplift in total funds for 2009-10, which takes the total available for dental allocations to £2,257 million (net of patient charge income).
We have also set up an expanded national dental access programme, headed by Dr. Mike Warburton, an experienced clinician and manager, to support managers and clinicians to rapidly expand services where needed.
The report of the Independent Review of Dentistry in England, ‘NHS Dental Services in England’, published on 22 June 2009, recommends a series of further actions
to support access and quality. A copy has already been placed in the Library. Piloting of the recommendations will begin from this autumn.
Departmental Billing
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 1 June 2009, Official Report, column 113W, on departmental billing, how much his Department’s non-departmental public bodies have paid in interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 in the last three years. [282327]
Phil Hope: The information is shown in the following table.
| £ | |||
| Non-departmental public bodies | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 |
| (1 )NHS Professionals are unable to specify exact amounts without disproportionate work, but it is known to be less than £500. | |||
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