§ Mr. MichaelTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many consultant obstetricians are employed by the national health service in each regional health authority in England; and what is the number on a whole-time equivalent basis in the current year and in each of the past five years.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe information requested is given in the table:
new contract will, in time, provide helpful information on the extent to which minor surgery has expanded in general practice.
§ Mr. Michael MorrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the operations in which general practitioners are now required to have competence to qualify for inclusion in the minor surgery list; and whether there have been any changes from the original list in the White Paper "Working for Patients".
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe procedures in which GPs must be competent before gaining admission to the minor surgery list are set out in the table. There have been no changes to the original list which appeared as schedule 1B of the NHS (GMPS) Regulations 1974 (as amended). However, we have recently agreed to amend the list of procedures by removing ligation of varicose veins.
Minor surgery procedures
Injections
173W
- intra articular
- peri articular
- varicose veins
- haemorrhoid
Aspirations
- joints
- cysts
- bursae
- hydrocele
Incisions
- abcesses
- cysts
- thrombosed piles
Excisions
- sebaceous cysts
- lipoma
- skin lesions for histology
- intradermal naevi, papilloma, dermatofibroma and similar conditions
- warts
- ganglions
- removal of toe nails (partial and complete)
Currette cautery and cryocautery
- warts and verrucae
- other skin lesions (eg molluscum contagiosum)
Other
- ligation of varicose veins
- removal of foreign bodies
- nasal cautery