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Coronary Heart Disease
35. Mr. David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress is being made in improving services which will cut the incidence of coronary heart disease. [147364]
Yvette Cooper: The National Service Framework (NSF) for Coronary Heart Disease, published in March 2000, is a radical and far reaching programme which covers the whole spectrum of care from prevention of heart disease, through emergency care, primary and specialist care including heart surgery, and rehabilitation.
The national health service and partner agencies are asked to identify areas of inequality, undertake health impact assessments, and to agree and be contributing to the delivery of the local programme of effective policies on reducing smoking, promoting healthy eating, increasing physical activity and reducing overweight and obesity by April 2001.
Much progress has already been made in improving and expanding services which will cut the incidence of coronary heart disease. By 31 March 2001 a smoking cessation service will be in place across the NHS. Bupropion, a smoking cessation aid, has been made available on prescription since June 2000. By 1 April 2001, subject to consultation, nicotine replacement therapy will be available on prescription from general practitioners. In the future we will expect cessation services to focus on manual socio-economic groups and pregnant women and have set health authorities targets.
As part of the strategy to promote healthy eating and reduce overweight and obesity the Department has started to pilot the National School Fruit Scheme. Currently 32 schools in three areas provide a free piece of fruit every school day to every child in nursery and aged four to six in infant schools. Hundreds more schools are soon to run the programme as part of the next phase. The Department is also funding local five-a-day pilot schemes to develop a local co-ordinated approach to increase the availability and awareness of fruit and vegetables across whole communities. The Department will publish a National Quality Assurance Framework on GP exercise referrals in February 2001.
But the root causes of coronary heart disease are wider than health. Broader Government policies on poverty, employment and education all play a significant role in tackling coronary heart disease. There will be new national health inequalities targets to narrow the health gap in childhood and throughout life between socio- economic groups and between the most deprived areas and the rest of the country.
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Folic Acid
36. Barbara Follett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to ensure that women are aware of the importance of taking folic acid during pregnancy. [147365]
Yvette Cooper: We encourage all women of child bearing age to increase the amount of folic acid they consume, and they are advised to increase their daily intake of folic acid by eating more folate-rich foods or foods fortified with folic acid. Women who are trying to conceive are advised to take a daily supplement of 400 micrograms until the twelfth week of pregnancy.
We disseminate this important health information which is available with advice through local services and on request.
NHS Operation Statistics
Mr. Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) hip replacement operations, (b) heart operations and (c) cataract operations were completed in the NHS in (i) 1979, (ii) 1997 and (iii) 2000. [146988]
Mr. Denham [holding answer 23 January 2001]: The numbers of operations in the given time periods are shown in the table.
| Operation | 1979 (discharges) (HIPE data) | 1996-97 FCEs(14) (HES data) | 1999-2000 FCEs(14) (HES data) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heart | 22,920 | 162,186 | 184,671 |
| Hip replacement(15) | 20,280 | 37,697 | 41,883 |
| Cataract | 41,430 | 159,958 | 212,398 |
(14) An FCE (Finished Consultant Episode) is defined as a period of patient care under one consultant in one health care provider. The figures do not represent the number of patients, as one person may have several episodes within the year.
(15) Figures for hip replacement operations exclude emergency admissions and those with primary diagnosis of fractured neck of femur; i.e. the data are for elective hip replacements.
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Care should be taken when comparing Hospital Episode Statistics with Hospital In-Patient Inquiry data for time series, as the differences in the data collection and recording means that they are not directly comparable.
Over the last three years, for which comparable data are available, there has been a 14 per cent., 11 per cent. and 33 per cent. increase in the numbers of heart, elective hip and cataract operations, respectively.
The large increase in heart operations between 1979 and 1996-97 reflects in part the growth of revascularisation procedures, including bypass grafting.
Acquired Brain Injury
Ms Blears: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have been diagnosed with acquired brain injury in each of the last 20 years. [147964]
Mr. Denham: Information is available, on hospital admissions only, from 1989 onwards. There was a change in the way information was collected in 1995 so the data for the period 1989-90 to 1994-95 are not directly comparable with data for the subsequent period.
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| ICD-9 code and diagnosis | 1989-90 | 1990-91 | 1991-92 | 1992-93 | 1993-94 | 1994-95 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 800.1 and 800.3 fracture of vault of skull with intracranial injury | 665 | 721 | 760 | 737 | 694 | 651 |
| 801.1 and 801.3 fracture of base of skull with intracranial injury | 644 | 688 | 686 | 846 | 899 | 785 |
| 803.1 and 803.3 other and unqualified skull fractures with intracranial injury | 412 | 426 | 397 | 376 | 416 | 432 |
| 804.1 and 804.3 multiple fractures involving skull or face with other bones with intracranial injury | 53 | 40 | 36 | 30 | 23 | 36 |
| 850 concussion | 11,113 | 10,207 | 8,130 | 7,118 | 7,941 | 7,751 |
| 851.0 cerebral laceration and contusion without mention of intracranial wound | 522 | 535 | 566 | 623 | 556 | 671 |
| 851.1 cerebral laceration and contusion with open intracranial wound | 15 | 35 | 28 | 33 | 26 | 27 |
| 852.0 subarachnoid, subdural and extradural haemorrhage, following injury without mention of intracranial wound | 1,620 | 1,616 | 1,736 | 1,839 | 2,050 | 2,249 |
| 852.1 subarachnoid, subdural and extradural haemorrhage following injury with open intracranial wound | 41 | 61 | 43 | 51 | 45 | 61 |
| 853.0 other and unspecified intracranial haemorrhage following injury without mention of intracranial wound | 414 | 422 | 351 | 419 | 513 | 455 |
| 853.1 other and unspecified intracranial haemorrhage following injury with open intracranial wound | 13 | 21 | 15 | 19 | 14 | 18 |
| 854.0 intracranial injury of other and unspecified nature without mention of intracranial wound | 77,009 | 67,547 | 59,290 | 60,556 | 56,423 | 53,198 |
| 854.1 intracranial injury of other and unspecified nature with open intracranial wound | 907 | 737 | 722 | 733 | 772 | 735 |
| Total | 93,428 | 83,056 | 72,760 | 73,380 | 62,455 | 61,373 |
Note:
The main diagnosis is the first of seven diagnosis fields in the HES data set, and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital. These data are adjusted for both coverage and unknown/invalid clinical data.
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6 Feb 2001 : Column: 513W
St. George's Hospital, Tooting
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many outpatients who are waiting for treatment at St. George's Hospital, Tooting, live in the London Borough of Wandsworth. [148310]
Mr. Denham: The Department does not collect data on where patients waiting for treatment reside.
Children's Body Parts
Mr. Prior: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of children's body parts that have been taken without the consent of their parents at (a) Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, Norfolk, (b) James Royal Hospital, St. Edmunds and (c) Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Kings Lynn. [148398]
Mr. Denham: Information is not available in the form requested. Reliable data at hospital level about the amount of organs and tissue retained following post mortem will not become available until all National Health Service trusts and medical schools have completed the cataloguing exercise to be supervised by the new Retained Organs Commission.
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