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Long-term Care
Mr. French: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he is now ready to publish his consultation paper on making provision for long-term care. [27640]
Mr. Dorrell: The consultation paper will be published shortly.
Mr. Alfred Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will meet the Alzheimer's Disease Society to discuss the Government's consultation paper on long-term care; and what other voluntary organisations he will be consulting. [27451]
Mr. Bowis: When it is published, we shall welcome comments on the consultation paper from all those who have an interest in the proposals it makes.
Drug Abuse
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will publish the report of the task force to review services for drug misusers. [27840]
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Mr. Bowis: The report of the task force, which was chaired by the Reverend Dr. John Polkinghorne, President of Queen's college Cambridge, will be published tomorrow. Copies will be placed in the Library.
Pre-payment Prescriptions
Ms Lynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what evaluation his Department has carried out of the awareness among people with severe asthma of the availability of pre-payment certificates for prescriptions; what steps are being taken to encourage general practitioners and pharmacists to promote the pre-payment scheme; and what assessment he has made of the benefits of the introduction of a weekly pre-payment stamp.[26815]
Mr. Malone: No evaluation has been made, but we are aware of the research being carried out by the National Asthma Campaign and will be interested in the results. Information about the pre-payment certificates is available in the Department's new leaflet HC11 "Help with Health Costs", which is available from general practitioners, pharmacists and national health service trusts. All prescription forms refer to the availability of pre-payment certificates, as does a poster about NHS prescription charges which has been sent to all pharmacists.
We have no plans to introduce a weekly instalment system as this would be costly to administer and would as a result increase the overall cost of the pre-payment certificate. This would defeat the object of ensuring that pre-payment certificates are good value for money for those who need regular medication.
Malcolm Hurlston Corporate Consultancy
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many contracts the Malcolm Hurlston Corporate Consultancy has had from his Department; and if he will provide details. [27275]
Mr. Bowis: Two. I refer the hon. Member to the reply that my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State gave him on 23 April, Official Report, column 104.
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 23 April, Official Report, column 104, on Mr. Nigel Whittaker, what level of remuneration the Malcolm Hurlston Corporate Consultancy will receive; and for how long its services will continue to be provided. [27285]
Mr. Bowis: The level of remuneration is commercial in confidence. The contract is for a project and not a period of time.
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 23 April, Official Report, column 104, on Mr. Nigel Whittaker, how the Malcolm Hurlston Corporate Consultancy was employed; and if there was competition for the contract. [27284]
Mr. Bowis: The contract was placed in accordance with departmental guidance and a number of other teams were considered.
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Beccles and Lowestoft Hospitals
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the impact of eligibility criteria for NHS continuing care on the viability of Beccles and Lowestoft hospitals. [27277]
Mr. Bowis: Health authorities were required to consult key local interests in developing policies and eligibility criteria for meeting continuing health care needs. The hon. Member may wish to contact the chairman of Suffolk health authority for information relating to Beccles and Lowestoft hospitals.
"Choosing with Care"
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many of the recommendations of the Norman Warner report "Choosing with Care" have been carried out. [27279]
Mr. Bowis: Local authorities have reported significant progress on implementing all of the recommendations addressed to them.
All the recommendations addressed specifically to central Government and local authority associations have been implemented or are under longer-term consideration.
Nurses
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is his estimate of the shortfall in nurses in each specialty. [27281]
Mr. Horam: There is not a general nationwide shortage of nursing staff but there are some local nurse shortages in some specialties in some parts of the country. The national health service executive issued annual national education and training planning guidance EL(95)96 on 23 August 1995 to inform education commissioning in 1996-97. Further guidance will be issued this summer.
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many student nurse places have been vacant in each of the last five years; [27280]
- (2) if he will publish figures on the nursing student intake for each of the last five years by region. [27282]
Mr. Horam: This information is not available centrally. The hon. Member may wish to contact the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting, which records data relating to student nurse numbers.
Surplus Property
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 21 March, Official Report, column 321, if he will provide a regional breakdown of the number and value of surplus NHS properties. [27283]
Mr. Horam: The information is shown in the table.
| Region | Number | £ million |
|---|---|---|
| Anglia and Oxford | 71 | 112 |
| Northern and Yorkshire | 182 | 148 |
| North Thames | 113 | 269 |
| North West | 70 | 89 |
| South Thames | 99 | 255 |
| South and West | 105 | 104 |
| Trent | 57 | 80 |
| West Midlands | 179 | 146 |
| Total | 876 | 1,203 |
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NHS Trusts (Finance)
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which trusts were placed on a red light status in relation to their finances in each region in 1995-96. [27274]
Mr. Horam: I refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave him on 22 March, Official Report, column 382.
Social Services (Contracting Out)
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what services provided by local authority social services departments it is his policy not to have contracted out to the independent sector. [27278]
Mr. Bowis: Social services authorities may contract out particular services if the relevant law permits it. Subject to that, our policy is that authorities should arrange for the provision of all services in the most cost-effective way.
Extra-contractual Referrals
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 19 April, Official Report, column 640, if he will publish figures for total expenditure on extra-contractual referrals for each year for which figures are available. [27286]
Mr. Malone: The national health service executive's estimates of outturn expenditure on extra-contractual referrals in England is shown in the table. As the data have been collected on a fast-track basis and for management purposes they are not subjected to the normal validation checks and definitions.
| Estimated total ECR expenditure | Estimated ECR expenditure as a percentage of total health authority expenditure | |
|---|---|---|
| Year | £ million | Percentage |
| 1992-93 | 295 | 1.5 |
| 1993-94 | 350 | 1.7 |
| 1994-95 | 386 | 1.8 |
Deregulation
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if the consultation document, "Deregulation: a Model Appeals Mechanism, Model Provisions with Regard to Appeals against Enforcement Action" applies to residential care homes and services for children under eight years. [27276]
Mr. Bowis: In "Moving Forward", the consultation document for the current review of regulation and inspection of social services, we have asked for views on what changes are necessary to current regulatory
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arrangements to ensure that enforcement mechanisms are fair and effective with particular reference to the principles set out in section 5 and schedule 1 of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994.
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