NHS: Foreign Workers
Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what factors he took into account in respect of workforce planning in the NHS in determining his proposed changes to immigration rules. [70484]
Mr Simon Burns: The Home Office is the lead Department on immigration and any changes to the immigration rules are ultimately made by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May).
The Home Office reviewed Tier 1, 2 and the student route (Tier 4) of the Points Based System. The Department worked closely with the Home Office to mitigate the effects of the proposals on health care professionals.
To improve the effectiveness of workforce planning the Department of Health has developed a Centre for Workforce Intelligence. They will provide a single, authoritative and expert resource on workforce development planning for all parts of the national health service and social care system.
Organs: Donors
Mr Brine: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking together with pharmacists to encourage organ donor registration. [70184]
Anne Milton: NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is the organ donation organisation for the United Kingdom and is responsible for matching and allocating donated organs. To promote registration to the organ donor register (ODR) at both a national and local level, NHSBT work with a number of partners in the private, public and third sectors.
Through these partnerships, opportunities to sign up to the ODR are universally available to everyone in the UK via national initiatives. For example, each year NHSBT mail out posters and ODR recruitment leaflets to all pharmacies in the UK. The last mailing was completed in March 2011 and included 14,025 pharmacies. NHSBT had 4,920 forms returned of which 1,805 have been converted into new registrations.
Pharmacy
Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to replace the 100-hour rule for new pharmacies with the pharmaceutical needs assessment. [70815]
Mr Simon Burns: As part of the implementation of the Health Act 2009, an independent Advisory Group was set up in July 2009 to assist in developing new regulations for entry based on local assessments of pharmaceutical needs. Details of the group's work can be found at:
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/Primarycare/Communitypharmacy/RegulationsAdvisoryGroup/index.htm
Ministers are considering carefully the question of whether, and when, we should move to a system of national health service market entry based on local assessments of pharmaceutical need. This includes whether or not the current exemptions to the control of entry test should continue.
Surgery
Margot James: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how his Department monitors outcomes for vascular surgery; [70473]
(2) what assessment he has made of outcomes for vascular surgery in (a) Dudley Primary Care Trust, (b) Walsall Primary Care Trust and (c) Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust. [70474]
Mr Simon Burns: The Department does not monitor outcomes for vascular surgery. One of the key standards of the national health service Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) screening programme is that all surgeons treating patients identified through the NHS AAA screening programme must submit data to the National Vascular Database and participate in regular reviews of their practice and outcomes.
Surgery: West Midlands
Margot James: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the reconfiguration of vascular surgery in the Black Country. [70472]
8 Sep 2011 : Column 827W
Mr Simon Burns: The Department has not undertaken an assessment of the reconfiguration of vascular surgery in the Black Country. The reconfiguration in the Black Country is part of a wider review of vascular services being led by the national health service at the local level.
The Government are committed to devolving power to local communities—to the people, patients, general practitioners (GPs) and councils who are best placed to
8 Sep 2011 : Column 828W
determine the nature of their local NHS services. The Government have pledged that, in future, all service changes must be led by clinicians and patients, not be driven from the top down. To this end, we have outlined new, strengthened criteria that we expect decisions on NHS service changes to meet. They must focus on improving patient outcomes, consider patient choice, have support from GP commissioners and be based on sound clinical evidence.