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AIDS
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list by year for the last eight years, for each regional health authority, the number of people who have died from AIDS ; and if he will show in his answer, their sex and age by categories (a) aged under 20 years, (b) aged 20 to 30 years, (c) aged 31 to 40 years, (d) aged 41 to 50 years and (e) aged over 50 years.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : In line with the procedure followed in reports under the AIDS (Control) Act, to safeguard confidentiality numbers below 10 in tables showing AIDS data are represented by an asterisk. A table showing the breakdown requested would include so many asterisks that it would be uninformative. The data have therefore been aggregated to some extent.
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AIDS United Kingdom:
Age distribution of AIDS cases known to have died
by 31 December 1989
Age group (years) |Male |Female |Total
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0-19 |18 |10
20-29 |251 |26
30-39 |609 |14
40-49 |423 |11
50 plus |213 |*
Unknown |29 |*
|------ |------ |------
Total |1,543 |69 |1,612
AIDS United Kingdom:
Age distribution of AIDS cases known to have died
by 31 December 1989
Age group (years) |Male |Female |Total
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0-19 |18 |10
20-29 |251 |26
30-39 |609 |14
40-49 |423 |11
50 plus |213 |*
Unknown |29 |*
|------ |------ |------
Total |1,543 |69 |1,612
Vaccine-damaged Children
Mr. Thurnham : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of children receiving immunisations have suffered vaccine damage, in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available ; how many received compensation ; and what was the total amount of compensation paid each year.
Mr. Freeman : Information is not available in the form requested, but in the last 10 years over 25 million
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childhood vaccinations have been given. Over the same period there were 556 successful claims for a vaccine damage payment. The table sets out the numbers of awards and the expenditure of the scheme.
Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme:
Number of Awards and Expenditure 1980 to 1989
Year |Awards |Expenditure
| (£)
------------------------------------------------
1980 |<1>273 |2,730,000
1981 |<1>109 |1,090,000
1982 |<1> 45 |450,000
1983 |42 |<2>670,000
1984 |29 |<2>440,000
1985 |26 |<2>220,000
1986 |15 |<2>240,000
1987 |10 |<2>290,000
1988 |4 |<2>140,000
1989 |3 |<2> 70,000
<1> Figures are for the number of payments made
in these years.
<2> Includes payments in respect of awards made
in earlier years.
Vaccine damage payments are not compensation--that is an entirely separate matter to be pursued in the courts.
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Chernobyl
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he has received any communication from his counterpart in Norway concerning new evaluations by the Norwegian Food Control Authority over the health effects of Chernobyl radioactive fall-out.
Mr. Freeman : No, neither the Department nor the National Radiological Protection Board have received any information from the Norwegian Food Control Authority about new evaluations of the health effects of Chernobyl fall-out.
Environmental Medicine Foundation
Mr. Pawsey : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department makes any funds available to the Environmental Medicine Foundation.
Mr. Freeman : No funds are provided to this foundation by the Department of Health.
Community Care
Mr. Hannam : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library a copy of his report to Parliament on the development of community care services to be published under section 11 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultations Representation) Act 1986.
Mr. Freeman : The report was laid in draft before Parliament on 21 December last year. Copies will be placed in the Library as soon as they are printed.
Personal Stereos
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the dangers to public health of loud music played on personal stereos.
Mr. Freeman : I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave the hon. Member for Caithness and Sutherland (Mr. Maclennan) on 15 January at column 89 .
Ambulance Service
Mr. Leighton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much money the national ambulance service raised by public donation in the last year for which figures are available.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Information is not held centrally on the extent to which the individual ambulance services raise money by public donation.
Hospital Cleaning Standards
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he proposes to take to ensure that adequate cleaning standards are guaranteed at (a) Guys hospital, Southwark, (b) Battle hospital, Reading and (c) St. John's hospital, Chelmsford.
Mr. Freeman : The setting of such standards, and their maintenance, is a matter for the health authorities concerned.
Cervical Screening
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list by regional health authority, the family practitioner committees that do not issue the Health
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Education Authority's leaflet, "The Cervical Smear Test, Why You Need It", to accompany the invitation letter sent to women for a National Health Service cervical cytology screening.Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : This information is not held centrally.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list by regional health authority, the percentage of women who did not attend for a cervical cytology screening when invited for the last year for which he has figures, under the categories (a) inaccessability, (b) ineligibility, (c) unsuitable, (d) failed communication, (e) incorrect classification and (f) refused to attend.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Although the information will not be available in exactly the form requested, it is hoped shortly to be able to give information about women screened in 1988-89 following the introduction of a new cancer screening return from April 1988.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to reduce the interval time between cervical cytology screening to three years for all women.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : We have recommended to health authorities a maximum interval of five years between tests, which we know can reduce deaths among women screened by more than 80 per cent. We know that the majority of women who die from cervical cancer have never had a smear test. We therefore believe that it is more important to achieve as a first priority a high response rate from all women in the eligible age group rather than aim to reduce the interval between screening. The recom-mended recall interval is kept under review.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list by regional health authority, those district health authorities that do not send notification to women who have had a cervical cytology screening, when the results are negative.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : This information is not held centrally.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list by regional health authority, those district health authorities that do not offer cervical cytology screening at the age range recommended by his Department ; and if he will show in his answer the age range applied by each such district health authority.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : We have asked district health authorities to invite all women aged 20 to 64 for cervical cancer screening by March 1993, unless their general practitioner has indicated that they should be excluded. We do not have information on the age ranges currently being invited in each district health authority.
Kent Contract
Miss Widdecombe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the extent to which the Kent contract for general practitioners conforms with the Statutory Instruments approved by Parliament.
Mr. Burns : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Kent contract for general practitioners conforms with the Statutory Instruments approved by Parliament.
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Mr. Kenneth Clarke : Some reports have appeared in the medical press which appear to suggest that Kent FPC is proposing to remunerate its GPs and modify its terms of service in accordance with a local contract rather than the contract approved by Parliament. Such suggestions are inaccurate. There is no question of any FPC drawing up an alternative contract to that set out in the NHS (General Medical and Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations as amended last year. Kent FPC has always understood that and is making its preparations on that basis.Paramedics
Mr. Steen : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether ambulance paramedics trained under local schemes such as that operated by Torbay health authority will qualify for the £500 award.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Only staff with extended training to NHS training authority standard and required to use paramedical skills will be entitled to an additional payment of £500 a year under the terms of the management side's final offer. But the management side has also offered to discuss with the staff side recognition of staff with intermediate training with any payment agreed backdated to 1 April 1989.
Cancer Screening
Mr. Dunn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list in the Official Report those health authorities in the South East Thames regional health authority which (a) maintain a full breast screening service and (b) do not do so.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : We have asked health authorities to implement breast cancer screening services over the three years to 1990 and services will be provided to all district health authority areas. The table shows the three screening centres serving South East Thames regional health authority, the districts presently served, and the districts to which services will be extended in 1990.
Screening |Districts served
centre or
consortium
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Camberwell |Camberwell
|West Lambeth
|Lewisham and North Southwark
|to be extended to |Greenwich
|to be extended to |Bexley
|to be extended to |Bromley
Canterbury |Canterbury and Thanet
|to be extended to |South East Kent
|to be extended to |Maidstone
|to be extended to |Tunbridge Wells
|to be extended to |Medway
|to be extended to |Dartford and Gravesham
East Sussex |Brighton
|to be extended to |Eastbourne
|to be extended to |Hastings
Psychiatric Hospital Land
Ms. Primarolo : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much land used by psychiatric hospitals in the South West regional health authority and Wessex regional health authority areas was sold in each year from 1985 to
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1989 ; how much money was realised from each of these sales ; what proportion of the proceeds was allocated to community care programmes and facilities for people with mental health problems ; what these programmes and facilities were ; and what the remaining proceeds were spent on ;(2) what land presently occupied by psychiatric hospitals in the South West and the Wessex regional health authority areas is to be sold over the next five years ; what timetable is planned for these sales ; and what plans are in place for the utilisation of the moneys produced.
Mr. Freeman : Property transactions are delegated to regional health authorities and information on sales and future sales of surplus NHS property and land is not collected centrally by functional group. To do so by means of a special exercise would involve disproportionate cost. The instruction to health authorities set out in "Property Transactions in the NHS" (a copy of which is in the Library) is that closures of hospitals for the mentally ill and handicapped must be preceded by the provision of comprehensive alternative services and that proceeds must be used specifically for the development of the alternative services.
Severn Clinic
Ms. Primarolo : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what response he has made to the request by the charity MIND for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the closure of the Severn clinic at Wrington near Bristol and the operations of the owning company, Britannia Health Care ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Freeman : The Department wrote to MIND on 5 January and that letter has been copied to the hon. Member. Health authorities' responsibility for private hospitals is limited to ensuring that there has been no breach of registration requirements. They are not empowered to investigate financial stability.
Chiropractors
Mr. Rowe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many complaints his Department received in the last full year for which there are records about chiropractic treatments ; and how many of the complaints related to (a) qualified and (b) unqualified chiropractors.
Mr. Freeman : The Department received one complaint during the past year. It is understood that the practitioner concerned holds a chiropractic qualification.
Mr. Rowe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many representations he has received from members of the public calling for compulsory registration of chiropractors.
Mr. Freeman : I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton (Mr. Nicholson) on 13 December 1989 at columns 675-76.
Mr. Rowe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what qualifications are required of anyone who advertises treatment as a chiropractor.
Mr. Freeman : No qualifications restrictions are placed on chiropractors who are free to offer their services privately to the public subject only to those provisions of statute and civil law which apply.
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Back Pain
Mr. Rowe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the estimated annual cost to the National Health Service of providing treatment to sufferers from back pain.
Mr. Freeman : This information is not available centrally.
Medicines Directive
Mr. Gale : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he intends to incorporate the provisions of the European Community directive 89/381/EEC into United Kingdom legislation ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : EEC directive 89/381, which is binding on all member states, was adopted on 14 June 1989 and requires member states to take measures necessary to comply with its provisions before 1 January 1992. We are currently examining what measures are necessary to give effect to the directive by that date.
Bioethics
Rev. Martin Smyth : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the members of the Council of Europe's ad hoc committee of experts on bioethical issues (CAHBI) and the countries from which they come.
Mr. Freeman : The membership of the Council of Europe's Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on Bioethics (CAHBI) is a matter for the member states concerned. At the last meeting in December 1989 the members were :
Austria
Dr. Renate Kausek
Mme Ingrid Djalinous
Belgium
M. Philippe Meire
Professor Armond Andre
Cyprus
Mrs. Frosso Parrisiadou
Denmark
Mr. Ulrich Horst Petersen
Finland
Ms. Paula Kokkonen
France
M. Christian Byk
M. Georges David
Federal Republic of Germany
M. G. Fieberg
Dr. Lydia Mathy
Greece
Mrs. Panagiota Dalla-Vorgia
Iceland
Dr. Orn Bjarnason
Ireland
Dr. Niall Tierney
Italy
M. Giovan Battista Ascone
M. Salvatore Puglisi
Luxembourg
M. Arsen Betz
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MaltaRev. Prof. Charles G. Vella
Dr. Joseph Louis Grech
Netherlands
Mrs. Johanna H. W. Kits Nieuwenkamp
Norway
Mr. Kare Berg
Mrs. Grete Gjertsen
Portugal
Dr. Luis Mendes Graca
Spain
Dr. Octavi Quintana-Trias
Sweden
Ms. Lena Jonnson
Mr. Goran Hermeren
Switzerland
Mr. Hansjakob Muller
M. Franz Furger
Turkey
Dr. Yaman Ors
United Kingdom
Dr. Jeremy Metters
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