Primary Care (Hansard, 19 May 2003)

§ Bob Spink
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions his Department has had with Essex Primary Care Organisations on the provision of enhanced services and Information Management and Technology through the primary care organisations under the new NHS primary care contract for the provision of General Medical Services; and if he will make a statement. [113095]

§ Mr. Lammy
The NHS Confederation has been negotiating on behalf of the Department of Health with the General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association on the new general medical services contract. As an integral part of the communication exercise, the Confederation has held a number of events around the country for primary care organisations, work force development confederations and strategic health authorities to explain the specifics around the funding of the new contract. The Department of Health itself has had no direct negotiation with any primary care organisation in relation to the contract.

§ Mr. Blizzard
To ask the Secretary of State for Health which primary care trusts have been the subject of independent review since they were established. [112433]

§ Mr. Hutton
Primary care trusts are independent national health service bodies accountable to the Secretary of State for Health and as such, they are subject to independent review from a range of organisations; for example, overview and scrutiny committees, the Audit Commission and the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI).
CHI is carrying out a rolling programme of clinical governance reviews, which report on the adequacy of clinical governance arrangements of NHS organisations in England and Wales.

§ Mr. Oaten
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what use his Department has made of the 2001 census in the restructuring of York Formula for Primary Care Trust funding; and if he will make a statement. [113434]

§ Mr. Hutton
Up to 2002–03, the weighted capitation formula used to inform the allocation of national health service revenue resources was based on work by researchers from York University. The formula has recently been reviewed by the Advisory Committee on 615W Resource Allocation. The work on the new formula was carried out by a team of researchers led by University of Glasgow and ISO Scotland.
The new formula has been used for the latest round of NHS allocations to primary care trusts. These allocations for the period 2003–04 to 2005–06 were based on population estimates from the 2001 Census.