Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish the two-month wait target from GP referral to first definitive treatment for (a) lung, (b) gynaecological, (c) colorectal and (d) urological cancers for each month over the last three years that were previously published on his Department's website.
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS staff, employed within the central function, are employed in (a) personnel, (b) finance, (c) information technology, (d) legal services, (e) library services, (f) health education and (g) general management support services.
Mr Archie Norman: The Government's model for delivering value from the new investment in the health service has been built around a network of targets and performance measures, which are designed to ensure that patients and the taxpayer get value for money. However, it has been motivationally blind. The emphasis has been on mechanics and finance. There has been relatively little emphasis on the motivation of...
Mr Archie Norman: First, I should like to draw Members' attention to my declaration in the Register of Members' Interests. Secondly, I thank the Minister for making time available to respond to the debate. I have a high regard for his expertise, and he has a reputation for being one of the less partisan Ministers. I hope that he can respond to my remarks in the spirit in which they are made, and can perhaps...
Mr Archie Norman: Does the Minister realise that his claim that care homes are closing because elderly people do not want to go into them will sound risible to people in west Kent, where all the care homes are full and elderly people have to be shipped off to the south coast because homes are still closing? Does he acknowledge that one reason why they are closing is the pattern of condescending regulation...
Mr Archie Norman: I draw the attention of the House to my entry in the Register of Members' Interests. It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham), who made an interesting speech and some important points. I was sorry that he chose to introduce, perhaps uncharacteristically, a partisan note at the end of his remarks. It is interesting to note how often Labour Members...
Mr Archie Norman: I am sorry. I am so short of time that I prefer not to, if the hon. Gentleman will forgive me. The shadow Chancellor said that the solution is not more legislation, it is better administration. He is 100 per cent. right. That goes not just for public services but for the economy as a whole. Let us remember that public spending is rising to 40 per cent. of GDP. It accounts directly for about...
Mr Archie Norman: Does the Secretary of State recall that one of the White Paper's key conclusions concerns safer communities and rural policing, yet since its publication, crime in rural areas has risen? Will she undertake to discuss with her colleagues in the Home Office the fact that, despite the rural police fund, every time police budgets are under pressure, or every time there is a shortage of officers,...
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the (a) establishment figure and (b) actual figure for the Kent Police Force Area was in each of the last five years broken down by (i) police constables, (ii) sergeants and (iii) inspectors; (2) what the (a) establishment figure and (b) actual figure for police force strength in each of the police force areas in England and...
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of cancer patients received their first definitive treatment within 62 days of referral in each month of the last three years, broken down by cancer type.
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many junior doctors have been working longer than (a) 72 hours, (b) 56 hours and (c) 48 hours per week in the last month for which figures are available.
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS performance indicators have been set in each of the last eight years.
Mr Archie Norman: While I in no way want to belittle the progress that has been made in rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, is the right hon. Gentleman aware of the continuing decrepit state of the banking system? The Foreign Office still says that there is no way of getting cash to British citizens in Iraq, let alone foreign nationals or Iraqis, with the consequence that people like Mrs. Jones in my...
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police (a) constables, (b) sergeants and (c) inspectors transferred from the Kent Police Force to the Metropolitan Police Force in 2003–04.
Mr Archie Norman: Is the Prime Minister aware of the very grave warnings given by the Royal College of Physicians and the British Medical Association on the implications of the working time directive for the NHS next year? Specifically, one in five accident and emergency departments may have to close at night, two thirds of acute medical units are insufficiently staffed, and practitioners, such as the hon....
Mr Archie Norman: The Minister is of course right that the number of radiographers employed in the NHS has increased, but may I gently suggest that her response is a little complacent? The three-months vacancy rate for radiographers has risen every single year since the data have been collected—now, at 10.7 per cent., it is the highest vacancy rate of any personnel category in the NHS. Is the hon. Lady aware...
Mr Archie Norman: Does the Minister accept that the case made by the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Dr. Taylor) and many others, including the Royal College of Physicians and the BMA, is not that the working time directive is a bad idea of itself but that the NHS is simply not prepared for its implementation? It is common sense to say that there is every case for deferring implementation so that hospitals, and...
Mr Archie Norman: The hon. Gentleman is making an excellent speech. I agree with every word he has said and I congratulate him on raising what is, as he says, a very important subject. Does he agree that the greatest difficulties will be experienced by the smaller acute units that simply do not have the number of registrars and doctors to provide the necessary cover and that, if we proceed with haste in...
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS trust chief executives there are in England and Wales, broken down by (a) sex, (b) background in medicine, (c) background in nursing, (d) background in a profession allied to medicine, (e) ethnic minority and (f) disability.
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) pursuant to his Answer of 1 September 2003, Official Report, column 948W, on NHS senior management, if he will list the headings of the record fields held in the database of senior leaders compiled by the NHS Appointments Commission; (2) pursuant to his Answers given on 1 September 2003, Official Report, column 948W, on NHS senior management and...
