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9 Apr 2003 : Column 318W—continued
Blood Donors (Deaths)
Mr. Havard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in the UK in the last five years have died from (a) hepatitis C, (b) HIV and AIDS and (c) vCJD; and how many of them were blood donors. [103980]
Ms Blears: Information on the number of deaths from hepatitis C, collected by the Office for National Statistics, is shown in column A of the following table. It is not known how many of these individuals were blood donors. Every unit of blood collected by the United Kingdom Blood Services (UKBS) has been tested for hepatitis C since 1991.
The figures shown in column B are the number of deaths in the United Kingdom in HIV-infected individuals with or without reported AIDS. Numbers for recent years will rise as further reports are received. The Health Protection Agency, formerly the Public Health Laboratory Service, collates reports on HIV and AIDS diagnoses and deaths in HIV-infected individuals.
Column C shows the number of deaths in England and Wales of HIV-infected individuals whose infection was identified as a result of donating blood. A positive HIV test will mean that the donated blood is not used. All donated blood has been tested for HIV since 1988. The chance of being infected with HIV through blood donations is currently less than one in 10 million.
The National CJD Surveillance Unit collects information on the number of people who have died from vCJD. The UKBS have traced how many were blood donors. These figures are shown in columns E and F.
| A | B | C | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deaths(33) in England and Wales where the underlying cause of death(34) was hepatitis C(35) | Deaths in UK of HIV- infected individuals with | Deaths in HIV-infected individuals who have given blood | Deaths in UK from vCJD | Blood donors traced by UKBS who died from vCJD | |
| 1998 | 92 | 507 | 5 | 18 | 2 |
| 1999 | 92 | 467 | 5 | 15 | 1 |
| 2000 | 125 | 475 | 2 | 28 | 3 |
| 2001 | 123 | 381 | 2 | 20 | 1 |
| 2002 | (36)— | 310 | 2 | 17 | 2 |
(33) These figures are likely to underestimate the true mortality related to hepatitis C for several reasons:
the certifying doctor may not always know about the existence of a hepatitis C infection, contracted many years earlier, that had given rise to another fatal liver disease.
where several other factors (e.g. alcohol, other blood-borne viruses) contributed to fatal chronic liver disease, the certifying doctor may judge that one of the other factors is more important.
deaths with an underlying cause of primary liver cancer are not included, even if certified as being the result of hepatitis C infection. This is because international coding rules in use at this time do not accept cancers being due to infections, except in the case of HIV/AIDS.
(34) The underlying cause of death is the disease or condition that initiates the train of morbid events leading directly to death.
(35) For the years 1997 to 2000, selected using a combination of underlying cause codes 070.4–070.5 from the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) and the presence of text referring to hepatitis C on the death certificate. For the year 2001 underlying cause codes B17.1 and B18.2 from the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) were used.
(36) Information not yet available.
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Breast Cancer
Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of whether the two-week waiting target for breast cancer patients urgently referred to a specialist by their GP has been met. [107659]
Ms Blears: Very good performance has been achieved in meeting the two week outpatient waiting time standard, with 98.7 per cent. (27,572) of women with suspected breast cancer seen within two weeks of urgent referral by their general practitioner in the last quarter (October to December 2002). Since the standard was introduced in April 1999, over 340,000 women have been seen within two weeks of urgent referral.
Child Fitness
Mr. Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will introduce a national fitness assessment for 11-year-olds; and if he will make a statement. [105599]
Ms Blears: While we are sympathetic to the need to identify children and young people who are insufficiently active to benefit their health and offer appropriate interventions, we have no plans to introduce a national fitness assessment for 11-year-olds.
Our inquiries show that the benefits of a national fitness assessment for 11-year-olds would be limited and such an assessment would be difficult to implement. Fitness testing in children and young people reflects genetic and maturational factors rather than providing a meaningful measure of individual fitness. For the majority of 11-year-olds, measures of physical activity behaviour are more relevant and appropriate than physical fitness assessments.
The Government are committed to improving the fitness of our young people. To this end, the Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have agreed a public service agreement target with the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit to enhance the take up of sporting opportunities by five to 16-year-olds. The aim is to increase the percentage of school children in England who spend a minimum of two hours each week on high quality physical education and school sport within and beyond the curriculum to 75 per cent. by 2006.
Complaints
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether community health councils will take new complaints from individuals through the NHS complaints procedure; what arrangements he has in
9 Apr 2003 : Column 320W
place to assist individuals with such complaints until the new arrangements are in place; and if he will make a statement. [108070]
Mr. Lammy: There is no statutory requirement for Community Health Councils (CHCs) to provide complaints advocacy although most do provide such a service and many will continue to offer advice to patients until abolition on 1 September.
Additional specific support is also available in those areas where independent complaints advocacy service pilots exist, 106 ICAS pilots across the country.
In areas where it is not possible to refer new cases to ICAS pilots, CHCs and patient advice and liaison services based in most national health service trusts will provide advice or refer individuals to local advocacy services.
From 1 September a national ICAS service will be in place.
Complementary Medicine
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to receive the reports from the working groups on (a) herbalists and (b) acupuncturists. [106628]
Ms Blears: I expect both the herbal medicine and acupuncture regulatory working groups to report by the end of summer 2003. The Department will consult on the basis of their findings as soon as this is practical.
Delayed Discharges
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will set target times for the length of time delayed discharge patients remain in (a) acute and (b) non acute beds in (i) the West Suffolk and (ii) the Central Suffolk PCT area. [104836]
Jacqui Smith: There are currently no nationally set target times for the length of time patients wait for discharge from hospital, either nationally or in local areas, in acute or non-acute beds. However there may be local agreements between health and social care partners.
However, the Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc.) Act 2003 will introduce a system of reimbursement for delayed discharges. Where the delay is because social services have either not assessed the patient or have not provided the necessary community care services, the local authority will pay a charge to the national health service for every day of delay. This will initially apply to patients receiving acute care.
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Dental Services
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dental practices are taking on new NHS patients in (a) the constituency of mid Sussex and (b) west Sussex. [107591]
Ms Blears [holding answer 7 April 2003]: The number of general dental service practices recorded on the www.nhs.uk website as taking on new National Health Service patients in the constituencies of mid Sussex and west Sussex at 4 April 2003 is shown in the table.
| Mid Sussex | (37)West Sussex | |
|---|---|---|
| Practices accepting charge exempt adults | (38)— | 52 |
| Practices accepting charge paying adults for NHS treatment | (38)— | 7 |
| Practices accepting children | (38)— | 83 |
(37) 180 practices listed
(38) Nil return
Some of these practices would provide emergency dental service, occasional NHS treatment to non-registered patients and patients on referral. In addition some other practices may be taking on some NHS patients but do not want this published on the website.
Patients seeking to register with a dentist can access information on the dental practices taking on new patients by contacting NHS Direct, their local primary care trust or by accessing the www.nhs.uk website.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the provision of NHS dentistry in Buckinghamshire. [106194]
Ms Blears: No recent assessment of the provision of national health service dentistry has been made by the Department. However, the provision of dental services in Buckinghamshire is routinely monitored by primary care trusts (PCTs).
In the forthcoming Health and Social Care Bill, the Government propose to legislate for far-reaching reform of NHS dental services. It is proposed that each PCT be given a duty to provide or secure the provision of primary dental services in its area to the extent that it considers reasonable to do so and be given the financial resources to do this. This will give PCTs the flexibility to address access issues in their area. Dentists who contract with a PCT will have a secure income in return for making a longer-term commitment to the NHS.
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