HC Deb 15 June 2000 vol 351 cc671-2W
Mr. Peter Bottomley

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many responses to his consultation on the future of the NHS made reference to mental health or to mental illness; [125369]

  1. (2) how many responses he received (a) in time and (b) out of time to his recent consultation on the future of the National Health Service; [125368]
  2. (3) when and in what way he expects to announce a summary of the responses to the recent questionnaire on the NHS; [125374]
  3. (4) how many responses to his consultation on the future of the NHS made reference to the medical needs and extra costs of patients aged over 85 years; [125370]
  4. (5) what way NHS mental health patients were included in the consultation on the future of the NHS; [125372]
  5. (6) if he will issue questionnaires to 12 million people relating to his top three priorities for mental health reform. [125367]

Mr. Viggers

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff consultation papers, "Have Your Say on a Better NHS", were distributed to the consultees by 4 June; and how many were received back by the closing date of 5 June. [125771]

Mr. Denham

The consultation process included written consultation with key national organisations; telephone consultation and two seminars with patient groups; use of NHS Direct; and issues emerging from the regional consultation process.

As part of the overall consultation strategy, in the week leading up to National Health Census day on 31 May 2000, 12 million consultation leaflets were made available at supermarkets, high street chemists and other NHS facilities. There were one million staff leaflets and 11 million public leaflets. It was also published on the worldwide web.

For those who may have had difficulty reading the text or completing the form in these formats, the leaflet was also made available on tape with the facility to either record responses on the tape or by dictating over the telephone. There have been eight requests for the tape, none of which have used the telephone facility.

The total cost of the design, printing and distribution of the leaflet was £475,487.

200,960 leaflets have been received so far. In addition, 7,385 e-mails have been received. 1,663 letters have been received. NHS Direct has received 654 responses. In total, responses received so far are 210,662.

Of the responses received and analysed to date, 1,975 made reference to mental health or mental illness. 3,707 made reference to care of the elderly. A review of a sample of early responses showed that suggestions related to the elderly did not mention specific threshold ages.

We plan to make public a summary of responses when we have worked through the analysis in more detail. We do not have plans to issue a further questionnaire to 12 million on mental health priorities.

Mr. Webb

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many survey forms were issued to NHS staff and patients; and how many were returned(a) by the initial closing date and (b) to date. [125797]

Mr. Denham

[holding answer 13 June 2000]Of the 12 million leaflets made available to staff and the public, 200,960 have been returned so far.

The results of these submissions will be reported to the meeting of the modernisation action teams working on the national plan. All responses will be incorporated into developing the national plan.

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