House of Commons
Tuesday 11 February 2003
The House met at half-past Eleven o'clock
PRAYERS
[Mr. Speaker in the Chair]
Oral Answers to Questions
HEALTH
The Secretary of State was asked—
Mesothelioma
1. Mr. Tony Lloyd (Manchester, Central): What the life expectancy of a mesothelioma sufferer is; and what steps he is taking to improve this. [96673]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Ms Hazel Blears): The one-year survival rate for adults diagnosed with mesothelioma between 1986 and 1990 was about 27 per cent. A number of clinical trials relating to the condition are under way. Once the evidence from those trials is available we will consider whether the National Institute for Clinical Excellence should be asked to develop clinical guidelines for the treatment of mesothelioma.
Mr. Lloyd: Does my hon. Friend recognise that mesothelioma is something of a Cinderella in the world of cancer? Many cancer specialists argue that we actually need access to specialist facilities for mesothelioma so that people can be diagnosed promptly and receive rapid treatment. Survival rates would thus be pushed up massively, as they have been in other countries. The real issue is that mesothelioma sufferers are not diagnosed early enough; GPs and other gatekeepers must be much more aware that that killer disease can cease to be a killer if people are diagnosed early.
Ms Blears: I know that my hon. Friend has campaigned for mesothelioma sufferers in his area. He is right: 90 per cent. of those cancers are linked to exposure to asbestos. Diagnosis is difficult and there is controversy about the type of treatment that is appropriate. There are two clinical trials looking into chemotherapy, surgery and palliative care to find out which combination of those treatments is the most effective. We need early diagnosis and good treatment for that cancer, as for other forms of cancer, and my hon. Friend will be aware of the massive amount of
investment that the Government are putting into cancer treatment, with new equipment, more surgeons and new drugs.
Mr. David Tredinnick (Bosworth): The hon. Lady will be aware that one of the side effects of this lung condition is that it causes great anxiety and that one of the most effective ways of treating anxiety is to use the herb kava kava, which the Government are about to ban despite the fact that there are serious disputes over the medical evidence, including research from the United States. Will the hon. Lady give an undertaking to look at the research again? If she is going to ban kava kava, will she also ban aspirin and paracetamol, which account for a number of lives every year?
Ms Blears: Clearly, this kind of cancer is extremely serious. That is why the Government are exploring all kinds of treatment—from chemotherapy, to surgery and to palliative care. The hon. Gentleman knows very well indeed that the evidence on kava kava has been looked at on five separate occasions by expert medical committees and expert scientific advisers. The evidence is clear: the links with liver disease and hepato-toxicity are such that kava kava needs to be withdrawn from the market. However, the importance of treating this type of cancer is a top priority for the Government.
Hospital Cleanliness
2. Mr. Bill Wiggin (Leominster): If he will make a statement on hospital cleanliness. [96674]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Mr. David Lammy): Patients told us that they wanted hospitals to be cleaner and more comfortable. The NHS plan provided a framework to meet that expectation, supported by £60 million. As a result of that investment, and the efforts of the NHS, there are now no hospitals where environmental standards, including cleanliness, have been assessed as less than acceptable by independent inspection teams.
Mr. Wiggin : A hundred thousand people a year catch hospital-acquired infections; 5,000 of those people die from them. That costs the Government at least £1 billion a year and a 10 per cent. reduction in hospital-acquired infections would free up 364,056 bed days. We are grateful for the Government's attempted response because the matter is so serious, but why are hospitals still dirty after six years of a Labour Government who told us that there were only 24 hours to save the NHS?
Mr. Lammy: The hon. Gentleman is right to say that the issue is serious, although his figures slightly exaggerate the position. What is important is that we have the data collection for a baseline on which to make an assessment. We are doing that for the first time. We have also put £60 million into cleanliness in our hospitals. Our inspection teams say that our hospitals are getting cleaner. It is also important to remember that performance indicators and star ratings will ensure cleanliness in our hospitals.
Paul Flynn (Newport, West): It is offensive and sickening to hear Opposition Members turn this into a
political issue when we all know that the cuts made in the health service during the 1980s and early '90s were responsible for the downgrading of hospital cleanliness. My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the work that has been done, but it remains a scandal that illnesses arising from the spread of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus continue to multiply in our hospitals. Sadly, when we visit hospitals we often notice that the standards of cleanliness and hygiene have not returned to what they were a couple of decades ago.
Mr. Lammy: My hon. Friend makes a good point. The introduction of modern matrons will assist in that process, as will a tough, new inspection process conducted by the Commission for Health Improvement.
Sir Michael Spicer (West Worcestershire): Why is it that the Government claim to be putting so much more money into the hospital service yet, certainly in Worcestershire, the standards in hospitals and the number of beds are going down?
Mr. Lammy: I am quite sure that that is not true. Clinicians, housekeepers, porters and receptionists are working as hard in Worcestershire as they are around the country. We are putting in that extra investment, and it is important that it is linked to performance and inspection, which will guarantee that we have the national standards across the board. The hon. Gentleman will know that what got us to this point was the compulsory competitive tendering that was brought in by the former Administration.
Bed Blocking
3. Mr. Andrew Robathan (Blaby): How many hospital beds are occupied by geriatric patients who could be cared for outside hospital. [96675]
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Hutton): The number of delayed discharges continues to fall because of the investment and reforms that the Government are making. Following the £300 million additional investment in tackling delayed discharges that we made in October 2001, delayed discharges have fallen by 24 per cent. Since 1997, the number of delayed discharges for those over 75 has fallen by 39 per cent.
Mr. Robathan : Is it not the case that there is a reduction in residential care homes? Is not that reduction in places for the elderly caused by failed Government policies, motivated in part by prejudice against private care homes? Perhaps the Minister can explain what is the logic in fining local authorities, which will further reduce the ability of social services departments to care for the elderly and others, when the reduction is actually the result of failed Government policy?
Mr. Hutton: No, a 39 per cent. fall in delayed discharges does not equate under any objective analysis to a failure in Government policy. We are improving the range of services available to treat more older people,
more quickly, when they can come out of hospital. The hon. Gentleman may disagree with those on the Conservative Front Bench, but the problem that he and, I suspect, probably all his hon. Friends have is that they cannot complain about a lack of funding for social care services—I assume that that is what he is arguing about—when his party has never been able to commit itself to matching the existing spending that is being provided. In their entire time in office between 1992 and 1997, the Conservatives only managed a 0.1 per cent. increase in social services spending. We are doing significantly better than that, and until the hon. Gentleman and his friends can match the investment that we are making, they had better go away and do their sums again.
Mr. George Stevenson (Stoke-on-Trent, South): My right hon. Friend will be aware that the national health service in north Staffordshire is presently in the process of reducing elderly care beds in the NHS by about 50 per cent. At the same time, there is enormous concern that, in spite of the additional resources that the Government are making available to social services and the NHS, there is a growing gap between resources available under the NHS and those available to social services to provide the care that is necessary, particularly intermediate care. Will my right hon. Friend look at that situation because there is enormous concern about it in north Staffordshire? I would be enormously grateful to him if I could be advised what he intends to try to do about it.
Mr. Hutton: I always take very seriously what my hon. Friend brings to the attention of the House, and I will certainly make inquiries into the issue that he raises. We are building up capacity in the NHS and social care to treat more people, particularly more older people, more quickly, with a wider range of more capable services. However, I assure my hon. Friend that I will look into the issue that he raises and I will come back to him with some answers.
Mr. Boris Johnson (Henley): Will the Minister join me in congratulating the many thousands of local people who have raised money in south Oxfordshire and elsewhere to rebuild the Watlington hospital, thus helping to alleviate the crisis in bed blocking because it will provide 60 beds for long-term care, respite care and care for the elderly? Will he take the opportunity now to congratulate all those people on doing so on their own initiative and perhaps to apologise for the Labour Government's decision to close that hospital?
Mr. Hutton: The Labour Government made no such decision. I would certainly want to congratulate the hon. Gentleman's constituents on making that investment and putting the work into Watlington hospital, which I know myself because I used to live very close to Watlington. I am delighted that a future has been found for the hospital. We will be increasingly considering a wider range of roles for smaller community cottage hospitals to play in the NHS of the future, and we will be able to do so because of the investment that we are putting in, which he and his hon. Friends would take out of the NHS.
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