Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average charge levied by healthcare professionals for written reports requested by patients who require them for (a) setting up power of attorney and (b) other purposes is in each commissioning area.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The information is not held centrally on charges by health professionals, other than general practitioners (GPs).
As regards GPs, they are required under terms of contracts for the provision of National Health Services primary medical services to provide certain medical reports free of charge to their registered patients.
GPs may also provide other services outside of their contract. Regulations prevent a GP for charging a registered patient a fee for treatment under the contract or otherwise, except in certain prescribed circumstances. However, the provision of reports is not classed as treatment. Consequently, GPs are able to charge for those reports which are not deemed free.
The Professional Fees Committee of the British Medical Association (BMA) suggests fees for such services to help doctors set their own professional fees. However, these fees are guidelines only, and a doctor is not obliged to charge the rates suggested. Where doctors intend to charge for services to patients, the BMA advises them to forewarn patients, at the earliest opportunity, of the likely level of fees.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people (a) sought chlamydia screening and (b) tested positive in each local authority in 2012-13.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The table attached contains the number of chlamydia tests and diagnoses made in each Upper Tier local authority in England for the most recent year for which data are available (2012) for 15-24 year olds.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 12 May 2014, Official Report, column 401W, on mental health services, whether the Mental Health Intelligence Network has been established.
Answered by Norman Lamb
The Mental Health Intelligence Network has been established and is due to launch its web resource and a supporting suite of indicator tools and supporting resources on 18 June 2014.
The key aim is to provide intelligence to enable better service commissioning and to support service improvement to facilitate the delivery of consistent country-wide best practice care.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many secure places there are in the South West region for children with mental health conditions involving violent behaviour.
Answered by Norman Lamb
We are advised that there are no secure services for children commissioned by NHS England in the South West. There are services commissioned in other areas used by children from the South West area.
We understand that NHS England has identified a number of actions needed to reduce the number of long distance transfers within the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, and is currently considering how to take this forward including any necessary tendering for services in due course.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the costs of a patient who presents with eye conditions as a first point of call (a) a GP, (b) a hospital eye service, (c) an accident and emergency department and (d) a primary eyecare acute referral scheme.
Answered by Dan Poulter
The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is shown in the following table.
Estimated unit costs of a patient contact , 2012-13
Type of patient contact | Unit cost |
General practitioner (GP) consultation1 | £37 |
First consultant-led appointment in an ophthalmology outpatient clinic2 | £108 |
Accident and emergency attendance3 | £130 |
Primary eyecare acute referral scheme | Not known |
Notes:
1The Department does not collect information on the unit cost of a GP consultation. An estimate of £37 per patient contact lasting 11.7 minutes, including direct care staff costs and excluding qualification costs, is included in page 198 of Unit Costs of Health and Social Care 2013 at www.pssru.ac.uk/project-pages/unit-costs/2013/. The data does not separately identify patients presenting with eye conditions or any other conditions.
2The average unit cost of first, face-to-face, consultant-led contacts in ophthalmology, medical ophthalmology and paediatric ophthalmology, weighted for activity. The information is from reference costs, which are the unit costs to NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts of providing defined services in a given financial year to NHS patients, collected annually and published by the Department for 2012-13 at www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-reference-costs-2012-to-2013
3The average unit of cost of accident and emergency attendances from 2012-13 reference costs. Includes attendances resulting in and not resulting in an admission. Excludes attendances submitted against Healthcare Resource Groups (HRGs) for Emergency Medicine, Dental Care (VB10Z) and Emergency Medicine, No Investigation with No Significant Treatment (VB11Z). The data does not separately identify patients presenting with eye conditions or any other conditions.
Sources:
2012/13 reference costs, Department of Health
Unit Costs of Health and Social Care 2013, Personal Social Services Research Unit