HC Deb 27 February 2003 vol 400 cc703-4W
Mr. Hancock

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on nurse recruitment in the Portsmouth area in the last three months. [98348]

Ms Blears

In addition to undertaking a tender procurement exercise to set up a national health service e-recruitment project, the Department of Health is launching the 2003 national recruitment campaign for the NHS in February. The purpose of the national campaign is to provide a national brand for the NHS that is flexible and can be adapted at a local level to increase the impact of local recruitment activities.

I am advised that at local level within Hampshire & Isle of Wight, recruitment initiatives are also on going. These include; restructuring recruitment functions to form specialist teams working on long term and short term needs, implementation of a recruitment and retention strategy group, local and national advertisements, targeted advertisements in RGN student handbook, RCN Bulletin, and Nursing Times, roadshows, events in the hospitals, and other promotional events.

The Portsmouth City Primary Care Trust has recently launched its own website, which includes a job shop page advertising all vacancies including qualified nurses and there are a limited number of secondment opportunities to Southampton University to undertake qualified nurse training in adult mental health.

Dr. Gibson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost to the NHS was from April to December 2002 of prescribing(a) Yasmin and (b) Marvelon. [97954]

Ms Blears

During the six months April to September 2002, the net ingredient cost of the hormonal contraceptive pills Yasmin and Marvelon prescribed and dispensed in the community in England was £786,400 and £1.71 million respectively. The number of prescription items of Yasmin and Marvelon that were dispensed in the community over this time was 44,800 and 162,300 respectively.

Net ingredient cost refers to the cost, which the dispenser is reimbursed, of the drug before discounts and does not include any dispensing costs or fees. Data have been provided from the prescription cost analysis (PCA) system and data to September 2002 are the latest available. PCA does not cover items dispensed in hospitals or private prescriptions. PCA only covers drugs that are on a prescription. Therefore contraceptive pills dispensed in family planning clinics are not included in these data.