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Terminally Ill Patients (Support Services)

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what support is provided by his Department for partners and near relatives of terminally ill patients. [102536]

Yvette Cooper [holding answer 13 December 1999]: Support for families and carers of terminally ill patients is an integral part of the principles and practice of palliative care. The Department of Health has distributed three documents providing guidance on key issues facing the dying and their carers. These documents were already widely used by the voluntary sector. The three documents which were issued under cover of HSC 1998/115 are:




Professor Mike Richards, the new National Cancer Director, has identified supportive care as one of his key priorities and will over the coming months work closely with health care professionals and voluntary organisations to assess how supportive care services can best be provided to all patients.

In addition, the National Lottery New Opportunities Fund is making available £23 million for the prevention and palliative care element of the "Living with Cancer Programme" in England over the next three years. This initiative will be launched in January 2000.

10 Jan 2000 : Column: 57W

Drug Tariff

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many products have been transferred from Category A of the Drug Tariff to Category D; and what was the cost per head of population in each category for the last financial year for each health authority area as recorded by the Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority. [102388]

Ms Stuart [holding answer 15 December 1999]: Products move in and out of Category D. There are 175 preparations/pack sizes classified as Category D in the December 1999 edition of the Drug Tariff, of which 104 were classified as Category A in the December 1998 edition of the Drug Tariff.

The net ingredient cost per head of population in 1998-99 of Category A and Category D drugs in each health authority is shown in the table.

The net ingredient cost per head of population for Category A and
Category D drugs by health authority, 1998-99 £

Health authority in which item was dispensedCategory ACategory D
Avon9.000.80
Barking and Havering9.000.70
Barnet8.300.60
Barnsley11.000.90
Bedfordshire9.000.60
Berkshire7.500.60
Bexley and Greenwich8.200.70
Birmingham9.700.90
Bradford10.600.90
Brent and Harrow9.000.70
Bromley8.900.70
Buckinghamshire8.200.70
Bury and Rochdale11.000.90
Calderdale and Kirklees10.500.90
Cambridge and Huntingdon7.000.60
Camden and Islington9.000.70
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly10.200.80
County Durham13.001.10
Coventry9.900.70
Croydon6.800.60
Doncaster10.800.80
Dorset10.100.80
Dudley8.800.70
Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow8.300.70
East and North Hertfordshire10.000.70
East Kent9.100.80
East Lancashire10.600.90
East London and The City9.100.80
East Norfolk9.400.80
East Riding9.100.70
East Surrey7.900.60
East Sussex, Brighton and Hove10.300.90
Enfield and Haringey7.900.60
Gateshead and South Tyneside14.501.20
Gloucestershire8.000.60
Herefordshire8.000.70
Hillingdon8.800.70
Isle of Wight10.400.80
Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster7.200.60
Kingston and Richmond7.400.60
Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham8.500.70
Leeds10.100.90
Leicestershire8.400.80
Lincolnshire9.200.70
Liverpool12.600.90
Manchester11.101.00
Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth7.200.60
Morecambe Bay11.601.00
Newcastle and North Tyneside13.301.00
North and East Devon10.100.80
North and Mid Hampshire7.300.60
North Cheshire10.601.00
North Cumbria11.700.90
North Derbyshire10.000.90
North Essex8.500.70
North Nottinghamshire10.600.80
North Staffordshire10.400.80
North West Anglia8.600.70
North West Lancashire12.100.90
North Yorkshire9.800.80
Northamptonshire9.200.90
Northumberland12.501.00
Nottingham8.900.70
Oxfordshire8.300.70
Portsmouth and South East Hampshire10.100.80
Redbridge and Waltham Forest8.200.70
Rotherham10.400.90
Salford and Trafford11.000.90
Sandwell10.400.90
Sefton11.700.90
Sheffield11.601.10
Shropshire8.700.70
Solihull9.300.80
Somerset8.600.80
South and West Devon10.900.90
South Cheshire9.800.80
South Essex7.800.70
South Humber9.900.90
South Lancashire8.900.80
South Staffordshire8.700.80
Southampton and South West Hampshire9.300.70
Southern Derbyshire10.400.80
St. Helens and Knowsley12.901.10
Stockport9.700.90
Suffolk9.100.70
Sunderland13.901.00
Tees12.401.00
Wakefield11.801.10
Walsall10.300.80
Warwickshire8.700.60
West Hertfordshire10.200.70
West Kent7.800.70
West Pennine10.100.90
West Surrey7.700.60
West Sussex9.500.80
Wigan and Bolton10.300.90
Wiltshire8.200.70
Wirral11.000.90
Wolverhampton10.300.90
Worcestershire9.100.70
England9.500.80

Notes:

1. The data cover all prescriptions dispensed in the community in each Health authority, ie by community pharmacists and appliance contractors, dispensing doctors, and prescriptions submitted by prescribing doctors for items personally administered in England.

2. The net ingredient cost is the basic cost of a drug and does not take account of discounts, dispensing costs, fees or prescription charges income.

3. The resident population for 1998, estimated by the Office for National Statistics, has been used.

4. The information was obtained for each preparation/pack size classified in the Drug Tariff as Category A or D for each month in the period April 1998 to March 1999 and aggregated to provide an annual total.

5. Data rounded to nearest 10p.


10 Jan 2000 : Column: 58W

Infertility

Ms Church: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment his Department has made of the psychological effects of infertility; [102678]

10 Jan 2000 : Column: 59W

Yvette Cooper [holding answer 16 December 1999]: The Department has received 319 written representations in respect of infertility treatment since May 1999.

It is planned that a short report detailing the results of the Department's survey of health authority provision of infertility services will be available in February 2000. The results of that survey are currently being considered by Ministers.

The Department has not commissioned any research specifically on the psychological effects of infertility. However, we do fully appreciate the distress suffered by infertile couples. This is clearly evident from the written representations received by the Department.

Uraemia

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) cases of and (b) deaths caused by uraemia there were among NHS patients in (i) 1995, (ii) 1996, (iii) 1997, (iv) 1998 and (v) the first six months of 1999. [103049]

Mr. Denham: The table shows the number of finished consultant episodes for patients with a primary diagnosis of Uraemia. The remainder of the hospital information requested is not yet available.

YearNumber
1995-9640,294
1996-9744,618
1997-98(8)49,194
1999-2000(8)(9)18,590

(8) Data for 1997-98 onwards are provisional--no adjustments have as yet been made for shortfalls in the data, i. e. it is ungrossed.

(9) First six months.

Source:

Hospital Episode Statistics


Statistics are collected by the Office for National Statistics for deaths in England and Wales caused by renal failure (uraemia). They are not broken down to distinguish National Health Service from non-NHS patients, however. The following figures therefore include all such deaths:

YearNumber
19952,959
19962,759
19972,658
19982,662
1999(10)1,337

(10) Provisional figures for January to June


10 Jan 2000 : Column: 60W


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