HC Deb 22 July 2004 vol 424 cc631-2W
Alan Simpson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the impact on hospital emergency services of Nottingham general practitioners shifting their out-of-hours service to an arm's length provider. [184968]

Dr. Ladyman

There is to be no change to the pattern of provision for 80 per cent. of Nottingham residents already served by the general practitioner co-operative, Nottingham Emergency Medical Services (NEMS), and which have been in place for six years. Rather than an 'arm's length provider', NEMS is currently constituted as a not-for-profit GP co-operative with over 300 GP members. It will be moving in 2005 to a community interest mutual company with significant local population and stakeholder involvement.

No adverse impact of the NEMS service on emergency care has been identified by local emergency services and only 1 per cent, of out-of-hours patient contacts are referred to emergency services by NEMS. NEMS is an active participant of the local emergency care network and continues to lave a close working relationship with other local emergency care services.

Alan Simpson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of calls to National Emergency Medical Services doctors in Nottingham resulted in(a) a home visit by the doctor and (b) a vehicle being sent to collect the patient in the last year for which figures are available. [184972]

Dr. Ladyman

7,406, or 12.4 per cent. of all out-of- hours patient contacts with Nottingham Emergency Medical Services (NEMS) resulted in a home visit last year. Over 70 per cent. of the visits were done in under two hours.

2,951, or 5 per cent. of all out-of-hours patients who contacted NEMS used NEMS transport last year. Out-of-hours patient transport was introduced voluntarily by NEMS when it began operations in 1998. It is to support access to care for patients unable to access alternative means of transport to the NEMS primary care centre. The service is free and ensures that the patient is returned home after their consultation.